Doing Everything Yourself

[chrisj]

I got on the forum here to get some good information and ideas about modifications I wanted to do to my Yaris. While I understand that there are those who would have no trouble completely dismantling their car and putting it back together, I am not one of those people.

I was a computer repair tech for 25 years, and I saw more than my fair share of people who "thought" they knew exactly what they were doing when they started "self-repairing" the their PC. When they finally called me it was in a far worse state and ended up costing way more than it would if the person had just picked up the phone and called me in the first place...without pranking around with it first.

That's the way I am with cars, and while there are things I don't mind tackling, there are things I don't want to mess with myself. One of the things I don't want to attempt is window tinting. Been there, done that. Wasted money on film, thinking I could do a pro job when I wasn't a pro at it. I have taken my vehicles in for tinting for the last 20 years because I know I'm no good at it. To that end, I expect the tint job I pay for to be perfect, and when I had the Yaris tinted, it ended up going back a total of 3 times because of one little issue or another.

I do nothing under the hood except check the oil and air filter. I make no repairs there because I'm just no good at it. I have AAA partly because, if I have a breakdown, I don't want to lie out in the hot or cold under the car trying to figure things out. Just get it towed somewhere that does know. I don't change the oil or filter. I take it in to either the dealer when they have a special or to a local oil change place down the road.

So, while I have done things to my car like change out my tail lights, tap into the brake lights to install an LED license plate frame, and other fairly simple mods, I have no intention of taking off my bumper and installing my fog lights, for example. I just don't feel comfortable doing that, and have elected to pay a custom shop to do that. Yes, I got the wiring kit from Garm and complete instructions, but I am not comfortable installing the lights themselves. There are 3 little dings in the sides of the car from its Hertz days that are being removed from this same shop at the same time they install the fogs. Now, there may be 1,000 ways to possibly get those dings out without paying $50 each, but again, I don't feel comfortable doing it, and I expect it to look perfect when I get the car back. That's another reason I pay for having certain things done...I expect it to be perfect, and it it isn't, it is fixed until it is perfect. I paid for a perfect job because I took it to a place that specializes in it.

Now, many on this forum will call me a wimp and pus for not being a "man" and taking it apart or rewiring the entire vehicle, but that's okay. I know my limitations, and while I'm a helluva computer person, I'm no mechanic...nor am I a plumber, BTW (I call them too). There are people who do amazing things who are trained in those things, and while I know what I want my car to look like in the end, I am in no position to make that happen in most cases except with my wallet.

One good example is when I got my ABS spoiler/wing in that I bought off ebay. It was just a hunk of gray plastic, and while the instructions didn't say anything about drilling holes, I saw 2 bolts and nuts that told me it was going to have to be drilled somewhere. I called and made an appointment with that custom shop to have it painted and mounted. It took all day long, but it matched the paint job perfectly, and when I got the car they had done the drilling and that wing was magically mounted. All I wanted was to see the finished product like I had envisioned it.

So, I do what I feel comfortable with, and I leave the rest to a professional. I know what I want the end result to be, and if I don't feel like I can make that happen with my own two hands, I will call someone who can make that happen for me. And no, I'm not a pus.