What experience do you have?

[Ray Bell]

One of the benefits I see in this forum is that there can be an interchange of information about simple and complex vehicle maintenance.

You might notice a thread of frugality through my posts. I do all my own work on my cars, except exhaust replacements, which are just so much better carried out on a hoist by someone with a MIG or TIG welder and the costs are usually very low. Read that it takes them a lot less time than me...

So now I'd like to know who there is that has some experience in working on their own (or others' or wives' cars). What have you done?

Who's rebuilt an engine?

Modified an engine?

Can set up a crownwheel and pinion?

Reconditioned brake calipers?

Got into trouble changing a clutch?

You get the drift, let's see who's got their fingers dirty... and who wants to try and need advice.

[marcus]

I changed a tire this week ...ohhh and 2 sets of wiper blades

[Ray Bell]

Right... I'll get you to give me a hand with my wipers next time I'm through Albury... just after you tell me what you found at Wirlinga.

[Valve Bounce]

I took my Peugeot 403 engine apart and put it back together again after intalling new pistons and bearings. Now, I open the bonnet just to fill the wiper washer reservoir, that's it. I would not dare touch anything else in my Volvo V70 AWD. I had a flat tyre a month ago, and this guy came along, introduced himslef, and asked me if he could help me change the tyre, which of course I did because I did not want to hurt his feelings. Fair Dinkum!! He said he had nothing to do and was just walking past!! He just walked on after he finished. I just had time to thank him, and didn't even get his full name. That wasn't you, was it Ray??

[Diabando]

All of the cars I have owned, have been worked on at home. The first two being Toyota Corolla's, which were very simple, and a good car for my Dad to begin teaching me how everything works, and how to fix problems.

Then...I got the HQ.

It was the only decent, straight HQ I could find, but it was still a fair mess. Considering it was made in 1973, and I bought it in 1989, there was a mountain of "home tinkering and dodgy replacements" that had been made.

So, we decided to send it off to have the major things done by outside experts (First - to the panel shop for the body (back to bare metal), then Lovells suspension, a new (reco'ed) transmission, Ron Black exhaust and headers).

The rest, we did ourselves over time (engine, interior, fixtures etc etc). The only thing left I would like to do, is to pull out the entire wiring loom, and begin afresh. (and, after all this time, the body could do with another going-over).

Somehow, I think I have prattled on enough here... but will say, that hands on experience is the best way to learn anything about cars

[TimD]

I wish I knew my way around an engine, but I don't. I can diagnose things reasonably well, and I can usually figure out a cold-start problem, but beyond that...

Bodywork on the other hand I am more confident with. While not in the virtuoso league of Sparky, I can weld a little, and rust and accident damage usually disappears when I get at it - and stays disappeared!

Learned all about applying heat to metal with a pair of crazy Aussies who ran a VW shop in West London. My first experience with the gas torch was the job of reducing an unwanted VW Beetle to small enough bits to fit on the back of a VW Pickup to go to the crusher.

You've never known satisfaction until you make that last slice through the floorpan and have an entire car fall away from you in two halves....

[mtpanorama]

i was not mechanically minded until i bought my first race car,a Mazda Rx3 sedan. You learn things pretty quick when some thing goes wrong at the racetrack. I learnt how to change a clutch whilst lting on the ground under the car at oran park late at night. i learnt how to rebuild drum brakes at eastern creek. i pulled the entire suspension apart and rebuilt it and i am also fairly handy now when ,it comes to wiring. How scarry is a wiring diagram the first time you look at one? I have never rebuilt an engine by myself ,but have helped on the odd occasion.
I now do the general maintenance on my own car, leaving the bigger stuff to the pros (head gasket a couple of months ago)

[Sharky]

Well, the rear speakers where making a lot of vibration when they played strong bass so I took off the cover(which is a rather big plastic part). Then I saw some "pillows" that didn't seem to serve any service so I took the foam out and with a hot knife cutted it to fit it to the speaker covers (look out for the fumes) and then placed the cover again on the car and problem solved!! Unfortunately my mom thought that those pillows did serve a purpose so she wasn't very happy

[Wolf]

I know my way around a car fairly well, and have on numerous occasions diagnosed and repared my car. Still, I'm very reluctant to undertake any bigger operation on my car without supervision (that way I have someone to blame, in case things start going wrong ).

And have had encounters with 'gremlins' as well. And far more versed men than m'self have failed in diagnosing that particular malfunction.

[Wrex]

Originally posted by marcus
I changed a tire this week ...ohhh and 2 sets of wiper blades

Big deal Marcus - last week I pumped my own petrol - Ok I'm exaggerating, I only lifted the lever, but the attendant said I did a good job

It would appear I'll by seeking more advice here than disbursing

[R]

Ditto. I know the "easy" things, like changing tyres, checking the oil and so on, but have no clue when it comes to the more technically advanced things. I leave that to the garage.

I suspect I'll learn a lot more by reading the posts in this forum.

[Ray Bell]

It would be my desire, R, that lots of people learn from the forum.

But the learning will mostly come from the individual's desire to be self-sufficient, in most cases.

Stick with us, though. It's not that hard... well, even I manage to get it all through my thick skull.

[512_BB]

My greatest car victory was rebuilding a transmission on a 240Z while the Sun was setting, rain coming down, and in a muddy padock. The next day the car did just fine in the race, it was the driver who didn't do to well.

Other than than I've helped rebuild engines, rebuild CV joints, rebuild calipers, clutch replacments, tuned carbs, you name it I've touched it. My problem is that I take too much time to accomplish those jobs.

[redback]

I have been a qualified mechanic for about 15 years but sort of got out of it and into vehicle crash testing a while ago. I work on race cars most weekends and several nights each week. I also have a slow car restoration going when I get time. I must admit that I get my road cars serviced at the dealership or the local garage because I just can't be bothered.

[Airhead]

Well,

I wish right now I was a panel beater! The engine swap on the Mighty Mazda has gone off OK. But there's rust around them there tail lights! I have talked the boy through the grinding back stage and have covered the metal with rust treatment and primer. But we should weld a piece in before the body filler does it's thing and I can't weld to save myself!

Then we both need to start rubbing the whole body back prior to the respray with orange paint (orange will come into vogue again - trust me).

My head hurts.

[redback]

I think your right Moff, I just painted one of my cars PPG Brilliant Orange Tinter, and the young lads reckon its "fully sick".

[Airhead]

Red

Fully Sick - no higher praise is needed!

Might add a bit more meta-flake to the mix.

[Hans.ca]

Well in about 1952 or 3 I purchased my first car a 1932 Ford Coach with a 4 cylinder engine and 3 on the floor. I proceeded to take off the engine head with only an adjustable wrench to my name. After wrecking my fingers totally I invested a months wages and purchased a socket set that has served me well to this day. Trying to get this car going was a lost cause so I purchased a 1934 Ford 5 window coupe with 3 on the floor. This on had a V8 engine and mechanical brakes. My first job was to convert the brakes to hydraulic. Then I lowered the whole car using long shakles and sway bar. At that time the banker loaned me enough money to purchase a 1948 ford 3/4 race engine that I installed in the coupe. This engine had a compression ratio of about 11 or 12 to 1 and required the use very high octane gasoline. At that time it was available from Esso sold as concentrate. This car could move, you could spin the wheels at 30 mph in second gear.
Later a got a Morris Minor, split wind screen, no brakes, also no rust. First job was to rebuild the brakes. Then I took the engine head and ported and polished the unit. That took one whole winter. Instead of installing this head I ordered an Alta overhead conversion from England. While waiting for this to arrive I rebuilt the entire engine, bores honed, crankshaft reground and shot peaned. The engine was a dream to work on, I could carry it down to the basement work shop with no problem.
When the over head conversion unit finaly arrived it turned out to be the first to be shipped to Canada. Installation was no problem, everything worked as it was supposed to. The car was a thrill to drive.
At this time I was reading the book by Stirling Moss about driving. I had just started the chapter about the four wheel drift when I had to leave for a car club meeting. As I came home from that meeting I figured I would try this four wheel drift. I enterd a right hand turn much to fast and actually managed to get the car in to a four wheel drift with full opposite lock and using all the road I managed to get around it. What a thrill. It was only later that I finished the chapter in Stirlings book and he wrote " do not try this if you don't have a whole lot of HP available". Later when I got to meet him I told him what happeneds and we had a good laugh about it. There are many more cars and stories but I'll finish now. The only thing I do today is top up the oil the rest goes to the shop.

[KC]

I used to all of my own minor maintenance on my previous Hondas and Austin Healy Sprites. I got away from this with my Ford Ranger pickup because the oil filter would vibrate-tighten itself until it was impossible to remove. I now have my oil changed at Jiffy Lube. All other tasks I still do myself.

However, last weekend I began helping a friend get his new drag boat ready for summer competition. He has a new v-hull (about 1300 pounds lighter) than the old Sleekcraft and a fairly new 502 cu in. (8.2 liter) Chevy Generation 6 engine for it. Last year we ran the 502 and it ran good but had a few problems. The crank was about .005 inch out of round at the second main and spun the bearing. He had the crank reground and ordered new oversized bearings for it. We put the bottom end of the engine together last Saturday. I have never done anything this extensive on an engine before. It was quite a learning experience. Not hard to do, but when setting a crank on a V8 with the everything else still in the block it gets a little tough to do alone. He has built several hundred race engines from national record holding sportsman drag racing to A-feature winning sprint and late model engines. After we torqued in the crank and rods, we pulled the cam and polished it by hand to remove any residual rust or staining from fuel and assembled it with a new gear drive unit. He is waiting on some new push rods as a few looked too worn. Hopefully this weekend we will do the top end and add in a stud girdle for the valves to beef it up for high rpm use.

The 502 Chevy is rated at 505 horsepower and 500 pounds-feet of torque. This particular motor has a forged steel crank, oversize stainless racing valves, 13.5 compression forged aluminum pistons and has been ported and polished. It should make around 650 horsepower on aviation gasoline. The boat hull weighs about 650 pound and should run around 100 mph in the quarter mile and cover it in around 10 to 11 seconds. We are hoping the jet pump on it is still in good shape as we have not run it yet. The boat should be quick.

[Bluebottle]

I knew very little about cars when I bought my first one, a mk3 Escort 1100 estate. I very quickly learned about plugs, rotor arms, condensors etc and had a go at some basic bodywork but that was about it...
Then I bought a Dutton...
The most advanced thing I did unaided on my first Dutton (A Melos, for those who know) was replacing the rear shocks- including changing all the bolts for the right size (!) I also did extensive elecrical work, mostly replacing those little blue snap-on connectors with something more reliable!
With the assistance of another Dutton owner and his well equiped workshop, my current Dutton (a Sierra) recently had an engine transplant (from 1300 to 1600) and a fresh diff.
In general, apart from basic stuff, we trust our cars to a chap in Rayners Lane who is never surprised by anything we throw at him. I would do more myself but I have nowhere undercover to work, and it's often dark and wet when I get home!

[Vandas]

Well up until 2 years ago I had never even looked under a car. I had no idea what made the wheels turn, and I thought I was a mechanic when someone showed me how to fill up the radiator and oil.

Then I got told, if I wanna drive the race car, I have to put in the hours. This was my method of payment, as I had and still have no money. So I set to work with a team of 4 guys stripping down the car to nothing but a shell.

The plan was to dip it to remove all the paint, seam weld the whole front end, and then to fix all the little aesthetic problems we had. When you strip a car, you learn a lot. All of a sudden you start to know where things are. Unfortunately, I went away on holiday when they primed the car and got it ready to be resprayed. I was even away for when they were rebuilding the car. So although I knew where things where, I didn't know what they were and what they did.

I then worked with the team over the next year, preparing and working on the car for each race. And also pit crewing at the track. I learnt how to change front and rear shocks, as well as springs. I learnt the fuel system on the car, I learnt about tyres, and temperatures. I learnt about batteries, gearboxes, engines, everything.

While I was working on the car. I also stripped another 3 road cars by myself (which I might add is a lot of fun, if you like pulling things apart and not having to put them back together).

inally have been given my chance to drive, firstly with the standard engine in it, I ran at Calder twice, Winton once and Sandown (where I blew up the standard motor). These were fun but nothing. Not a thing at all, like the Island with the full Race engine.

My first ever drive with the full race engine was at the island. I was taken around with a very experienced driver who showed me the difference between Phillip Island and any other track, he also showed me the differences in driving the full race engine to driving the Standard.

When I went blasting through Turn 1 for the first time. I knew I was in for a hell of a ride.

Anyway, I have quite a bit of knowledge and I am learning more everyday. I am buying books, doing work on my own road car (which is a Mazda RX7 series 2 just liek the race car), watching videos and constantly getting as much feedback as possible.

It helps to know what is going on underneath you, when you go over Lukey and the car is all loose in the rear end. It is good to know that you have to keep the power down because if you don't, HELLO WALL!!! How do I know? My dad did it at between 140kmph and 160kmph.

Anyway I hope some sense was made from my ramblings.

[smiffy43]

Originally posted by Diabando
All of the cars I have owned, have been worked on at home. The first two being Toyota Corolla's, which were very simple, and a good car for my Dad to begin teaching me how everything works, and how to fix problems.

Then...I got the HQ.

It was the only decent, straight HQ I could find, but it was still a fair mess. Considering it was made in 1973, and I bought it in 1989, there was a mountain of "home tinkering and dodgy replacements" that had been made.

So, we decided to send it off to have the major things done by outside experts (First - to the panel shop for the body (back to bare metal), then Lovells suspension, a new (reco'ed) transmission, Ron Black exhaust and headers).

The rest, we did ourselves over time (engine, interior, fixtures etc etc). The only thing left I would like to do, is to pull out the entire wiring loom, and begin afresh. (and, after all this time, the body could do with another going-over).

Somehow, I think I have prattled on enough here... but will say, that hands on experience is the best way to learn anything about cars

im sorry to say this but what is a HQ ,im not fortunate enough to see one ,is it like an old vauxhall but not as big or wot?

[smiffy43]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
One of the benefits I see in this forum is that there can be an interchange of information about simple and complex vehicle maintenance.

You might notice a thread of frugality through my posts. I do all my own work on my cars, except exhaust replacements, which are just so much better carried out on a hoist by someone with a MIG or TIG welder and the costs are usually very low. Read that it takes them a lot less time than me...

So now I'd like to know who there is that has some experience in working on their own (or others' or wives' cars). What have you done?

Who's rebuilt an engine?

Modified an engine?

Can set up a crownwheel and pinion?

Reconditioned brake calipers?

Got into trouble changing a clutch?

You get the drift, let's see who's got their fingers dirty... and who wants to try and need advice.

You can safetly say that i have had some experience as i fix cars for a living. The most fiddley thing ive ever done was change a 3rd gear in a 2.3l vauxhall senitor well wot a laugh.took me ages
ive never reconditioned brake calipers as i always renew every thing on the brake side of it.including drums disk at every pad change.and all fluid seals

[DAVID PATERSON]

When I first got into racing, I kne w almost nothing about the mechanicals, but out of necessity i've learnt a fair bit. I can now do most of the minor work myself, like changing the oil, brake pads, etc.

I'm fortunate to have a mechanic and a panel beater as good friends, so they look after all the major work, but they let me help and i've learnt so much doing from this. I've helped to rebuild an engine, replace a clutch, replace a diff, replace shocks, springs and bushes. I've also helped to repair a severely flattened left hand side.

I'm learning more every day, but i take ages to do every thing and i'm very impatient.

[Amaroo Park]

Being a mechanic and having spent 12 bloody years in the trade there is probably very little I have not done on a car