New home for old cars in Canberra?

dtc said :

Rangi said :

So from this you are saying everybody should be proficient at everything and should have the time and tools to do it.

Therefore, I assume then to avoid being a “numpty” that pays other people to do things for them, you only ever eat food, that you have prepared from base ingredients that you grew yourself, you built your own house and computer from scratch from materials you mined, grew etc yourself. You perform your own surgery, sew your own clothes and so on.

Oh and that you did not buy or obtain your car readymade, but built it from scratch from parts you made yourself, using tools you made yourself.

Come on, dont be silly. Dont you know that the ability to perform mechanics and talk about cars is one of the last things that ‘MEN’ ™ can pontificate about in the knowledge that it sounds strong and macho and down to earth but which many people can no longer do – and hence it proves their manliness and superiority. Kinda like how only ‘good drivers’ drive manuals and everyone who drives an automatic sucks and shouldnt be on the road.

So get with the times. Car knowledge = man. No car knowledge = not a man.

Everyone is a critic until the car breaks down at night in the middle of nowhere.

I already knew that most of the people in this town lacked basic life skills (and no, writing a ministerial brief is not a basic life skill). I didn’t know that having said skills invited active derision.

Live and learn!

Rangi said :

So from this you are saying everybody should be proficient at everything and should have the time and tools to do it.

Therefore, I assume then to avoid being a “numpty” that pays other people to do things for them, you only ever eat food, that you have prepared from base ingredients that you grew yourself, you built your own house and computer from scratch from materials you mined, grew etc yourself. You perform your own surgery, sew your own clothes and so on.

Oh and that you did not buy or obtain your car readymade, but built it from scratch from parts you made yourself, using tools you made yourself.

Read my comments in context.

I do everything myself until, and only until, the marginal cost of spending an extra hour of my time exceeds the marginal cost of paying someone else to do it.

With cars it’s a bit more complicated since, due to the standard of mechanic-ing in the ACT, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. So you have to adjust any hourly quote by a mechanic to take account of the contingency that it might fall apart while you’re driving it.

Overall, I calculated that based on hourly workshop rates, an individual needs to be earning around $120, 000 per year in order for it to be sensible to pay a mechanic to do basic servicing on a basic car. And people that earn $120,000 should not be bemoaning the fact of having to pay for a clutch for a free car – if indeed they should be considering a free car as a serious prospect at all.

This is why I qualified my comment by reference to the kind of people that pay a mechanic to do basic tasks. Either a) that’s not a lot of money to you, (marginal cost in time > marginal cost in servicing dollars saved) in which case you have no business bothering with offers of free cars from strangers or b) that is a lot of money for you, and you would therefore choose the cheaper option of doing it yourself, and doing it properly.

Either of those is fine. Option c) is lecturing someone who is offering a free car about supposedly expensive servicing costs, on the basis that you would take a free car and then pay a mechanic a fortune to perform basic service tasks. It is that option which renders an individual a numpty.

Hope that clears it up for you.

Rangi said :

So from this you are saying everybody should be proficient at everything and should have the time and tools to do it.

Therefore, I assume then to avoid being a “numpty” that pays other people to do things for them, you only ever eat food, that you have prepared from base ingredients that you grew yourself, you built your own house and computer from scratch from materials you mined, grew etc yourself. You perform your own surgery, sew your own clothes and so on.

Oh and that you did not buy or obtain your car readymade, but built it from scratch from parts you made yourself, using tools you made yourself.

There needs to be a like button installed here, I couldn’t agree more…

Now before I have my “Man Card” taken from me, I do service my own cars, I am not afraid of what’s under the bonnet, and I have replaced a clutch cable in a 91 subi (with a lot of swearing and needing to break my arm in multiple places to get it in), but I’ve come from a mechanically minded family. I also know there is a lot of people out there (eg Mrs Harvyk) who know where an engine is on a car and no more.

Skidd Marx said :

What kind of car is it?

Is it a white Commodore?

Rangi said :

So from this you are saying everybody should be proficient at everything and should have the time and tools to do it.

Therefore, I assume then to avoid being a “numpty” that pays other people to do things for them, you only ever eat food, that you have prepared from base ingredients that you grew yourself, you built your own house and computer from scratch from materials you mined, grew etc yourself. You perform your own surgery, sew your own clothes and so on.

Oh and that you did not buy or obtain your car readymade, but built it from scratch from parts you made yourself, using tools you made yourself.

Come on, dont be silly. Dont you know that the ability to perform mechanics and talk about cars is one of the last things that ‘MEN’ ™ can pontificate about in the knowledge that it sounds strong and macho and down to earth but which many people can no longer do – and hence it proves their manliness and superiority. Kinda like how only ‘good drivers’ drive manuals and everyone who drives an automatic sucks and shouldnt be on the road.

So get with the times. Car knowledge = man. No car knowledge = not a man.

devils_advocate said :

harvyk1 said :

what_the said :

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

But if the first thing I have to do with the “free” car is replace an expensive component, is the car still free? (

A “normal” clutch for a “normal” car only costs between $80 and $120. Maybe up to $150 in some cases, but rare. That is a clutch kit, including a new throwout bearing and spigot bush.

The only type of people who would consider clutch replacement expensive is the kind of numpty who pays a mechanic to do these kinds of tasks. Honestly, if you’re one of *these type of people* then what business do you have commenting on a thread of this nature. You should be out organising for a mechanic to charge you $200 for an oil change or something equally intelligent.

So from this you are saying everybody should be proficient at everything and should have the time and tools to do it.

Therefore, I assume then to avoid being a “numpty” that pays other people to do things for them, you only ever eat food, that you have prepared from base ingredients that you grew yourself, you built your own house and computer from scratch from materials you mined, grew etc yourself. You perform your own surgery, sew your own clothes and so on.

Oh and that you did not buy or obtain your car readymade, but built it from scratch from parts you made yourself, using tools you made yourself.

Terra said :

devils_advocate said :

harvyk1 said :

what_the said :

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

But if the first thing I have to do with the “free” car is replace an expensive component, is the car still free? (

A “normal” clutch for a “normal” car only costs between $80 and $120. Maybe up to $150 in some cases, but rare. That is a clutch kit, including a new throwout bearing and spigot bush.

The only type of people who would consider clutch replacement expensive is the kind of numpty who pays a mechanic to do these kinds of tasks. Honestly, if you’re one of *these type of people* then what business do you have commenting on a thread of this nature. You should be out organising for a mechanic to charge you $200 for an oil change or something equally intelligent.

Exactly. Most clutches on older cars are a doddle if you have a decent jack, stands and a handful of metric tools. Every young man (or woman) should have changed 1 or 2 with his day by the time their 21.

Oh, what do you mean no one has ever shown you how? Really, is that what the world has come to?

Every young man or woman should of know the difference between their and they’re by the time they are 21

“Oh, what do you mean no one has ever shown you how? Really, is that what the world has come to?”

while I’m reading this thread, I have a 1995 Holden Commodore wagon I would like to get rid of.

it is unregistered and has damage on the left front, but does run.

have contacted a number of wreckers about the vehicle, and none of them have replied.

The OP is MIA and we still don’t know what the make,model or year of the old car..

Depending on the car, i may be interested!

harvyk1 said :

2 things,

1. Not every one is technically minded which will force them to use a mechanic
2. Even if the cost is relatively nominal (we’ll use your worst case scenario of $150 and assume that the charity has a friendly mechanic handy) that’s hardly “free” now is it

2 things:

1. if someone is not ‘mechanically minded’, they’re not looking to take a free car from a stranger. In any case, I was talking about swapping out a clutch, not rebuilding an engine. Mechanically minded doesn’t come into it.
2. The car is free. All cars require maintenance at some point, which is not free. The benefit of this car is the new owner will know up front at least one of the service items that is required. More than I could say for most used cars that people pay money for. Not a very difficult concept to grasp.

I too am astounded at the lack of mechanical knowledge shown by our new generation. One reason could be that modern cars can’t be worked on by anyone without first pluggin in a laptop and accessing the onboard computer to analyse the fault. It is rocket science these days….
A clutch in a Holden or Ford used to be child’s play. I did a 3 speed column shift conversion to an auto trimatic in less than 4 hours and I am no mechanic. Now I couldn’t even change the spark plugs in a Commodore without consulting the internet.

Terra said :

Most clutches on older cars are a doddle if you have a decent jack, stands and a handful of metric tools.

Huh? It isn’t an old car if it doesn’t require a set of Whitworth spanners to work on the transmission.

Try Freecycle. for sure you will be swamped with requests.

I’m definitely interested in it! Can you please supply some more details on it?

Terra said :

devils_advocate said :

harvyk1 said :

what_the said :

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

But if the first thing I have to do with the “free” car is replace an expensive component, is the car still free? (

A “normal” clutch for a “normal” car only costs between $80 and $120. Maybe up to $150 in some cases, but rare. That is a clutch kit, including a new throwout bearing and spigot bush.

The only type of people who would consider clutch replacement expensive is the kind of numpty who pays a mechanic to do these kinds of tasks. Honestly, if you’re one of *these type of people* then what business do you have commenting on a thread of this nature. You should be out organising for a mechanic to charge you $200 for an oil change or something equally intelligent.

Exactly. Most clutches on older cars are a doddle if you have a decent jack, stands and a handful of metric tools. Every young man (or woman) should have changed 1 or 2 with his day by the time their 21.

Oh, what do you mean no one has ever shown you how? Really, is that what the world has come to?

Shocking isn’t it,i mean how dare they not be able to separate an engine from a transmission.Next thing you know devils advocate will expect them to be able to machine a flywheel using an angle grinder!!

devils_advocate said :

harvyk1 said :

what_the said :

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

But if the first thing I have to do with the “free” car is replace an expensive component, is the car still free? (

A “normal” clutch for a “normal” car only costs between $80 and $120. Maybe up to $150 in some cases, but rare. That is a clutch kit, including a new throwout bearing and spigot bush.

The only type of people who would consider clutch replacement expensive is the kind of numpty who pays a mechanic to do these kinds of tasks. Honestly, if you’re one of *these type of people* then what business do you have commenting on a thread of this nature. You should be out organising for a mechanic to charge you $200 for an oil change or something equally intelligent.

Exactly. Most clutches on older cars are a doddle if you have a decent jack, stands and a handful of metric tools. Every young man (or woman) should have changed 1 or 2 with his day by the time their 21.

Oh, what do you mean no one has ever shown you how? Really, is that what the world has come to?

If by “old” you mean pre 1980, there could many a person interested to restore it, or do it up to Street Machine standards. I’d also like more info, because a 1975 Holden has much more saleability than a 1983 Sigma.

devils_advocate said :

A “normal” clutch for a “normal” car only costs between $80 and $120. Maybe up to $150 in some cases, but rare. That is a clutch kit, including a new throwout bearing and spigot bush.

The only type of people who would consider clutch replacement expensive is the kind of numpty who pays a mechanic to do these kinds of tasks. Honestly, if you’re one of *these type of people* then what business do you have commenting on a thread of this nature. You should be out organising for a mechanic to charge you $200 for an oil change or something equally intelligent.

2 things,

1. Not every one is technically minded which will force them to use a mechanic
2. Even if the cost is relatively nominal (we’ll use your worst case scenario of $150 and assume that the charity has a friendly mechanic handy) that’s hardly “free” now is it

Skidd Marx said :

What kind of car is it?

^This. If it’s not too old I can probably give it a loving home.

harvyk1 said :

what_the said :

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

But if the first thing I have to do with the “free” car is replace an expensive component, is the car still free? (

A “normal” clutch for a “normal” car only costs between $80 and $120. Maybe up to $150 in some cases, but rare. That is a clutch kit, including a new throwout bearing and spigot bush.

The only type of people who would consider clutch replacement expensive is the kind of numpty who pays a mechanic to do these kinds of tasks. Honestly, if you’re one of *these type of people* then what business do you have commenting on a thread of this nature. You should be out organising for a mechanic to charge you $200 for an oil change or something equally intelligent.

What kind of car is it?

Park it in Charnwood overnight and put in your insurance claim the next morning.

RB78 said :

Get in touch with First Aid Services, ACT Fire and Rescue or the ESA – they often use old cars for training exercises.

That’s a cool idea – so it could literally go out with a bang!

Post a free advertisement on AllClassifieds or Gumtree.

what_the said :

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

But if the first thing I have to do with the “free” car is replace an expensive component, is the car still free?

RB78 said :

Get in touch with First Aid Services, ACT Fire and Rescue or the ESA – they often use old cars for training exercises.

This is a good idea… Also pity mythbusters doesn’t have a Canberra division… 🙁

Get in touch with First Aid Services, ACT Fire and Rescue or the ESA – they often use old cars for training exercises.

Nope, that’s fair enough. I’d want to give it away if someone could get value/benefit out of it, otherwise to the wreckers it goes.

harvyk1 said :

Whilst you may feel that it is honorable to be giving a car away, a car which is potentially about to have an expensive part to replace go on it is hardly going to be a charitable act, unless you hand the car over and provide a warranty (which kinda misses the point of getting rid of it).

Besides, it doesn’t run fine, a car which is about of have a part break can hardly be called running fine despite the fact that for now it gets you from A to B.

Jesus what do you expect from a free car? A warranty?

Op- put a note up at CIT, free car to good home or list it on the free classifieds on Canberra times. I’m sure a student would appreciate it even for the remaining rego which isn’t even usually worth cashing in after act rego takes out its fee cut.

Whilst you may feel that it is honorable to be giving a car away, a car which is potentially about to have an expensive part to replace go on it is hardly going to be a charitable act, unless you hand the car over and provide a warranty (which kinda misses the point of getting rid of it).

Besides, it doesn’t run fine, a car which is about of have a part break can hardly be called running fine despite the fact that for now it gets you from A to B.