what are some jobs you refuse to do on your car?

[CorvallisBMW]

oil pan on my swapped e30. i hung the engine, took apart the suspension, dropped the subframe, took out 23 bolts on the oil pan, then realized there are 2 bolts that are inside the tranny bellhousing. wow, theres no way imma pull the tranny/flywheel just to change my oil pan gasket for a leak...

when i upgrade to ZF, i will change the oil pan gasket. thats that!

Really? Damn that sucks. I didn't know you had to pull the whole tranny to get at those on a swap car.

Back OT though, there is nothing I wont attempt if I have the tools to do it. IE, I don't live in a machine shop so I can't bore/hone a block, but I will do rear subframes, bearings, tranny swaps, etc...

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

whats the deal with tire mounting consistently coming up? It's one of the simplest and easiest jobs, in fact i find it kind of fun.

[nando]

whats the deal with tire mounting consistently coming up? It's one of the simplest and easiest jobs, in fact i find it kind of fun.

uh, generally because it requires a tire mounting machine, and then you have to balance it. ;)

paying $100 to have a set of tires mounted/balanced sucks ass though. I usually do this twice a year - wonder how long it would take for the machine to pay for itself..

[E30_fiend]

uh, generally because it requires a tire mounting machine, and then you have to balance it. ;)

paying $100 to have a set of tires mounted/balanced sucks ass though. I usually do this twice a year - wonder how long it would take for the machine to pay for itself..

who the hell is charging you 100 bucks for mounting and balancing? The store I used to work at, Big O Tires, charge 12.50 a tire mounted and balanced.

And I actually did the math for my company to have a tire machine pay itself off. We go through at least a set of tires per truck per year. My company has 150 pickups. The shop we use charges 15 a tire. so on average, 60 bucks a truck per year. 60 x 150 = 6k. Thats about the price of a good quality tire and balancing combo. So in a year we could pay off the machine and start making profit.

realistically, a person could make a lot of money if they owned their own tire and balancing machine and just charged a little less than the surrounding tire stores. No one would need tire shops around you. Just order tires and bring them with you. I was seriously debating on whether I wanted to purchase one for myself and start making some money on it but I found it hard to come up with 3-4k for just a used one.


But just to add something to the thread, I hate removing tint.

Everything else I'm ok with and if I havent come across it, I will at least try it.





Taylor

[nando]

that's just what it costs here - that was actually cheap, another place I went to wanted $175. yeah, no. I used to go to costco and have it done (with nitrogen :D) for $40, but they stopped doing it if you didn't buy the tires there. :(

[E30_fiend]

but they stopped doing it if you didn't buy the tires there. :(

bastards!!! :hitler:

[cferb]

I don't do oil changes cause of the disposal part. I'm not puting an oily ass container in my car.

That's a big thing for me. But $30 for a bmw shop that I trust to do it, I don't mind at all. Fuck Grease Monkey though.

I'm confident I could do anything on my care, just don't have the space, time, or extra car, and in some cases, tools, to do everything.

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

wow i totally overlooked the fact that most people don't have a tire machine, I just go to my friend's shop and use their stuff.

[Nicademus]

My brothers friend used to have access to one...but no more :(

So Costco won't mount tires you didn't purchase from them? BASTARDS! It takes like 5 seconds to do.

[z31maniac]

Exactly. Most of the apartments I lived in wouldn't let you do any kind of work on your car in the parking lots, even change oil. And if you don't have any readily-available places to do it, it can be a serious hassle.

Bingo, the last place we lived was an edition of patio homes, not connected to each other................we weren't even allowed to wash our cars there, lest we get some water on someone elses POS.

[CorvallisBMW]

................we weren't even allowed to wash our cars there, lest we get some water on someone elses POS.

That fucking sucks!

I just got to 'know' the girls working at the front office in my last apartment, and they never bothered me when I worked on my car ;)

[Wh33lhop]

Exactly. Most of the apartments I lived in wouldn't let you do any kind of work on your car in the parking lots, even change oil. And if you don't have any readily-available places to do it, it can be a serious hassle.

Bah. Be a man; do it on the street. ;) I've had my car on stands for 10 hours on a public road while we were trying to fit konis into the strut bodies. :D

[hugh jass]

clutches. fuck clutches.

[DrMcDave]

I do suspensions, brakes, minor engine stuff (not dealing with internals), and stereo/wiring. I do not like clutches or diffs.

With the right tool selection nothing is really that bad. It just sucks when you realize you need another part that you can't get for a few days. The nearest dealer is an hour away and I'm lucky if they ever have what I need.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Paint. I don't have the tools. My standards of doing stuff has gone down after a 24v in a gravel driveway.