What do you pay a shop to do for you?

ShooterMcGavin

ShooterMcGavin

New member
I'm mechanical, but I'm not a master mechanic or anything. Probably like most of you. I have some specialty hand tools, but nothing expensive for diagnostics. What are some things that you will pay a shop to do? I'm talking about regular maintenance stuff. Maybe you lack the equipment, skills, or... I am trying to get an idea of which things I should simply take to someone, rather than start buying parts, removing parts, and then taking it to someone.

Alignment is the first that comes to mind for me.
Upper ball joints?
 
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I rent a garage in my apartment complex, so I'm pretty self conscious about making too much noise, ie no air tools. My brother is a very talented and very reasonably priced mechanic, so he gets any and all suspension work (recently did LCA bushings for me, steering rack bushings). I had a few local shops balance the driveshaft, but I took it on and off, in fact I use a spare shaft so the truck is always on the road.

I mostly stick to maintenance, I did the tundra brake upgrade, and worked on the power antenna most recently. I try to strike a balance between saving money on labor as well as learning stuff on my truck myself, with not torturing myself spending whole weekends in the garage. Like with most things in life, everything is best taken in moderation!

Now if I had my dream garage, with access to air tools, and maybe even a lift, I'd be much more inclined to do ALL the work, short of alignments and shaft and wheel balancing.
 
For me it comes down to time, if I have time ill do it myself or at a buddies but if not ill pay a shop.

Ive swapped a complete engine in my old chevy pickup so feel confident with most tasks but am very busy with work most of the time and don't always have the time to spend 2-3 days working on something(because nothing major is ever a one day job, you always forget one gasket or bolt and have to make a parts run, or wait for something you forgot to order to ship)

Minor stuff like fluid swaps tune ups, brakes, rad swaps, suspension installs etc I always do myself I just wait till I have the time.

So far on the new runner I have installed a used OME lift kit, and am waiting for parts to do the LBJ, ITE's and OTE's, which I will do myself then have shop align it. Then I will save up for valve cover gaskets and plugs/wires and do a tune up and fix my leaky valve covers.

I am having a shop fix my broken rear UCA mount as I type this because im not confident enough in my welding skills to tackle something like that myself.
 
I'm self employed, so for me it depends on how busy I am. Sometimes it makes more sense for me to work, and pay someone else to do a job than for me to do it myself. If I'm really swamped and the truck needs an oil change, I have a quick lube place that I trust.

And then there's a space issue. I have a small garage at my condo and I can't have vehicles under major repair sitting outside, so something like a motor swap would be tricky for me to do at home.

Besides those two issues though, there's very little that I won't do. I'm an electrical engineer by trade, so the electrical stuff doesn't scare me at all, and I've overhauled several automatic transmissions when I was younger, so there's very little on the mechanical side that I won't do.

I just replaced the turbochargers on my car which meant about 30 hours laying on my back underneath it. All the shops all wanted $3k (labor only) to do it and I just couldn't bring myself to write a check like that for something I'm capable of doing myself.
 
Im willing to tackle almost anything, as long as i have the time and depends how big the job is. if its going to be an all day job for me to do it i would consider a mechanic.
 
ShooterMcGavin said:
I'm mechanical, but I'm not a master mechanic or anything. Probably like most of you. I have some specialty hand tools, but nothing expensive for diagnostics. What are some things that you will pay a shop to do? I'm talking about regular maintenance stuff. Maybe you lack the equipment, skills, or... I am trying to get an idea of which things I should simply take to someone, rather than start buying parts, removing parts, and then taking it to someone.

Alignment is the first that comes to mind for me.
Upper ball joints?
Click to expand...

Alignment. Tire install. Motor and tran rebuilds. Still dont trust myself on all that machine work. Lots up above me have some more skill than me. LOL.
 
Troutsrunner said:
Gears and body work.
Click to expand...

I used to worry about gears, and then I watched a friend (who's a Ford master mechanic at a dealership) of mine do a set on a Mustang, and I'd probably do my own now.

These days with so much documentation on-line you can learn so much from other peoples mistakes that even the tricky stuff is doable.
 
Totally depends on what time of the year. If I'm working 100+ hours a week I pay them to change my air. Not a typo but illisrtates the point. If I have time I do just about everything except major internal repairs.
 
I can do suspension, engine, electrical and body work but wiper blades intimidate me. I leave that stuff to the professionals.
 
Tires, alignments, and engine tune ups.. I do all suspension components and electrical stuff. Everything done inside of vehicle is done by me..
 
...used to do it all, but mostly because I was young, didn't have anything better to do, and didn't have any money. built a 1970 Datsun roadster racer out of 3 parts cars, rebuilt a 30' sailboat that really should have been sawed up and thrown in the dump, built wooden boats, an ultralight aircraft, etc. so by "used to do it all" I mean it. Then one day, I mostly quit doing just about anything except traveling, exploring, learning, etc. Kinda miss messing about with stuff.

Point being that the answer to your question is different for each of us, for different reasons, at different times in our lives based on our differing circumstances and resources. I'm shifting back toward taking care of basic maintenance, but if it goes beyond 4 or 5 hours total time spent (all-in, like figuring out what to do, tooling up, getting the parts, doing it, cleaning up, etc.) then I just hand it off to a shop and then do serious QC on their work... which more often than not is poor, unfortunately. So there's that, too. If you want it done right, or at least if you want to know how well it's done, then do it yourself.
 
The older I get, the more money that I make; the lazier I get. I have my own two-post lift and a very large shop, but there are times that I get busy at work or just too tired to do what I want, then I get my wrench turning buddy to do it for me.
 
I try to do what I can but a few things I know I better leave to the people that do them all day if I want the best chance for having it done right. Tires, alignment, gears, anything spring related, tints, wraps etc.

But anything else that's bolt on or screw off, custom wiring, electronics, light fabrication, routine maintenance and non major repairs I like to do myself.
 
JayRolla said:
Alignment. Tire install. Motor and tran rebuilds. Still dont trust myself on all that machine work. Lots up above me have some more skill than me. LOL.
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I'd say that describes me too.

PoshSnoop said:
...Point being that the answer to your question is different for each of us, for different reasons, at different times in our lives based on our differing circumstances and resources...
Click to expand...

Exactly, and exactly why I asked :) I just want to hear where others draw the line, so I can consider the tasks and the line that I want to draw for myself.
 
Did the rear brakes myself and I'll be taking it in next time cause it was a PITA. Also let the pros handle tranny and diff work
 
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