Frustration with basic stuff

[Sputterbug]

Hi board,

I just wanted to post in hopes of receiving a word of encouragement. Two years ago when I bought my 911, I had never even changed oil. Now I've adjusted valves, disassembled shift linkages, fixed sunroof cables, and replaced spark plugs among other things. No big deal to most perhaps, but it's made me feel closer to my car. For me, every bolt removed and reinstalled without destroying something is a notable accomplishment!

I am always so impressed with the endless and complex projects undertaken by people here. It always gives me motivation to try things when perhaps I shouldn't. So that's how it was when I decided to repaint my chipped and beaten looking Carrera front valance. I bought the correct matched Guards Red paint from Paintscratch.com, and set about to prepping for the job.

And in standard form, I proceeded to not be able to remove the valance from the car! The bolts holding the foglights were easy. So were the two screws on either side near the 'bellows'. But the nut/bolt on the passenger side just in front of the oil cooler is an absolute b***h! How on earth do you hold the bolt in order to turn the nut? Mind just rotated together, and wouldn't loosen. I didn't think I had to remove the whole bumper assembly just to do this (nor will I).

So this is just a mild rant about good intentions, Murphy's law, and above all a salute of respect to those who have performed surgery on your cars - big and small. It is a discipline well worthy of respect and admiration!

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Good tool assortment is one trick. The other is to take on the challenge but give up in time and go the full way.

Grüsse

[Bigbartguy]

keep at it is all I can say. It wont get done w/o you.

My basic rule = take my estimate of time to do the repair and multiply by 6. this seems to work pretty good for me (I'm a little mechanically dumb).

ie. change spark plugs ? 30 minutes.
actual time 180 minutes.

[rickeolis]

Funny you should mention that about the plugs. Last month I went to do the same;The first 4 took about 3 hours, dropping plugs into the sheet metal on their way out too many times, getting them stuck crooked a few times, using a pair of tweezers to extract them, etc. Then the sun went down, so I stopped. The next day a friend lent me a small tool setup with the right length u-joint and extension, the last 2 plug went much quicker.

I just changed the timing belt in my wife's Tracer last weekend, the whole job took 2 1\2 hours. Less time than the spark plugs on my 911!