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I’ve got a 1990 Mustang LX Convertible. Original 5.0 car.
I paid $500 for it. The paint is shot.
I conveniently also just discovered the “Painting cars with RustOleum” Facebook group.
I’m currently sanding down the flaking clearcoat and weather beaten base coat to get it ready for a “slap and dash $57 gloss black RustOleum gallon paint job.”
It’ll get a proper 2k clear, sourced from eBay or Amazon, of course.
It’s going to be so utterly 1/2 assed that it’ll make Earl Scheib proud.
Don’t paint it black. Black is the most difficult color to paint a car and have it not look like ass. White is the easiest color to paint a car and have it not look like ass.
Never really understood why people rattle can or otherwise Rustoleum cars black, i have to assume that they are unaware that black is the worst color choice.
Trying to look BADASS with half ass just leaves you with BAD.
The lower engine cover on my WRX is held on by self-tappers because I rather want it to rip off: that’ll be my cue to send the boys at the sheet metal shop a file so they can cut & bend up something more like a skid plate. The driver’s side rocker trim is held on with a bungee at the rear: I bought a dozen once I figured out the right length, and change out when the old one sags at rest.
Mechanically, both cars are pretty solid: I don’t have to commute in them, so can afford to wait on the correct parts for critical stuff.
When I saw the headline, I was sure the article was written by Tracy.
No. As my B5 S4 taught me, do it nice or do it twice.
No need to half ass anything. Kia did it for me!
Just zip-tied up a piece of plastic underbody cladding on the 2010 Insight rather than tracking down the correct fastener.
The car is 14 years and 235k miles old after all.
Got a project I’ve been working on where the drivetrain & suspension have surpassed five figures $$ plus over two years time. But the splash shield & plastic fenders got harbor freight zip ties.
Anything not critical to safety or engine “efficiency”.
Not really “work” so much as general upkeep, but I won’t hesitate to take any car through an automatic car wash. The more brushes the better just to make people on the Land Rover forums squirm.
I used to love going through car washes, but until the day we have sensor-driven robotic arms reaching out from the walls with fresh towels to dry the vehicle off carefully instead of those blasted hot air blowers that shoot the long rubber seals that run the length of my Prius’s roof right out of it, it looks like I’ll be doing a lot of half-assing going forward.
Same thing used to happen when I had my Honda Fit! I forgot that I used to have to “prep” for the car wash by securing down the front and back of each strip with my onboard roll of duct tape.
I’ve recently half assed the fairing repairs on my bike. It’s gonna fall again at some point, plastic welding and a bit of duct tape is good enough.
Oh man we are going to need some before and after pics with this one.
That can happen, but honestly it doesn’t look that bad! The black tape almost matches the original black stickers!
Well maybe a wrecked one too then.
I got all of them pics 😉
I’m willing to do everything not perfectly, because I can’t do anything perfectly. The trick I’ve tried to learn over the years is to recognize that up front, so that I don’t get upset or annoyed when something isn’t perfect. It’s something I will always have to work on.
Perfection is fine goal but rarely achievable in real life. The key to accomplishment is realizing when just good enough is, in fact, good enough.
Mediocrates – Ehh, its good enough.
I’ve tried to reach that edge of being perfect for a long time in my life, resulting in only disappointment. Many years ago I came across an old episode of the Woodwright’s shop on PBS. He built a coffin and buried perfectionism in it. It really stuck with me and since then I’ve taken on more projects. The realization is that it’s more about the life enrichment rather than the end result.
Rust repair on my 2005 MDX – the rockers, door bottoms and bumpers are sprayed with pebble finish rattle can paint. Annual touch ups with a wire wheel and spray can.
Body work on a daily driver in my younger days. I’ve “good enoughed” a number of fixes in my younger days. Proudest was drilling out the ends of a cracked bumper cover then drilling and “stitching” it back together with zip ties. Meh, good enough…..
Fixing the stupid piece of trim along the bottom front of my K5. After taking a few hits from pulling up to close to a curb while parking I’ve resorted to just screwing it into place with sheet metal screws from below.
You can’t see them at all and that trim hasn’t popped off since I did it.
I’m guessing you’re not talking about a Chevy K5. Eh?
We have some really big curbs here.
Putting the skidplates back on my GX. The threads were rusty, I had fresh Stainless bolts, but heck no I didn’t torque them to spec! Half (yes a full half) of the bolts were already missing when I took it off, at least it’ll have bolts now! Plus I used lock washers, and natures loctite – rusty threads I couldn’t be bothered to chase with a tap.
Painting stuff that isn’t visible. It just needs to be covered, and ideally never need to be painted again.
I thoroughly dislike cleaning the inside of the windshield, so it’s never as good as the outside.
I try to spend at least 5 minutes on that since I only do it once every 3 years or so anyway.
Half-assing cars to have a good time and relax? You are basically describing the Gambler 500- come to the dark side… we have cookies…
We also pick up trash.
I have a monthly subscription to a drive through car wash and take my Suburabn at least once a week. Up close, you can see the swirls this leads to in the finish, and the color will eventually fade before it should, but I prefer keeping bird crap, dust, pollen, and road salt off. And in the spirit of the question, I’m too lazy to hand wash it and the touchless place is not along my daily commute.
I always wondered about the perspective on “monthly subscription car washes”, given how terrible that actually was for the paint.
Thanks for sharing.
Generally I half ass the windshield chips with the filler before I pop for a new windshield if possible.
I tore the bottom edge of the bumper cover on my Focus when I had no choice but to run straight over truck tire pieces at speed on the highway.
I bought the bumper repair kit that contains the special flexible cement one uses on such things, and it’s such a gooey mess that I gave up on getting it OEM-spec and just settled for a blobby line that I then painted over with touch up paint.
Unless I squat down and look closely, I don’t really notice most of the time, so good enough.
Rust repair in non-critical areas on a couple of my older cars. I am not cutting out and welding in new steel for rusted areas around the wheelwells on a 22 year old Acura. Grind it out, coat it with some “rust converter”, bondo, sand and rattlecan. It looks fine from 10′, good enough.
Now the rusted out rear bumper & mounts? That’s another story, that all got replaced the right way.
cleaning brake dust from the rims.
On the easily visible outside surfaces, I clean them with a solid 7/10 level of care, 1 or 2 always has a spot or three missed. The inside of the barrels? Never touched unless I’m swapping an entirely different set of wheels on.
I wash my jeep after I go to the off road park so only about 5 times/year. I am sloppy repainting the armor and racks as they need a fresh coat of paint every year.
I aspire to half-ass things, mostly I am a quarter ass type
I wash my CRV oh, let’s charitably go with “seasonally.” That way the dings are invisible (or at least indistinguishable).
You’re nicer to it than I am to my van. It gets washed about annually. I hope the Ferrari gets better treatment from you though!
Oh and I legitimately don’t think I have washed my cruze since I got it, nearly 2 years ago.
Ha! I was that one whenever I get it back from the shop, so…even less!