The Ultimate Guide on Car Repairs for Beginners

Want to save thousands by working on your own car, but don't know where to begin or want some quick tips to make it easier? In this blog post, I'm gonna give you my top 5 tips that I've learned the hard way when I started to work on my own cars.

Today I have a confession: for the longest time, I was one of those car enthusiasts, the guy who loved his cars but never actually worked on them. Shame. Whenever one of my own cars would break down, I'd just take it into a shop and hope it wouldn't be too expensive. And guess what? It usually was.

That's because most mechanics charge around 80 bucks for every hour of work that they do. That’s right, most shops will charge you an extra 25 to 50 percent more for the exact same part you could easily buy from home. Add it all up, and you can save hundreds by ordering your own parts and putting in a little elbow grease yourself.

For example, when there is a need for Suspension repair Nottingham in my Corvette recently conked out, the best quote I could find for a shop to fix its parts and labor was $1,000. Instead, I found a refurbished replacement part myself that cost $250. I then spent an afternoon swapping it out and saved myself $750 in the process.

But beyond saving some cash, you also form a greater bond and appreciation for your machine, one you just can’t attain without getting your hands a little dirty. So here are my top 5 tips to help you get started that should be useful for just about any repair you need to make:

Tip Number One: Prep the Day Before

I like to spend at least a few hours online researching how to fix the issue. I put all the helpful links I find in one Google Doc along with any notes or tips. Then, when I’m outside making the repair, I can use my phone and the document I made for quick, easy reference to keep me on track.

Tip Number Two: Be Comfortable 

Working on cars is messy, exhausting physical work, so you might as well be as comfy as you can. That starts with loose clothing that you won’t cry about if it gets stained. You’ll have to contort your body to reach tight spaces or lift heavy pieces, so leave the skinny jeans in your drawer.

Car work is also hard as hell on your hands, so I like using gloves, one of two kinds depending on what I’m doing. For messier jobs, I like standard powder-free nitrile gloves. I wear these to protect my hands if I’m using harsh chemicals, and then I can just toss them away when I’m finished. 

For more physical work where I’m having to wrench, I use these mechanics' gloves, which cost about $20. Just about everything under a car is sharp, so these protect your knuckles from getting all skinned up. They also provide a bit of extra padding to your palm for wrenching work. I cut the fingers off of mine because I just found it easier to grab nuts and bolts.

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Speaking of support, give your back a break by getting a small stool to sit on. It's much more comfortable than having your butt on the ground for hours. I know it sounds weird, but you’ll probably be sweating a lot as you work. So don't forget to stay hydrated and keep drinking water whenever possible, or take something in liquid form.

Tip Number Three: Stay Organized

When I first started working on cars, I lost countless hours just trying to remember where the hell I put stuff or how to reassemble the pieces I took apart. Now I’m organized. I use a sandwich bag, a pen, and a notepad because these steps are simple to do, but most of us ignore them. The second I remove any bolts or nuts, I put them in a baggie and mark what they are. That way, hours later ,when it’s time to reassemble everything, I’ll remember what bolts went where.

Also, as soon as you’re done with a tool or a socket or whatever, take the extra few seconds to put it back. Otherwise, you’ll waste a ton of time wandering around trying to find it later, like you see me doing here while working on my wife’s T-Bird, trying to find a tool I misplaced. Don’t be that guy.

Tip Number Four: Compare Old and New Parts

Before installing anything, you want to make absolutely certain that the new part you have is indeed the same part as the one you’re taking out. Even experienced mechanics often find that the part they order just isn’t right. 

Tip Number Five: Take Reference Photos

Again, your cell phone is your best friend. Before you start taking anything complicated apart, it’s a great idea to have this handy and take pictures as you go. Hours later, when you’re trying to put it together again, you’ll have a handy visual reference on your phone ready to go.

For example, if you do an exhaust repair Nottingham and you find out it needs to be replaced. The first thing you should do is know how to remove the exhaust. You can use the internet to look at the removal process of an exhaust.

This saved my butt during the Corvette power seat repair, which had a bunch of complicated wires and lines to keep track of. But because I took reference photos before disconnecting everything.