Wrenching On Your Ride

[z06psi]

I do all of my own work. From the supercharger, the OPGs/timing set, air ride, paint work, and soon to be stereo.

I do it all except for auto transmissions.

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[w3rkn]

Lets see where this goes.

I got to wondering. After reading dozens of posts and topics I get the impression that a lot of guys today "DO NOT" do their own work on their cars. There are many posts like "I had my exhaust installed today, or I had my shifter installed, or my Cold Air Intake. Granted many parts for the car need to be installed by mechanics but then again a lot of our Mods or add ons are something you can do yourself and save a lot of money in the process.

What do you Guys and Girls think?

Disclaimer: I was raised in an orphanage and had nothing. I am old school and growing up as a young adult I could not afford to have someone work on my car so I taught and learned to do things myself to save money.

The ability to wrench depends on three main things.
1) Where? Do you have a big enough garage/lift.
2) Tools? Do you have the proper tools, jacks and wrenches.
3) Time? Do you have enough time/commitment to wrenching on your own car?

After that, it freaking easy..!
Cuz all you have to do is buy a keg of beer & invite all of us... and knuckelheads can't help but get their hands dirty! Though, some party goers might be begging to use YOUR tools and YOUR garage and YOUR time, to help them do the same = community.

:ford:

In reality, you don't even know how to wrench on your car, just know how to buy enough beer & BBQ. Those two things are the secret sauce to any good car build.

 

[Dragster]

I have done all my own work on this car (aside from tuning), and I really enjoy it. Sure, there are times when I want to throw a wrench into the driveway, but overall, it's been a lot of fun and has totally been worth it. Nothing is really difficult, per se, but it certainly can be time consuming. In the end though, no one else is going to care about your car as much as you do.

 

[Indylatenight]

Many people when they are young and broke, learn to wrench on their own ride. But after awhile, doing so becomes a pain in the ass. Once you're old and broken, crawling under a car to change the oil isn't much fun anymore, versus paying someone $20 to do it under your watchful eye.

The larger issue is just access to a good garage, ramps, lifts, tools, etc. Lots of people live in apartments, and that means paying someone else to work on your car.

Being one of those "old and broken" I wholeheartedly agree. :cheers:

 

[dgc333]

I have been a hot rodder and gear head for over 50 years. I would never consider paying someone to do work that I can do myself and there is very little I can't do.

As far as new cars being harder to work on than old cars that is only partially true. My 68 small block Barracuda requires you to pull the steering column, disconnect the steering linkage and Jack up the motor out of the mounts to install headers. If it had a big block it is easier to pull the engine, lay the headers in the engine compartment then put the engine back in.

 

[d4rk_hrs]

I have done all of the work on my car except for mounting the tires to the rims. I hate the thought of paying someone money for something I can do myself for free.

I have been tinkering with cars for a long time. I did a convertible chop on a Mazda B2000, a walk-through on a chevy s10 and many other projects.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Lets see where this goes.

I got to wondering. After reading dozens of posts and topics I get the impression that a lot of guys today "DO NOT" do their own work on their cars. There are many posts like "I had my exhaust installed today, or I had my shifter installed, or my Cold Air Intake. Granted many parts for the car need to be installed by mechanics but then again a lot of our Mods or add ons are something you can do yourself and save a lot of money in the process.

What do you Guys and Girls think?

These days I think there's less exposure growing up at home to working with your hands and doing mechanical things, so the DIY mindsets for automotive tasks aren't developing in as many people as used to be the case.

Maybe people aren't easing themselves into doing their own work. Starting small with things like oil and filter changes and progressively moving up through things like rotating tires and doing spark plug, battery, and shock/strut replacements to still more complex tasks as confidence is built on the previous successes. I don't expect many people to pick up some idea of how to weld, but becoming comfortable using wrenches and other hand tools should happen fairly quickly.


Then too, there's a time element today that wasn't there 40 or 50 years ago - maybe the time it takes to install a shifter or a CAI is seen as taking away from the minimum daily requirement of smartphone and facebook time? I'm not entirely joking here . . .


As for myself, I'd gotten to the point where I was willing to let the dealership for my wife's new car do at least the five freebie oil changes . . . until the second time out of three they damaged the filter badly enough that it cracked after about a thousand miles. She was hoping that by my early to mid sixties I could start giving up some of the "car work" until the second time we started to smell oil smoke inside her car (and we both knew right away why). I don't like having to work on cars in the winter any more (no usable garage), but I will if I have to. Like the new pads & rotors and swap to the cold-weather tires for her Subie that are next on the automotive to-do list and the swap off of the track tires for the Mustang after that.


Today's younger people have skills I don't have - setting up "smart TV's" and such being a recent struggle for me. But how many of them would be up to the task of pulling coax cable down through an insulated wall from a second floor bedroom into the crawl space to tie it in to the existing line?


Norm

 

[d4rk_hrs]

These days I think there's less exposure growing up at home to working with your hands and doing mechanical things, so the DIY mindsets for automotive tasks aren't developing in as many people as used to be the case.

Norm

I agree with this wholeheartedly. We grew up poor and learned at an early age how to fix things. Started with bicycles, skateboards. That old lawn mower found in the trash pile.

There are many times I am in the garage today and a neighborhood kid will stop by and ooh and aah over the car and how they want to get a cool car when they grow up. I ask if they want to help whatever it is I am doing and this is always followed by them saying they don't know how.

I get great enjoyment watching them learn how to turn a wrench. I always ask if they fix things at home with their dad. The response is always no. We just play sports stuff. The knowledge is not being passed down anymore. So sad.

 

[BEASTMASTER15]

I'm an old gear-head that has wrenched on everything I've owned over the years; both for saving dollars and generally not trusting others to correctly do the job. I definitely feel my age (64) when doing anything beyond the basics. I did the install on my Barton Hybrid 3 shifter last week. That was a royal pain given the tight working spaces I had to deal with. But I get a good measure of satisfaction to know I can still do things and do them correctly (although my vocabulary used "colorful metaphors" at times!!
Changed the oil last week too and grumbled at the Ford engineers and their placement of the oil filter which spills over everything....... I did let the dealer install the Ford Performance Power Pack 2 on Friday, but that was just to keep the warranty in place. I was salivating to do the job myself!!

 

[JeffreyDJ]

I'm somewhere in between. I'll do everything I can do with minimal help, as long as I have the right tools. But, as is the case with the PP2, I let someone else do it because I wanted the warranty.

In other cases, I don't always have the place, time or help to do it. I'd much rather do it myself, it's just not always feasible.

 

[Norm Peterson]

I agree with this wholeheartedly. We grew up poor and learned at an early age how to fix things. Started with bicycles, skateboards. That old lawn mower found in the trash pile.

Old lawnmowers . . . heh . . . I remember scavenging the motor from a reel-type mower and using it to power a home-built go-kart. We didn't even think we might not be able to pull it off, just went ahead and built it.


Norm

 

[Ebm]

.

Many people when they are young and broke, learn to wrench on their own ride. But after awhile, doing so becomes a pain in the ass. Once you're old and broken, crawling under a car to change the oil isn't much fun anymore, versus paying someone $20 to do it under your watchful eye.

The larger issue is just access to a good garage, ramps, lifts, tools, etc. Lots of people live in apartments, and that means paying someone else to work on your car.

Being a younger guy here, there is a sense of achievement in doing your own work. You feel good about yourself, you know the job was done right, you worry less. And yes, you do save a little money. But the money you save now, you will probably spend on medical bills later from all the abuse your body takes. I'm an IT guy that likes to tinker. That's why I do computer work for a living, but like to modify and work on the car as a hobby(expensive hobby). I'm pretty sure I'll have carpal tunnel later on from working with computers. And my body already has scars, cuts, bruises, etc from working on cars.

Sometimes I ask myself, is it worth it? I've yet to answer that question.

 

[ronemca]

Here's my take on this:

More & more in this generation, young-ish guys are too caught up on things other than vehicle maintenance/modding. There are a zillion things that fall into that category, and the truth is that the majority of them deliver their "fix" of satisfaction or gratification much more quickly - and with less effort - than car-related work.

And yes - absolutely - the facility plays a major role. I have ZERO space when the weather is less than ideal, and that's a friggin' long time in this part of the world. And no hoist. And no handy drain channels or easily-cleaned smooth & painted floor. So that's' a biggie. But I have rented space, and found other ways to do the sort of work that is easier when - or that demands - raising the car.

Tools? Meh - I have all the tools -- and I guess that could skew my perception -- but I don't really believe that a lack of tools is pivotal to the above points.

Lastly there is knowledge. And here it has been observed that there is a lack among the aforementioned demographic. That is not un-true...but neither do I accept that it is pivotal. If the motivation is present, then the individual will reach out to someone like me that can guide, and/or teach and/or loan tools and/or provide space.

I am never happier than when I am working on cars. But the hoist and the weatherproof environment plays a BIG role in my level of enjoyment.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Sometimes I ask myself, is it worth it? I've yet to answer that question.

When you can answer that question with "because I still can" ought to be a good enough hint.


Norm

 

[tom_sprecher]

I have done a frame off rebuilt of a K5 Blazer, a mild rebuild of a YJ Jeep and built an SCCA race car, so I guess you could say I've done some wrenching on my own ride. The only thing I did not do was replace the EGR cooler in my 6.0 F250 diesel DD.

It required removing everything off the top of the engine, turbo, intake manifold and HP oil pump. I watched a video of a guy take six hours on a step stool bent over that engine turning wrenches.

Pass! Paid $3k to have the dealer do it which included a new HP oil pump and it came with a 2 year warranty. It would have cost me at least that in doctor bills to fix my worn out back and knees and I probably would have finished the job only to find a part left on the bench that should have gone on first. :doh:

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