Had to decide between pulling a panel or cutting a zip tie today

Working on a Cessna 172 today and ran into a bundle of zip ties holding a wire harness that needed fixing. I had two choices: spend 45 minutes pulling the access panel on the starboard side, or just snip the ties and replace them. I went with the snip, finished in 10 minutes, and the owner didn't even notice the new ties. Has anyone else run into this call where you have to pick speed over perfection?

2 comments

2 Comments

milaw1410d agoTop Commenter

Jumped into a similar mess last week on a friend's old Chevy truck. He had a rats nest of zip ties holding a fuel line bracket that was supposed to be metal bolted to the frame. I could have spent an hour busting out the grinder to cut the rusted bolts or just snip the ties and zip tie the thing back together. Snip snip done in five minutes. Truck runs the same as before and the bracket hasn't moved an inch. Sometimes you just gotta pick your battles with time.

daniel_martin10d ago

Forty five minutes vs ten minutes, happens all the time with home projects too.