Working for a friend

[Bornfree]

A mate asked if he could borrow my ramp to work on his car, my biggest mistake was saying yes. He's got a 1994 mercedes w124 estate with SLS rear suspension and he wanted to change the accumulators. He bought genuine mercedes accumulators and all the hydraulic pipes. I loosened all the fittings that looked like problems and left him to it. I came back 7 hours later to see very little progress he couldn't get the new pipes over the rear subframe. I looked and the subframe needed to be dropped. The next day ( he had worked till 10pm) he told me the pipes were on and connected but 3 of the 4 subframe bolts had snapped. I then had to drill and tap the bolts from underneath. The next problem was somehow he had broken a rusty steel petrol pipe so i gave him a metre of rubber hose to replace it. And in doing this he managed to snap the pipe stub on the fuel tank so spilling 20 to 30 litres of petrol over the workshop floor. The exhaust needs removing the remove the tank and yes he's snapped the exhaust. When we removed the tank the filler pipe just crumbled away so it's a new tank at £760 and a rear silencer at £280. I've probably spent 10 hours for no money and he's over £1500 down on parts.
Who needs friends.

 

[minimutly]

Think yourself lucky the place didn't go up in smoke....

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

I have done a lot of work for friends over the years, but never worse than a clutch replacement in a Celica that was super urgent, and due to an endless list of complications (mostly drilling out corroded fasteners in ridiculous locations) took around 19 hours in a one-er.

If he's as good a bloke as the chap I did that for, you will have a good line in favours for the foreseeable future.

 

[bricol]

Be your fault - the wrong style of ramp/spanners/hose .. .

 

[arther dailey]

friends ae only friends untill you want that favour returned...

 

[JOEPRO]

A mate asked if he could borrow my ramp to work on his car, my biggest mistake was saying yes. He's got a 1994 mercedes w124 estate with SLS rear suspension and he wanted to change the accumulators. He bought genuine mercedes accumulators and all the hydraulic pipes. I loosened all the fittings that looked like problems and left him to it. I came back 7 hours later to see very little progress he couldn't get the new pipes over the rear subframe. I looked and the subframe needed to be dropped. The next day ( he had worked till 10pm) he told me the pipes were on and connected but 3 of the 4 subframe bolts had snapped. I then had to drill and tap the bolts from underneath. The next problem was somehow he had broken a rusty steel petrol pipe so i gave him a metre of rubber hose to replace it. And in doing this he managed to snap the pipe stub on the fuel tank so spilling 20 to 30 litres of petrol over the workshop floor. The exhaust needs removing the remove the tank and yes he's snapped the exhaust. When we removed the tank the filler pipe just crumbled away so it's a new tank at £760 and a rear silencer at £280. I've probably spent 10 hours for no money and he's over £1500 down on parts.
Who needs friends.

Never heard of snapped subframe bolts being an issue on w124s. Never happened on any of mine.

He must be a pretty bad at working at cars to break all that!

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

He must be a pretty bad at working at cars to break all that!

Or the car is an utter rust-bucket!

Possibly both?

 

[gaz1]

friends ae only friends untill you want that favour returned...

i got called a user by a friend i was helping they annoyed me enough to catch a mouthful back and didnt i give em it

i told them what id done for them in days and there was alot of them and then i reeled off what id got back off them

i made them squirm alright as the truth was kinda blunt and in there face the hard way oh and they disappeared with there tail fully between there legs whilst i stayed away from them

as i was annoyed enough that they might get told where to stick it

where still friends at the moment and yes i still do things for them

 

[Keithmac]

It happened the other way for me, struggling to remove a gearbox on my drive and an old school fiend I hadn't seen for 20 years happened to walk past.

"Give me 10 minutes to get changed and I'll pop back and give you a hand".

A bit odd to be on the receiving end if some help!.

Turns out he lives 10 houses down, I've helped him and he give me a hand if I need to take an engine gearbox out.

90% of people you help is a one way street (not in your favour) but there are a few exeptions.

The man on the ramp sounds Reggie DIY, lucky he didn't take any fingers off or set himself on fire by the sounds of it!.

 

[northwest]

Down at the Club I have a (very) short list of people who will muck in and help when it's time to "get things done". I had a quick ring around yesterday and have half a dozen lads coming today to help ou with a general tidy up and install the new Chinese Diesel Heater. Some days though I know it is all down to me.

 

[Bornfree]

Never heard of snapped subframe bolts being an issue on w124s. Never happened on any of mine.

He must be a pretty bad at working at cars to break all that!

He works in an office, I wouldn't be surprised if he was turning them the wrong way.

 

[JOEPRO]

 

[Robotstar5]

Down at the Club I have a (very) short list of people who will muck in and help when it's time to "get things done". I had a quick ring around yesterday and have half a dozen lads coming today to help ou with a general tidy up and install the new Chinese Diesel Heater. Some days though I know it is all down to me.

We would organise a weekend "working day" at the club to dig out the lead from the backstops, only a couple turned up to help so the next time we planned it for one of the main shooting nights.
To be fair, most of those who turned up got stuck in, but a couple said "I joined the club to shoot, not labour" and walked out.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I think by random chance things tend to work out 50:50 on the give and take most of the time.

It's when I notice people gaming the system that I get annoyed...first out the taxi but last to the bar type of thing!

 

[Trevorleach]

To be taken advantage of first you need friends, soemthing I have none of, and tbh I like it that way.

 

[MetalMonkey]

Thing is nobody is born with the knowledge to do these things, and I suspect less and less are in a position to learn new skills outside of what they use professionally.

Like many I started out helping my old man fix his, and then spent many years messing about with cars in my youth, followed by the decades of fixing them to keep them on the road.
I am the "go to" car guy for a lot of my friends who didn't have those skills passed down or the time/space/tools/inclination when they were starting out.

I don't mind them coming over to use tools or if they need a bit of a hand or advice, my trouble is I can't watch somebody struggle so I have a tendency to just get stuck in and "do it for them".
I often have to pull myself up over it and try and let people learn themselves, just offering guidance as and when or stopping anything dangerous. It will take them ten times longer, but it always does when you are starting off with anything new.

I have one friend who started off with no tools and just about could tell which end of a spanner to use, and he now has a collection of tools and feels confident to tackle jobs like brakes, driveshafts and wheel bearings on his own in the street. Fair play to him

He had the mindset to learn and look up how to do the jobs and with a little bit of help and guidance if he gets stuck he's well away. If they have the right mentality, it can be very rewarding watching somebody grow.

 

[arther dailey]

It happened the other way for me, struggling to remove a gearbox on my drive and an old school fiend I hadn't seen for 20 years happened to walk past.

"Give me 10 minutes to get changed and I'll pop back and give you a hand".

A bit odd to be on the receiving end if some help!.

Turns out he lives 10 houses down, I've helped him and he give me a hand if I need to take an engine gearbox out.

90% of people you help is a one way street (not in your favour) but there are a few exeptions.

The man on the ramp sounds Reggie DIY, lucky he didn't take any fingers off or set himself on fire by the sounds of it!.

thats a true friend

 

[arther dailey]

We would organise a weekend "working day" at the club to dig out the lead from the backstops, only a couple turned up to help so the next time we planned it for one of the main shooting nights.
To be fair, most of those who turned up got stuck in, but a couple said "I joined the club to shoot, not labour" and walked out.

they would get short shrift from me for that .

 

[arther dailey]

I had one . borrowed my lorry , 60/65 miles then gave me a tenner ! I asked whhat was that for , diesel, well you do realise it only does 24mpg so that doesnt cover diesel , let alone tax , wear and tear , Well its a **** lorry anyway the gear change is stiff dont worry I wont borrow it again... hmm, Nice , he has asked for various tools since , as he broke my piston ring compressor (it was crap apparently) a bearing pulling by putting a scaff tube on it (was internal 10mm!) I have said no, he got totally offended and asked did nt I trust him , I pointed out he had nt replaced a single tool of mine he has broken or said sorry , he now has started to actually buy his own .

 

[8ob]

I had to stop "friends" thinking it was ok to rock up any time of the day or night to repair bangers needing attention. Invariably involved loads of my time and POS laid about all over the place waiting for bits. The nail in the coffin was catching a mate of mine using one of my snap on ratchets as a hammer.

Bob