The Domino effect strikes again.

[ScottsGT]

Going through my garage building my new bench, I started cleaning up as well. My son finally came and picked up an old engine block I had sitting between the water heater and my tool box. I had a few pieces of steel stock I stored behind the block.
During my cleanup I discovered all of my small parts/pieces of steel I've been saving from projects over the years in other areas.

Of course now I have to build a roll around cart where I can stack it all where the old engine block was sitting.

Told a co-worker (in general conversation) I wanted a 16 gallon drum to paint up and put vintage gas pump/oil stickers on for a trash can.
He just walked in with a 16 gallon drum and gave it to me.

I really need to retire with the projects stacking up

 

[toolmiser]

I've found that they can "Domino" good and bad.

 

[Ty.]

I can't even put things away without starting some sort of project because I had an idea or found something fun

 

[johnnyradiant]

I've found that they can "Domino" good and bad.

Good?!? What's good about it. Maybe when completed but when they are on the other side there is nothing good about that domino effect.

 

[MINIz guy]

I just recently sold a car to be able to park the truck inside during the winter. I agreed to fix my parent's SUV as it needed a bumper put on. Now I'm finding pulley noises, very sloppy steering, and a coolant leak, so it is now taking up that garage spot while I tear it apart.

Does this count?

 

[jetnow1]

Had a house the kitchen light switch was behind the door swing. Drove me crazy, could not reverse the door as it would have opened into the table. Opened the ceiling to get at the wires, found that the ceiling was over a second layer. Took them both down, found the wiring was still knob and tube there. Rewired the light circuit, decided as it was open I would install recessed lights to more evenly light the kitchen. Installed new ceiling and painted it. When the new lights lit up the place the avocado green counters really looked bad so I tore them out and put in granite, then the cabinets really looked tired so I refaced them. All because of a light switch.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

Had a house the kitchen light switch was behind the door swing. Drove me crazy, could not reverse the door as it would have opened into the table. Opened the ceiling to get at the wires, found that the ceiling was over a second layer. Took them both down, found the wiring was still knob and tube there. Rewired the light circuit, decided as it was open I would install recessed lights to more evenly light the kitchen. Installed new ceiling and painted it. When the new lights lit up the place the avocado green counters really looked bad so I tore them out and put in granite, then the cabinets really looked tired so I refaced them. All because of a light switch.

I think that falls under "Snowball Effect"!!!

 

[sberry]

Going through my garage building my new bench, I started cleaning up as well. My son finally came and picked up an old engine block I had sitting between the water heater and my tool box. I had a few pieces of steel stock I stored behind the block.
During my cleanup I discovered all of my small parts/pieces of steel I've been saving from projects over the years in other areas.

Of course now I have to build a roll around cart where I can stack it all where the old engine block was sitting.

Told a co-worker (in general conversation) I wanted a 16 gallon drum to paint up and put vintage gas pump/oil stickers on for a trash can.
He just walked in with a 16 gallon drum and gave it to me.

I really need to retire with the projects stacking up

How can you stand the workload?

 

[toolmiser]

Sometimes I get one long term project done, feel the momentum and then knock out a couple more that all of a sudden didn't seem so big.

 

[Kev442]

Why oh why does **** always expand to fill the available space? The engine block by the water heater really hits home for me. I had an old stove by the water heater in the basement. Finally tossed it. Just looked last weekend and all that space is filled up, and I didn't bring one new thing into the basement!

 

[Bessy]

Very familiar with the domino/snowball effect. One of my old lawn/cottage care clients asked me to replace a broken tile in the bathroom. Next thing you know I've got the entire bathroom floor up, replacing rotted plywood from a toilet leak, and repainting the whole bathroom because the walls don't contrast with the new tile.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[Magnum440d100]

Domino/snowball effect is REAL!

I went to do a motor swap into my 72 D100....

Frame and engine bay were dirty....

Couldn’t justify to myself to ONLY paint the front of the frame.

Then this happened....


I’m happy to say that it is all back together now and (mostly) drivable...

 

[gdudik]

Project creep is insidious. My truck’s 302 had an oil leak. It was the oil pressure switch. I misdiagnosed it as rear main since it ran along top of oil pan. Had a nasty exhaust leak and manifolds rusty as hell. Decided it would be much easier to deal with rear main and rusty manifolds if I yanked the motor. Yanked the motor and decided to reseal the intake. Found one of the holes in the heads for intake bolts had been stripped by the previous bubba to work on the engine. He then proceeded to JB weld the intake bolt back into the head. So now the heads are coming off so I can take them to the machine shop and have the broken bolt taken care of. Well...now I have the heads and the oil pan off so I should really do rings and bearings. Wow, this whole exhaust system is really rusty, let’s order the complete 3” exhaust kit.

As I’m putting the engine back in the truck, my wife points out that the oil pressure switch is loose. “Is that what was causing the oil leak this whole time?”
I looked at her without saying anything for a minute. She had the good sense to go back in the house before the tools started flying.

 

[Jinks]

I really need to retire with the projects stacking up

Think long & carefully about that. I'm coming up on 21 years retired. I retired thinking I could catch up on projects & devote more time to travel, I'm almost ready to start that travel........... ****, I've never regretted a single day of retirement..........

 

[ScottsGT]

As I’m putting the engine back in the truck, my wife points out that the oil pressure switch is loose. “Is that what was causing the oil leak this whole time?”
I looked at her without saying anything for a minute. She had the good sense to go back in the house before the tools started flying.

Ahh, the SBF oil pressure switch leak. About a month back I got a great deal on a 1990 F-250 and a 1989 30' camper. I've been wondering how to approach the wife about getting a truck, then all of a sudden she's pushing the issue since the youngest boy wanted a camper to live out of.

So we bought the truck that only had 54,000 miles on it. After getting it home and driving it about 50 miles, my sender blew out as well and dumped about 3 qts of oil in a 2 mile drive and idling in the driveway 5 minutes looking for the burning oil smell.

Hey no problem! Go down to Auto Zone, get sender, oil filter and 6 qts of oil. Swap the sender, change oil and I've got less than zero oil pressure.

Tried sender from O'Rielly's, same result. Truck came with either a gauge or an idiot light. I bought the correct sender for the gauge, but they all act like idiot light senders.

So off to buy a real oil pressure gauge. Got it installed and 60 psi cold. Of course it is still mounted under the hood.

What I thought would be a 1 hour job took 4-5 hours of my day.

 

[M*A*S*H]

Ya, I don't feel so bad now....

Wife's Jeep TJ needed a radiator, may as well do hoses, water pump is original lets swap it, hell the idler and tensioner pulleys aren't smooth add them on, may as well do thermostat and heater hoses, front crank seal is seaping and I'm there anyways, timing chain has slop let's do it and the tensioner, there's so much space let's clean all the mud and grime out of the engine bay....

today I'm debating if I just go ahead and pull then engine to freshen it up since it's at 200k.... good thing it's not her daily driver

 

[Lucky13driver]

Told a co-worker (in general conversation) I wanted a 16 gallon drum to paint up and put vintage gas pump/oil stickers on for a trash can.
He just walked in with a 16 gallon drum and gave it to me.


I like that idea!

 

[Magnum440d100]

Ya, I don't feel so bad now....

Wife's Jeep TJ needed a radiator, may as well do hoses, water pump is original lets swap it, hell the idler and tensioner pulleys aren't smooth add them on, may as well do thermostat and heater hoses, front crank seal is seaping and I'm there anyways, timing chain has slop let's do it and the tensioner, there's so much space let's clean all the mud and grime out of the engine bay....

today I'm debating if I just go ahead and pull then engine to freshen it up since it's at 200k.... good thing it's not her daily driver

Same thing happened to me on my Lincoln.

Water pump started making noise. I put off doing it because my Grampa was the previous owner. So I had an idea of what was ahead... and was I right.

So I buy a water pump for $20. Get to the house, start disassembly and SNAP! So now instead of just a water pump, now I have to pull the timing chain cover. Timing chain cover ended up being rotten. So, new timing chain cover ordered. Figured I’d put in a new double roller chain as well.... went to reassemble, and notice 2 water pump gaskets. ****. There’s supposed to be a plate between the water pump and timing chain cover. Got that ordered.

What was supposed to be a 1 hour or so job, turned into a week and about $400.....

All because of a broken bolt.

Oh. And once I pried the old timing chain cover off, the bolt threaded out by hand. I put the vice grips on it expecting hell... nope. Came out like a hot knife through butter....

 

[ScottsGT]

Same thing happened to me on my Lincoln.

Water pump started making noise. I put off doing it because my Grampa was the previous owner. So I had an idea of what was ahead... and was I right.

So I buy a water pump for $20. Get to the house, start disassembly and SNAP! So now instead of just a water pump, now I have to pull the timing chain cover. Timing chain cover ended up being rotten. So, new timing chain cover ordered. Figured I’d put in a new double roller chain as well.... went to reassemble, and notice 2 water pump gaskets. ****. There’s supposed to be a plate between the water pump and timing chain cover. Got that ordered.

What was supposed to be a 1 hour or so job, turned into a week and about $400.....

All because of a broken bolt.

Oh. And once I pried the old timing chain cover off, the bolt threaded out by hand. I put the vice grips on it expecting hell... nope. Came out like a hot knife through butter....

Lincoln. Was it a 5.0 by chance? Famous for this same issue. My son's old '95 Mustang had issues with leaking issues a few years back. I drove 100 miles to go see what I could do to keep him on the road. He was telling me it was the thermostat housing gasket. No problem. I show up with a new waterpump for shits and giggles and housing gasket. Swapped the gasket out in the road in front of the house he was renting a room in.
Tried to swap the water pump, but I got way too much resistance with he rusty old bolts and no way was I going to wind up with a disabled car in the driveway.
I bit the bullet and called up an old friend that now ran a garage in that town. Had him tow the car about 35 miles to his shop. The leak was not the thermostat housing, but the pipe that came out of the water pump to the housing bypass had rusted all the way through. Cost me about $400 for the repair, but I wasn't stranded. I was lucky, the bolts did not break off in the block or it would have been an $800 water pump repair.

 

[ddawg16]

Going through my garage building my new bench, I started cleaning up as well. My son finally came and picked up an old engine block I had sitting between the water heater and my tool box. I had a few pieces of steel stock I stored behind the block.
During my cleanup I discovered all of my small parts/pieces of steel I've been saving from projects over the years in other areas.

Of course now I have to build a roll around cart where I can stack it all where the old engine block was sitting.

Told a co-worker (in general conversation) I wanted a 16 gallon drum to paint up and put vintage gas pump/oil stickers on for a trash can.
He just walked in with a 16 gallon drum and gave it to me.

I really need to retire with the projects stacking up

And the problem is?

 

[ScottsGT]

And the problem is?

7 more years on mortgage
3 more years for daughter at Clemson
6 more years before eligible for SS
Wife wants a lake house. Thankfully her income can support it once the top two above are taken care of. I need her to keep working so I have "Me" time around the place for a while.

 

[Magnum440d100]

Lincoln. Was it a 5.0 by chance? Famous for this same issue. My son's old '95 Mustang had issues with leaking issues a few years back. I drove 100 miles to go see what I could do to keep him on the road. He was telling me it was the thermostat housing gasket. No problem. I show up with a new waterpump for shits and giggles and housing gasket. Swapped the gasket out in the road in front of the house he was renting a room in.
Tried to swap the water pump, but I got way too much resistance with he rusty old bolts and no way was I going to wind up with a disabled car in the driveway.
I bit the bullet and called up an old friend that now ran a garage in that town. Had him tow the car about 35 miles to his shop. The leak was not the thermostat housing, but the pipe that came out of the water pump to the housing bypass had rusted all the way through. Cost me about $400 for the repair, but I wasn't stranded. I was lucky, the bolts did not break off in the block or it would have been an $800 water pump repair.

No it happened on a 429 CJ we swapped into my Grampa’s 73 MK IV. It was a junkyard motor, and I can just about guarantee that it was the same water pump that came with the motor when my Grampa bought that motor..... in the 90’s!!!

Same here though. I’m glad it happened in my driveway, and that I was able to take my time waiting on parts....

 

[ddawg16]

7 more years on mortgage
3 more years for daughter at Clemson
6 more years before eligible for SS
Wife wants a lake house. Thankfully her income can support it once the top two above are taken care of. I need her to keep working so I have "Me" time around the place for a while.

At least you won't be bored......

I have 26 more years on the mortg....2 years until the first kid goes to college....then 2 more kids spaced 2 years apart.

And I'm already eligible for SS

But I feel your pain.

 

[MWitte]

One of the best "snowball" projects I have seen was the day I pulled up in my brother's driveway as one of his friends was sandblasting a car frame. His comment was, "this started out as an engine with low compression."

 

[pv74]

A simple brick pathway all of a sudden turned into a brick patio with lights, outlets and an irrigated planter for an apple tree in the middle.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Snowball effect/ project creep hit me, too. What started out as an engine swap, new front springs and a manual trans conversion over 15 years ago, turned into a full suspension upgrade, 9" rear, engine overhaul, interior freshening and eventual paint job...

Tommy