Sometimes I wish I wasn't so cheap

So what a week it's been ! I needed to do a little job on my daily driver so I took a few days off to get that done and do some more on my build. The "little job" in question was timing chains on a 2.0 diesel Jaguar. I had been quoted for labour alone £1200 ( specialist) £2400  (dealer) which would have put my build back several months. In my mind I used to earn my living with spanners (not since 1994) so I figured I could do this no problem, Sometimes I forget I'm nearly 60 and things are a little tougher these days. Jaguar in their wisdom put the chains at the back of the motor (2 chains, 2 tensioners and 5 guide blades) Now I don't know if any of you guys have pulled an 8 speed auto trans on your back on the floor but trust me it ain't no fun and also I could only get it back about 12 inches because of clearance issues, so started several days of gynaecology working one handed up the back of the motor ( three elbows and the hands of a 5 year old child would have been useful) Still all done now and the money is still in the bank so back to the bike build. I'm sure the aches and pains will subside in the coming days 

Great job Wookie
i too hate to send money on jobs I know how to do.
 But at 68 a 4 hour carpentry job takes 2 days with 2 helpers.
This is probably why I still enjoy bikes 
Nothing is so big and heavy or that difficult  to keep me from still being able to do it
DD

wrote:

Great job Wookie
i too hate to send money on jobs I know how to do.
 But at 68 a 4 hour carpentry job takes 2 days with 2 helpers.
This is probably why I still enjoy bikes 
Nothing is so big and heavy or that difficult  to keep me from still being able to do it
DD

Getting old sucks, as does working on modern luxury cars with all the toys (nice to drive but a complete "mother" to work on !!!!) still, done now and I won't own it in another 100k mls when it needs doing again 

Wookie,

Your story really hits close to home with me. I struggle with paying someone to do something that I can do myself.  Part of this problem stems from the lack of trust that I'm not getting ripped off.  At any rate, good job on the car repair.  And looking forward to watching your build continue.

Total Ripspek to you Wookie.
Despite being no better trained than your average bodger I still want to do stuff myself instead of paying. These days my knees are only too keen to remind me that I'm sixty so now I have gotten used to just throwing money at these problems.The financial hit is easier to recover from than the days/weeks with aches and pains.

I'm the same - last time I paid a shop for anything was having the clutch replaced on my old Geo, and I'm still annoyed at myself. As a result, a couple times a year I find myself hours into some cramped repair wondering "why do I do this to myself?"

I try to think of the money I didn't pay a shop as money that I "earned" to spend on better things 

As I have grown older there are some repairs I am willing to pay someone else to do but have done most anything in the past.  Sometimes it was because I did not have the money to pay someone else to do the job, or because I had done something like it before and knew I could once again. 

I will agree that getting old(er) is not for sissies. It does take me longer to complete the job than it used to. The aches and pains it causes tend to stay with me longer. But I am thankful my father taught me not to be afraid to tackle jobs I had not tried before. IMHO doing is how we learn.

Good job Wookie.  A Honda dealer wanted to sell me a replacement motor when my wife's Honda minivan started misfiring.  Or they said to fix old motor (one cylinder had damaged spark plug threads) and new plugs and coils would be $2500.  I had the minivan towed back to my house and replaced all the plugs and coils for a couple hundred bucks and had a friend come over to do a "thread cert" repair on the one cylinder hole and paid him $200.
I really hate to take something to a car dealership because I know they are going to try and rip you off!

wrote:

Good job Wookie.  A Honda dealer wanted to sell me a replacement motor when my wife's Honda minivan started misfiring.  Or they said to fix old motor (one cylinder had damaged spark plug threads) and new plugs and coils would be $2500.  I had the minivan towed back to my house and replaced all the plugs and coils for a couple hundred bucks and had a friend come over to do a "thread cert" repair on the one cylinder hole and paid him $200.
I really hate to take something to a car dealership because I know they are going to try and rip you off!


 

I know exactly what you mean, dealerships don't "repair" anything if they can help it ( most younger techs wouldn't see repairing as an option !) There are two main reasons for this (I'm an ex VWG dealer tech and service manager) first is with the labour rates they charge it would cost nearly as much as replacing the head and more importantly (certainly in the UK) if they repair a motor/ Trans etc they have to warranty the repair for 2 years, if they replace the unit the warranty liability sits with the manufacturer not the dealership   my local Jaguar dealer charges £240 per hour for labour 

Before I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer I only paid to have something repaired a few times. I still stack and haul 6 cords of firewood every year. For 20 years I dropped, cut, split, stacked and hauled 6 cords. Now I have Walt the Wood Guy deliver 6 cords in a pile right in front of the woodshed. I also don't do much auto repair anymore. I have an excellent mechanic in town that is honest and reasonably priced. I'm only working on bikes for fun now but I need to get back to the MGB/GT's. I was in the middle of building twin MGB 10 to 1 compression hotrod motors for them. I bet one empty MGB 1800cc block weighs as much as the whole KZ 1000 motor.
Here's the dusty motor in the 72', it is stock with a big valve aluminum head. It still runs great and I need to get it back on the road.

wrote:

Before I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer I only paid to have something repaired a few times. I still stack and haul 6 cords of firewood every year. For 20 years I dropped, cut, split, stacked and hauled 6 cords. Now I have Walt the Wood Guy deliver 6 cords in a pile right in front of the woodshed. I also don't do much auto repair anymore. I have an excellent mechanic in town that is honest and reasonably priced. I'm only working on bikes for fun now but I need to get back to the MGB/GT's. I was in the middle of building twin MGB 10 to 1 compression hotrod motors for them. I bet one empty MGB 1800cc block weighs as much as the whole KZ 1000 motor.

Here's the dusty motor in the 72', it is stock with a big valve aluminum head. It still runs great and I need to get it back on the road.

Sorry to hear that buddy, this brings back memories. I have done a lot of work on these old girls back in the day, my father had a roadster. Life was so much simpler then, you could swop in motor in a morning if nothing snapped off ( exhaust manifold studs where a favourite )

Nice work Wookie. Unfortunately you have just reminded me that the clutch in the mini needs replacing   At least I won't have clearance issues - the motor has to come out for that jiob.

I'm a few years away from sixty but have always sent the daily driver and the camper to the shop. It still stings when I get a bill for something I could have done myself, but I know I'd get nothing done if I had to look after all the vehicles.