This is an LS400 with Mercedez front. Interesting.
At that type of junkyard, there are a number of things you can do to better yourself. I will list a few and I want you to post any other good ideas.
First of all, let's talk about acquiring the skills to be a mechanic. It's a steep learning curve if you aren't trained professionally and even then it's complicated.
Before I got this car, I knew a little bit about cars but the most I had done was replace an alternator and timing belt among a bunch of smaller things like changing brakes. Remember - I bought this car crashed and I suppose it was the motivation I had for it (being my dream car - I'm not kidding) that made me say, you know what, I'm going to do everything I feel I can pull off by myself.
That's one of the reasons I bought it. I figured I would learn to work on cars and build up my dream car in the process. And it has been working out.
Diggin' the outside woodgrain. I always thought wood floorboards in these cars look amazing.
The first ~$1500 I put into the car was all parts and fluids I changed myself save for the power steering pump. For that, I paid $300 total which included the part and installation.
I told you guys that I was waiting for cooler weather to fix the hood hinge and it's finally here. I have never removed a body part other than a hood before and I'm gonna have to take off the fender to get at the hinge unit.
So how am I going to do this without knowing anything? The first thing I did was Google it. I found a pretty straightforward tutorial but I didn't want to break anything. Can you guess where I went?
I went to U-Pull-n-Pay here in O-town, FL and got to work taking off the fender from an LS400 they had. I was able to take it off just to make sure I didn't make mistakes on my car so I felt a lot more confident after.
This is one of the best things this place offers. The parts are obviously cheap and you can make money here (will get to that in a second). Let me just say that I got a new hood for $50 when it is $200 at the next closest junkyard and $500 on eBay.
I generally don't like the Too Fast Too Furious lights on the ground BUT purple coming out of the foglights only? Legit.
This car below is one of my favorite LS400s and there was a similar one in my neighborhood. It didn't have the Arizona Tea logo but it was the same color and had these straight pipes that curved up and was two feet behind his car. I would be driving my wife's car, see it, and start flipping sh** because I thought it was beautiful and now I'm blessed enough to have the same car? Wow.
Anyway, getting back to building your skillset. Need to know how to replace the alternator on a Honda Civic? Go there and do it. Learn how electrical systems work and how interior panels come off.
People pay thousands of dollars to apprentice but you can literally teach yourself for a $2.00 entrance fee. Just PLEASE work clean - don't break parts that others might need and if you remove something you don't need, leave it close. It's just common courtesy.
The last part I'm gonna talk about is making a little bit of project car money at the junkyard. Realize that some people show up there alone because they need something but the item is something big, like a hood, and the guy wasn't able to bring help? Well that was me and I paid somebody $30.00 to help me take the old hood off and put the new one on.
This isn't an uncommon thing. Matter of fact, these people who are alone will appreciate it. The junkyard doesn't have staff to do it so they don't mind either. Maybe this guy wouldn't have bought the hood if someone wasn't there to help, you know?
Keep an open mind and you will see opportunity all around you.
Don't make this small mistake I did. You see, I had went to the junkyard to see how to install a new Engine Temp Sender. Long story short, I ended up calling a mobile mechanic to do it for $30 but what he did was exactly what I was gonna do. That's when it hit me, I need to have a lot more confidence in myself. I KNEW I could it and chose the safe route which took away the small amount of experience I would have gained from just doing it.
Click here to see my newest video explaining how to use vinyl paint on floormatts. This is the first of a series where I will show you how to change the color of the interior of your car WITHOUT REMOVING ANYTHING and also for under $100. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment