Thought I would do a door check strap replacement myself this AM. The door needs stripping and I would normally balk at that, these days.
Anyway, decided to do it as it was hot on the drive allowing the old lizard full power through the joint tendons.
LOOKED at a trim tool costing £9.99, then made one out of spare material and got started.
Going slowly and looking at the sometimes seemingly cryptic Haynes, which anyway was for the previous model, took just under 1 hour. No fasteners snapped or broken and reckon I could do it now in under 30 minutes.
Saving, £74 reduced to £45 when questioned Main Dealer (last years quote other Punto) or independent £20 cash.
So why do it for £20? Because I can and for the sense of having no one else touching your car.
But enjoyable too. giving confidence back to do fiddly jobs I wouldn`t have tackled since a teenager.
It does raise a thought though. Would you put an hour in for £20 and the satisfaction of doing it yourself?
Hope that comment doesn`t attract the "£20 is a speck of dust being snorted into the air intake of my Three Litre Bavarian V6" ;)
Its five pairs of Chinese jeans up in West Yorkshire ;)
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snipquote
Great post oilrag, minimalist and spot on. And actually those 'fiddly jobs' are just the ones garages give to the useless spotty monkey who breaks everything including the new part and leaves the door trim hanging on two broken studs.
I too am becoming idle under the combined effects of age and modern, non-adjustable cars.
I would add: I have broken a lot of those studs in my time in useless spotty monkey fashion.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 10/06/2008 at 20:08
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There's nothing you CAN do to modern cars. Even changing the brake fluid is a minefield with ABS. Modern cars are designed so that
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If I could really revisit my youth - no cracks, never needed one of those - to the extent of being given back my 1929 Lagonda I might well be tempted to do a few of the lesser jobs, for an hour or so, with the Whitworth tools which still lurk, rusting, in corners of the garage.
My modern shopping car and fairly modern hobby car I scarcely dare touch.
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One of the reason I still run a classic, in this case the 944. Even fellow club members admit the feeling of satisfaction after doing a job is worthwhile.
Also have 3Litre 16V engine awaiting a rebuild, complete with supercharger from US E Bay to be fitted.
Edited by tr7v8 on 10/06/2008 at 21:29
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Did the hours work include the statutory waxoyling of the inside of the door whilst there?
I got down and not so dirty at the weekend and wired in my 'active subwoofer' in the boot of the old merc.
Made much use of one of the most useful tools ever (not the hammer), yes the wire coat hanger, straightened and with a small fish hook turn at one end, marvellous for hooking those long wires and pulling through.
Can terrorise the street yoof now and teach em some proper music.... Alice Cooper.
Then we'll temper the pounding skull with some gentle Elgar to put some backbone into them.
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Ah, the days of carburetors, points & the complexity of the electrics only extended to a voltage control box.
Refurbed several VW beetle engines, 20 mins to singlehandedly get the engine out, undo electrics, disconnect fuel, disconnect heater cables, take off some tin bits, undo 4 bolts / nuts, and drop the engine out on a trolley jack.
Things have "progressed" since ! ................
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"Did the hours work include the statutory waxoyling of the inside of the door whilst there?"
Sorry for the delay GB, nearly missed that.
No waxoiling. I don`t use that. The door liner was made of a very difficult to unstick thin sheet of what looked like flexible polystyrene. Only needed to pull back one top corner to remove the tie bar internally.
Later, sprayed 3 in 1 oil into door bottoms through the drain holes. Do this every year or two.
All the Best!
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No waxoiling. I don`t use that.
Blimey Oilrag, don't do millers (yet), don't do waxoyl, we'll have to get you into retraining pdq.
I too dislike disturbing that waterproof sheet inside the door card, always seems to shrink to 7/8ths its previous size as soon as you unstick it.
Keep it up..-:)
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If I can do the job, have time and can finish it on a driveway before it gets dark (!) I will still have a go.
I still get a (call me sad if you will) sense of satisfaction from having fixed my own car,even if it did only save me a tenner.
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