I fix things as a job and for a hobby
I work as an IT tech and in my spare time I attempt to repair cars. Up until recently I owned a bright red mk2 Golf GTi that I decided to attempt a rolling restore on. I devoted a year of my life and around two thousand pounds replacing worn mechanical components. In the year i had it, the Golf got a new gearbox, two new clutches, a new radiator fan (the old one was so rusted in that I needed a lump hammer to persuade the screws free) as well as various bodywork ancillaries like wheel arch trim, mirrors etc. I had money put by to grind out and replace sections of rusted bodywork as well as a full bare metal respray.

It survived all of this amateur restoration and was starting to become a reliable, nice example. It was the radio aerial that eventually killed the car.

When I first got the car, the old aerial was bent and twisted. Somebody had obviously tried to replace it in the past as the old wire was cut. My first mistake was to pull the head unit end out through the dashboard. You'd usually tape the new wire to that end and use it to pull the new cable through the dashboard.

I fitted the new aerial but for the life of me I couldn't get the new cable through. fed up of being without radio, I was determined not to give up. So the dash had to come out. First the steering wheel came off, then the central column got removed, then all of the screws holding in the dashboard. After that the clocks had to go. By now I was already swamped in screws and bits of interior. Sweating and heaving, the dashboard slowly lifted off from its home of seventeen years.

It got stuck on the indicator and headlight stalks.

It all looked kind of delicate around there so in an effort to avoid having to remove them I tried to find the cable with the access I had, maybe two or three inches. Nope. The insulation behind the dash was in the way. Even tearing some of it off (to be stuck back down later) didn't give me enough room to get my hand and arm behind the dashboard.

The stalks had to come off.

The screws were tiny and fiddly and I was in unknown territory. However, I had come so far and was apparently just a few more minutes away from my goal that I couldn't give in. Not when I was so close. The last screw came out. I just had to remove the plastic cover on the base of the steering wheel column.

And then the column dropped its guts all over the carpet. Screws, plastic, the little clicky switch that governs the indicators, everything. And I had no idea how to put it all back. I couldn't afford to pay a garage to fix it for me and so the car that I had poured so much time and money into ended up getting slowly sold for parts, and then scrapped.

What a miserable end to a year-long project. So embarrassed was I about my idiocy that people were told in the immediate aftermath that the engine had blown up.

Poor Golf :(
( Kroney, Fri 4 Apr 2008, 9:51, 3 replies)

*sniff*
I had to wipe away a tear. What a tragic end. I too used to tinker with cars - proper minis to be specific (plus 2 Fiat 126's - one of which I had to start with a broom shank, coz the starter cable snapped).
Happy days. I loved nothing better than spending days off playing with the tickover, taking the distributer cap off and lovingly sliding my feeler guage in the spark-plug gaps.........

*Ahem* that was starting to sound rude...

Of course, looking under the bonnet of a modern car these days.... PFFT! Wouldn't know my arse from my elbow....
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Fri 4 Apr 2008, 10:46, closed)

modern cars
I work with computers every day. I don't want to have to get my laptop out to diagnose an engine problem. Using tools means that it's a hobby, not work. The minute I have to use a computer, it'll be work and I'll lose interest.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Apr 2008, 10:55, closed)

That made me sad
I think I'd have been drilling a new hole for the cable before taking the whole interior to bits though.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 4 Apr 2008, 10:56, closed)