Let's talk about fear....

With the advent of the internet and the knowledge bank this group represents, there isn't much I'm scared to tackle. There is a lot of stuff I don't have the motivation to tackle.

In reply to NOHOME :

I’ve been doing sales a long time but sometimes I get called into a hot business situation and I pucker up only to realize once I’m in the situation I’ll be able to handle it.  

I worked with someone who did everything himself. Mostly major home renovations but also work on his vehicles.  He would question me on how to replace this or that.  Nothing too complicated but I could tell he did very little wrenching based on his questions. I always offered my help but he never needed it. I asked him if he ever got stuck doing something because he was afraid it wouldn’t go right. He told me “Just Do It” what’s the worst that can happen? He did have stories of epic failures that would have me cracking up, but he never let that stop him. I keep his words in mind in whatever I do. That and U Tube helps for home renovations since Bill is no long with us.

Having extra vehicles is what really got me over the "fear".  I'll take on projects that are way beyond my scope (and make regular people shake their heads at me) because I know that if things get sticky I can close the garage door and walk away from it for a couple of days.

Saturdays purchase is a prime example, bought a 2006 Miata which the PO had pulled the motor from but hadn't reinstalled the new one.  I've never worked on an NC before and have no idea what the engine bay "should" look like.  But I have time, friends, the forum, the internet, and a fair selection of tools so some time in the next couple of weeks I hope to make vroom vroom noises. (probably months but I can dream)

With enough experience, the fear level will be reduced.  A bit of fear as you're learning is normal and healthy.

A turning point in my fear level was some years ago when my ex bought a set of Craven strut tower reinforcement plates for her R53 MINI.  The car was known for mushrooming the towers and she had already had them fixed by an area MINI tuner once.  She bought M7 top plates to protect against them but detests M7 products so when Craven came out with their own version she immediately bought a set.  They arrived in the mail on some random Tuesday. 

Installing these top plates should be simple: remove the three nuts that hold the strut mounts to the tower, install Craven's adapter nuts, torque to 25 ft lbs, install the top plate.  Snug down the large aluminum nuts.  Don't even have to jack up the car. 

Until I went ot remove the M7 plates and they wouldn't come off.  Why?  Because despite what the M7 plates are there for, the towers mushroomed again and the flared out strut mount bolts were interfering with the holes of the M7 plates.  Annoyed, I immediately jacked up the car and proceeded to yank the suspension off the car to fix the mushroomed towers and strut mounts (this was before I had a lift).  Which I did and then installed the Craven plates.

An hour or so later, as I was getting read to lower the car back to the floor, I sort of hit me: It never even entered my mind that I wouldn't get the car back together. A car my ex- had to drive to work the next day. I knew what needed to be done and just did it.  I've always felt that was a turning point in my wrenching experience. 

At this point, it's not confidence I lack, but motivation. 

I've found that diving in and doing something myself yields similar or better results than being disappointed in someone else's shoddy work.  On occasions that I know people who truly have a craft and charge a reasonable price for exceptional quality, I'll gladly pay them.  Saves me time and yields a better result.  

I get scared when there is something I can't reasonably do and I don't have a relationship with someone who is known to be good at it.  Like paint and body work.

I always think of my college's presentation coach's favorite line: "Feel the fear, then do it anyways"

Thatvline has probably gotten me into more trouble than I had I just listened to the fear but thats how we learn our limits right?

In the past, my limitation was "internals." IE, I'm not taking on rebuilding an engine/transmission/diff, and I don't know how to weld so I didn't bother with trying to fabricate things.

Roll bars, rebuilding calipers, motor swaps, suspension, etc, not a problem to knock those out.

Now, it's not so much that I'm afraid, but that I'm lazy. Between keeping up with work, the house, the animals, girlfriend, etc, the last thing I want to do is spend my Saturday sliding around on the garage floor or bent over underneath hood. 

In reply to stroker :

What I've found in my professional career was to make sure I had the correct documentation to perform the job. Commercial jets were too large to know everything and the UAV's only required maintenance on specific items very rarely. Plus the FAA frowns on doing stuff without proper tech documents

If I'm serious about getting something fixed I grab or download the factory technical manual, keep my torque wrench calibrated, and examine the steps for special tools which will require a run to the machine shop to make sure I know what I'm getting into. The tech manuals aren't written for people with a post grad degree so they're typically easy to understand and follow. After that it's really just having the time to finish. I find the fear/trepidation/lack of motivation goes away almost right away when I start a project and understand what needs to happen.

For skills like welding... I'm a terrible welder. Eventually I'll have enough time to go take a night course at the local tech school with someone that knows what they're doing.

In reply to nutherjrfan :

It's annoying in that I'm an engineer that should be able to fix this.  

I'm also really free-time constrained and haven't had a full "day off" where I'm not either at my full-time job or driving to see family so far this year.  I never want to start because I know I won't finish.  But that's also a lot of rationalization.  

I had a pretty bad fear about that until I actually had to tow an Integra with a half removed motor mount to a shop. I probably would've struggled with it for weeks in my spare time and got it barely put back together eventually, but I had 30 days to pass an inspection. The shop was cool about it, dunno if they were trying to build the relationship but he was talking about how much effort the mount that made me quit on the job took. Owner had an IT Integra and was giving me suspension advice too.

In reply to pres589 :

if "give it away" becomes your chosen path, may i call dibs?

i still get frozen by fear occasionally.  i'm 51 and have been doing just about everything except body and paint since i was 13.  my fear is that the result won't be perfect, because i know i have a lot of eyes watching me.  the reality, which contradicts the fear, is that failure is highly educational, for myself *and* those watching eyes.

I was intimidated by my E60 when i first got it.   fortunately it hasn't been haunted by electronic gremlins, and i've been able to successfully repair every mechanical fault that i've attempted.   but it's my daily so i know eventually i'm going to have to farm something out.

I still say no to transmissions and german cars. 

I’m currently in this position with the motor on the 73 f100. I’ve taken a deep breath though and I’m just trying to be a careful and as thorough as possible in putting it back together. It does make me nervous though and I do feel a bit over my depth. 

In reply to grover :

I got over my first engine eons ago. one thing at a time. keep it clean, and seal everything that needs to be sealed. 

In reply to AngryCorvair :

SingleSlammer has dibs and might actually pay me for the dumb thing OR help me fix it.  We haven't discussed anything seriously since May though, and I don't know how serious it ever was.

There was a time when I could "fix" anything on a car. 

Now I have very little motivation to do so.

My mother was a teacher and my father was a mechanical engineer and ardent DIY'er.  They were 40 when I was born(oldest of 2) and they made sure that my brother and I were always involved in everything they did.  At 5 years old I could read the sizes on the wrenches and hand my father the one he wanted.  At 7 I mixed all the concrete for the basement floor of the house we were building.  At 11 I could run the lathe, drill press, and milling machine that were in that basement.  Fear of not being able to do something was not a subject that ever came up, we just went ahead and did it.

Guess it is no wonder I ended up being a shop teacher.  

Suprf1y said:

Streetwiseguy said:

I'm almost 58, I've been a professional tech for 39 years, owned my own shop for 31 years, and E36 M3 still intimidates me.  

Probably for different reasons though. I've been a tradesman over 30 years and few jobs really intimidate me. I just know what a pain in the arss some of them can be and I don't want to put myself in that position. 

Today is an excellent example.  I've built 30 or so road race and stock car cages, and have a reasonable reputation locally.  Dude shows up with his low nine second 150mph GTR and wants an NHRA legal certified cage so he can run drag week.  So, now, I have to wedge a bunch of tube into a car that has a couple of hundred thousand dollars tied up in it, around a bunch of leather seats and electronics. 

I know its not really any different than caging an Integra, but still... 

Plus, drag race guys are weird.  Stock car guy doesn't care at all about a scratch in the paint, road racer goes, "Oh well", drag racer is concerned about whether he can get his California duster around all the tubes.

I've only been scared of working on cars twice. Once right after it tried to fall on me, and last night when I was trying to do a battery in the dark during a lightning storm. 

My problem now is overcommitment. I'm not scared of much of anything (anymore), but partly because of that I've agreed to take on other peoples' major time-sink diagnostic problems and I feel buried a lot of the time. I bear it pretty well, but I often feel like I've made the wrong decisions in deciding what type of projects are going to leave me with the best sense of reward/accomplishment/effort:return ratio. 

As far as the nuts and bolts stuff, my general opinion now having learned so much already is that i enjoy understanding how things work far more than i think i ever suffered in the learning it. So, to me an opportunity to learn about a machine is pretty blue chip in the long run.