Throw an engine swap party
Want to bust out a lot of work on your project car in a short amount of time? Get the boys (or girls) around to help you engine-swap your car. Many hands make light work (and many hams make for tasty sandwiches), so if you’re nervous about completing your first engine swap consider getting a bunch of your handiest mates around to help you complete the task.
The headline thing to consider here is to invite people who have experience doing what you’re about to undertake, or are very mechanically handy. Enthusiastic novices are great to have along as there will be plenty of other jobs, but from the outset you don’t want it turning into a huge house party so here’s what you need to know about throwing an engine swap party.
EVERYONE NEEDS A JOB OR ROLE
Before anyone turns up, and ideally before you put the call out to your buds, you need to think about what jobs you want done and who is best positioned to do them. If people turn up and you haven’t considered this you’ll soon find that no work is being done as everyone is sitting around looking for direction, so be proactive and doll out jobs to the people you need helping you.
Enthusiastic novices can be put to great use by handling food and drink, music, and for any parts store runs that need to be undertaken. And this brings us to point 2…
2. HAVE YOUR PROJECT READY FOR WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE
There’s no point calling in the calvalry if you haven’t got all the parts you need to complete the jobs you want done. Spend some time collecting parts, and researching how to do the jobs you need done - this will avoid you discovering you’re missing some key part or tool on the day when everyone has taken the time to come over.
3. SORT YOUR WORKSPACE OUT
Ensure your tools are clean and they’re all in their right space, your power tool batteries and torches are fully charged and ready to work, and you have somewhere for people to work, sit, and move. If you’re going to try to start the car check you have fluids for it (oil, coolant, petrol, power steering fluid, etc), and you have a new (or fully charged) battery. Spring for a bag of rags and organise some seating, somewhere for people to go to the toilet, and put on an Esky full of drinks (ideally water, save the adult cold snacks for celebrating getting all the work done). I also find paying for lunch (pizza or BBQ) is a great way to get people to come over and spend their day off hanging off grinders, welders, hoofing engines around a garage and more.
4. BE REALISTIC
You’re not going to build an entire project car in a single day, so be realistic with what you want to achieve. Try to organise your To-Do List into three areas: Mandatory jobs to achieve; good bonus tasks; and best-case-scenario jobs if everything goes better than expected. This will allow you to hone in on what’s important to get sorted while you have this help, what you can do after everyone goes home, and what the following stages of the project are.
5. DON’T BE A JERK
Remember, these are your friends who’ve come over to help you, giving up their time when they could be doing other things. They’re helping you, physically and with their experience, so don’t jerk them around by being unprepared or by working them like a slave-driver.
Even if you suffer set-backs during the day try to approach them with humility and good grace because you still had a day playing cars with your friends and that’s a hell of a lot better than spending the day cleaning the bathroom or doing countless other adult jobs.
