Cars X Girl

One thing about the majority of petrol-heads is that we like to do our own work. Yeah, mechanics are great for help and those super pesky tasks, but really, we like to turn wrenches ourselves. There’s just something to working on your own car, putting on that new part that makes is that much more you. Having your parts put on for you just isn’t the same.

Cost of Convenience

Being able to turn your own wrenches is great, and it’s always awesome to build up those amateur mechanical skills. Hey, ya never know, someday they could come in handy, and maybe even make some money. Despite all that, we mostly do it for the love of the work. The feeling of accomplishment is hardly unparalleled.

Unfortunately, life can get in the way big-time. It’s not always easy to find the time, place or tools to complete the work that needs to be done, or even the expertise. My husband is extremely mechanically-inclined, as he should be since he’s a jet engine mechanic, but he still would rather have someone who really knows what they’re doing around just in case. So it took us a few more weeks than we’d have liked to do the S2000’s brakes, since we had to line up time with a friend of ours.

While I love to work on my own car, I’m so busy that it’s hard to find the time to do so. Between work, school and homework, my life can be pretty darn crazy. It’s only made worse by the fact that where we live, auto maintenance is frowned upon and we’re pretty much told to take it to the hobby shop. Which, quite frankly, I would love to, if the freakin’ place was ever open. Seriously, three day weekends every week? Shove it, some of us don’t have only eight hour work days.

In my life, convenience is important… Time is rather precious and definitely limited.

Some things need to be done sooner than I'd have the time for them.

Thus the Outsourcing!

That said, it’s hard for me to have the time to sit around and do my own work. Sadly, I’m not very mechanically-inclined, so it takes a while for me to get something down. Even so, I need someone with me since I just don’t have that much upper body strength. My body type makes for an awesome driver, but a sucky mechanic.

So while we did the brakes on our S2000, my Miata spent the day at her version of a “spa,” with our mechanic. $500 for all the parts, and $200 for the installation. Yeah, ouch. It was definitely money well spent, as they were awesome for the track and I’m looking forward to many autocrosses with my Hawk pads.

But not everything gets done by our mechanic, either. It took way way way too long for my Miata’s shiny new high-flow catalytic converter to get installed. I didn’t really feel like bothering our mechanic with it, I mean, c’mon… Four bolts!! My schedule just refused to match up with the stupid hobby shop, though, and the rattling was driving me crazy. (She was bottomed out pretty bad leaving Hallett; she started rattling the next morning.)

My awesome husband volunteered to do it himself, to save what little bits of my sanity I have left. It ended up not being that much of a straightforward job, since bolts don’t like being moved after staying in the same place for 12 years, but he got the job done. He’s extremely appreciated, to say the least!

Guilty Conscience

The worst part about outsourcing is the guilt of not doing the job yourself. While I probably wouldn’t have been much help swapping out my cat, I would have still been there to help work on my car. Doing my turn signal intakes myself was a huge confidence booster, and I got an even bigger kick out of doing my cold air intake and my exhaust. Not being there for this mod was really disappointing for me.

Then again, if I didn’t let it get done while I wasn’t around, I’m not sure when it would have ever been done. The latest for the Miata was a set of carbon fiber side mirrors, her first bits of carbon fiber. It’s also something that I  definitely was around for… It was easily done in our driveway!

And while it’s not as sexy saying I installed new side mirrors as it is saying that I installed a new catalytic converter, it’s still work on my car, it’s still a new mod and I still love the time I spend with her.

I'm always happy to do mods myself, even if they're super easy.

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