FIVE JOBS TO AVOID

Replacing a windscreen

Taking the screen out and refitting it following paintwork or a headlining replacement can be manageable, but as soon as something is different – repairs to the screen aperture or a new screen – it can all get very scary… especially when you have to start forcing it. Windscreen fitters know the limits of what the glass can take, so let their experience show.

Removing the heater

‘Remove car from heater’ is what it should say in the manual. It’s like burrowing to the centre of the Earth, only with more broken dash fixings and seized hose clips. Do you like lying in the footwell with your feet on the headrest? Do you like doing it all over again when the leak reappears? If not, pay someone else to suffer.

Repairing a fuel tank

A serious health risk. Attempting to angle-grind into or (heaven forbid) to weld a punctured steel tank – even a thoroughly empty one – can cause an explosion from ignition of trapped vapour. Fumes can still seep out of corroded seams in the tank after a wash-out.

Fitting a convertible top

This shouldn’t be any harder to fit than a seat cover, but in reality it so easily becomes a tearful battle against fabric that’s too tight, too loose, or somehow both of the above in different places. And what if you also need to make fixing holes in the bodywork? Don’t struggle on until you damage something – give it to a pro.

Home respray

Immense patience and high preparation standards help, but if you’re working outside, or in a domestic garage, you’re fighting the conditions: moisture in the air or in your compressed air supply, traces of silicone, airborne dirt, passing insect life. And that’s assuming your costs don’t spiral as you find hidden bodywork horrors. Think you can put up with a few flaws? It’s harder to bear after hundreds of hours of effort.