The rise and fall of DIY From Lubes and greases

Originally Posted By: Vilan
"If you take your car into a shop for an oil change, you don't know what idiot is going to end up working in it. If you do it yourself, you know for sure!"

-- Red Green


He has some good lines.
 
Getting a regular oil+filter change at an auto repair shop may be $20, but often I would see them charge $65-70 for full synthetic!
 
Agreed!
We should do for ourselves what we can.
You don't need a mechanic, an IT person, a plumber, or an electrician for most of the routine repairs that are needed.
Our cars mostly need maintenace and replacement of wear items, which is usually pretty simple.
As a society, we have become remarkably incompetent and lazy.
It is always fun to have done something yourself, and have the satisfaction that you've done it right.
 
My Mom jokes that I'm a genius.....I fix a lot of things for my Parents, cars, house fix it jobs etc.

My Dad used to take me for granted. He seems more thankful now that he is getting up in years.

I must admit it would be nice to be able to afford to hire someone like some families do...........
 
Some people aren't cut out for DIY. I have recently decided if my son in law was just like me, I wouldn't have anybody to fix my computer.
 
Originally Posted By: labman
Some people aren't cut out for DIY. I have recently decided if my son in law was just like me, I wouldn't have anybody to fix my computer.


My Dad is not a DIY person that's for sure. My older Brother has goofy ideas on how to fix things. Sometimes they are good many times they are not. He has a genius IQ, so go figure....................
 
Some people like to point out that I enjoy working on cars. I correct them by telling them that I don't enjoy working on cars. What I do enjoy is saving money and the satisfaction of having the job done right. If I enjoyed it, I'd be soliciting work on other people's cars. Otherwise I'd rather be parked in front of my television.
OMG...so much this! All of it.
 
Originally Posted By: Vilan
"If you take your car into a shop for an oil change, you don't know what idiot is going to end up working in it. If you do it yourself, you know for sure!"

-- Red Green
I know this thread is from 2009 but I might have to snag this quote, sums things up for me quite well.
 
DIY in England has an entirely different meaning than we have. To define it for you would get me kicked off the forums

Yeah since your English chaps really enjoy the lube
2thumbs-up.gif
 
I do it myself... cost, time and if I screw it up, it's on me.

Some of my stuff would cost hundreds just to transport or for a field service.
 
I remember a long time ago I was fixing my friends car and he was REALLY impressed and said "Peter where did you learn all this stuff, you fixed my wash, and now my car!"
It was cold we are from the east coast and we are good friends so my response was
"B---h Im poor! That's how!"
 
Lots of the DIY skills slowly began to be formed / learned in the early days of motorized vehicles and so many appliances and machines that were being invented in the early 1900s..
Then it exploded almost in parallel with the biggest employment in the USA for many years.... all of the automobile factories. Lots of those workers picked up vast DIY skills along the assembly lines.

The world then really sped up the skills & DIY movement with TWO World Wars that forced thousands of young men into learning fields of many lines of work they would never have been exposed to. So they mustered out of the military with mechanical skills they put into practice at their homes n personal lives. Those WWII and some WWI veterans really put the DIY movement into big time advancement once they started using those vast skills into use. They started to hop up motor cycles (brought on the invention of motor bike gangs) also many forms of racing. Many others , especially out in SoCal took it to the limits when they started hopping up every kind of older motor vehicles for street racing. About that same time organized racing was really taking off as well. NASCAR , developing already had a pool of hot rodders and mechanical whiz kids from the underground (supposed) back woods moonshine driving industry to pull from.

DIY seems to have been with us ever since. Not only did those (very special guys-our military veterans) learn auto skills, many came home with plumbing , welding , pipe fitting , electrical , carpentry and other skills they could use to gain jobs or use for DIY projects. Those type of trade/skilled mechanical jobs were everywhere until they started dying off massively in the 1990s and on.

I feel very sorry for many young people today as lots of them do not have the chances growing up that so many of us older guys were lucky enough to be exposed to as we grew up and entered the massive (mechanical-trade skilled) work place that once was all across North America.
 
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