So how much do you trust your work??

So I was yacking with some old car guy and we were chatting about these old heaps we create and he was saying "if you make them safe and replace all the worn out parts and you trust your workmanship these old vehicles are a blast to drive"....

Got me to thinking...lots of chin scratching again....

Do I not trust my cobbling of old parts together and there fore not sure if I want to risk something falling off as I tool around town???

The last old car I drove on the road was very stock (West Coast car) 1968 VW Bug....I didn't do much to it except put brakes on it and patch the battery box on it...

These frame off cob job rats rods I create....I have never once driven one on the street...

I think I don't trust my own cobbyness...

Do you guys trust your cobbyness??

Just thinking those strange 3am thoughts again...

MikeC

Sometimes you have to trust yer own crap - or you'd never hit the road in it...
I'll admit to having done some sketchy crap, either didn't know better or didn't care but never caused any personal injury to myself or others - but then roads were not so busy as now. Bad choices make for good stories and hopefully we learn something from it...

The only time I can recall that I felt like a real dumbass was when I had forgotten to weld a steering u-joint onto the shaft and had only tack it on.
We had just ran it down the road at a rather high rate of speed, as I pulled in the shop the tacks broke loose.
I can tell you two things, the hair stood up on my entire body and I never ever forgot to check welds after that.

If you don't trust your own work, practice until you do. Triple-check torque values, practice welding and try hammering or pressing the pieces apart, make a list and check things off as you get them done. There are any number of ways to gain confidence in your own work and yourself!

I basically trust my own work because I've always believed in safety first but if I get near the century mark speed wise I aways remember who the builder was & my foot comes off the gas! [ddd

BoB

With eyesight not as good as it once was I know my welds aren't pretty, but they haven't failed. As far as trusting my builds...I trust mine as well as anything put out by a "factory". I've seen some things come out of the box lately that I refuse to use. We've probably all done some things that at second look, get torn apart and redone and I'm sure some of us have accomplished some things that worked well but were outside the "norm", whatever that is...I thought that was what building stuff was all about. I'm not a racer. I haven't built anything that I would consider really fast. But on just about every trip out of here in the Nuttin Special, there's a stretch about a mile from my gate where I push the old gal past 100. It's a little short to get much over that with a gentle curve right before I have to brake pretty hard to make my gate. Gives me enough thrill I guess. I have to trust my builds. Everything I own, I built!

I am more worried at times of the age of the vehicle that I have. I worry about the rust and things like that. Being in New England the roads are treated and it eats cars. I recently posted what my 02 Dakota front end looks like. Jim

I’ve been told before that I overthink and overbuild, if so, that’s good. Like Smalls said, eyes not as good as they used to be, welds are not pretty but they hold. I use a grinder if I don’t like the look, LOL.

I’m always a little jumpy on the first few drives after I’ve built something. Always the possibility of error on my part, I don’t go out and floor it, I usually go about a half a mile, turn around and come back, then extend that to about a mile, then next trip about 3 miles. If everything still feels and looks good, I stretch on out.

I trust my own welding and fabrication. Part of the reason that my homemade stuff works, I think is, I understand physics so I can make the necessary parts stronger or brace them. I'm not a 'safety at all costs' kinda guy but I know that if I have a wreck, it won't be pretty. Anyhow, I made it through almost fifty years, trucking off-road, in the foothills of the Rockies, sometimes with homemade tandem trailers.
You have to have pride in your workmanship, or you'll never get anywhere.
Keep on tinkering Guys.

I get being hesitant to drive a new build long distance. Just to make sure everything is tight and functioning properly. But not trusting your work and passing it off to someone else that's something different. I get not driving on local roads if they are not good. I guess I just don't see the point of throwing something together you don't trust to drive.

I've never been a carefree driver. Doesn't matter if I built the car or if it is a brand new top of the line machine. I always hear noises, feel vibrations, visualize all the parts that are working. Wondering when something will fail. Will I get stranded somewhere. Hear banjo music. Credit card declined. It's no fun, but that's the way I'm screwed together.

My 1st experience at working on cars was on dirt track race cars. The guy that was mentoring me was an old timer with a lot of experience. He made sure everything I did was done right, and that poor car got tested every week. Every failed or crash damaged part was evaluated to see what worked and what didn't, and what might be improved upon. Things like that build confidence very quickly. By the time i was 16, I was doing brake jobs, tune ups, and suspension repair for other people.

The welding experience came along a few years later when I spent almost 3 months building steel parts racks in a factory in the maintenance department.

I don't ever remember not trusting my work.

gene49 said:

My 1st experience at working on cars was on dirt track race cars. The guy that was mentoring me was an old timer with a lot of experience. He made sure everything I did was done right, and that poor car got tested every week. Every failed or crash damaged part was evaluated to see what worked and what didn't, and what might be improved upon. Things like that build confidence very quickly. By the time i was 16, I was doing brake jobs, tune ups, and suspension repair for other people.

The welding experience came along a few years later when I spent almost 3 months building steel parts racks in a factory in the maintenance department.

I don't ever remember not trusting my work.

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From my racing days...I would always hire a professional to do the cage work...but I was guy that kept all 4 wheels on it until the end of each race...I raced for 13 seasons...I think I only didn't finish twice due to a mechanical failure...not saying someone would wreck me because I was in "their spot"...that was normal stuff where I ran...

Boy do I miss racing...this street stuff is so not fun where I live...so much chaos on the roadways these days...racing at least you are all going the same direction...

3am thoughts again...

MikeC

My 50's era car, not a welded build from scratch like a lot of what I see here, still comes under the heading of built not bought, most of which I had a hand in for which I am proud.

A lot of what I do is shade tree, under the lean to, lay on plywood with jackstands and crap falling in my eyes type of stuff, but with a strong mind on quality and safety.

So I am well aware of what is needed and if going on a longer road trip to a meet up I check everything like NASA or something.

bob w said:

I've never been a carefree driver. Doesn't matter if I built the car or if it is a brand new top of the line machine. I always hear noises, feel vibrations, visualize all the parts that are working. Wondering when something will fail. Will I get stranded somewhere. Hear banjo music. Credit card declined. It's no fun, but that's the way I'm screwed together.

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That sums me up too. It is not that I don't trust my work. I don't trust anything. Jim

lowbudget50 said:

I get being hesitant to drive a new build long distance. Just to make sure everything is tight and functioning properly. But not trusting your work and passing it off to someone else that's something different. I get not driving on local roads if they are not good. I guess I just don't see the point of throwing something together you don't trust to drive.

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Unfortunately too many of those kinds of builds get passed along to new owners who expected it to be much better than it was. I knew a guy that bought a late 40's Chev with a nova clip. The clip was put in crooked. Pretty car, but worthless without a ton of rehab work.

05snopro440 said:

Unfortunately too many of those kinds of builds get passed along to new owners who expected it to be much better than it was. I knew a guy that bought a late 40's Chev with a nova clip. The clip was put in crooked. Pretty car, but worthless without a ton of rehab work.

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I totally get that. I see it a lot. Kinda scary!

I think most anyone that has worked on other peoples cars have seen a lot of scary, crappy work. It kind of goes with the territory. Some cars are simply poorly built, or have had things done incorrectly and may have all kinds of problems. You have something that seldom has had any problems, then people with those problem cars show up to have you fix their stuff.

I suppose that if we have concerns about the things we have done that make us question our trust in our own work, some of that probably had good reasoning behind it. By all means, have someone you can trust look at it.

My biggest problem is, I've trusted my work on my stuff for a very long time. As I'm growing older, there is stuff I no longer want to do, and in some cases can no longer do myself. In those cases, I have to rely on someone else to do the things I used to do myself. I am having a difficult trusting things other's have done, or will need to do.

This trust thing can be a double edge sward. It can cut both ways.

I trust my work. From home built motorcycles to my welding work to rot repair on truck frames. I have seen a lot of other peoples work that I wouldn't trust as lawn art or as a kids jungle gym. I have had customers bring in stuff that I would be ashamed to put my name on. If I can't do it right and safe I won't do it.

I ran my own welding shop for nearly 30 years. I did mostly automotive floor, frame, and suspension mounting point, rust repair.

The old saying was that the customer was always right, but at my shop, if I was going to fix something, it was going to be done the way I thought it needed to be done. If the customer didn't like that, they were free to leave.
It was in fact done my way or it wasn't done at my shop. My name was on that repair.

My shop has been closed for 5 years now. I still get people that want me to fix their stuff. These newer cars rot out from underneath bad, those engine cradles are failing in as little as 5-10 years now. I retired because I had health warnings concerning two different health related issues common to the welding industry, skin cancer and breathing difficulties. Both have majorly improved since I retired. I do very little welding these days, and none of it is under a vehicle.