When I discovered Curbside Classic, it awakened a long dormant interest in cars that had been slumbering since childhood. Having never taken an auto shop class nor having any mentors in automotive mechanics, I was a late arriver to working on my cars, but it’s rapidly becoming a newfound passion of mine here in my third decade on Planet Earth.
Reading the articles on this website from other passionate people who take pride in their cars and work on them has been very inspirational for me. I love all the articles here, but over the years, watching the ambitions of the dreamers and mad-skilled DIY mechanics like Paul, David Saunders and Keith Thelen, to name a few, has been mind-blowingly awesome. Their DIY spirit was infectious, and it rubbed off on me.
My renaissance started when I bought a VW van that I tinker with as time and funds allow. I did not intend it that way; the damned thing just needs a lot of work and attention. I have a love-hate relationship with it that I have written about before, but overall, I have found it very rewarding to work on.
This summer, I put two large dents into two separate panels on the rear of the van when I scraped up against a cement stanchion at a gas station while trying to avoid a poorly parked Trans-Am.
Ouch! But I might have hurt my pride even more than I did the van!
I hardly even noticed the impact, but when I got out to look at the damage, it was significant. This wasn’t going to buff out; there was real body damage there. Seeing the dents every day when I exited my house stung, and I sought some estimates from some PDR (paintless dent repair) professionals. They all waffled and declined the job, telling me that there was too much stretched metal to affect a PDR.
Nuts.
I next took the van to a body shop that took a thousand photos and then told me that their plan was to find a donor van, cut out a replacement panel, and weld it in. Well, that was some crazy talk, so I told them to terminate the estimate right then. Who knows how many untold thousands of dollars that would cost? More than the van is worth, certainly. It looked like it was either live with the damage, or get my tools out and see what I could do.
Over the next few weeks, I spent some time reading up, watching YouTube videos, and ordering tools. The most significant of the tools new to me was a slide hammer. This technique is a last-ditch, invasive procedure. Having already tried a suction cup dent puller, compressed air and a heat gun with no success, I was running out of options.
A slide hammer involves putting holes into the body of a car and pulling out a dent from the inside.
Finally, the moment arrived when I was standing in front of the van with a power drill in my hand. Once you drill holes into your car, they don’t come out. Did I really think I knew what the heck I was doing? Screw it, I thought. I cranked up some heavy metal on the stereo and went to town on the damaged panels. My wife came home just in time to find me swiss-cheesing the van, and she looked at me like I was half mad; maybe I was, but my confidence was high, even if my experience was low. Neighbors began to walk by as I was working and give me thumbs-ups. “I didn’t know you knew how to do body-work,” one commented. “Neither did I,” I responded.
Please don’t criticize my amateur work. I’d never used Bondo before, I’d never used a slide hammer – this is all uncharted territory for a newbie. I’m just an average unskilled idiot, but I’m learning!
This weekend, I’ll be working on the long crease that I inherited when I took ownership of the van. No holes were necessary for this one, but I’ve still got to get the primer on smoother and more even before I paint.
Gettin’ there!
So what’s your next DIY project? Whether you are looking to tackle something big or small, hopefully this story will get you fired up to take it on!
replacing the badly weathered sliding canvas top on one of my festivas. this is motorized and involves a lot of springs and cables and clips. the fabric is glued to some steel plates that travel the length of the roof. i sourced replacement material from germany. it wasn’t cheap so i best not screw it up.
You guys make me feel lazy. I have not done any house projects or car projects in a least ten years. But I have high hopes to change that soon. Earlier this summer I had a two ton thru-the-wall a/c unit installed in my garage. As soon as funds become available I will insulate the interior and possibly put in drywall. The idea is to have a comfortable climate control space to work.
In recent times I have taken the role of managing the project(s) rather than physically doing the labor. I shop for all the parts and supplies needed for the job. I find a person a mechanic/bodyman that will do the work using my parts. And I try to diagnose and research the problem(s) to the best of my ability. This has saved me a lot of money over the years and I have found people (I now consider friends) to do the work. I do find some satisfaction in doing things this way but not as much as when you are turning the wrenches yourself. Recently:
2002 Lincoln TC (wife mobile) (208k miles) drain and replace all fluids, new filters, fix a leak on the intake manifold that was causing a miss.
2002 Ford F150 Harley Davidson (mine) (186k miles) drain and replace all fluids, new filters, and fix a miss on cyl #5, and a few other minor things.
At the shop now is my 1996 Ford E350 Club Wagon (56k miles) drain and replace all fluids, and filters. Service transmission and differential. Fix issue with parking brake.
Next in line is the 2004 MB CL500 (86K miles) regular maintenance and sort out and replace parts on the restraint system.
After the DDs are ready and my garage is in order I have a long list of projects that I am eager to get started on just have not decided which one to tackle first.
Scott you have more guts than I do. I would be horrified to drill holes into a panel. But the end results look good. I admire your enthusiasm.
All done!