How bad did your first DIY project go...

[Shallow_Bay]

my first DIY i never thought it was gonna end... I replaced the rotors on my 94 accord ex. after 2 full days of work from trying to get the bolts of the hub assembly, i was ready to give up hope... but i went to the store, picked some new bolts up and everything went smooth. brakes worked awesome. but to think i did it just to save on payin someone to do it... not worth it

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[Hondelso]

i painted my car lol... I do not have a steady hand and i would never be a plastic surgeon either lol. no pictures... it was horrible. RUNS RUNS RUNS!

[superbasildean]

My first DIY was to revinyl the upper interior of my del sol (the gray part) in red. With the help of my girlfriend (and her keeping me patient!) I managed to do everything perfectly...except for one piece in which a corner ripped. I'll redo it eventually but for now I'm going to leave it alone until it bothers me enough to fix it since I don't want to deal with it again for a while.

Now I'm working on various other things. The aesthetics of the car are almost complete then I'll start to delve into the engine bay . . .

[Snoopy]

my first DIY was replacing the cluster bulbs with amber ones in my civic. easy as pie and turned out great.

[Hot1990civ]

My first diy i Was changing my timing belt, didn't relize that it was the tensioner bolt and that was it, i had to the whole thing from scratch like 6 hours to get the thing on tdc because my dad was turning it backwards the whole time haha but it got done anyways.

[xXTidusXx]

my First DIY was painted Needles. It was kinda hard because I used nailpolish on the bright side it doesnt look bad @ all.

[SliChopShop]

Not So Bad..... 1st project car was a 1969 Pontiac Catalina 4 door boat and i mean big.

I brought the car to shop class for my first year in high school auto body repair.

The first thing I did was sand off the pain, tape up the windows and parked the car outside the shop class building where it sat in limbo for the whole class year.

That was Great..... The big four door car gave us a nice hiding spot where we could sit behind the taped up windows and roll'em up and burn'em down, had a nice cooler in back seat to hold the extra beer,

custom built 2' water bong under the front seat (thanks to the guy's in welding class) for the friday afternoon Blonde Lebanese

A flip down table top for playing cards (thanks to the guy's in wood shop)

half the school would hide out in the car until bell rang everyday so that we could go for the bus ride home and that was great too

We Mildred who was a 69 year old lady for a bus driver and she used to be a boot-legger in her day.... so she did not mind us smoking the good stuff but would give the guy's hell if they burned up the shit and actually stopped the bus one day and made some of the guys toss their weed out because it smelled so bad.

man those were the day's...

o sh!t i think i am getting head rush with this flash back

Was not until the last week of school that i had to kick @ss, finish sanding
and roll that car into paint booth to finish up the paint job so i would get passing grade for the year.

The old catalina with the 400 motor would float at 120mph on the black top roads and lasted 250,000 miles before it ever to as much have had a valve cover seal replaced but gas was cheap back then and now have to suffer with driving these little cars

The BAD Part....
I had priorities back then and purchasing other than what would smoke was not in the top ten. i did not buy clear coating to apply over the color coat and the paint faded off in a year

but the primer paint lasted until the death of the car

1981-1982

[henryfil]

don't wanna recall my stupidity on my first DIY. but at least i tried and learned from the mistakes.

[QuikSilver]

First DIY was new deck and subs in the Teg. Went easy peasy, with the help of a $9 wiring diagram off the net.

Also installed Sparco hood pins, that took about an hour. Hardest part was measuring where to drill the hood.

Installed a Fidanza short shifter in a parking lot at my buddy's apartment in college. Took about 2 hours all together, but then "oh shit" I installed the shifter with the Z-Bend backwards Jacked it back up, unbolted the shifter an spun it a 180*. Works great still! Shucks grease was a plus, else it squeeked a bish...

Then I installed an Oil Pressure gauge, that was fun times, lol. Stock sender was leaking really bad, so I just decided to get the aftermarket one and install it. Again, about 3 hours in the apartment complex parking lot and it was done. Looks sweet too.

Next DIY is the turbo installation. Manifold, Turbo, FMIC and charge piping, have a custom DownPipe made and install that, Fuel Pump, Injectors, Oil lines, ECU, boost gauge, vacuum gauge, relocating the oil pressure gauge to the tripple pillar pod I'm also installing.......whew.

I'm giving myself 2 weeks to complete the Turbo Install. Sounds pretty reasonable, mostly because I still have to order the Injectors and Fuel Pump. ECU will be here this week with the Turbo Kit. Then have the DP made and it's done, ready to be tuned! Woohoo!

[ion]

DIY Black Housing headlights on my Civic... i left it in the oven for too long without watching it and it melted the top portion of the headlight, sort of. it changed colors from being burnt and is now a white permanent color to it...

[BKKloppenborg]

My first DIY was installing my Koni Yellows on my Integra. OH man that was a nightmare. First shock/strut took it out from bottom first and got it stuck, then i finally got it and then after i put all of the Shocks/Springs on i found out that i found out my front of car was higher then the back. I had put the back on lowering and not the front. LOL Had to take the front back off and redo it..

Time: 12+ hours

[Civic07]

hmmm my first diy to my civic was putting an underglow neon kit on it, It wasnt really that bad I just called up one of my buddies and we put the car up on ramps and starting installing the tubes and then ran the wires and the switch the neon looks good but it took way longer than id hoped about 4 to 5 hours!!!

[k_elliot]

My first DIY for my 1995 Legend was window tinting. My boyfriend and I decided to make like automotive-DIY-capable people and do the job ourselves. Everything went fine at first, the cutting of the film and the washing of the windows. Disaster struck when the time came to peel the film off the backing and applying it to the glass.. Not only did we forget to wet the windows' surfaces, the film doubled over and stuck together. Haha. We tried to remedy it for an entire day, but ended up getting 'professional' help.

[96DX4dr4life]

i remeber my first DIY, i wanted to get an ill fiberglass look so i bondo'ed the center console on my 96 civic to get rid of that wrinkley look it has. so i tried to bondo it in and i ended up sanding it for like a month while i drove around with no console. and i didn't get fine enough grit so it looked scratched and i cracked it anyway. looked good the second time through tho.

[stanchua]

radiator replacement for 90-93 accord!!! dint tighten the nuts, transmission oil was leaking...

[SR71BlkBrd86]

Hehe... my first couple DIY's were fine, installing amps, speaksers and subs into a 93 3000gt... but when my girlfriend decided to run over a curb knocking out the damn oil pan.... that was a b!tch! Took me 3 days underneath the hood of the damned things cause i didnt want to take apart half the engine... when i was finally able to take the oil pan off, i had to freakin take off the ac compressor and some other engine components... but i finally had it done and took it to a shop just so they could check out my work (it was my first time doing something like this). i learned alot but i sure as hell will never work on her 94 grand am again!!!!!

[pow_pow]

My first DIY on my TL was replacing the emblems and grill with JDM Honda Inspire badges. It took way longer than it should have, but I didn't consider all the steps. Also, I bought an '03 Inspire grill instead of the '01, so I couldn't use it. Instead, I took out the A badge on the grill, filled the two holes, taped over the middle plastic piece, painted it black, then custom cut Honda emblem and fit it right on the grill. Looks great, and I got the Inspire on the back straight, too. Looks pretty JDM now

[Tedmond]

not a bad DIY but just not paying enough attention. Working on a car for car audio, taking a 10mm socket and long extension, i was removing the volt to the battery terminal and the socket was so long that it touched the 12v terminal. I popped the main fuse to the fusebox on a honda accord. i think it was a 100amp fuse special order from dealership =D

[MadScientistMat]

Half excellent and half disaster. It was a 1966 Dodge Dart that I had just got as my first car... in 1996. It needed a lot of work, and being a high school kid with no money that meant doing the work myself for the most part. So my first project was to rebuild its carburetor and give it a tune up.

The carburetor rebuild turned out pretty well. It came out about as well as a decent professional rebuild and a lot better than those junky rebuilt carburetors you can buy in parts stores (not too sure how many guys can relate to that here).

The tune up was the disaster half. I didn't tighten down one of the electrical connections in the distributor and it just plain died on me. Got it home with some help from my dad, found the problem - then made the mistake of dropping a screw into the distributor. Broke the distributor gear when I cranked it over so the timing became kind of random. Ever see a 12" jet of flame spew out your newly rebuilt carburetor?

I still have that car.

[scuzz1]

My first major DIY on Honda's went great.
I put LS B18B1 changeover in 93 Civic Hatch CX. It went great, but I got lucky and got wrecked 92 hatch from junk yard with the changeover already in it, so it was a matter of just changing bodies.
I really got lucky finding that deal, and it only cost me 260.00 delivered to my house.
What a bargain.

[smartamar11]

Replaced the fabric on inned door panels. Drilled a hole through the vinyl don't ask. But then after that went pretty smoooth.. I like how they look now at least

[nascarfish]

I must start by saying THANK YOU WESTCOAST!!! For that DIY clutch install.
I am more or less a backyard mechanic at best....I do friends oil changes, breaks, coolant etcetc...maintenance stuff. Then the clutch went out on my 96 Acura integra. I am pretty much broke and unemployed, so I couldn't afford to have it done. My girl spotted me the cash (which I paid back already ) for the parts and a chilton book.
Right when we started to loosen bolts the 31mm axle nut was frozen...I mean frozen! We put airtools on it, breakers with 6 ft pipes on it, torch EVERYTHING! 2 days later I ended up cutting with a die grinder, luckily I was very careful and did not harm the axle threads at all....after that all was cool as far as everything coming off easy....if I was able to figure out what to take apart....
To keep a long story short, I was trying to do it with the Chilton Book, but it really was too technical and horrible pictures....so I turned to the Web and started searching for some help....I ran across a couple sites/forums but when i found Westcoasts right up with 58 pics I was like "Hell Yeah, this is what i am looking for, I can do this" With out that I don't know what I would have done.....
I got it done and it runs great now.....one last thanks to Westcoast!
I look forward to checking this forum out and maybe makin some friends....

[eg Honda noob]

my only DIY gone wrong... so far, is the damn instrument cluster needles when installing gauge faces... long story short, I still currently do not have a temp or fuel gauge cause I can't find a cluster cheap at any boneyards in my area... that and no time to do it right now

[kenny8585]

My DIY was a my friend HOnda civic 2002 fog light was pain in the ass to get the fender out my way to run the wire. I couldn't remove the clip on the side of the fender because it broke and hardly remove it. All that work went through and the light would even want to come on. The worst part was trying install the light on the bumper. I recommend having a dremel with blade to cut it, otherwise you might just spend hrs trying to cut that without a proper tools.

[coolfool4242]

it was really fun actualy. kinda hard to learn the wiring at first so i got the deck installed where i bought it and i bought 4 jensen speakers to go with it and it was super easy to install and after that i got tho 8 inch subs to put behind my seat, for a two seater truck it slapped lol. not much room to improve really. i had a few problems maybe 4 months after i put the subs in but easy fix. i forgot to cap the wires. fixed that works good now. jus do your research before you DIY.

[gotta go]

because i read directions and i follow directions even better i still haven't been able to go far. My o rings were bad no prob waited on factory replacing electrical connector for the injector not so well is taking the water proof seal out a bad idea if not do i need anything to seal