DIY is all the rage, right? Yep, Hardware superstores are springing up on every corner even though the sales figures seem to indicate that we neither need nor want them. But I have news for the reno junkies. I was doing DIY before the term was even invented. So there!
Yes, when I was an impecunious teachers college student living on the grand sum of $128 per fortnight out of which I was paying my mum board and lodgings, I did a lot of DIY. Not because I wanted to but because I HAD to! The only way that I could keep my old Hillman on the road was to do all the maintenance myself.
As a result I spent many long hours either under the bonnet or lying down on a cold concrete floor looking up at the underside of an oily, greasy motor car. I hated it but the alternative was to not have a car. But I also learned a great deal about mechanics and kept the car going until I graduated and was able to start getting a mechanic to fix my vehicles instead. Since that time, my mechanic-ing has been sporadic and thankfully rare.
BUT, it seems that the wheel is turning the full circle. Fast forward 40 years and here I am, doing mechanical things on my cars yet again. Not because I want to but because I am constrained by the meagre amount that is paid by government in the form of the age pension.
This week I found myself doing three DIY projects so if you would bear with me, I will explain.
Project #1. A couple of weeks ago, the door restraining strap broke on the Calibra and it was very annoying. It’s a heavy door and the mechanism really needs to be working properly. As well as the inconvenience, it made a dreadful noise each time I opened the door. One of them broke on a previous car and I left it too long before I tried to fix it and had to buy a second hand one, so I bit the bullet yesterday and wrestled the offending object out. It’s a swine of a job that involves removing the door card and associated electronic wiring then working in a very confined space where the door closes to undo the strap and spring that goes with it. Most of it must be done while sitting on the ground and working blind as you can’t see the bolts that have to be undone. Once extracted, it was clear that one “wing” was broken off altogether and the other was half fractured through and bent out of shape. I wasn’t looking forward to having to buy one at retail prices so I took the item down to my local muffler shop where Andrew had done some welding for me before. An hour later and with my wallet $20 lighter, it was fixed like new and a bit of wrestling, cussing and sweating had it fitted back into place. Like I said, rewarding and economical.
Here is the offending part and you can see the “wings” that bolt to the door jamb that needed to be welded and straightened.
Project #2. This morning I let the cat out for his morning constitutional. Normally he wanders around, eats some grass and returns to the door and waits to be let in (I kid you not). Just every now and then he decides to push his luck and takes a dive through the front gate to reconnoiter the front yard. He knows he isn’t supposed to do this and hightails it back inside as soon as he gets caught. This morning was one of those mornings and, when I looked under the Minibago to see if he was hiding there, I was disturbed to see a large piece of equipment hanging down from under the van, nearly touching the driveway. At first I thought that it might have been some rubbish that had blown in off the street and was stuck there, but closer examination revealed that it wasn’t and that it was a fan of some sort that was hanging by two very tiny self-tapping screws to the subframe under the driver’s seat.
It seemed to be the fan and radiator for the rear air conditioning unit that was fitted to the vehicle when it was an ambulance. The two screws that secured it to the floor at the one end (closest to front) had stripped and it was hanging from the bracket at the back of the unit. Since I already knew that the aircon no longer functioned and since it was going to be impossible to put new screws in (the van now has a plywood floor on top of the metal floor) I decided that I would remove it instead. With much huffing and puffing and some jury rigging I managed to do so. Tape up and secure the two electrical cables and connect the two water hoses to each other by way of some plastic conduit and the existing clamps and secure them out of harm’s way to the chassis also and the job was done. All of this while lying down on the cold concrete looking up at the underside of the van (stop me if you’ve heard this one). While there I also located the source of a persistent rattle and fixed that as well. Job well done, I feel.
Project #3 Today I mowed the lawns for the first times since the accident over four years ago. Since my injuries have prevented me from doing so, we have been paying a man to come in once a fortnight during the summer months and once a month at other times and do the job. Given the current and on-going financial situation the amount was deemed to be prohibitive so I cancelled the service. So today I decided to see if my leg would cooperate and let me do the job instead. I won’t say that it was easy and I’m feeling it now, but I got the job done and it doesn’t look half bad. I still have to whipper snip the edges but that can wait for another day. I consider this to be a major victory.
Project #4. Less of a DIY and more of a GSETDI (Get Someone Else To Do It) job. Now that the Minibago is lovely and clean and polished the oxidisation on the bull bar at the front was really letting it down. So, thanks to my good mate, David Thompson, I now have s shiny-shiny bullbar. Dave spent about an hour here this afternoon, rubbing back and polishing it to within an inch of its life and now it gleams like (almost) new.
Another great DIY result.
I am not saying that I could get used to it and, thanks for all the offers from people who want their lawns mowed, cars fixed, gardens weeded and cars polished, but it is sorta satisfying anyway.
dunc says
you may consider yourself one of the lucky ones that can do some handy man work phil
tinkering with vehicles is something that should be a easy task for all but alas it is now a dying art with the younger ones
not just vehicles but a lot of supposed any DIY stuff as around the house or yard
I do remeber a previous post with mention about the MENS SHED a case in point of skills of the older generation
I am talking from experience as in asking them young ones to do some pretty easy tasks and you get a blank stare back of nothing or yeh I have no idea [A sad reflection on society nowadays]
I was lucky to be taught by my family peers to do a lot of this type of thing as a young one and spending a lot of time on farms where there has to be self sufficiency and am still learning from others and I will ever be grateful for the guidance in life skills my family taught me then and what I am still learning now.