Muppets doing jobs they are to dumb to do.

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Don’t you just love people who don’t know what they are doing, read about it on the internet and fly in.

Then wonder why it goes terribly wrong.

Lucky today the only thing hurt was some ones pride and his wallet. Plus his furious wife.


A friends Ford failed the MOT on a failed drop link arm. See the attached image. Simple to change, remove wheel, undo 2 x M10 (17mm spanner) and remove.


I got a phone call last night, he had bean struggling for 3 hours and now the car had fallen of the jack, can I help.


Load Mini Me, decent trolley jack, axil stands and decent tools into car and drove down. There was the Ford resting on a wheel and the drop link well and truly stuck with a adjustable spanner wedge in-between the drop link and brake calliper.

Up with the car onto stands, remove wheel, Some under body part had cut into the tyre, rendering it scrap. Beat of adjustable and fit new drop link. Total time to repair 67 minutes.

The issue was he was using the car jack to try and raise the roll bar up, as the car was resting on it. The incorrect use striped the threads of the jack and it tumbled onto the wheel.

As I said no one was hurt.

You can see the striped thread, the new shinny bit at the end. The jack is also seized.


But why do a job you are not sure about, all he had to do was call me. I would have lent the tools and my experience to help him out.

Pride before a fall.

 

[ronan]

Wow, i have never seen the threads ripped off a jack like that before, that took some doing.

 

[Bsmith]

Yep. Saw a fella one morning set out to change an outer drive shaft boot on his mother in laws car. "Hate going back to doing mechanics and this cv grease isn't up to much nowadays" he said as he looked at the plastic packet of grease. When I went back at night he had a helper with him, they had removed the whole suspension strut, taken the drive shaft out of the gearbox, oil everywhere and neither of them even knew how to compress the new clips that hold the boot on the drive shaft.

 

[ronan]

Some people won't admit to not knowing how to do a job, and will blunder on afraid of losing face.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Friend of my mums died after he jacked his car up on the grass verge outside his house to repair the exhaust, the jack sank into the ground and he was slowly crushed!

 

[rtbcomp]

I think the problem is that people don't know their limitations.

 

[tflnemesis]

My mate recently replastered his whole downstairs, thought he would give it a go as he has watched me do several repairs at his place...

Now i am not the best plasterer in the world but know how to get it straight and smooth. When i went over to see him a couple of weeks after it was done he proudly showed me his plastering... I have seen smoother artexing... His missus was sat there fuming at the state of it all, then she burst his bubble by asking me to sort it all out... Took me 3 times as long as it should have if he had just rung me in the first place.

 

[Kent]

Happens in every trade and some actually charge ( usually nowhere near enough) of course if they charged the usual money they wouldn't land the job
It's bad to pay too much but worse to pay too little if you pay too much you loose a little money that is all. If you pay too little you risk it all
Of course the above applies equally to diy above your capabilities but in that case at least you learn something ( of course that could be something negative or something positive)

 

[rockweasel]

I wasn't the most experienced DIYer when we moved into our current home, but it didn't matter as I couldn't possibly make things any worse (it was in such a state.)
Over the years I've lost my fear of tackling a new skill, but it's always with the knowledge that it'll probably go t*ts up at some point and even a simple job will have a steep learning curve. A job may look easy, but it's knowing what problems to anticipate and how to sort them when things go wrong that only comes with experience.
We haven't had to have many tradesmen in over the years, but when we do I always ask at least one question about their trade. It may never come in handy, but there's no harm in asking. Last year we had flooring laid in our living room and hall. I took a few tips on how to measure and cut the planks. We had over a box of the planks left at the end of the job - enough to do our bathroom floor which was badly in need of it. We were strapped for cash and agreed to call the floorer (is that a real word) when we were ready. Long story short: he gave us the run around and never turned up to do the job and stopped answering his phone. "You could do it" said my wife. I did. It only cost me the price of a tin glue (£20) and a float (£6). I'd saved over £200 in labour and learned enough to plan on laying a similar floor in our bedroom. Oh, but it cost me another £10 in adhesive remover as I'd bought the wrong float and spread it too thick on the first 3 rows of planks. It's sorted now and TBH you couldn't tell the difference between the professional's work and mine.

 

[dobbslc]

Things I won't touch:
Plastering.
Roofing on the house.
Gas work.
Just about everything else is fair game.

 

[Migmac]

Wow, i have never seen the threads ripped off a jack like that before, that took some doing.

I had a 110 pickup, the jack on that stripped the threads whilst I was changing the wheel. My hands got caught between the wheel and the body. I got them out with minimum damage, skin pulled off the back of my hands and bare knuckles. Never trusted a vehicle jack since or a Landy come to that!

 

[MCKDAVID]

one of the best (and worst) things now is youtube. I mean that if you want to learn how to do something, the information is all out there now, so you can watch and learn. The worst come into it, because firstly, how do you seperate out the Professional way / correct way from the hack and bash methods some show. Secondly it often gives the impression that things are way easier than they actually are and then the Muppets launch into it thinking it's a dodddle, after all the guy on the internet made it look so easy etc.....

I think if you have a little savvy, and some experience, you can tackle most jobs now, if you have the right tools. I've worked in engineering / construction my whole life, and believe me, some of the worst works I've seen were done by professionals. It's no longer a guarantee that the pros will be any better that a decent / skilled amateur, who will generally take more time / effort & pride in the job. ok they may not have the "tips & tricks" that teh pro does to gain time etc, but that doesn't mean that they can't turn out a decent job.

that said, some people should never be allowed anywhere near Tools, ever....

 

[WorkshopChris]

one of the best (and worst) things now is youtube.

Biggest problem is they can look and talk like professionals. As an example my sister is into mountain biking and likes do as much work as possible on her bike as she can, but when attempting something new looks to youtube. Each time she has had a problem or come unstuck it has turned out the person on the video she watched didn't know what they were doing either but talked a good talk.

 

[KemppiFrog]

Ah.... u-tube. Mate has a grey Honda people carrier. Key would not turn, so he looks at the tube and sees some girl in the USA take the ignition to bits and fixing it. So he sends me the link and asks if I can help out. I did fix it, but his was far more complex than the tube vid, with twice the number of bits. I am pretty good at this sort of thing, but I really don't want to see another. Rather have operated on his brain

dobsic
Plastering used to be the highest paid trade, cos it IS difficult. I have restored several houses and it one thing I don't do. Actually the only thing. Gas, electrics, water, heating, bricklaying, concrete, wood and metal....
Plaster and I just don't get on....

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I did not mean in my first post that you shouldn’t ty something.

Nor use the vast range of media and people to show you how.


I meant that unless you have the basic kit, even for safety you should think twice about tackling a job.

My friend was lucky he trashed so car parts and his wallet, I am drinking a beer he payed for.

He could of borrowed my kit and I would of advised, but he rushed in.

A bit of knowledge could be a bad thing.


A few minutes before the car rolled of the jack he was underneath of the car.


So, yes have a go, use the knowledge of others, as some said in past post: Know you limits.

 

[the snooper]

Don’t you just love people who don’t know what they are doing, read about it on the internet and fly in.

Then wonder why it goes terribly wrong.

Lucky today the only thing hurt was some ones pride and his wallet. Plus his furious wife.


A friends Ford failed the MOT on a failed drop link arm. See the attached image. Simple to change, remove wheel, undo 2 x M10 (17mm spanner) and remove.


I got a phone call last night, he had bean struggling for 3 hours and now the car had fallen of the jack, can I help.


Load Mini Me, decent trolley jack, axil stands and decent tools into car and drove down. There was the Ford resting on a wheel and the drop link well and truly stuck with a adjustable spanner wedge in-between the drop link and brake calliper.

Up with the car onto stands, remove wheel, Some under body part had cut into the tyre, rendering it scrap. Beat of adjustable and fit new drop link. Total time to repair 67 minutes.

The issue was he was using the car jack to try and raise the roll bar up, as the car was resting on it. The incorrect use striped the threads of the jack and it tumbled onto the wheel.

View attachment 85648

As I said no one was hurt.
View attachment 85649

You can see the striped thread, the new shinny bit at the end. The jack is also seized.


But why do a job you are not sure about, all he had to do was call me. I would have lent the tools and my experience to help him out.

Pride before a fall.

Drop Link arm ? Surely you mean an anti roll bar linkage

 

[BarrieJ]

Friend of my mums died after he jacked his car up on the grass verge outside his house to repair the exhaust, the jack sank into the ground and he was slowly crushed!

Similar thing happened to my landlord when I was in college back in the late 1960s, he was trying to apply Gun Gum bandage to repair a leak on the exhaust of his very elderly, very rusty Mk2 Jag, the jack mounting point collapsed and the car slowly descended on him. By an incredible bit of luck his wife had just brought out a cup of tea for him and had the presence of mind to throw open the driver's door and use it as a lever to take some of the weight off him.
Since this all happened by the side of a main road, passers by were able to drag him out from underneath. Apart from a few scrapes and bruising he was unharmed.

It was a curious thing; the wife looked like 'Olive' (Stan's sister from the TV sitcom 'On the Buses') and had never given any indication that in such a situation she'd have reacted the way she did.

I shudder to recall the evening when her husband was out and she appeared in my bedroom clad only in what might have been a Littlewoods transparent Bri Nylon negligee and reeking of cheap perfume*, I think she suspected that he used to play away a bit and thought I might be interested in a bit of jiggy-jiggy and help her get her own back.
As they used to say in the News of the World, our reporter made his excuses and left.

Since this was nearly fifty years ago, I'm guessing both Mr and Mrs M may be no longer with us, so I trust they are both resting in peace.

* At the time, the only perfume I was aware of was cheap, I honestly didn't know there was any other sort.

 

[MCKDAVID]

eggsactly, and the sad thing is that some people believe everything they read, see on "telly / internet etc"

having gone through the old apprenticeship, I'm consider myself pretty versatile in terms of getting the job done, and think I have a good understanding of the tasks in general, but often check on the web to make sure that I'm going the right way, and some of the howlers that you see are so obviously wrong, or not thought though is frightening. I think we can be grateful that at least we have enough general knowledge to see through the BS...

 

[BarrieJ]

I had a 110 pickup, the jack on that stripped the threads whilst I was changing the wheel. My hands got caught between the wheel and the body. I got them out with minimum damage, skin pulled off the back of my hands and bare knuckles. Never trusted a vehicle jack since or a Landy come to that!

Agreed, the standard Land Rover jack supplied with a 90/110 Defender (certainly the 200tdi) is a liability. Jacking up the body to change a wheel with the relatively huge amounts of axle travel, means the body is way, way high before the wheel leaves the ground. Certainly wouldn't want to do that on a motorway hard shoulder.
Chuck it and use a Range Rover/Discovery jack with a saddle and jack the axle up instead. The Mercedes Sprinter jack is another better alternative.

 

[AdrianH]

We all have our own ideas of what it would cost to do a job on the house, and I will hold my hand up and say that. I work what we get paid as an hourly rate and then will 1.5 to 2.0 times it to allow for overheads, travel etc. wear on tools etc, then scout on B&Q (Not the cheapest) total the goods up then add around %17 top that cost to get an idea of what I think it could cost via a builder.

Then I will get some bids in.

Some times they can, to me, really take the mick! even if it comes out similar I will look at the job and think, do I want to do it, would the costs of me doing it allow me to buy X, Y or Z to keep, my own labour being free.

There are some jobs like plastering I will not touch, roofing jobs no as my bones break to easily now. Car jobs I am confident with, but only because of I have maintained my cars for 20 plus years, Electrical and Gas I will no longer touch unless it is a electrical fault, I will repair, but not install and definitely leave the mains fuses as they are.

For example
the flags on the drive are moving where the estate car runs up and down every day, the rain over the past 10 years has washed away some of the conrcete/motor/what ever to allow the flags to drop and move and they got quite bad for 12 flags on the drive. We had someone on the road doing a tarmac job, asked if they would mind having a look and giving me a price. well these 12 flags that were bad turned out to be needing the hole bottom half of the drive stripped back a lot of time stripping the flags as they were now obsolete, this would need to be done, that man hole changed £1400.

Me and the mrs did it granted over two days and not full time, got to dig out and relay concrete and bed them in for £80 and our time, may not be perfect, but good enoug to drive the car over.

I have no issues with anyone having a go, the costs benefit could be fantastic, the pride in doing it yourself could be great, providing one accepts that to sometimes remove the good one had done and do it again could cost more then not doing it yourself, what the hell!

Adrian