I just wanted an idea of where people get their aftermarket parts installed? Do you guys do them yourselves or take them to a local mechanic? Such as installing an exhaust or installing lowering springs. Sorry if this is a noob question.. haha, I have no idea where to get my lowering springs put in.

Also my friend has a mechanic where he gets all his stuff done but they quoted me $300+ for installing + wheel alignment.. to me the price is crazy.. costing more then the actual springs.

 

If it were me, I'd do it myself.. But I'm guessing you could take it to like a dealer, or maybe like a pep boys or something? Not sure, but I hope this helps!!
Good luck,
Later!

 

I personally install everything myself. Outside of that pick and choose your shops wisely.

 

Springs aren't too bad if you have the resources to do them yourselves, otherwise any bodyshop should be able to do it for you. Ask around your community for references or friends, or even on here if you know of anyone near you.

I plan on doing springs myself in the spring because its just too damn cold now and itll probably take me a solid day one weekend, if everything goes well. Have a backup just in case something goes wrong, you never know.

 

i generally do half and half, i take the stuff to the shop for stuff that has a high chance of me not being able to do myself, but in general i try my best to do it myself.

Shop:
Exhaust (including installation of headers)
Alignment and balance wheels
Open engine modifications
Dyno Tuning

Myself:
Intake/Forced Induction
Springs
Struts/shocks
Camber plates
General painting without clear coat

a huge problem is that many mechanics aren't exactly experienced with after-market stuff.... I say each time i get my car inspected or checked for AC leak, they had no freaken clue it was turboed or anything, what really scared me is that i ran into a "mechanic" that actually asked me: "whats that thing infront of your radiator?" and i look at him like... "thats an intercooler...."

 

I have only paid to have some exhaust pieces fabricated every bit of wrenching I have done myself.... It gets harder to do and takes longer to do than it did when I first doing this stuff 45 years ago.... I have a 13 year old kid down the road that is helping me some and knows a lot from working on farm and heavy equipment and I help him with his motorcycles and 3 wheeler.... He has some cute little girlfriends that come around now so I slip him some cash for movies and stuff..... Mechanical aptitude is in this boys genes.

 

Tell him it's an air collander next time ...

"Does that sound like bad muffler bearings to you?"


Ha. Awesome, I hope when I am your age I can say the same thing.
Developing sciatica after damaging two discs in Sep 2008 (Thanks UPS) has slowed me down some, but like every other winter I will be out in the snow under the car in my Carhardt @ 2am cussing up a storm to myself for not starting earlier

You are seriously one of the coolest dudes on the planet. We need more engineers, keep encouraging the kid!

 

Sciatica has been a problem since I hurt myself when throwing my paper route before daylight on a Sunday morning... It messed my back up badly enough to have kept me out of the military for flunking the physical but I was determined to get in the Marines and have been dealing with chronic pain ever since ... I had one disk totally wear out and my spine fused on its about 18 years ago.... You'll be needing daily doses of morphine one of these days also if you aren't careful... As long as you are getting laid for about 3 hours a day your back will be fine but that is hard to do unless you stay single and blow a mean blues harp in a good band that gets lots of gigs.... I didn't get around to doing that until I was in my 40s, I wish I had started doing it long before then... Pain has me awake right now... The temperature has dropped and it's raining.

 

OK back to OP. I use my Dodge dealer for exhaust and springs. Very reasonable. It helps if one of the mechanics is a tuner.

Wily go to bed.

 

I did some things my self like intake, axleback exhaust, lowering springs and later coilovers. When I tried to install my B-pipe I could not get the nuts loose on the cat for the life of me so I payed a friend $20 to throw it on while he was mounting tires on my new rims at Tires Plus. Things like the Supercharger, Header and test pipe I had a performance shop install.

If your going to go the shop route I recommend finding a place that actually deals with aftermarket parts, the run of your mill garage cant always install things.

 

Everything myself except for alignment..If I had the tools I would do that myself too. Why pay for labor? That's the fun part...installing it.

 

Look around your local forum here on FitFreak as well. Lots of guys (including me) enjoy shooting the shit while working on cars.

and to DiamondStarMonsters...cheers to you for wearing my favorite article of clothing Carhartt +REP!

 

DIY for everything but alignment.
Even full engine builds are done in my garage. Keeps me out of trouble, gives me an outlet for stress built up from work, saves money that can be spent on the next project, and forces me to learn all about whatever car I am working on.

Zach

 

Exactly, I find it almost therapeutic


A couple shots from a recent build..

 

You could do a alignment in your own garage if you really wanted. You just need a level surface some measuring tools, string and math skills.

 

Nice.

This lump is being extracted this weekend, and rebuilding a sbc350 to replace it - unless I go mental and get one of those 6.2 diesels the gov't is getting rid of... Cheap to buy, but $$$ to build into what I would want it to be....

 

If you do perform your own alignment, make sure that among other crucial things, that you crank the jam nuts tight when you are done!

Some lazy prick at a pepboys that works with a friend of mine forgot to do that on a church bus, and fortunately they came back in before something catastrophic occured, the same guy had a wheel-off a month prior.

Even pros make mistakes!

 

I guess I am going to have to learn to do alignments... No one ever seems to get them right and I know I am bound to be making more suspension changes on this car at least once more before I die....

 

It took my mechanic several hours to install my springs and the alignment....I don't know how long it would take for me to do it if I tried doing it myself. $300 is pretty reasonable I think...

 

If it is feasible, go diesel! That is a nice truck BTW, somewhat envious now..

Now I am second guessing myself for selling my compound turbo'd Cummins dually. (Holset HT60 from a semi-tractor face f***ing an HX40) It was a full weight, low 13sec tow pig, >1000lb-ft at the ground!