Okay, so--Squarebush asked me to do a log of what I am up to, so here is my first installment detailing what I have done (of interest) over the course of the last week.
So, I started of the week by cleaning my garage. Seeing as it is now primarily my work space, I went about re-organizing everything, and in general making it a much nicer place to work. I couple of key features of my renovated work space are a newly installed car radio(on my work bench) that is powered by an ATX power supply, and a new tool box made using an old dresser, some plywood, and drawer sliders bought at Home Depot for about $7 each set.
My first car work of the week was replacing the brake pads and rotors on a 2002 Ford Expedition. Brakes are generally pretty easy, but I have to say Ford really must have given these brakes about 5 minutes of total design time. The brake is entirely put together in a grooved track design, and in order to put it back together a mechanic need about twelve hands. Mostly my complaint about them is that you can't simply put the pads in. You have to assemble the brake in a specific order. Starting with the caliper, you add the outside brake pad, slide on the brake bracket PART of the way, insert the inner brake pad and then finish sliding the bracket into place. Not a terribly great design.
Just now, I went to AutoZone to meet up with my next client who owns a 2004 Legacy. He came to me expressing that he needs new head gaskets. After Some discussion, leading to me finding out his car is about to hit 100k, I recommended replacing the trimming belt while we were at it, and then also the clutch. We bought the necessary parts and set a date for next weekend. In the process of ordering parts we talked quite a bit about his car history and I was shocked. He has near literately been raped on ever minor difficulty he has had with his cars. The best example of this was when he told my about the CV boot that was torn on his car. He took it to a local dealership and ended up paying over $500 to have all 4 CV joints on his front axles replaced. I just spent 2 minutes on Google and found NEW whole axles for less than $60 each. Factor in 1.5 hours of labor, and I am still not coming up with $500; and all they did was rebuild the existing axles. Why do people pay so much for such un-necessary work?
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