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Wrenching On Your Ride

ctandc72

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For all those older guys saying cars are harder to work on now - bullshit. I'm 45. I cut my teeth on setting mechanical points, setting timing curves with different weights (remember trial and error?), rebuilding Q-Jets while everyone dumped them for Holleys because they didn't realize you needed to tune a QJet to the engine / chassis.

Now?

Plug up a laptop, spend the coin (you'd spend it on rims or tires) to buy a decent software suite - and you can do anything you want.

QC is light years better than 20 years ago. No more cork gaskets. CNC controls and parts actually fitting.

For those saying their time is worth more. Fair enough. Just remember not every person spinning wrenches for a living is a car guy. Not everyone is going to treat your car like it was his. Also remember they are human and everyone has a bad day.

Time?

It takes 15 minutes to drive someplace to get the oil changed. Another 30 (at the very minimum) waiting on it. Longest part of my oil changes is gathering everything together and throwing it up on jackstands. And I know it's done right.

Your car, your money, your time. If we were all the same, it would be boring as hell.
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ForYourOwnGood

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For me its an issue of space now. I do everything but oil changes myself still (while its under warranty I just let Ford do it), but generally don't do as much as when I was in the military and had use of the auto hobby shops on base. Now I have a tiny driveway with walls, on a hill. Can't even open both doors at once let alone jack the car up easily.
 

BeauxXL1200

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Of the list of mods in my signature below, I did the following:

Lund Tune,
CAI,
Big Worm stripes,
Lens tint,
Interior LEDs,
Turn Signal Switchbacks,
Shift knob,
Caliper paint,
Rear louvers,
Jacking rails,
X550 Steering Wheel, and
Stanginator pony.

I also swapped out the transmission fluid, and I plan on installing new spark plugs soon. I don't change my own oil b/c I just make a big mess of it.

It's fun doing certain things myself, but I know my limitations.
 

TruBlu16GT

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I'm no stranger to being balls deep in an engine rebuild. One of the things I find to be relaxing and therapeutic is setting up drum brakes. Seems that's a lost art today. Like rebuilding a carburetor! I did one not long ago for a friends' '47 Willys. Similar to the OP, I grew up in a single-parent home. I learned very early on to take care of my stuff so it lasts longer because there was no money to buy another. At 16, I built my first car. I traded a golf cart for an '81 Honda Civic and paid $250 for an '82. I made one nice, functional car out of the two and even painted one at the high school auto shop. Heck, I even swapped it over from a HondaMatic to a 5 speed one weekend just to impress a girl.

The most aggravating things about wrenching is either fixing something that somebody before you buggered up or dealing with rusty/broken bolts. If it's one thing I hate, it's having to grind flat, drill, heat, extract broken bolts. More so if it's inaccessible and have to take something apart that you really didn't want to.

I enjoyed doing a few things to my Mustang. I added the tower brace, the K-brace and the lower suspension brace last summer. It's actually FUN when parts go together like they're supposed to and holes line up properly. I did the hood struts at the same time. I think the whole job took me an hour? It wasn't very long.

The only things I really farm out are upholstery jobs, exhaust or something that I don't have the tools for - like, rebuilding a rear end. I don't have all the dial indicators (or a big enough work bench) to accommodate something like that. Hell, I've painted cars in my back yard that turned out better than some peoples' "professional" jobs.
 

15GTCA

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First off, i guess that i don't trust other people working on my cars, so i do all the things that i can. When i found the oil filter installed by the dealer was so tight, that i crushed it trying to remove it after the first Free oil change, i knew i could not let them do that any more. They intalled the filter dry. I only have an outside car port, but i use ramps to change my own oil and my wife's oil in her Escape. To rotate the tires i have to do it one side at a time so i can get a jack under it. I too started working on anything that i could when i was 10 or 11 yrs old. While my dad never worked on his cars, i somehow wanted to learn how to work on things anyway. Since the days of: plugs, points and condensers, cars have become less maintenance intensive and run much better and longer without needing work. I do have to rely on tire shops for new tire installs but i do worry that they are going to fxxx up something. I have been doing most of my own work for over 40 years and as long as i can still get down on the creeper, and get back up, i will continue to do so. I am 64 years old.:thumbsup:
 

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ivantwilliams

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Not me, I'll take my car in, for everything.
However, I'm an I.T guy, and will take a computer to pieces, in a heartbeat, but, a car, not a chance...!

Plus, a lot of cars these days have so many electronic components and such, I'd rather not totally mess up my $45k car (that I'm still paying off).

Again, this is just me...
 

Ebm

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


Norm
And there's the dilemma. There is a saying that goes "just because I can doesn't mean I should." I'm mechanically inclined and am capable of doing most repairs myself, but at the expense of my body. Yes, I enjoy wrenching, just like how I enjoy working with computers for a living. But as you get older and your pockets aren't as shallow, you let somebody else's body take the abuse instead. I'm in IT, which means carpel tunnel is pretty much inevitable. I'd rather not have back, knee, etc. issues to add onto that. I wrench for the time being, but we will see.
 

Braski

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I wrench the things that make sense to do it yourself. Sometimes throwing someone some cash is just way easier. I work a lot so my time doing something other than wrenching on my car is more valuable than the money I would save. For example, my winter beater just died and I thought it was the fuel pump. I spend a few hours ripping the whole f****** bed off the truck in the freezing cold, replaced the pump, put it all back together and nothing. Ends up being some eletrical issue and I'm now paying a buddy 200 to figure it out lol. Should have done that from the get go.
Yup!
 

GTRacerX.

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Ditto

Not me, I'll take my car in, for everything.
However, I'm an I.T guy, and will take a computer to pieces, in a heartbeat, but, a car, not a chance...!

Plus, a lot of cars these days have so many electronic components and such, I'd rather not totally mess up my $45k car (that I'm still paying off).

Again, this is just me...
+1 same here. Before I.T I was 15 years in Automotive parts sales, 5 in High Performance Sales. Yeah cars back in the 70's & 80's had less electronics than they do today. Heck I don't wrench anymore for a few reasons:

1. Age - the body won't be the same the next morning.
2. I'd rather not totally mess up my $45k car
3. Not having to hear my wife give me the "I told you so" when it doesn't start up.
4. Got the money to have a professional do it now.

Don't get me wrong I don't mind wrenching on my own car, when I know am not going to mess things up and I can do the job.

;)
 

Blaster

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As long as I am able to drive I'm be changing my own oil as I have all time. Still drips after 30 minutes. Still runs out after 5 minutes. Third party changers leave a lot of residual oil in the pan. Does it really matter? Probably not. But it's a fair weather car.:)

Same goes for coolant changes, all fluids really. Light engine work; water pump, idlers, main seals, clutch, etc.

Piece of cake compared to my previous life.
 

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UAmach1

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i only stopped because I get frustrated and angry super easy. So if it's anything more than simile tire rotation, pads, plugs, oil change, ect, then I don't bother trying it myself.
 

Kinjirra

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Do most of my own work when able, heck even my daughter and my wife help out. Space and location is my issue...a parking spot isn't conducive to major car work plus I hate the cold.

I miss having a garage to work in :tsk:
 

jasonstang

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I try to do as much as I can because I do enjoy working on my cars.
But sometimes stuff is just out of my league I let the professionals to handle it.
It's not that hard if you have some basic tools and some common sense.
 

ivantwilliams

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One more point to add, not everyone has the tools or the space.
After all, we're not all Clint Eastwood, in Gran Torino, and have accumulated equipment over 20 years ;)
 

FirstGT

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Lund tune, steeda shifter and borla axleback installed this weekend.
I also do mine and wife's oil changes, brakes, etc

Also any visual or interior mod and sound systems i do

I've got a set of front and rear springs but am feeling lazy, might pay someone.

I installed all the various lifts on my trucks over the years as well

I do it mostly cause I'm cheap and don't like paying for something i can do myself
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