“Quick” Jobs and Favors

[neohic]

Friend of mine calls me up. "Hey! My dad wants to pull his Cherokee to Texas this week. Can you help putting on a tow bar?"

 

"Sure!"

 

Meanwhile I show up expecting to see a box kit with brackets and the whole bit. Nope... there's a pile of rusty $#!& with a trailer coupler at one end. "I figured you could just weld everything to the frame.” he says. “I measured it. It'll fit."

 

I shook my head and told them, "No... you don't weld to these 'frames' unless you're plating the whole thing.” Figuring I was already there and while staring at a decent size scrap pile, I decided to make something work that I’d be comfortable using myself. I found an old hitch off a Chevy that I could harvest the mounts and some tabs from along with an old and busted hitch basket. Did you know that two of the three bolts for an early 2000s Chevrolet Silverado is the same spacing as the sway bar hardware on an XJ?... me neither.

 

Four hours later into an "hour job" and the guys starts talking about adding a hitch to the back of his fifth wheel camper. "Oh yeah... that's really what I was hoping you could have a look at today. Shouldn't take long if you could come up with something for that today."

 

“Naw... one rabbit out of a hat is enough for today.”

 

 

I tied into the bumper mounts and sandwiched in with the sway bar. This was genuinely a fun MacGyver type project today but I had a tough time keeping my head in the game. Honestly I was ready to walk away once I heard the original plan only to find out towards the end of the day that my buddy’s dad is an electrician. We start talking about my shop build and volunteers to jump in when I’m ready to start wiring.

 

Anyhow the moral of the story is to always help out and do favors for others when you can. 

[jdog]

i'm never a fan of hey can you give me a hand only it'll only take so long, only to get there to find out they have a whole day planned for you.

but that looks good, nice Mcgyver/ fab skills.  but it's always nice to find a new contact for a project in the works

[Pete M]

MacGyver would be proud, both in your skills and your willingness to help out those in need.  

[Minuit]

You're a much better friend than I. Someone did that to me, I'd turn around and have them call me once they'd actually thought about what they were doing.

[derf]

I do like a challenge.  But I also don't like friends who want me to show up and figure it out for them and then do it for them too.

 

I would have just walked away from that pile of metal.

[Torq_Shep]

My response is almost always "Try it yourself and if you get stuck I will come help" 

[strictlyxjs]

Reminds me of the time my sister in law called and said my jeeps (xj) making a weird noise can you look at it....she shows up with almost no brakes at all dragging a muffler and tailpipe with her 3 kids in the car 

[neohic]

I’ve got a neighbor who promised an old truck to his kid years ago. Sadly the truck was sold before it happened. Low and behold he found the original tailgate in a storage unit recently and wanted to surprise his kid with at least some of the truck.

 

 

This was genuinely a quick project. Always do favors. 

[JMO413]

2 hours ago, neohic said:

I’ve got a neighbor who promised an old truck to his kid years ago. Sadly the truck was sold before it happened. Low and behold he found the original tailgate in a storage unit recently and wanted to surprise his kid with at least some of the truck.

 

 

This was genuinely a quick project. Always do favors. 

This is cool!!