Everything I do, I do with a hint of failure :(

[Turborave]

I feel like I can't do anything with out messing something else up, or it taking more effort than it should. I watch videos of the stuff i'm trying to do, and they are like, boom, you just pop this out, pop this in, and your are done!

me, i mess around with it for 4x longer than it should take and break or mess something up along the way. i feel like im carefully trying to paint a room and i step in the paint can.

my rear shocks took me 2 days to install, that should have been simple. i swapped out my side markers today for dark ones and i could hardly get the stock ones out, used a "mar free" trim prying tool on the passenger side and it fudged up the paint on the edge of cut out for the lens. i have magnetic touch up paint, but its not 100% im not an idiot, really! i just cant seem to do any mod to this truck with out a hiccup.

im getting my level kit installed tomorrow.. lets hope that goes ok, at least im not doing the work.

not looking for advice.. just venting.

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[jlmotox]

Don't beat yourself up it's just the way it is... Sometimes things go together easy sometimes they don't. Don't forget all of those videos you see are edited and you don't get to see the cussing and wrench throwing!
My wife already knows that if I say the job will take 3 hours she plans that I will be in the garage all day. lol

 

[TBR17]

Don't beat yourself up it's just the way it is... Sometimes things go together easy sometimes they don't. Don't forget all of those videos you see are edited and you don't get to see the cussing and wrench throwing!
My wife already knows that if I say the job will take 3 hours she plans that I will be in the garage all day. lol

What you said 100%!!!!!

 

[Turborave]

Don't beat yourself up it's just the way it is... Sometimes things go together easy sometimes they don't. Don't forget all of those videos you see are edited and you don't get to see the cussing and wrench throwing!
My wife already knows that if I say the job will take 3 hours she plans that I will be in the garage all day. lol

thank you.. seriously.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

Don't beat yourself up it's just the way it is... Sometimes things go together easy sometimes they don't. Don't forget all of those videos you see are edited and you don't get to see the cussing and wrench throwing!
My wife already knows that if I say the job will take 3 hours she plans that I will be in the garage all day. lol

Agreed. Worst video edit ever is for the RC 2-1/2” Level Kit from Stage 3. What they don’t show you is just how to get the longer strut back in. I’m certain it’s the part where they popped the CV while reefing down on the LCA. So many folks on here have followed those video instructions and lived to regret it. ?

 

[Chris M]

@Turborave...
Some of us (me) are incredibly inept at the handyman kind of thing, and to that end things either don't come out quite like I want them to, or they take way longer to get done than the normal human would get them done. I also try to watch videos of how to do things just to be sure I'm on the right track (my son likes to laugh at me for that), and sometimes that helps and sometimes not.

Reading through the threads on this forum will, if you let it, make you feel incredibly ignorant and inept about what are seemingly the simplest of things. As previously posted...don't beat yourself up over it. There's just no future in it.

One of the wisest things I've heard over my lifetime is this phrase from a Clint Eastwood movie, believe it or not: "A man's got to know his limitations..."

Do what you know you can do, and save up to pay someone to do those things you know are beyond your capabilities. There's no shame in that.

 

[Chappy]

As my mom used to say... I lose my religion every time I went to work on my old truck. I'm telling you, I invented words that would make a sailor blush.

 

[Heezy]

It happens. Getting the grill off wasn’t easy for me as it looked broke 2 tabs and messed up the paint on the valance. I feel your pain lol. But that’s part of the fun.

 

[Turborave]

It happens. Getting the grill off wasn’t easy for me as it looked broke 2 tabs and messed up the paint on the valance. I feel your pain lol. But that’s part of the fun.

yeah, ive looked at the grill swap, that looks like a pain, i will snap every single one of those lil tabs, and cut myself in the process, i know it!

 

[GSD4EVR]

This is something I've had to learn to accept over the years. I've always tried to fix and do things myself. Yes, many times I watched those great how-to vids where everything is easy peasy. So endeth the lesson...

When I put the Bilstein shocks on the rear of my ranger, I did it in the driveway on one of those rare NC 20 something degree days. Did it with the truck right there in the driveway. No big troubles other than using a prybar to leverage the shock into the bottom brackets.

Then Murphy showed up. I spent 45 minutes fiddling, over and over again, with the captive nut near the passenger side frame that was hard to reach and insisted on sliding out into a tiny space upon the slightest nudge of the bolt.

Now I just plan for that kind of stuff. Even if "all you have to do is turn one screw", I count on there being some intrinsic time-consuming, frustrating catch. As a rule, I double the amount of time. If I think it will only take a half hour, I can figure an hour. If an hour, then two hours. LOL

 

[Markubis]

I feel like I can't do anything with out messing something else up, or it taking more effort than it should. I watch videos of the stuff i'm trying to do, and they are like, boom, you just pop this out, pop this in, and your are done!

me, i mess around with it for 4x longer than it should take and break or mess something up along the way. i feel like im carefully trying to paint a room and i step in the paint can.

my rear shocks took me 2 days to install, that should have been simple. i swapped out my side markers today for dark ones and i could hardly get the stock ones out, used a "mar free" trim prying tool on the passenger side and it fudged up the paint on the edge of cut out for the lens. i have magnetic touch up paint, but its not 100% im not an idiot, really! i just cant seem to do any mod to this truck with out a hiccup.

im getting my level kit installed tomorrow.. lets hope that goes ok, at least im not doing the work.

not looking for advice.. just venting.

I bet if I drove my truck over to your house and asked you to install some rear shocks for me it wouldn't take 2 days to install them, would it?

First time doing something new is always like that. Don't beat yourself up.

 

[NickTheEnforcer]

Yeah, I've F'd up stuff myself over the years, mostly b/c of OCD and trying to make it 'perfect'..when good enough was probably fine; in the pursuit of perfection I've messed it up! Learning is a lifetime curve. I'm 52 and learned a LOT from watching others, reading and trying! Age has taught me there are some things I just dont want to do anymore because parts of my body just wont cooperate..like laying on my back on concrete for extended times to work on for example suspension work. NEVER be afraid to try, learn and even fail...failing and re-doing is 'tuition' we need to be willing to pay to be able to say, "I DID IT!"
If not just whip out the checkbook and pay someone, but sometimes they dont do a very good job!

 

[NurseNeil]

I feel like I can't do anything with out messing something else up, or it taking more effort than it should. I watch videos of the stuff i'm trying to do, and they are like, boom, you just pop this out, pop this in, and your are done!

me, i mess around with it for 4x longer than it should take and break or mess something up along the way. i feel like im carefully trying to paint a room and i step in the paint can.

my rear shocks took me 2 days to install, that should have been simple. i swapped out my side markers today for dark ones and i could hardly get the stock ones out, used a "mar free" trim prying tool on the passenger side and it fudged up the paint on the edge of cut out for the lens. i have magnetic touch up paint, but its not 100% im not an idiot, really! i just cant seem to do any mod to this truck with out a hiccup.


im getting my level kit installed tomorrow.. lets hope that goes ok, at least im not doing the work.

not looking for advice.. just venting.

I am there with you, especially on a new truck I am still paying for and my daily. So I leave it to the pros, but feel your pain.

 

[Turborave]

This is something I've had to learn to accept over the years. I've always tried to fix and do things myself. Yes, many times I watched those great how-to vids where everything is easy peasy. So endeth the lesson...

When I put the Bilstein shocks on the rear of my ranger, I did it in the driveway on one of those rare NC 20 something degree days. Did it with the truck right there in the driveway. No big troubles other than using a prybar to leverage the shock into the bottom brackets.

Then Murphy showed up. I spent 45 minutes fiddling, over and over again, with the captive nut near the passenger side frame that was hard to reach and insisted on sliding out into a tiny space upon the slightest nudge of the bolt.

Now I just plan for that kind of stuff. Even if "all you have to do is turn one screw", I count on there being some intrinsic time-consuming, frustrating catch. As a rule, I double the amount of time. If I think it will only take a half hour, I can figure an hour. If an hour, then two hours. LOL

that passenger side nut is just cruel.. mine fell in the little thing a few times, but i was able to poke it up and out with a screw driver. whos idea was that?

 

[Jake]

Murphy's law is in full effect whenever working on any kind of vehicle. You can never plan for all the shit that will go wrong or be unnecessarily difficult.

New struts for my old explorer took the entirety of a 4 day weekend to install because one of the lower mount bolts was siezed.I spent probably $40 on sawzall blades to cut the thing out. And then of course it was some weird size so I had to buy a new bolt from the ford dealer an hour from home for like $75. Something as simple as an oil change and tire rotation on my ranger went horribly wrong when the hydraulic hose on the lift blew out and sprayed oil every where, leaving me to do it the old fashioned way on jackstands.

You will always be looking for a tool, have a brand new part be wrong or break, or be met with some task that looked so easy in the video but when you try it you may as well be trying to extract Excalibur from the stone.

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