Ah, just finished putting on new rear shocks. I usually sort of dread trying to work on the cars, all the work, and worried I'm going to get into something I can't finish and be out of a car. But boy is it satisfying to do it myself and save some serious cash to boot.

Yup, tightwad here also! get a great feeling of accomplishment when I finished and it was not that difficult. When I did my rear shocks I priced the parts and then had my dealership price them mounted and it was substantial for the difference and only took about 30 min per side to do.

Congrats, I did mine over the July 4th weekend. I had paid to have them done on the Park Avenue so when my cousin agreed to help me I was all for it. We were done in a couple of hours. Felt good to pocket the difference and know that it was done right the first time.

I agree, I always try to do all the work on my vehicles. That'* just how I grew up, my dad fixed everything, and not just cars, everything lol. I was definately lucky to have him teach me so many things.

I don't know of many things I have paid to have done other than a transmission put in on my 99 Monte Carlo. Other than that I have put in and rebuilt engines, transmissions in RWD cars, clutches, and the minor stuff like water pumps/AC units/brakes etc..

The one thing I have NEVER paid to have done is an oil change... until yesterday that is!

Full oil change with 5 qts of Castrol Syntec Synthetic Blend, 21 point inspection (or something like that) 4 TIRE ROTATION, top off all fluids etc..

All for a whopping $7.95!!!! all done in around 20 minutes..Not to mention I didn't have to get the ramps out, be out in the 90+ heat/humidty, get messy, get the jack and stands out and take off all the tires and rotate them etc.

Never seen prices that cheap before I moved to FL..Down here there are so many damn shops competing with eachother so you can find great deals on oil changes. No way am I going to change my oil when I can get it done that cheap, and with brand name oil! of course they look for other things wrong to try and get you to fix them, however they weren't able to find anything on my car which I knew would be the case lol.

But yes the feeling of saving money is great, along with the satisfaction of knowing YOU bonded with your car and were able to fix it.

Nothing greater then doing your own work, and saving money.

Now you can spend the money you saved on important things like women, beer and gambling - if that'* what you're into!!!

Well it was good to save the money since I just laid down some green for a Wii and Wii Fit for the wife for her Birthday/Christmas (well and my Christmas present).

Next up: LIM and hopefully valve covers and plugs/wires. I'm going to take two days off for that one to make sure I've got enough time (I've got a 2 and 4 year old so it'* a busy house).

LIM gaskets, figure about 3 hours. Valve covers, hour and a half. Plug wires, half hour.