The Curse of the Do-it-Yourselfer

In a nutshell:
I don’t have the means to have other people do all the things I need done.
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I might further add that I don't have the time/logistics avail to haul my rigs to a w/shop every time...
(plus the increasing number of ham-fisted grease monkeys there, who as well couldn't nail a knob to a $h!thouse door...)
If I had a bigger shed I'd also do everything on my car by myself...
(the current shed actually has an assembly pit, but with bikes, bike lift and shelves around not enough space to hold the full sized estate/combi...)

But I sympathize with the "lack of time" POV of the author...
 
mello dude said:
Kinda fun article... .wondering about the line... home mechanics hate engineers and engineers hate home mechanics.
Well.... whatdif I am engineer thats also a home mechanic?
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Then you're part of the solution!!
I'm convinced a number of fasteners have been invented just to literally screw with shade-tree mechanics....torx for one. It took YEARS in my area for all the necessary torx drivers to become available to the commonfolk. They were in metric including .5mm increments and English..... At first they were special order, NO complete kits available to the weefolk. Several additional curses have come from engineers. They should be damned to guessing the fastener design/size that hold the door on the firepit closed.
We could add to the firepit the Ford and Plymouth engineers who put oil filters in areas that required the aft engine mounts to be removed so you could unscrew them all the way off the backside of the engine at the firewall (Plymouth) and torsion rod (Ford). Those made an hour task into a day-long knucklebusting experience.
These cases and the rest were intended to keep your car out of the shade of your tree and in the dealership's garage.
Both these cured my reluctance to cruse loudly in public.
 
Oldbikefixr said:
I'm convinced a number of fasteners have been invented just to literally screw with shade-tree mechanics....torx for one.
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Early attempts for proprietary solutions...
Latest peak that the ECU's of current vehicles must be connected to an expensive, MFG only supplied computer terminal, with proprietary software on expensive annual lease, which must be online to phone home for simple things like resetting the service interval warning, "train" in a new battery, a replaced headlight bulb, or free the ABS modulators/valves for fluid change...
OTOH are there numberless Chinese sites offering tablets with hacked OBD software for the ambitioned DIY fella...
The spiral speeds up...
 
Obo said:
The curse of the do-it-yourselfer...

I'm a do-it-yourselfer, and cursing is normal.

#@$R%^ !!
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Yeah, I view it largely as a curse. When I have paid for work and often it isn't done well, or to spec. I get extremely annoyed. As I have aged I have less tendency to "over-repair", and I now seek out people that I trust to do some of the work. In my youth and young adulthood I fixed everything. And I do mean everything. I wish I could sit on a couch and watch TV, or have "normal" hobbies. But I can't.
 
The alternative to fixing it yourself is to not fix anything. My wife's family grew up with nothing ever being fixed because they were poor and nobody knew which end of a screw driver fit in your hand. Sooner or later, everything broke and became junk.
 
Next to my other hobbies my DYI shop has grown into a wealth of tools and experience. (Some serious tuition paid getting there!). It’s on direct level with the RV and the house. But it’s a great place to share with friends and tinkerin, fixing, tire changes and bbq lunch - and as much BS one can stand!
 
Throwing it out there....
The real issue is how cars are designed in corporate world. There is an engine group, a suspension group, an electronix group, an airbag group,
a brake group, a intrument panel group, interior group... group of groups. And engineers are in the bottom part of the funnel, beholden to
marketing, purchasing and effn senior corporate management to design, develop, and manufacture the vehicle with as little money as possible.
I have personally been in a spot where I have been asked to design and manufacture something new (fun) and know that it will cost to do it,
and then I am told to do it for less than half that. (F!) Compound that times 50 groups and not all that comunication for how it all works together....
And you get where you have to take the engine out to replace a speedo cable. I am still amazed at how really it does come together in the manufacturing plant.
Such is life in automotive engineering.

Cheerz
 
My dad would have preferred to hack off an arm than to pay someone to do something for him. So I was exposed at a young age to DIY type things around the house and car.

My dad was also a dangerous guy with tools in his hands. A few trips to the ER, one in particular stands out where I watched the MD stitch up a 2" laceration on his scalp. Another was the slow motion (to me) backswing of a pickax where I was behind him and moved my head 2 inches to the right to avoid being impaled. I survived it all.
 
ReSTored said:
My dad would have preferred to hack off an arm than to pay someone to do something for him. So I was exposed at a young age to DIY type things around the house and car.

My dad was also a dangerous guy with tools in his hands. A few trips to the ER, one in particular stands out where I watched the MD stitch up a 2" laceration on his scalp. Another was the slow motion (to me) backswing of a pickax where I was behind him and moved my head 2 inches to the right to avoid being impaled. I survived it all.
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BTDT!

Had to have my left hand sewn up more than once! :cautious:
 
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SupraSabre said:
BTDT!

Hand to have my left hand sewn up more than once! :cautious:
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I should have included the chainsaw story.

Father's day came around and siblings and I chipped in to buy dad a small 16" chainsaw for cleanup work around the cottage. He opened the box and beamed, loved the gift. I looked around and saw my brother and sisters with huge smiles at dad's reaction and then............ my mom, giving me the death stare. Later on she pulled me aside and told me she was very unhappy about the chainsaw and the terrible accident my dad would be sure to with it. He used it for 4 or 5 years, avoided slicing a leg off and then sold the cottage.
 
turning 64 today I never imagined that I'd look back on the last four years with no regrets. I thought I was getting old [which I was] but in the meantime I've done a few things and had some fun along the way.
I had one of those 64 Mustangs [1/24] that took a battery and when if bumped into a wall would change direction. I had to figure out why it changed direction and which direction it changed so, naturally, I had to find a screwdriver. Well, it was a birthday present and it didn't go very well. The first of many projects that failed after the disassembly phase.
Things got better like most DIY types, but you had to be willing to take the risk of failure and not see anything as having been a waste of time if it didn't go so well.
One of the things I enjoy most about this site is that you learn a lot from people that have figured out a lot of stuff which of course becomes more challenging when much of the engineering involves technology designed to make it impossible to repair.
 
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