This is meant to be a fun thread. This is the Do-IT-Yourself Anonymous support group discussion thread. From here on out referred to as DIYA. This will be where we come clean and share our stories of how things actually went when we decide to take on our DIY Jeep mod projects.
SETUP:
So you've decided to perform a MOD or do some type of service/repair on your Jeep yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you. You know all the merits and rewards of doing it yourself. You've shopped around for parts, you came to the forum, asked some questions and got some good advise/tips. You browsed over the install instructions, looked up some step-by-step guides and may have even watched a few YouTube videos of others performing a similar task. You seen others post, that this shouldn't take you anymore than 2 hours to complete. You purchased all the necessary tools and other accompanying knick knacks (lubes, loc-tite, etc) you think you'll need. I'M READY!!! I CAN DO THIS!!! are your famous last words before diving in and doing the task yourself.
Instructions steps will read:
1. Insert bolt through holes, place washer on bolt and tighten nut onto bolt with 18mm wrench
Your ACTUAL steps tend to go like this:
1. Holes aren't aligned to insert bolt...find scratch all or some other tool to use to pull holes into alignment.
2. Insert bolt, still not fully aligned, bolt very snug, use hammer to tap bolt through holes.
3. threads of bolt are now boogered up, nut will no longer screw on, but holes are perfectly aligned, go to hardware store and get replacement bolt.
4. Insert bolt....ahhhh complete. Take a short break to relieve frustration of how a 2 second task just took you 30 minutes.
5. place washer on bolt
6. start to thread nut with one hand while holding 18mm wrench in other.
7. Drop nut....nut rolls into some God forsaken hidden location in the chassis.
8. Spend time searching for nut, see nut lodged in an unreachable location, get mirror, flashlight and magnet telescopes to retrieve nut....nut retrieved.
9. thread nut on by hand....."now where did I set my 18mm wrench down at?" Search for wrench....find wrench.
10. Start to tighten nut with 18mm wrench. Realize standard 18mm closed end wrench has very little clearance room to tighten where I'm lucky if I'm getting a 1/4 turn of the wrench to tighten. Realize, this is going to take all day to tighten.
11. Go look for 18mm ratcheting wrench, realize that's the only size you don't have in a ratchet wrench.
12. Make trip to usual tool store to purchase 18mm ratchet wrench. Find out they don't carry an 18mm ratchet wrench. Go visit another tool store and purchase an over priced 18mm ratchet wrench.
13. Get back home,Tighten nut with ratchet wrench.
14. Realize, in all my extended frustrations, I forgot to put anti-seize on threads of bolt. This is one of the main reasons you wanted to do it yourself, so meticulous care was paid attention to in the install and to save yourself some grief if future repair was needed.
15. loosen nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
16. apply anti-seize on bolt threads
17. re-tighten nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
18. Clean up and put away the 10 tools you had to use, instead of the originally planned one tool.
19. take a smoke break, that was stressful, but step 1 has been acomplished!!!
- Planned time <1min. Actual time=2 hours.
20. Go to step 2 of instructions.......:doh:
Seriously, I know I'm elaborating some in my example but ALL these things have happened to me at one time or another taking off and putting on a single bolt on projects. Am I the only one?
I know I'm not......please share your DIY stories that didn't go exactly as planned.
This is a 12 step program, so always remember, the 1st step to recovery is admittance. The next step is being able to look back and laugh at yourself because you know if you shared your actual experience, others would likely laugh at you and you would feel embarrassed. I'll follow up by posting one of mine where there are quite a few to follow.
Most of all let's keep it friendly and ENJOY!! :thumb:
DIYA Slogan: "It doesn't cost that much more, to just do it yourself."
SETUP:
So you've decided to perform a MOD or do some type of service/repair on your Jeep yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you. You know all the merits and rewards of doing it yourself. You've shopped around for parts, you came to the forum, asked some questions and got some good advise/tips. You browsed over the install instructions, looked up some step-by-step guides and may have even watched a few YouTube videos of others performing a similar task. You seen others post, that this shouldn't take you anymore than 2 hours to complete. You purchased all the necessary tools and other accompanying knick knacks (lubes, loc-tite, etc) you think you'll need. I'M READY!!! I CAN DO THIS!!! are your famous last words before diving in and doing the task yourself.
Instructions steps will read:
1. Insert bolt through holes, place washer on bolt and tighten nut onto bolt with 18mm wrench
Your ACTUAL steps tend to go like this:
1. Holes aren't aligned to insert bolt...find scratch all or some other tool to use to pull holes into alignment.
2. Insert bolt, still not fully aligned, bolt very snug, use hammer to tap bolt through holes.
3. threads of bolt are now boogered up, nut will no longer screw on, but holes are perfectly aligned, go to hardware store and get replacement bolt.
4. Insert bolt....ahhhh complete. Take a short break to relieve frustration of how a 2 second task just took you 30 minutes.
5. place washer on bolt
6. start to thread nut with one hand while holding 18mm wrench in other.
7. Drop nut....nut rolls into some God forsaken hidden location in the chassis.
8. Spend time searching for nut, see nut lodged in an unreachable location, get mirror, flashlight and magnet telescopes to retrieve nut....nut retrieved.
9. thread nut on by hand....."now where did I set my 18mm wrench down at?" Search for wrench....find wrench.
10. Start to tighten nut with 18mm wrench. Realize standard 18mm closed end wrench has very little clearance room to tighten where I'm lucky if I'm getting a 1/4 turn of the wrench to tighten. Realize, this is going to take all day to tighten.
11. Go look for 18mm ratcheting wrench, realize that's the only size you don't have in a ratchet wrench.
12. Make trip to usual tool store to purchase 18mm ratchet wrench. Find out they don't carry an 18mm ratchet wrench. Go visit another tool store and purchase an over priced 18mm ratchet wrench.
13. Get back home,Tighten nut with ratchet wrench.
14. Realize, in all my extended frustrations, I forgot to put anti-seize on threads of bolt. This is one of the main reasons you wanted to do it yourself, so meticulous care was paid attention to in the install and to save yourself some grief if future repair was needed.
15. loosen nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
16. apply anti-seize on bolt threads
17. re-tighten nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
18. Clean up and put away the 10 tools you had to use, instead of the originally planned one tool.
19. take a smoke break, that was stressful, but step 1 has been acomplished!!!
- Planned time <1min. Actual time=2 hours.
20. Go to step 2 of instructions.......:doh:
Seriously, I know I'm elaborating some in my example but ALL these things have happened to me at one time or another taking off and putting on a single bolt on projects. Am I the only one?
I know I'm not......please share your DIY stories that didn't go exactly as planned.
This is a 12 step program, so always remember, the 1st step to recovery is admittance. The next step is being able to look back and laugh at yourself because you know if you shared your actual experience, others would likely laugh at you and you would feel embarrassed. I'll follow up by posting one of mine where there are quite a few to follow.
Most of all let's keep it friendly and ENJOY!! :thumb:
DIYA Slogan: "It doesn't cost that much more, to just do it yourself."