Easiest? No contest: My 1952 Chevrolet.
Hardest: Old VW beetle.
Best cars I had to work on were a 1970 ford Maverick 200 inline 6 very easy to get to anything.
1974 Chevy Nova 250 inline 6…There was not anything that you could not get to easily.
3rd was my 1971 Ford F-100 with the 302…vehicle had a 4 inch lift kit. Had to change timing chain, All I had to do was remove the radiator fan and then got under the vehicle sitting between the timing chain cover and radiator, real easy.
Worst car is the 59 Thunderbird with a 390…Being that the hood opens from the rear it had to be removed to replace radiator, water pump or thermostat.
Secondly having to replace the generator required 2 people as you know these are heavy and not like an alternator. There was no way that one person laying under the car could lift it and then try and get the mounting bolts in.
Had to get a friend to tie a rope around it so he could lift it from the top while I aligned the mounts from under the car and slid the bolts in.
Now my 89 Mustang GT, everything very accessible, except when changing out the valve cover gaskets. The intake plentum has to be removed as you can’t clear the valve covers or get at the top valve cover bolts.
1967 chevy 283, everything was easy to get to except changing points as distributor was in the rear. You had to lay across the engine…Nice thing was if you got them in the ball park to get the engine running you could use an alan key through a window in the distributor to adjust the dwell angle.
Best cars I had to work on were a 1970 ford Maverick 200 inline 6 very easy to get to anything.
For most things, you are correct. However, on an airconditioned Maverick, the air conditioning system had to be discharged and the evaporator coil moved out of the way to remove the heater core. I had a 1971 Ford Maverick with the 250 cubic inch six and had to replace the heater core. Also, there were some “permanently lubricated” bushings that would start squeaking. There were two ways to fix the problem: 1) disassamble most the suspension; 2) cut a hole in the inside fender liner and install a grease fitting. I chose the latter.
Most other things were easy. The oil plug was on the side of the oil pan. I could change the oil and filter without getting under the car.
I might add that the Ford Maverick rode like a wheelbarrow. Even though the Maverick was cheap to run, I spent more on Preparation H than I did on upkeep for the Maverick.
Do you remember the advertising campaign for the Maverick, circa 1969, along the lines of…It is so easy to maintain and repair a Maverick, even an airline stewardess can do it…?
Women’s rights groups were not happy about the portrayal of airline stewardesses as air heads.
It is so easy to maintain and repair a Maverick, even an airline stewardess can do it…?
The last time I was on an airplane, I was seated by the emergency exit. The stewardess asked me if I thought I could open the emergency door. “Sure”, I replied. “I’ve opened emergency doors before”. “You did?” she asked. “Yes”, I replied. "When I rode the school bus in elementary school, I rode in the back seat. When we would make a stop to pick up kids, I would open the emergency door, jump out and have a quick smoke before the bus started up again. She looked me over and then said, “While we are in flight, please don’t open the emergency exit and go out on the wing for a smoke”.
I thought I’d comment personally on my post:
-Easiest: My first car, a 74 Caddy–there was enough space underhood to do pretty much anything, even with a 500 CID V8 in there. The distributor was right in front too. (though being HEI, it never needed anything internally) I had a Ford van, that despite the ‘doghouse’ the motor was mounted in, it had enough ground clearance to slide under without a jack. And one of my current cars, a 94 Chrysler with a V6, the spark plugs are ridiculously easy to change–they’re all up top. All you need is a reasonably long extension to get to them through the ‘hemi style’ tubes in the valve covers. 15 minutes to do them all. The crank sensor–not so easy to reach when I had to do it.
-Hardest? I’ve had mostly domestic cars, and they’ve been all pretty easy. A couple of notable ones though: Changing a starter on a friend’s Chevy Monza–was like one of those metal Chinese puzzles where you have to twist them a certain way to separate them. Similar to get the starter disentangled from the Y-pipe on his V6 model. And an old Ford LTD I had where one of the thermostat housing bolts was located such that you could only turn it about 1/16th of a turn at a time with a wrench.
I was not amused by the early Ford diagnostic procedure for the PCM either—jumper a connector, connect an analog voltmeter, and count the sweeps of the needle. Needless pain. Mopars of the same period only required clicking the ignition on and off 3 times to do the same. GMs were annoying with needing to jumper a connector under the dash, but still easier than Fords of the same period.
The biggest pain in the neck starter replacement I ever did involved a Renault LeCar.
A few minutes with this thing and the thought of whether we really should have run the Germans out of France in WWII was becoming a persistent thought.
Having never done one and seeing no way to access the starter I located a service manual to see if there was some weird trick to it. The manual recommended that both the engine and transmission be pulled to change the starter motor. The car owner certainly did not want to go to that trouble and expense so the owner gave me carte blanche to do the job in whatever alternative method I could come up with.
I pulled the carpet back and cut a hole in the firewall underneath the pedals. A long extension managed to get the starter bolts loose and the starter motor was removed and replaced through that hole. I then cut a 1/8" thick steel plate and bolted it to the firewall with some sealer to prevent water leaks.
It worked fine and was never a problem but it was a pain in the neck (both figuratively and literally) to do due to the limited space under the dash.
lol…had a Renault 5 (European version of the LeCar) that I got for free, so it was worth some effort to fix up. Had to push start it the first time, due to a bad starter. Motor mount also needed changing. Did both at the same time, and once the motor mount was out of the way, the starter was pretty easy to get at. Just info for that time when we’ll hopefully never see one again. 