Hello and does anyone here have their own garage with a lift or two and fix their cars themselves? I am asking because I wont pay a shop like $85 a hr to do a wheel bearing or a ball joint. When I did my ball joints I was in Punxsutawney, used a friend of my fathers garage, has a dirt floor, and I brought all of my own tools and used my work places press. I did the same when I did my wheel bearings, but I went to a jeep guy that has a 60 ton and 90 year old ERIE MANUFACTUING hyd press to press them out and new ones in. He charged me $10 total. Anyways let me hear your stories and if I didnt have my own tools and great friends I would have to use a indy shop.
Anyone here fix their car themselves?
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I do everything i can that doesn't require a lift. That's on my wishlist when i finally buy a house,a garage with a lift.
Wheel bearing or ball joint, while not pleasant, is absolutely doable in the driveway!
I do all my own work and most of the work for my immediate family. I recently replaced a piston and con rod in my uncles hemi durango. Pulled the head and the pan and did it in frame.
Necessity is the mother of all invention and there have been times I've been too broke to afford to have a shop fix my car so I've had to do it myself. The Internet is invaluable in that kind of situation.
I don't have a lift but I do have a jack and jack stands. It's not the easiest way to do things but it works.
Now I work on my cars because I love it. In fact I plan on changing the plugs in my hemi tomorrow. It should be fun considering the plugs are underneath the valve cover. I bought iridium plugs for longevity since it's a total pain to get at them I want to extend their service life as long as possible.
So yeah,I do as much as I can on my vehicles. I'm stubborn and don't want to pay someone to do something I can do myself however sometimes I don't have a choice depending on timeframe. If time is a factor I'll get a shop to do it because I have to be at work.
I don't have a lift but I do have a jack and jack stands. It's not the easiest way to do things but it works.
Now I work on my cars because I love it. In fact I plan on changing the plugs in my hemi tomorrow. It should be fun considering the plugs are underneath the valve cover. I bought iridium plugs for longevity since it's a total pain to get at them I want to extend their service life as long as possible.
So yeah,I do as much as I can on my vehicles. I'm stubborn and don't want to pay someone to do something I can do myself however sometimes I don't have a choice depending on timeframe. If time is a factor I'll get a shop to do it because I have to be at work.
Originally Posted By: SubyRoo
I do all my own work and most of the work for my immediate family.
+1
I do all my own work and most of the work for my immediate family.
+1
Yes I do most everything myself.
Don't have a lift but will certainly allow room to install one in my next house. I'm getting too old for crawling under a car.
Don't have a lift but will certainly allow room to install one in my next house. I'm getting too old for crawling under a car.
MILLLER88, I agree it IS do able in your driveway if yours is concrete or asphalt. My friends garage is dirt with gravel on top of that. Thats why I save big/large cardboard boxes and plywood. It sucked doing tire rotation in my dads dirt driveway, so it is doable, but your body wont thank you.
adam
I am thinking of making my own press like Cujet I think(may be wrong made his own press)
adam
I am thinking of making my own press like Cujet I think(may be wrong made his own press)
I have access to the shop if not on the clock. Before that everything was done in my gravel driveway
Originally Posted By: Texan4Life
Originally Posted By: SubyRoo
I do all my own work and most of the work for my immediate family.
+1
+2
It's also fun to call the shop/dealer, and get a quote for the labor just to see what you saved. It's amazing.
Originally Posted By: SubyRoo
I do all my own work and most of the work for my immediate family.
+1
+2
It's also fun to call the shop/dealer, and get a quote for the labor just to see what you saved. It's amazing.
I would never call a shop or dealer if I did NOT have to. Sears and Firestone quoted me $300 for a ball joint, even when I would supply the MOOG ball joint
Any work that I do get done by a shop I always negotiate the price including labour in advance. I had the front balljoints replaced on my bimmer for half price by my local BMW dealer. Service advisor quoted me the price for replacing just one but he didn't quibble when I picked up the car; simply said he made a mistake with a smile.
I do what I can. Sealed wheel bearings, suspension, control arms, brakes, the standard DIY'er stuff that doesn't need too many specialty tools. Really complicated stuff will get farmed out, or if it needs a computer re-written.
I generally do it all without a lift but do have access to a couple should the need arise...
Next spring I'll rebuild the front end & add power steering to my '69 428 Cobra Jet Torino(It's her 40 year anniv present, we've been together since '73)... Also will pull the EFI 5.0 I swapped into my '88 Turbo Coupe(ditched the 1/2 motor in '99) and reinstall a carbed 331 & fresh transmission... The Bird is my street/strip Hot Rod, will keep all the power features and AC but she's leaning more to the strip side vs street...
Just replaced the original tires on my '98 Grand Marquis, used a friends tire machine and did it myself(I have a older machine that works fine but is rough on aluminum rims)... A few months ago I did pay a shop to repl the tires on the '07, but that is actually a rare occurrence for me...
Rotated tires and repl front brake pads on the Marauder yesterday...
Currently I'm doing some catch-up maintenance on a $1200, '96 F-150XLT I picked up from Craigslist a few days ago... Runs great but needs belts, hoses, rad flush, oil change etc, plus a good clean up... Since I recently sold my F-150 Lightning it's gonna be my beater truck...
Next spring I'll rebuild the front end & add power steering to my '69 428 Cobra Jet Torino(It's her 40 year anniv present, we've been together since '73)... Also will pull the EFI 5.0 I swapped into my '88 Turbo Coupe(ditched the 1/2 motor in '99) and reinstall a carbed 331 & fresh transmission... The Bird is my street/strip Hot Rod, will keep all the power features and AC but she's leaning more to the strip side vs street...
Just replaced the original tires on my '98 Grand Marquis, used a friends tire machine and did it myself(I have a older machine that works fine but is rough on aluminum rims)... A few months ago I did pay a shop to repl the tires on the '07, but that is actually a rare occurrence for me...
Rotated tires and repl front brake pads on the Marauder yesterday...
Currently I'm doing some catch-up maintenance on a $1200, '96 F-150XLT I picked up from Craigslist a few days ago... Runs great but needs belts, hoses, rad flush, oil change etc, plus a good clean up... Since I recently sold my F-150 Lightning it's gonna be my beater truck...
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Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I do everything i can that doesn't require a lift. That's on my wishlist when i finally buy a house,a garage with a lift.
This.
I'm thinking of "fixing" my garage so that I can put a lift in it. Right now it is almost 100 years old and was originally designed for carriages.....
I do everything i can that doesn't require a lift. That's on my wishlist when i finally buy a house,a garage with a lift.
This.
I'm thinking of "fixing" my garage so that I can put a lift in it. Right now it is almost 100 years old and was originally designed for carriages.....
I do everything except AC work and drum brakes. All on my hilly driveway with jacks, jackstands, and chocking the wheels.
You have to figure what your time and effort is worth. When you're broke and/or unemployed one is long on time, short on cash, In that case you do everything possible within the limits of you abilities, helps if young and energetic as well.
On the otherhand, if the funds are available it could be a penny wise and pound foolish to take on the really backbreaking stuff to save a few bucks. The effort may be better spent shopping around for reasonably priced mechanic, not a simple task these days as prices are going up on everything.
On the otherhand, if the funds are available it could be a penny wise and pound foolish to take on the really backbreaking stuff to save a few bucks. The effort may be better spent shopping around for reasonably priced mechanic, not a simple task these days as prices are going up on everything.
I have learned that unless you have a homemade press, and you have a honda/acura that has press in bearings, it pays to have a great friend that has a big press and knows how to use it properly, i.e. not damaging customers parts. I guess I could have figured out how to press out the bearings, but $10 out the door for both old ones out and new ones in cannot be beat.
Very nice work, and wish I had that nice driveway. thanks for the pics
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