As my body gets older I have to pick and choose my projects. I bought a lift for my garage and I figured I've paid for it in 18 months with the projects I've taken on myself vs. having the Mercedes dealer do the work. If you've owned a Benz and gone to the dealer then you know what I mean.
But this getting old thing creeps up on you. Be good to yourselves and get some good power tools.
My (limited) talent has kept a few cars on the road for myself and others that wouldn't have been possible without it. So I'm thankful for that. I also haven't found a shop or dealer that I really trust yet, so I end up doing 95% of the work myself.
I like having the ability to know what's involved, and then deciding if it makes more sense to tackle it myself or let someone else handle it. I don't always get those decisions 100% right, but at least I get them right some of the time.
fornetti14 said:But this getting old thing creeps up on you....
No kidding. I'm almost 60....I was just a young man mere moments ago.
As I get older I buy the better tools to make the job easier. I should've bought those tools 35 years ago.
Used to deploy this hobby as a method of affording a toy that would have been otherwise out of reach. That transitioned to wrenching as a social activity with my local like minded enthusiasts. Now, forced to wrench because I have become competent enough to know how bad a job techs do when I try to farm anything out.
Envy those with a trustworthy side mechanic. Muchas envy.
Yes I am very happy. Getting older is why my next house is getting a car lift if we move this summer. Heck if the job doesn't work out and I have to stay here, I may get the lift anyway.
RX Reven' said:In reply to Appleseed :
Based on previous discussions, I knew he wasn't at all mechanical so I explained the basics (there'll be a little panel in the trunk, change both of them, etc.) and he said "nah, I think I'll just take it to the Chevy dealership". Oh...My...Gauuud...way to turn a five minute / five dollar non event into a major undertaking dude.
That was my father. I don't think he has a mechanically inclined bone in his body. He would watch me fix stuff and be amazed, "you got that from your grandfather, not from me..." But those were born from the "ain't got no money" period of life. My current experience with wrenching and DIY in general is really thanks to my ex- who like many here has a major distrust of mechanics and when we started dating, I ended up working on her perpetually needy German cars, which grew to a collection of needy British and Swedish cars. Which also expanded into my own fleet of often-needy vehicles.
I am fortunate to have a local shop I've known for 30 years and trust to work on my modern cars when I don't have the time or desire to do so. For example, when I had my minivan inspected last month, I got a call about the rear brake pads having separated from the backing plates. "Do you want us to do it, or do it yourself?" Could I have done it? Sure... but at the time it was a lot easier to pay them to do it and have it be done.
I like being able to, once I'm Done. While I'm doing the thing (say fer instance shocks and rear air bags on an e55, wherein dropping the rear subframe 6 inches is part if the deal) I *haaaaate* it...
Also (and thankfully , I'm not getting this vibe from anyone) this isn't "I'm superior because I work on my cars" but more of a self satisfaction of one's own abilities to wrench, or at the very least, prioritize wrenching or farming it out.
The stories that flat-rate guys can tell you will stop you from ever having someone else do your work again.
Lift head, pull out old head gasket, slide in new one, put head back down.
All it has to do is hold until it's out of warranty.
Asphalt_Gundam said:Yes....I'm terrible at trusting anyone else to even touch my stuff
Exactly. I paid the Toyota dealership to do the timing belt on my 4Runner. The engine now makes a bunch of annoying sounds from belts or whatever. I'll do it myself next time if I keep it that long.
As I get older, I prefer to pick my battles. Modern cars are simply miserable to work on, both for access and from diagnostics. It is harder and harder for me to even want to work on stuff. As a result, I've completely lost interest in new vehicles. Don't care about any of them. I really don't know what I will do when the time comes to replace the newest car in our fleet (2010).
I have found the joy in working on machines again, though, by going older instead of newer. My multiple 1960s vehicles are truly fun to work on, even with the occasional rusted fastener or snapped bolt.
I'm very glad I can work on all my own stuff. I do consider it a point of pride to reflect all that I've learned to do over the years. Haven't paid for a repair since before i started wrenching way back in high school (a long time ago). Do it all, from building a house, fixing cars, to replacing floors and walls in a water damaged camper.
However.....I've been middle class my whole life......so saving money by DIY was/is/will be essential. If i had a high income, I'd probably place more value on my time and let others do more of my work load. Bet having that additional free time would be nice......Then again, I don't know how to sit still and or relax.
z31maniac said:Mr. Peabody said:I've often wondered what it would be like not being able to do my own repairs. Some call me frugal, but most call me cheap. I can't imaging having to pay what it costs to maintain and repair a car, or even pay full price for a car or parts, for that matter.
I've been driving 45 years and never taken a car in for an oil change.
There is a big difference between not being able to do something and being willing to pay someone to do something you don't want to do.
I've been driving for almost 25 years. I'd much rather spend a Saturday morning hanging with my lady and the dogs instead of getting greasy in the garage. Again, people value different things and there is nothing wrong with that.
I'm not sure how that's relevant to what I said
ddavidv said:As I get older, I prefer to pick my battles. Modern cars are simply miserable to work on, both for access and from diagnostics. It is harder and harder for me to even want to work on stuff. As a result, I've completely lost interest in new vehicles. Don't care about any of them. I really don't know what I will do when the time comes to replace the newest car in our fleet (2010).
I have found the joy in working on machines again, though, by going older instead of newer. My multiple 1960s vehicles are truly fun to work on, even with the occasional rusted fastener or snapped bolt.
Right there with ya. I have no idea what i'd replace my older stuff with when the time comes. Living here in the rust belt certainly makes that date arrive sooner than I'd like!
We just bought a minty (Florida car), low-ish mile, (for a Honda) 1993 Accord for my wife's daily, largely cause I know how to work on it. We'll see how long I can keep the tin worm away with fluid film.
spitfirebill said:Exactly. I paid the Toyota dealership to do the timing belt on my 4Runner. The engine now makes a bunch of annoying sounds from belts or whatever. I'll do it myself next time if I keep it that long.
My dad had a gorgeous low mile '94 MR2 Turbo a number of years ago, bought from a real enthusiast. He gave me the receipt for the timing belt change. When I got in there, I found: 1) broken lower pulley from mis-using a puller; 2) engine mounts finger tights; 3) one of the cams off by 1 tooth. Sweet.
Years later, he brought it to another Toyo dealer because a coolant hardline was leaking and he didn't want to deal with it. On return he found: 1) a quart of coolant sloshing around under the front hood; 2) the unobtainium TRD engine bay brace all scratched to hell; 3) front heat engine bay heatshield missing; 4) a coolant line clamp installed so far back it was just squeezing the hose.
When I was a teenager I worked at a lot of different places. I worked for a drywall company for a while, I spent a summer helping a plumber, I worked as a groundskeeper at a golf course. I also volunteered to help friends and relatives with bigger projects like replacing their roofs siding, doing concrete work, etc. I never became a master at any of these things of course, but I gained the basic knowledge and confidence to be able to do things for myself and have saved a ton of money because of that.
I ran into an old friend at a wedding that I hadn't seen in years. He lives in a big city now, and he started a handyman business. He said it's just him, no employees. He only does small projects, not full on renovations. He told my I wouldn't believe what people are willing to pay to get him to come replace a faucet or a light fixture.
I like having the choice. Its good to pay for no hassle sometimes.
I generally don't like working on dailies (comes from way back when I didn't have a choice but to do that), but trying to trace the misfire on my wife's Range Rover is reinforcing why I have trust issues when it comes to a lot of people's work. The amount of stuff that isn't bolted to other parts it should be bolted to is staggering, combined with the "why use three bolts when two and an unused hole will do" approach to fastening stuff.
I probably wouldn't be able to afford or modify half the cars I've purchased if I couldn't work on them. Spending $550 on a welding setup has saved me thousands in chassis reinforcements on my E36 and E46. My parents just had to pay $1000+ for a water pump job on their E71 and was quoted another $2000+ for an oil pan gasket and VCG job; I purchased all of those parts for $250 and will be working on it for them cause I can't fathom spending that much in labor.
It's not just being able to actually do the work, but also having the deeper understanding of how cars work so you can make more informed decisions when buying / selling / maintaining them. Even if I stopped doing my own repairs tomorrow, I'd still have a lot of knowledge that would be otherwise difficult to learn that would help save money in the long term. The skill of determining what that noise means and whether it means pull over now or turn the radio up is pretty damn useful just by itself too. That's not something that can be taught in driver's ed, and it takes time and a strong interest to build.
Personally, the stakes are too high when driving to worry too much about the time / money equation, it's really about trust and making sure I and my family / friends have well maintained and equipped vehicles.
Wife unit an I were in the middle of a roadtrip when the pinion seal in the Tow Beast started heaving oil.
Called a friend I had in the next town, got him to order the parts I needed from the FLAPS, I picked them up on my way to his place. Put the truck on his lift, swapped the dead seal and got back on the road.
Down time was about an hour and a half.
That's worth a whole lot to me.
Sitting on the side of the freeway in rush hour, going into Manhattan, with a very pregnant Mrs. P in the passenger seat, and a seized caliper smoking up the driver's side of my 77 Malibu.
Why I thought to pack a C clamp in my toolbox, I'll never know, but being able to get back on the road, 800km from home, in under 30 minutes, is priceless.
And despite the number of times I've either gotten us, or somebody else going, she still says, are you sure that's what it is? Maybe we should ask a real mechanic.
Mr. Peabody said:And despite the number of times I've either gotten us, or somebody else going, she still says, are you sure that's what it is? Maybe we should ask a real mechanic.
A group including myself and a few friends discovered the best way to discuss home repairs or modifications with the wife is by prefacing the conversation with, "Doug Buckley says we should do thing "A" to the house."
Doug is a personable guy that everyone likes, who has been a draftsman, homebuilder, drafting teacher and such his whole life, so its quite obvious he would make an intelligent suggestion, isn't it?
The trick is to make sure Doug knows what "He" suggested to your wife...
I was thinking about the most explicit case where fixing it myself paid off. This was the summer of 1984, and I was driving my Dad's '73 Volkswagen Beetle from Bristol, VA to Charlottesville to visit my girlfriend (and now wife) for a week. The car died somewhere along I-81 within 100 miles of my goal at dusk. The way it died (slow loss of power) suggested a fuel problem. The only tools I had were a screwdriver and adjustable wrench, so I removed the mechanical fuel pump. The lines were dry, so I siphoned fuel from the tank by mouth and got it running. Turns out the fuel pump diagram had a pinhole leak. Good thing my girlfriend thought seeing me was more important than gasoline breath.
I appreciate it as well, though I find I really dislike having to work on my daily driver, which is why my past two have been bought new (with good warranty) so I don't have to deal with them other than standard maintenance. If the DD breaks, I let someone else deal with it. Now as to my project cars (I'd say I have four I would call "project cars" not counting my tow rig that I like to mess with), I never let anyone else touch those, for any reason. If I can't do the work on them, that defies the point of a project car.
The downside (upside?) to knowing how to do this stuff is the constant neighbors, non-car friends, and family (mine and my wife's ) asking me to diagnose issues, etc.
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