Topic: What's the one thing that went easy for you that's hard for everyone else?

[midlife]

Reading various forums for 15+ years, I think I know pretty much all of the pain most people go through reassembling or building their Mustangs.  Each of us typically can relate to each of these, as we've pretty much experienced them ourselves.  Sometimes, though, you scratch your head why folks have such hard times when it was easy for you.

Here's my example...

When Midlife was reassembled, I had to mount both doors by myself.  Now everyone says alignment of doors can be time consuming to get them perfect.  I did both of my doors within 1 hour total, first time mounting.  I applied painter's tape to the door flanges (just in case), and got some paint stir sticks out.  My car was on my lift, and I could set it to any height I wanted.  I knew I needed an assist of some sort to keep the door at the right height, so I eyed a wooden picnic bench I had consisting of two large planks with a slight gap between them.  I put the lower pinch weld of the door in this gap, raised the car on the lift to match the height of the door hinges, and maneuvered the bench/door combination up to the A-pillar.  I started all of the bolts, raised the car to remove the bench, and proceeded to tweak the alignment, using the paint stir sticks as my gap manager between the bottom flange and the rocker panel and the rear flange and the B-pillar. 

Slick, easy, and done in less than 30 minutes a side.   

[PraireBronze]

Everyone seems to have a terrible time installing an export brace.  Mine drops right in, no problem.  It could be the difference between repro and genuine Ford, I don't  know.  I bought my export brace in the early 1980's from Ford through the local dealership. It even has the unequally spaced holes that match the stock holes in the pinch weld.

[gjz30075]

I think alot of it is the preparation one puts into the job before starting.    If I need to do a particular job/task that I've never done before, I spend a great deal time reading how others have done it, I check the shop manual, I stare at the job at hand in the garage and think about it before I even start.    Sometimes do this for days on end.

Once I've started, things *usually* go smoothly.    I can see how others get into trouble by perhaps diving right in and relying on intuition.

Just my theory   

[Dudley]

I think alot of it is the preparation one puts into the job before starting.    If I need to do a particular job/task that I've never done before, I spend a great deal time reading how others have done it, I check the shop manual, I stare at the job at hand in the garage and think about it before I even start.    Sometimes do this for days on end.

Once I've started, things *usually* go smoothly.    I can see how others get into trouble by perhaps diving right in and relying on intuition.

Just my theory   

I agree, done this MANY times and sure to keep doing it.

besides that, it's easy to understand myself when others don't - 

[J_Speegle]

This week's challenge was (well still is) rebuilding a fuel sending unit...

Now to the point of swapping all the mechanics from a repo into an original.... what a pain

[priceless]

When I restored our 69 Mach1, the assembly of the 69 door glass and working mechanisms was a pain to get everything lined up and the windows rolling up and down properly, but like gjz30075 said, I studied reference materials, looked to see how others were assembling theirs and what troubles they were having and the one big thing....TOOK MY TIME. Cause I was in no hurry, just wanted to get it right.

[Skyway65]

Before I installed the window glass and other internal door mechanisms I had heard all kinds of horror stories of others not getting the components to fit correctly.  Having never done this job before I was pretty amazed that it all went back together with very little effort. 
As others have mentioned, study the job beforehand, lay it all out and dive in. 
The doors were back together with everything lined up and working properly in one afternoon--both sides fit perfectly.  (It helps to reuse all the original parts and the old evidence marks of where everything is supposed to be too!)