Wrenching On Your Ride

[Sig556]

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.

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[NoVaGT]

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.

 

[Chef jpd]

I agree with Novagt.
It's not always a factor of if you can wrench, but where you can do it.
I do all my work myself, and I only have a parking space in the back of my condo.
Some places won't let you work on a vehicle in a parking lot or street.
And then again, having a shop do it for you keeps an industry alive.

 

[ctandc72]

I didn't have money growing up - but I became a gearhead. Working on my cars, yes even oil changes, is a form of therapy for me. Wrenched on my own motorcycles as well.

I've done it for a paycheck - that made me want to not even work on my own shit.

I enjoy doing it. It's nice to look at something and have actual, physical proof you accomplished something.

Oil changes take me maybe 30 minutes if I take a smoke break and I ain't no spring chicken by any stretch. I did notice the less time I spent in the gym, the 'harder' it was to work on my vehicles / house.

 

[Ecoboosted]

I’d pay people to do the work but hate wasting money when I can do it myself. Honestly I’ve had dealerships do basic oil changes and found scratches on my car. Mainly I just don’t trust people because people are lazy and careless and don’t care about my car like I do. If they do cause scratches or damage they usually won’t be honest and tell you about it and you’ll notice or find it after you left the dealership or shop and they will deny they did the damage. The only time I have work done by someone else is for warranty work.

 

[catchthecarp]

I'm an older guy with a garage, jack/jack stands and tools. If the job is not to complex I'll take a crack at it myself, I enjoy wrenching on my car plus saving some $$. The GT is my DD and I have no back-up transportation so that factors highly into the decision.

 

[Shouldhavegotthegt]

The day of the gearhead has come and gone. Cars became way too complicated to just go under the hood and work on them. I also think that society as whole has become lazier and lazier.

That being said. I still have done all the mods on my car. I’m 35 so maybe I’m the cusp of generations. It’s not too hard to do any of the basic mods like suspension, exhaust, etc. Just remove the old part and install the new one.

But I won’t change oil. That’s a pain. I’ll pay someone to do that. It makes a mess every time I do it and to me it’s worth the $20-30 to have them do it.

 

[dvs73]

I’d pay people to do the work but hate wasting money when I can do it myself. Honestly I’ve had dealerships do basic oil changes and found scratches on my car. Mainly I just don’t trust people because people are lazy and careless and don’t care about my car like I do. If they do cause scratches or damage they usually won’t be honest and tell you about it and you’ll notice or find it after you left the dealership or shop and they will deny they did the damage. The only time I have work done by someone else is for warranty work.

I agree completely. Money factors in as well. With one kid off to a major university and another in private high school, penny pinching is a must. A sense of accomplishment ways very heavy in doing your own work. :ford:

 

[NoVaGT]

The day of the gearhead has come and gone. Cars became way too complicated to just go under the hood and work on them......

I completely disagree on this point. Cars are no more complicated to work on, it's basically the same stuff under the hood for the last 60 years. Changing headers, exhaust, intake stuff, etc., is no harder today than any other.

And with tuning, you no longer have to worry about jetting carbs, setting timing, spark, advance, etc. Just tell your tuner, get the code, and plug it in.

 

[Enoch]

During the summer I went to a small local car show.... I was encouraged to see some really nice modded cars all owned by young fellas, and most of the work done by the owners...

Of note was a sleeper merc 190 fitted with a V8 and supercharged, and a couple of land rovers fitted with Leland daft truck engines with big turbos..:lol:

The standard of workmanship and innovation was spot on

 

[Rodsaleen]

I completely disagree on this point. Cars are no more complicated to work on, it's basically the same stuff under the hood for the last 60 years. Changing headers, exhaust, intake stuff, etc., is no harder today than any other.

And with tuning, you no longer have to worry about jetting carbs, setting timing, spark, advance, etc. Just tell your tuner, get the code, and plug it in.

I slightly disagree with you on that. Take headers for example the days of huge engine bays are gone where you can just reach over the fender loosen 8 bolts and WALLA pull the header out. Now you have to jack the engine up, loosen motor mounts etc, etc, etc. Or if we want to talk about converters swaps trannys have got bigger, heavier, with even tighter spaces to work in. Manufacturers are designing cars to force you to bring them into the dealership or a mechanic. I can understand guys not wanting to buy special sockets, extensions, and other tools that are needed or just will make your life easier when wrenching. With that said I still do all my wrenching for the most part but I can understand why guys would pay someone to do it for them. Buying tools they may only use once, space, knowledge deficit, back up vehicle for the job that should take 4 hours but now its turned into a 2-3 day job.

 

[cdq85]

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.

 

[robwlf]

i been wrenching my own cars for over 20 yrs and will continue to do so..cause i dont trust shops.. if i can do it myself ill do it if not i know people that know shops they trust with there track cars and so on ill let them... but 90% of the time i do it with my buddies that ive been wrenching with for yrs

 

[Sig556]

THANKS

Thanks for all the replies so far. I agree with what has been said as there are valid points in all responses. I'm 74 years old but not yet broken therefore I still do all routine maintenance on my car and my girlfriends Escape. Oil changes , air filters, tire rotations, and brakes. Something major comes up I'll find a good shop. Otherwise I'm good to go.

 

[Rod Schneider]

I've always done nearly all of my own car work, the exception being alignments and installing new tires. I spent 33 years as an aircraft technician before retiring, and I still enjoy turning my own wrenches. I do have a lift in my shop, which makes life a bit easier. It is true that newer cars can be more challenging to work on, especially when it comes to programming new modules. Buying the Mustang did force me to get a good scan tool, with bidirectional controls, but the "nuts and bolts" are still pretty much the same as any older car.

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