My other red rallye resto......

[Toms306]

Tom,

Having two great mates, one of whom owns a tyre unit with a two post lift and the other who works for the first mate as mechanic helps. Massively. Living half an hour from Carl Grimsley (Mr Mechanical Repairs) also helps as he seems to have this never ending pile of whatever parts you need.....

However, what I have discovered, is that cars are nowhere near as difficult or complex as you think. I've done most of the work on this one myself, other than the cambelt and welding as I don't have either of those skills, yet.. The more you take them apart, the more you see they are relatively simple and not things to be scared of.

Onmly thing that's going to slow me down at the minute is this bloody operation. Not being able to do anything is going to drive me insane, knowing I've a broken Rallye to fix....

Ah yes, it's always who you know!! When I started doing these things I didn't know anyone in the trade well enough to ask favours. And when I did ask a couple of local car people they weren't really interested. It's been useful knowing Bash this year though.

Parts is something I always struggle with, partly because I'm tight and don't like paying ebay prices and daft amounts for fast delivery, but also I seem to find there's not 'XXX' around when I need one but loads shortly after I've overpaid for the first one I saw.

I totally agree about cars not being difficult, I was never really into cars as a kid, think I remember my Grandad showing me how to check a dipstick, and my Dad showing me how to zero the odometer lol, I know a lot of people on here have gained their skills and knowledge from their parents but that's not something I had. In fact I never thought I'd be able to drive, I was terrified of taking driving lessons when I'd been bought some for my 17th. Then owning an old 306 and having a couple of bad experiences with garages made me want to fix them myself. With the 306 forum and the college course I did, realised they weren't complicated at all, it's all just nuts and bolts at the end of the day! Then I modified a diesel Golf as part of my college project which interested people as I had the only diesel on the course lol, but that came to a sudden demise, which wasn't a bad thing as I broke it for parts...learnt so much breaking the complete car and stripping it to a bare shell, would recommend it to anyone that has the chance to do that! Even the electrics aren't complicated, get bored of hearing how scary and unreliable modern cars are...it's all just wires and sensors lol, only complicated part is the ECU!

Good luck with the op also...cars are easy, humans not so much.