Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
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My first wrenching win was yesterday when I found a complete cold-air-intake pipe kit for 20$ at a bin store, with silicone pipes, metal pipes, and everything.
Rebuilt the carburetor in my then-girlfriend’s Mustang successfully when I was still at the level of doing brakes one at a time so I could look at the other. That, and packing VW wheel bearings were my only solo accomplishments at that point.
I toook great pains to maintain a spotless work surface, RTFM, took forever setting the float level with that flimsy paper ‘ruler’, and refrained from beer until I reinstalled & started it. The car was absolute shit—but always started & ran for us from that point on: a wonderful confidence builder.
Got my first car, a 1986 cutlass ciera with the iron duke, off a local ebay auction in the 4th grade as a father and son project for 300 bucks, but I was more psyched on the thing than dad. I got it running in 7th grade with trial and error, youtube, and a little bit of dads knowledge, drove it to/from school “perfectly legally” until sophomore year when I finally did its first oil change (it had always been an add oil car), the previous owner had silicon’d in the drain plug, and a family friend was selling their car for an absolute steal, so off my cutlass went.
1982 Jeep CJ7. That thing ate rear U joints. The first was replaced under warranty. A year later I had the familiar vibration and clunk-clunk-clunk of the joint failing again. Not having much $$ I decided to tackle this myself and enlisted the aid of a couple of friends. None of us had the required type and size of wrench to remove the bolts holding the joint to the driveshaft. We went searching in his employer’s lab space, looking high and low for a matching wrench. We were striking out all over and were leaving te lab when he stopped to holler at a couple of folks mishandling a piece of expensive lab equipment. One of them was fiddling with the machine and it turned out he was holding the exact wrench we needed. We made off with the wrench, went back to another friend’s garage, and soon had the driveshaft disconnected and the U joint removed. $10 in parts and an adventure to locate a wrench we probably could have found at an auto parts store.
Pulled one off for my brother back in 1971. He was to begin college in a month or so and had no car. My Dad was comptroller for a Porsche-Audi dealer and purchased a traded in VW beetle with a failed clutch. I towed the car about 30 miles from the dealer to our home, and set about unbolting the engine. A friend helped me lift the engine out by hand; those cars were so simple to work on. Replaced the clutch, the flywheel looked OK. Reinstalled the engine, started the car and it ran just fine. Then my brother took the car. He had never driven a manual before. We lived at the bottom of a long very steep hill, which had a cross street about half way up the hill. There were stop signs at the cross street intersecting the hill, and in either their wisdom, or more likely a substance induced stupor, they placed the stop signs so that traffic heading up or down the hill had to stop for the cross street. My brother, for more than a month, was unable to transit the intersection when heading up the hill. Just kept stalling the car and walking back home to get someone to drive it to the top of the hill. I figured that new clutch would not last long, but he finally did master the driving technique. The car and clutch lasted throughout his college days. He has never since purchased another car with a manual trans.
My first success was nearly identical. First car, 82 Honda Accord Hatchback 5sp, I got it with 241,000 miles on it in 1993. I did a bunch of maintenance to it. I remember two distinctly, front brakes, and fiberglassed the footwell in the rear seats because they rotted through. Went to the scrapyard in 1995 a week before I left for college with 269,000 miles on it. I miss it dearly.
Wrenching win? Probably changing out the ignition switch in my 1983 SAAB 900 – without a manual and pre-internet.
Really, though, I’m just here for the 1980 Accord hatchback pix. 🙂
Hats off…that is some good bad old days wrenching. It’s hard for me to comprehend not being able to search repairs first, much less not poring over the manual to at least be (perhaps falsely) reassured that yes, installation is in fact the reverse of removal.
The olden days of a Chilton manual, or Haynes if you were lucky. And sometimes not even that as you say. “Assembly is the reverse”, and grainy black and white photos – good times!
Kids these days have no idea how good they have it.
I’ve lived in apartment complexes for most of my time since becoming a car guy™, and just in general don’t like getting my hands dirty under the hood.
However, my biggest (and really, only) wrenching victory had to do with my old van.
Key in the ignition–>accessory–>everything normal–>on–>everything normal–>start–>everything dies. (Electrically speaking.)
Take the key out. Repeat. Same result.
Now, I have a AAA subscription that I’ve used a handful of times, but I was at home, and dammit, I’m a guy, I am legally obligated to stare under the hood and say “hmm, the engine appears to be made of engine”
But, much to my surprise, I actually noticed what was wrong…somehow the clamp on the positive terminal of the battery was loose. Grabbed a pliers and a wrench, tightened it down, and it was good to go. (I used a wrench! It counts as “wrenching”!)
Anyway, that was the one and only time I’ve ever gone from “vehicle not working” to “vehicle working” completely on my own, and I only wish life could always be both that easy and that rewarding.
Wrenching win? Maybe. More like the favor of the Wrenching Gods, who were having a beer with the Gods of Shenanigans.
I entered my 1996 200SX SE-R into a burnout contest at some FastNFuriousHotImportNights drag event and car show. I had 7 pounds running through the disco potato. I had the spring for 10, but not the money for the Z injectors at the time, so 7 pounds it was. Good for 211.1 at the wheels and 199.9 lb-ft.
Did I win? Absolutely. I hit 5th gear standing still.
Was there a tire sponsor to replace the tire that ripped off my fender liner?
Absolutely not. Just a crappy trophy and some smiles with the trophy girl.
But how did you get the 50-ish miles home from Virginia Motorsports Park? I’m glad you asked.
The front right tire was cooked and separated.. The front left was, ah….heat cycled.. The front right is powered, and the VLSD tried to keep the left up to speed, but I really just turned the goo in the diff into snot.
So, let’s check to see what we have for fixes.
Hmm….
Racer tape, a jack, and a tire iron.
Rear tires went on the front. Separated driver’s front got taped back together with an entire roll of racer tape becoming most of the tread. It went on the rear with the slightly slicked-out FL.
Driving characteristics for the ride home were lightly described as ‘pushy loose.’
However, we made it. I ordered some new Falkens and ended up as ‘Burnout of the Month’ in Sport Compact Car.
“Holding the light” for my perpetually angry, frustrated and not particularly mechanically talented mechanical engineer father on one cold winter Saturday morning I learned I could prop up the light and sneak away to squeeze in an episode of Scooby Doo, Speed Buggy, etc before he realized I wasn’t there anymore. After that it was rinse, repeat.
I’d call that a win.
A-room-a-zoom-zoom! Take your star.
I had a 1966 AMC Rambler wagon. It had the 232 inline 6 with a sad 1-barrel carb and a manual choke.
I did a ton of research, and I got a new Jeep 4.0 aluminum intake, a spacer, and a new Weber DGEV 2-barrel carb to work. Even had electric choke. Woke the car up and made it totally drivable. I was very proud of myself.
Mine was also cooling-related. My folks bought me my first car, a VW Scirocco, and then made me pay them back for it gradually. I was fine with that arrangement, though I only had a few months with the car between paying them back and taking it to the junkyard for terminal rust.
Before then, though, on the day we brought it home, it left a green puddle in the driveway. Dad and I traced the leak back to the weep hole on the bottom of the water pump, meaning the seal was shot and the pump would have to be replaced. Dad ordered a pump, new radiator hoses, and a new timing belt (since the previous owner couldn’t remember when it had been done), told me I could use his tools but that I had to figure it out myself, and left me alone in the garage on a Saturday morning.
Luckily the Scirocco came to me with two repair manuals: the standard-issue Haynes, and the far surperior Bentley. It took me all weekend, but I got the pump changed out, both hoses replaced, a new timing belt on, and had the car leak-free and operational by Sunday afternoon. I was covered in dirt, grime, coolant, and blue RTV sealant, but I ran into the house to get Dad so I could show him – and promptly got yelled at by Mom for not washing up first.
1st real wrenching win was probably doing the rear shocks on my 300zx. Everything prior was just futzing around. Not a huge challenge, but I did it myself (dad was there supervising), and improved my car. I miss that simple joy.
Fall of 2019 I owned a 2009 E63 AMG which ran great but I was afraid to do to much of my own wrenching on it (plus I lived in an apartment so didn’t have much space to work of house tools). I decided I wanted to get a winter beater that I could practice and learn on. I was focused on 4th gen Ford Tauruses (Tourii?) because they are big and comfortable, generally reliable, and could be found for dirt cheap. I found one listed for $900 that was sitting for a while with 170k miles but looked very clean except for a scrape down one side. I test drove it and noticed a noise from the engine and low coolant but in general it ran well. I offered $500 for it and the seller took it immediately just to get rid of it. All it needed was a new water pump which I replaced in my office garage and it ran like a champ for the next few years until I had to move and sell it. Since then I’ve had a few cars and do all my own work that doesn’t require engine out or very special tools. I even converted my AWD Mountaineer to 4WD in my backyard a couple years ago. That water pump really gave me the confidence that I can take on any job, especially with the wealth of Youtube videos out there these days.
All I have is that I had an 83 Accord LX hatch in highschool that I loved dearly. That car was so fun to flog. I took it from 141k all the way to 183k before the tinworms made the strut towers fall apart.
Just came to say that the picture in the header was my old car in high school. 1977 Honda Accord. Same colors. That’s all.
Probably changing out the very rusty muffler on my 1972 Super Beetle, I was probably 15 or so. It was the original muffler and was damn near fused to the car. I ended up getting the new one in after much swearing and bloody knuckles. Even then I had to use RTV sealant because I couldn’t get the replacement muffler heat riser tubes to align with the ones coming off the intake, and didn’t get all the bolts in. Still, I did the entire thing myself and there weren’t any leaks. It also allowed me to get the heat working again, another win. I had done things to the car myself before, sometimes with the help of my dad, but nothing so major.
That muffler rusted out about 10 years later, it literally blew out a big hole while I was merging onto the highway. Scared the shit out of me. I pulled the engine to replace it that time…and figured, what the fuck, I’ll just rebuild the whole thing. It ran fine, but it was tired, filthy, and had over 200k original miles on it. That rebuild is probably my greatest wrenching achievement to date.
Driving my 1972 AMC AMX going down to Cape Cod in February for a Swim meet, and while Racing someone, I heard a Loud bag from the rear end and RRRRing sound from the same.
Pulled over to a Gas station right off the rotary, and looked for oil or something falling out of the pumpkin, nothing, so I drove it home after stopping at a friends garage with a lift. The passenger side rear wheel was no longer connected.
I remember seeing another Javelin a few weeks earlier with a bad rod rap, but that had the right Read end. $300 later I drove it gently home, with slicks on the back shortly after a snowfall, and parked in my Grand mother’s drive way.
Jacked it up, pulled the Universal joint and the 4 bolts for the leaf springs, and rolled back to my house and switched axels.
Back to driving it back to school in 3 days. Pulled a lot of other parts off of that car and made more money on it.
I think my earliest win/adventure was when my Miata got stuck in reverse. I was in high school and had a 1990 Miata. One time, I went out to a store and on my way out, I got stuck in reverse. See, first-gen Miatas have a quirk where the shifter can pop out of the reverse gate before the gate overcomes the detent. The gate jumps back into reverse as the shifter goes to neutral, and as the gate is no longer horizontally aligned with the shifter, it’s impossible to push the stick back into position to pull it out. This happened as I was parked in front of a beauty spa, and my phone was dying. I texted my 4 handiest friends and my parents my location and started looking up solutions. Found a Miata forum, ran inside to ask for a pen and summarized the first thread on the back of an O’Reilly receipt. Then my phone died, but I still had the receipt with me.
The solution, as per the receipt of salvation, was to crawl underneath my car, reach over the top of the transmission, unscrew the reverse light switch, which is actuated by the reverse fork directly, and insert a screwdriver into the gearbox to push the fork into neutral.
I didn’t have any tools, but a friend came by some 10 minutes later with a more comprehensive toolbox, and we managed to get the car back on the road. Moving forward, I always carried the necessary tools for that procedure, and thankfully only had to perform it one other time.
in the dirt parking lot of my dorm I did a full tune-up of my 69 Galaxie including the points and condenser and set the points gap and successfully got out all the spark plugs it was also late fall in northern Wisconsin.
Doing the Timing Belt, but most importantly the crank gear on my NA Miata, as I had the dreaded Short Nose Crank Wobble on my early 1.6. I learned just how quickly a job can turn from “just slide off this gear” like in the Youtube video to a genuine 2-day long ordeal entirely dedicated to getting the damn bastard to come off because of course it rusted itself solid to the crank nose.
What followed were three different methods of removal with varying levels of success, but primarily failure. First was the old prybar method, where with some hammering and persuasion I was able to initially get the gear to budge juuuuust enough to get the thin end of a pry bar in place. This naturally resulted almost immediately in the edge of the gear chipping and cracking. No Dice. Time for the next method.
Second was a cheap gear puller from Harbor Freight. like the one linked here. Details are hazy (due to the fog of war, and me seeing red for hours) but something went wrong with either the puller or my use, and it broke in several places. Completely scrapped that idea and had to move to round 3.
Went to advanced auto and rented the claw-type puller, ran a bolt into the crank nose, tightened her up, and finally the crank gear popped off. I was in the clear! Except for the massive struggles of timing the engine correctly because it was my first time ever doing anything this invasive.
Eventually, got the engine timed perfectly, replaced all my pulleys, tensioners, belts, the radiator, Valve cover got a nice paint job and fresh gasket, and everything went back together and ran great. It did up until a 33 year old coolant hose finally gave up. Lessons. So so many lessons were learned, at least it did get rid of crank wobble!
Ah, the short crank nose. If it hadn’t been for that, I might still have my Miata. Sad days.
I haven’t done a ton of wrenching on my cars, in part because I go for cars that usually don’t need much wrenching. I also try not to take on jobs that I have doubts I can complete. This might change if I get a toy or project car in the future where I don’t have to worry about it getting me to work the next day.
I did get to have a smug sense of superiority when I replaced the crumbling hinges on my 2009 Escape’s rear window. No janky tape or caulk for my car; I did the job right! The hardest part was having to drill the old bolts out of the glass without shattering it.
My 1st was rebuilding a 67 MGB electric fuel pump.
Cleaned up the points and replaced the rubber inside with a cutout rubber from and old innertube…My Dad approved of my cash saving improvisation. Back then, the only place to get parts was BAP and they were kinda expensive to a high schooler.
Instead, I’m going to tell you about my most recent win. It’s a short story.
I recently got a 3D printer and successfully designed and printed a stronger version of the wimpy broken center armrest latch for our 2021 Pacifica.
Instead of having to waste $34 on the factory part which will just snap again, I now have a latch that will withstand the rigors of normal use.
I am a winner! 😉
My dad and I rebuilt my ’67 VW Bug after it dropped a valve. We used the John Muir book and did it in our garage in 1977. I’d just started college and managed to blow it up at school. The tow home at the end of a rope was, erm, exciting.
I learned all about boxer motors and how they work, which infected me with BMW motorcycle and Porsche boxer disease.
I drove it up and down the east coast until that old cloth covered VW fuel line cracked, let fuel onto a hot motor and burned my first car to the ground.
It set me up to wrench for the next few decades. I sell software so putting hands on a vehicle and fixing it gives me a tangible result that I don’t get at work.
The Idiots’ Guide was a godsend to me: Muir told us we didn’t have to know anything about cars—just be able to follow simple procedures. I still have a signed copy of Peter Aschwanden’s Exploded Bug poster on my wall more than 30 years later.
So that’s why I saw so many burning Beetles back in the day.
Yep. They use that cloth covered rubber stuff. It’s got about a 7 or 8 year lifespan. These days, it’s even shorter. I used it on a couple old BMW motorcycles I have (yes, I have German boxer motor disease) and one time I turned on the petcocks and just watched the cloth sheathing get wet with gasoline. They make ethanol resistant stuff now, which is great, but any of the old stuff needs to get removed and replaced.