kishy's 1983 Grand Marquis 2dr

[DerekTheGreat]

I'd have to see a video to believe that. Not saying it isn't possible, I just highly doubt it. If you guys are that fast, you belong on a pit crew. But, I don't think people factor in all the stuff that actually goes into performing service on their vehicles. With that in mind:

Here's the challenge: Next time you guys do a caliper, start a video and timer at the same time with no stops or breaks in the filming, start to finish. It takes me at least fifteen minutes to come home and change into shitty clothing from my work attire. Then there's another five or ten required to open up the garage, put gloves on, grab my floor jack, jack stands, equipment & parts needed as well as turn the radio on. Probably another five to get the vehicle in the air with jackstands under it and ensure that it's safe. Probably a minute to zip the wheel off and at least three to get the caliper off. Oh, the new caliper? Did you guys factor in the time you spent at the parts store or the time it took to order it and put it on your shelf so you can grab it the day of swap? Welp, then there's probably five to get the new caliper out of the box and onto the vehicle. At least five, because I'm cleaning the pads up, putting caliper grease practically everywhere that isn't a friction surface, yet needs to move. That's if I don't notice areas which could use some Fluid Film or other abnormalities. These are my vehicles we're talking about and I like to keep 'em tip top. With the new caliper in place, hopefully Angie is ready to help me bleed the brakes, probably three to five minutes there, provided she's ready to roll. Small bullshit details aside, probably twenty minutes bare minimum to get the vehicle back on the ground and everything put away clean & where it was. Then there's the test drive to verify everything is all set, destination being the parts store I got the caliper from so I can get my core return. Lastly, the drive back and a shower to clean the oil & stank off me so I can perv on my wife. Approx. total time for DerekThe[NotAtAll]Great, from start to shower fresh: 110 minutes. Yeah, checking the oil while filling my gas tank is certainly faster and easier, hands down.

[sly]

Yeah... I don't count any of the time leading up to walking up to the car with parts or anything after cleaning up the workspace. That's just being pedantic. Not everyone is as cowboy about work practice as I am... no jack stand, just a jack... and I don't have to be perfect with all the grease and don't bother scuffing the pads since the new rotors will take care of that. I do clean the oil off the rotors though... but hosing them with brakleen is easy. I'm only talking about the walking into the garage... to walking out of the garage. If you factor in all the rest of that laundry list, there's no real good measure and can range from another hour to several days depending on the current state of supply chain. But I don't like to be pedantic, so I just deal with what I actually know and have done as much as I can.

[DerekTheGreat]

You're right it is pedantic, but let's remember why we're here:

From gadget73:

"
The last caliper I changed cost me 25 bucks and I was done with the job in 30 minutes. Synthetic oil is 5 bucks a quart, 2 quarts per 3k, even at 3k per year is 50 bucks after 5 years. Guaranteed you spend more time checking and dumping in oil than I did replacing a brake caliper.

so yes I value my time
"

Which he followed up with:

"
You open your hood every time you get gas? No fail on my guarantee, takes longer to do that than I spent changing a caliper.
"

So it was necessary for me to drag all that stuff out there to prove total time wasn't accounted for. Thus gadget was not actually done in 30 minutes and as such, his guarantee is shite. I'd like my flashlight fixed.

Oh, I don't scuff the pad surface, just where they get all rusty from sitting in the calipers and all that, much like they were on this truck. Don't need rust jacking to cause irregular wear & premature pad failure. De-rusting & greasing is necessary up here due to the salt flying around and general corrosive nature of this area.

[sly]

(regarding derusting scuff) Ah... makes sense. Yeah... down here I don't need to spend time on that, so there's another point of time savings for me.

[kishy]

What a handsome car this is. The color combination is outstanding and the turbines finish it off so good.

Thank you!

This is a remarkably low-option car and was originally equipped with this wheel cover option:



That's my photo from 2013.

I do still have those wheel covers but I've never been able to bring myself to like them. The turbines (particularly once I figure out where I've hidden the caps for them) seem like the right option.

[Mainemantom]

Beautiful Mercury. I love the colors.