commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Unless you already live on a 120 acre private island, everybody up north needs to move.
But please don't....
But please don't....
Curious,but how many of our members here work on their own cars?
- Thread starter greasemonkeyman
- Start date
67Monaco
Old Man with a Hat
Even though we've just moved up here, our count down to leave this gawd awful place has already begun. We're gunna be neighbors. :yaayy:
BJS racing
Well-Known Member
I have done it all. Granted paint and body really aren't my thing and I know it. The only car I painted was a new never been run dirt car. so that was a good thing that they didn't care how nice it looked but let me take my time with it and practice. Well I let someone else do that stuff now! LOL. Interior work I have done a little but it really doesn't tickle my fancy. I have pulled and rebuilt or modified more engine in my life than I wish to think of. I have done a couple of transmissions but would rather just take it to someone. Electrical well not that is a different story. You couldn't pay me enough to let someone else touch the electrical in one of my cars. I have a certain way I want that stuff done and I only know of two people in the world I would let do it because I know how they would do it and it is the same as me. I do automotive electrical for a living and love it. I know I sound crazy for saying that but its true. Most people paint or something like that as an art. Mine is wiring.
bulldogchesty
Senior Member
I had a one car garage that was smaller than a C-body. I had to move....
Hell, doesn't look like you could even put a golf cart in there.
bulldogchesty
Senior Member
I hate wiring. I'm glad we have someone on here that likes it and is good at it.:yaayy:
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
72Fury
Senior Member
Plenty of advice on the internet. The main thing to remember is that if you do screw it up, and you will, it can always be redone - it just takes time and patience. I'll add one more that you will not read. Only paint the car when your wife, girlfriend, neighbor or anyone else that will complain is not home.
Wildaugust
Senior Member
I do quite a bit of the work myself. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to afford to keep them.
I pulled and re-installed the tranny in my first car, a '63 Chevy, because the pressure plate had failed. That was the car that I started learning how to do my own repairs.
I had to do some wiring repairs to my '69 F-100 as soon as I bought it in order to get my turn signals and park lights working, thanks to some splices behind the grille by a previous owner. He had connected the wrong wires together, so some really strange things were happening. I also had to repair all of the wiring under the box to get my taillights and back-up lights working.
I pulled the engine, a 390, and rebuilt it myself. I took my block, crank & heads to a machine shop, but did all of the assembling myself.
I converted my truck to power steering with parts that I picked at the boneyard. I had to swap out the steering column because the power steering gear box is larger and requires a shorter column. The truck originally had "three on the tree", but because of the column swap, I had to go with a floor shift. I decided to swap trannies and installed a fully synchronized four speed overdrive. I also did the brakes myself, including installing parking brake cables.
With my Newport, I replaced the front calipers because the old ones were seized, and did the rest of the brakes.
I haven't had to do any work to my electrical system, except to replace a melted connector and a burned out headlight switch that was caused by me installing Halogen headlights. Luckily, the previous owners didn't do any snipping and splicing. Although, if you can believe it, I need a new grille because some moron PO deliberately broke the fins out of a perfectly good grille so that he could run an extension cord through it, when all he had to do was to run the cord over top of it! :urkidding::sad:
As far as I know, my 383 has never been apart, but I plan on rebuilding it.
I'm also gathering all of the parts for my front end rebuild, but I'm not sure if I want to tackle doing it myself.
I'm even doing some of the work on my daily driver now. It's a 2005 Sebring with a 2.4 DOHC. I had to replace the camshaft position sensor. It showed me the code, which I looked up on the internet. I checked the harness for continuity to the computer and to ground. Checked for the two 5 volt readings at the sensor. Everything checked out, so I jumped in my spare driver, a '70 Mercury, and went to the parts store. Problem fixed. I also had to replace a cooling fan motor that literally went up in smoke! The stink was still in my car four days later. I also replaced some broken wires in the drivers door to get my power locks working, but I'm not quite finished there yet.
I actually, really enjoy working on my classic cars and truck. It's like therapy. :laughing4:
I don't mind working on the '05 either, but it's not as enjoyable. But hey, at least I'm learning something!
I pulled and re-installed the tranny in my first car, a '63 Chevy, because the pressure plate had failed. That was the car that I started learning how to do my own repairs.
I had to do some wiring repairs to my '69 F-100 as soon as I bought it in order to get my turn signals and park lights working, thanks to some splices behind the grille by a previous owner. He had connected the wrong wires together, so some really strange things were happening. I also had to repair all of the wiring under the box to get my taillights and back-up lights working.
I pulled the engine, a 390, and rebuilt it myself. I took my block, crank & heads to a machine shop, but did all of the assembling myself.
I converted my truck to power steering with parts that I picked at the boneyard. I had to swap out the steering column because the power steering gear box is larger and requires a shorter column. The truck originally had "three on the tree", but because of the column swap, I had to go with a floor shift. I decided to swap trannies and installed a fully synchronized four speed overdrive. I also did the brakes myself, including installing parking brake cables.
With my Newport, I replaced the front calipers because the old ones were seized, and did the rest of the brakes.
I haven't had to do any work to my electrical system, except to replace a melted connector and a burned out headlight switch that was caused by me installing Halogen headlights. Luckily, the previous owners didn't do any snipping and splicing. Although, if you can believe it, I need a new grille because some moron PO deliberately broke the fins out of a perfectly good grille so that he could run an extension cord through it, when all he had to do was to run the cord over top of it! :urkidding::sad:
As far as I know, my 383 has never been apart, but I plan on rebuilding it.
I'm also gathering all of the parts for my front end rebuild, but I'm not sure if I want to tackle doing it myself.
I'm even doing some of the work on my daily driver now. It's a 2005 Sebring with a 2.4 DOHC. I had to replace the camshaft position sensor. It showed me the code, which I looked up on the internet. I checked the harness for continuity to the computer and to ground. Checked for the two 5 volt readings at the sensor. Everything checked out, so I jumped in my spare driver, a '70 Mercury, and went to the parts store. Problem fixed. I also had to replace a cooling fan motor that literally went up in smoke! The stink was still in my car four days later. I also replaced some broken wires in the drivers door to get my power locks working, but I'm not quite finished there yet.
I actually, really enjoy working on my classic cars and truck. It's like therapy. :laughing4:
I don't mind working on the '05 either, but it's not as enjoyable. But hey, at least I'm learning something!
Ironwolf
Senior Member
I do !! Not many mechanics I would trust with it.
Now my Diesel is another story altogether :head_smack:
I started working on my parents cars with a Haynes manual. No experience, and I was about 13 so I made mistakes but I taught myself a lot of the basics like changing oil, doing pads and rotors, drums and shoes, and drive belt replacement. I took small engine repair and car care the following school years, and the summer after that I worked for an 80 year old shadetree mechanic for free all summer. He taught me a ton of stuff I was afraid of, like rebuilding rearends, manual transmissions, and engines. After that was 3 years of auto shop in high school and about a dozen beaters I kept running with duct tape and baling wire. The closest I've come to body work is hammering my inner wheel wells so my 37 inch tires (which cost more than the truck) wouldn't rub. I mostly work on my cars because I can't afford to hire a mechanic. My weakest point is wiring. I can wire a car from nothing, but finding dead shorts and parasitic loads gets me unbelievably frustrated. Ive also rebuilt 2 automatic trannys, a TH350 and a TH400, but that was with a lot of help. I generally like working on classic (no computer) cars, and generally hate working on my 2 cars (2004 Cadillac deville & 1996 VW Golf) because of packaging (the caddy) and hillbilly engineering (the VW).
rexus31
Senior Member
I work on my classics but not the new cars.
I didn't mention suspension... I've done a lot of suspension work, even a couple alignments. In my high school everyone had a truck, which meant everyone wanted a bigger truck. So I did a lot of lift kits. Also, I was the auto shops go to guy when someone who was clueless either went way to far pulling suspension apart, or couldn't figure out how it went back together. And metalwork, well that's what I've always wanted to learn. I grew up watching guys on TV turning flat pieces of steel into hot rods and motorcycles. That's why I'm in trade school for welding. I've also been taking machine tool classes and working on my CNC cert. I like being able to use my hands (and some tools) to make something out of nothing and that's a skill set I don't think will ever become obsolete. Theres a guy here in Michigan who has weekend metal forming classes that I'd love to take, but since he's a hot rodding legend and not an accredited school the GI bill won't cover it.
greasemonkeyman
Well-Known Member
I know there are a few automotive technical schools out there,but they seem far and few.It's amazing how that how big the collector car and restoration market has gotten,that there aren't more schools teaching metal forming,custom painting and restoration work.I'm sure they would have their classes filled all the time.Maybe it because there is a lack of people willing to teach? Unfortunately as time goes be,people that are familiar with working on these old cars is becoming a dying breed.Lets just hope the next generation of car lovers sees something in preserving part of history!
I agree. With my '55 Pontiac I had to drive an hour to get to the only mechanic in the area who actually had experience with the engine and trans in it. He was the 5th or 6th guy that gave my car a "tune up" and the only one who actually tuned the carb and fixed the choke. Nobody else would touch the carb because they had never worked on the one I had. Same with the trans. I thought it was nearly blown up but he made some adjustments to the linkages and it was sweet as pie. I think carb tuners are the main dying breed in the industry. Also, the old guys (like stan) know all kinds of tricks I would have never imagined.
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