Well, you berked up now you gotta do The Thing You Hate

What is it?  What is the job that you swore you weren't gonna have to do this time, but inevitably end up doing.

For me, its when I bash a knuckle and get a cut but I don't stop to clean the cut out properly.  It always means that in the next day or two I'm gonna take a clean stiff bristle brush and end up debriding the wound after I've soaked the scab off.  I hate it.  Not only does it hurt, but the tactile feelings of it just give me the heebie jeebies, and its so easy to prevent.

Next thing I hate most is ordering raw materials again cause I took a bad measurement. 

Flaring brake lines. The only time I make a perfect flare, the fitting is sitting on the bench, laughing at me. 

Every year I swear up and down that I'm going to do the RV maintenance things in the fall when it's still warm out instead of waiting until the week before the Rolex where I have to roll around in the cold and snow.

And every year I'm rolling around in the cold and snow because I didn't do the RV maintenance things in the fall.

Switch the summer rubber off the Manic Miata.

I don't drive it in the winter, but maybe one of these times I'll manage to get the soft tires into the basement before it gets cold and they freeze.

Change engines. I hate changing engines. 

Doing one this weekend. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I would kind of enjoy changing engines, if it weren't for the coolant. On the floor, on my tools, on my clothes, in my hair. Goddamn antifreeze goes everywhere. It doesn't matter how diligently you try to drain it, there is always more hiding in there, waiting for its chance to get you.

In reply to gearheadmb :

Exactly! And trans fluid. 

Im glad you understand.....

Exhaust work. Specifically on Michigan cars. Specifically in the winter.

My son's Volvo S40 developed an exhaust leak somewhere near the front of the system, which was no biggie for a while, then fumes started getting into the interior, so we knew we had to fix it. Took it to a local shop and they quoted us $1400 for a new cat pipe and two 02 sensors, based on the assumption that the old ones weren't coming off. I looked on RockAuto and found I could get all the parts for less than $500, so I decided to bite the bullet.

Here's an example of what the fasteners looked like:

Needless to say, none of them were coming off intact, so I sawzalled off the old pipe, then used a combination of Dremel, die grinder, and drill to get rid of the remains of the old studs so I could replace them with bolts. Took one full Sunday and 3 evenings of laying on the floor of my barn in mid-January, but it's done.

Repairing rusty sills on a Miata.  I know you are supposed to clean out the top drains and sill drains occasionally, but for me that becomes too long of an interval.  So several years of parking on an uphill slope leads to the doglegs slowly dissolving.  It happened with my NA, and now my MSM is nice and bubbly.  Time to fire up the compressor and strap on the face shield.

to the OP:  man, i hate scrubbing my wounds, but i do it promptly. ugh, just thinking about the last bad one almost makes me wretch.

Break a hardened steel stud extractor...in the stud.

Pulling transmissions.

Hate hate hate.

I'm averaging one a year for the past 10 years.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Change engines. I hate changing engines. 

Funny as a drag racer, those are a consumable. Transmissions come out a few times a year too due to breakage or clutch issues. Why do I find this fun?

Non car related, but painting anything on the house. Especially if it's a minor color change to a different shade of a neutral tan/beige/off white looking color. Also ceilings. The. Worst. I am not allowed to pay people to do this because "we can do this ourselves!!" but no concern around how valuable my time may be.  I can charge people $100 an hour for tuning but sure I'll go do that :facepalm:

Appleseed said:

Break a hardened steel stud extractor...in the stud.

I've never had any luck with those damn things. I didn't even try them on the Volvo, because of exactly what you said. Bad enough when you break a drill bit in there, but a stud extractor is NEVER coming out.

Anything that results in me having to break out the helicoil kit after I start. 

I really dislike painting projects at my house.  Invariably it gets on something I would rather not paint.   And clean up of brushes after applying oil based paints is just a big mess of solvents with disposal problems.

I just throw out the brushes.....

Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) said:

I just throw out the brushes.....

humblebrag LOL

Fixing anything in the crawl space, because it means something critical has broken *and* I have to crawl around under the house.

Sump pump replacement. I try to stick to a 5 year plan and replace them before they fail. 

I should have done that a year ago - now I'm playing the odds, and the house always wins!

Maintenance. I hate it. Auto or house or anything. I grumble when I do it. Big old sour face.

Upgrades, however...

For instance: Brake job. If it is all stock replacement stuff I will be miserable, but if it's bigger discs and sweet pads the smiles abound.

The little things like a broken tap or bolt, while annoying, I am so very used to it on a much bigger scale than car stuff due to work.

Fuel filter changes, I hate them it doesn't matter what precautions I take, I end up wearing Exxon's finest cologne.

Anything with gear oil is nasty. Can't stand how that stuff smells. 

alternate thread title: "Well, well, well if it isn't the consequences of my own actions"

Not fixing the rear exhaust hanger on my truck allowed the front downpipe to fatigue at the collector and break off.  Repairing the exhaust was not fun and involved at least one failed welding attempt.  $100 for a new downpipe would have been cheap after that repair.