Maintenance. How hands on are F-chat owners?

Time to pull the Jay Leno, when you find a good mechanic at one of the many shops that service your cars ..... hire him full time
Maybe a couple of them, hell Jay has a steam engine car mechanic.
Me and a friend were talking about it last night, how many people have their own in house steam engine mechanic ?

 

Omg , I'm gonna take the 5th. I've been called a tool but I don't have any.

 

I'm very hands on. I keep both hands on the wheel all the way to the dealership.

 

Lol

 

I find working on my 308 (obviously, easier than the modern ones) to be incredibly therapeutic. I might cuss at it throughout the process, but when I look back on a weekend spent wrenching on it, I always think, "What a great weekend that was!"

 

When you work on cars over a weekend and successfully fix a fault then you almost always feel it was a good weekend.

However, when your grazing your arms, cutting your fingers, smacking your hands on hard metal parts, twisting your back out and lying on cold concrete/tarmac whilst trying to refit a part by feel alone, wondering why it won't go back on again as easily as it came off, wondering where the Hell that bolt you've just dropped has gone, wondering why they designed the car in such a stupid way in the first place, and then discovering that the replacement part is not the correct one and so you'll have to wait longer to get the car back on the road, then you won't be thinking it's such a great weekend!

I've had to replace the CV boot clamps on My 348 since owning the car as the original clamps came loose and were unusable, and I can honestly say that even now, long after the job was completed, I look back on both of those weekends and think to Myself: "What a f:censored:g pain in the a:censored:e of a job that turn out to be!", due to the lack of room to get the clamp pliers onto the clamp to tighten them up!

 

I do everything myself outside of and above the removed valve-cover exposed heads.


Engine interior? NOPE.

WAY TOO MUCH for little ole me.

 

Some day, some day.

 

Then you need an age-compliant workshop garage, it really helps ...

 

I bought my self a car that had been wee bit neglected I just could not wait to get in there start workin on her. I put a total of 100 khs on her before I drove into my garage and began stripping her. I've put about 2000-3000 hrs into her and $20,000 it was a long 12 months but loved every minute of it, to me half the fun is working on her the over half is driving it.

Cheers
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I do the basics, but I'm very mechanically inclined. I work a desk job, but have no problem ripping into something, even if I don't know anything about it.

I've fixed so many appliances in my house, the money I've saved (and fun I've had doing it) makes it worth it.

I'm more tentative with my Jag or Ferrari, for obvious reasons.

 

@rizzo308 Holy crap, that is one thoroughly disassembled F430. Sounds like a great opportunity to learn about your car!

How about a new poll option, "I wish I had the time to work on my car."

Being a new parent I don't have the free weekend time that I used to have, but I love learning about my car and I ask a lot of pesky questions of the people who do the work. I try to live vicariously through my mechanics.

 

4.5 years with my F355 and it never once saw a shop during my ownership.

Here's my F355 steering rack removal thread
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/430060-how-remove-steering-rack-355-a.html

 

Hi James,
Nice work on the exhaust pipes did you fab the cats up your self would you share with us any info on the cats I want to do a DIY upgrade my cats soon. TIA

Cheers

 

I have owned four Ferraris since 1974.
A 330 2+2 series 2 for one year.
A GT/4 for three years.
A Mondial 308 QV for two years.
A 330 GTC SINCE 1975 - I still own it and it has just over 180,000 miles. I put on over 140,000 of those miles.
In total, I have put on around 200,000 miles on my Ferraris.

Aside from bodywork on the GT/4, (I hit a deer!) I have done ALL MY OWN WORK.
This includes all maintenance, routine and otherwise.
On the GTC, I have painted it, rebuilt the engine and transaxle along with many little mods that make the car more driveable and reliable. REMEMBER, it is an everyday driver.

Although I don't consider myself all that smart, I am proud of my ability to do my own work and really enjoy the GTC as it was meant to be treated and driven.

My ultimate moment of glory was when the GTC was awarded " BEST OF SHOW" at Hilton Head in 2013. We didn't even clean or detail it - we just parked it with the other Ferraris and walked away to look at other cars. We were indeed surprised to find the "Best of Show" notice on the windshield when we returned.

My point? Most of you are a lot smarter than I. You'd be quite surprised at how easy it is to do your own work, especially on the older cars . Just think of the money you"ll save!!!

Bob Z.

 

This is a great post that could only be better with a pic of that best of show GTC!!!

Awesome job!

 

I do it all. Could not afford car otherwise.

 

My view at about 1:00 this morning:

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And by 3:30...

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Does it count if my wife does the washing and polishing of the cars?

 

Fine woman you've got there!

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Yep! I am a very lucky guy! I am hands on with her and do all the servicing myself. Would not trust anybody else with that!


With my car, I rather let the visiting mechanic deal with it. Afraid of damaging something.

 

That's so awesome.

I remember that the F-4 Phantom has it's battery in the "passenger" footwell. What a PIA that was to change it out... every 30 days.

 

Yep, working on such great cars is half the fun for me as well. Love seeing pics of disassembled Ferraris. Thanks for posing, Riggio!

 

..Nathan,show how you rip into that sweet MG!..and here's one I heard about MGs,Jags,etc...you know why Brits can't make computers..they can't make them leak oil.
Alwrite,Andrew..that was just a joke,ok..😉
Cheers,
RE
.
...I got the sticky off most(most) of my plastic parts...does that count?