"How hard is it to...?"

[deevergote]

People seem to ask this question constantly. "How hard is an engine swap?", "How hard is it to put seats from XXXX in my car?" "Hey, Eric Spoto, how hard is it to benchpress 500lbs?"

[HenRoc]

I saw that in the Beginner section.

[deevergote]

Even more so on Facebook... but yeah, seeing it here prompted this.

[sonikaccord]

I'm just going to start saying everything is easy...just pay someone else to do it for you. Still need to press that 500lbs? No prob!

[deevergote]

I just tell people everything is too difficult. Because if your first action is to ask a completely subjective question such as that, you clearly don't have the knowledge or experience for it to be anything but.

[F22Chris]

Fucking do it and find out. I dont like those questions myself.

If you think it is too hard, odds are you shouldn't do it.

And Deev, you have the right idea. Cause if you tell them that it's easy and they mess up, they flame you for their mistakes.

[deevergote]

Exactly.

And honestly, if you don't know your own abilities, nobody on the internet does either. The only way to answer that question is to research what is involved and make an assessment based on your own knowledge of your own abilities. If you don't know something, can you learn it? I mean, chipping an ECU is not "hard", but it requires knowledge of the ECU, and what needs to be modified. It requires the proper tools, and the skill and experience to use them. If you gain that knowledge and skill, it's a relatively simple task. Someone might as well just ask "am I too stupid to learn what I need to learn in order to do this?"

My mention of Eric Spoto was to illustrate the differences in perception based on abilities. Bench pressing 500lbs is NOT an easy task for most people. Eric Spoto can bench press over 700lbs... so to him, 500 may not seem so difficult! (he's a record holder, for anyone who doesn't know the name.)

[AccordWarrior]

I think it's the vague questions that get you.

There's a difference in a question like "is it hard to install a catback system" where the answer is "well, it's 3 bolts but they might be a bear to get off" and "how hard is xxx" when xxx is custom fabrication.

There's also a big difference in how you phrase a question. Asking to be spoon fed is one thing versus asking for pointers. Case in point, when I recent put a lift on my Tacoma, I asked a few people on a Tacoma forum for pointers and there was some back and forth on whether it's better to pop the UBJ or LBJ but there were a few pointers about watching brake lines, etc, etc. Those type of comments are one thing, but asking how hard a suspension install is can be too vague.

I mean, a lot of the stuff I've done to vehicles over the years has been my first go round on it. I took off my Accord's junk Midas catback without having a clue how to put a new one on and after 4 hours of fighting bolts my uncle came over with a torch to bail me out. I now am confident I could swap an exhaust without too much hassle, even with bad bolts because of things I learned. I've done enough suspension work now to swear off ever doing suspension again.

Honestly, I think the right answer to "how hard" is "what do you have for tools, and what's your experience using them?".

[h22sparkle]

damn smdh

[Grumpys93]

In before the lock. Just kidding. I like Chris's response. Try it and find out. Most everything has been done to our cars and is usually documented. So these types of questions should not be asked.

[bassrock234]

I agree

I prefer to dive right in to something head first then ask questions if I end up messing it up. There's only one way to learn most things, and thats to just do it.

[cb7 calling]

It's pretty easy to talk you through it. I can explain how to do things I would not do, auto to manual conversion ect. It's really hard to remove a bolt that is seized then breaks and you have to replace the bushing it was stuck in after you cut it out.
It's always hard to predict the future is how I feel when I hear that question.

[wed3k]

i read on the internet that it will take 5 minutes so it shouldn't be too hard.

those are the comments i get in the shop when someone wants me to fix or fabricate a piece. all i say is labor rate is 100/hr.

[deevergote]

Then they call you a scammer because you charged them $200 for "something vtechuser69 on madtytehonduh.com said he could do in 20 minutes".

[emosun]

I understand asking the difficulty.

We all know that any human with at least a functioning pair of hands can change a headlight bulb on the car.

So someone who is not car savy might ask , how hard it it to change the bulb?

They think it could be hard , but we know it's super easy. and we could save them the 10$ or whatever it cost for someone at an oil change place to change the bulb for them.

So when someone asks how hard it would be to swap an engine , the answer they are looking for isn't the level of difficulty , but rather if it can be done themselves and how.