Just a question for folks on here who are aging (like me). How do you handle doing repairs? Once I hit 60, I'm finding it harder to crawl under the car, and it hurts WAYYY more than it used to the next day. I can't afford a $5000 post lift, but I still want to enjoy doing my own work. Old age and jack stands just aren't cutting it together very well anymore. Any suggestions?

__________________
2012 Mercedes ML350 Bluetec 91K (hers)
2005 Corvette 55K (fun car)
2002 VW Jetta TDI 231K (mine)
1998 Volvo S70 T5 Turbo 196K (kids)
1994 Ford F150 4WD 249K (firewood hauler)
1983 Mercedes 300D 376K (diesel commuter)

I think you can get a lift for 2500 or so. I am mulling it in my mind....actually I don't have the height for it so an addition might be needed. Presently my under car work I have been hiring done.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I literally feel your pain on that one. Started getting Arthritis when I was 27 years old and it has progressed from the knees to all of the other major joints and even my neck. I just turned 68 years old.

To me being older means I have to work harder at nearly everything I do and not just the physical stuff.

What do I do? I work like 5 times slower. I take a lot of breaks and naps as needed. I take Walmart generic excederine 3 times a day anyway. Do the work that hurts when the pain killer is in effect.

I have another running car and a Van so the vehicle I am presently working on (changing a front strut) has no hurry to getting it fixed.

Try to work smarter.
It is more relaxing to research the job you are going to do before hand then to have to rush to deal with an issue as it happens.

To me part of that means trying to get the Tools or a reasonable substitute for the job you are doing. Having the right tool increases your chance of easy success and can be safer.

It is extremely important that you work extremely safe because you are not going to heal up like you used to and if you are already losing physical functions a bad accident can put you over the edge.

I saved the worst one for the last. I will just speak of myself on this. The reason I have trouble getting up and under and out of Vehicles is that I don't exercise and am not physically fit. Rather then being stretched out an supple as I would more likely be if I did regular exercise instead I am stiff an awkward (which also decreases safety). Having to stretch and stain when you are not used to it means you hurt yourself more.

I have yet to face myself on the exercise issue. But, several of the Kids I grew up with are dead (men) and the Women I grew up with that are surviving are in worse shape then I am in.
Next is my chance of an early death may not come true as my Fathers Mother died ad 90 years old and my Father has a birthday coming up and will b 94 years old.
So I am at the point were I really need to act on the exercise issue even though arthritis pain decreases my enthusiasm for that.

While it sounds a little like you are looking for a reason to buy a Car lift
I am guessing that with several months of exercising where you also practice getting up you will see a great ease in your suffering when you work on your vehicles. Don't forget to exercise your lower back.

Best Wishes

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Another thing I have a bunch of those anti-fatigue mats from Harbor Freight. I lay on those under the vehicles and I am able to kneel on them without having knee pads. (the same if you have to use an elbow to help you get up) You get 4 mats for about $11 and they can be interlocked like similar to puzzle pieces.

I forgot to mention with me the lack of exercise has lead to weight gain (around the gut) and the extra weight is not good for the arthritic hips and knees causing more pain and therefore making me even less willing to exercise. A vicious circle.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I loved restoring vintage sports cars and doing my own work on the Mercedes, but age catches up with all of us. If I crawl under my car to do some work, I pay the price with 2-3 days of aches and pains. If I hold my socket wrench for more than a couple of minutes, I have to peel my fingers off the wrench to let go of it. I am approaching 76 years of age, and I am now willing to pay the bucks to get the car repaired. Its an easier softer way than doing it myself and spending a week with all kinds of pain.

__________________
96 E300d

Hey, ME TOO ! .

I remember in my 50's when one of my WWII buddies warned me that once past 60 getting down isn't too bad but getting back up again was going to be challenging .

Yep, he was right .

I'm still using a hydraulic trolley jack and safety stands but I avoid jacking up the car as much as possible ~ I used to jack it up to change the oil, no longer, different tools and I'm good to go .

The comments about working smarter not harder and ALWAYS BE SAFE are right on target ~ I'm crippled and still want to do my own repairs, I let my buddy the factory trained Mercedes Indie mechanic do the heavy stuff .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I will be 78 this July. I still seem to possess the ability. I just lack the drive to get to things done as fast As I ounce did.

So getting some delayed projects done as the weather warms up this year does concern me. Also in the last couple of years I am losing muscle mass and strength. I can usually compensate for this but it is going to get worse.

I am actually grateful at the same time. Too many other guys are gone before this age. Plus I cannot be a judge of my own mind. Yet it does not seem to have any real issues yet. My general disposition also seems to remain okay as well.

I do believe the axiom use it or lose it as well though. If you spend too much time in a recliner or equivelent you will go downhill. At least get out and walk every day in reasonable weather. Unless some existing condition is present that complicates it.

I for example like the wife giving me a list of errands to do as well..This is in the last year or two. I am careful not to displace what she generally does. Actually by doing them I have come to understand why it takes her so long as there are so many.

I suspect even though I am five years older than her. I am just in better physical condition. Mentally I am not as smart as she is but that has always been the case.

Come to think of it I never got around to checking her birth certificate.

I am also happy for both of us that we still get along with each other well. I write a lot of things in my life off as just good coincidence.

We both also retain a decent level of humor in our lives. Neither of us are what I would call frail yet. Where most our contemporaries are to some extent.


The reality though is either of us could wake up dead tomorrow. It is of no real concern. Simply because we have no control over it. Life would be very strange if the wife passed on first though.

I have no ideal of what I would do. I have lived with women so long I forget what freedom is like.

Women seem far more fatalistic than men and tend to cope better alone. Unless they have been suppressed during a long term marriage. I purchased a lifetime of brownie points by working at enabling my wife. From the beginning. It has made me happy to just see her happy as a result all these years.

We also can have different viewpoints on many things. Yet we have never gotten into a serious type argument or disagreement. This kind of amazes me in one way and concerns me in another.

I have heard that many older couples that are miserable with living together. Just stay together so the survivor takes all. Possibly true. Or they do not want their children dealing with the disruption in a family it creates by parting ways.

The lift is the best tool in the shop for this boomer. If you can afford it and have the room get one. Look at what a company called Forward Manufacturing has available.

Whenever I get a Sprinter in I have to work on it with it on ramps. Plans for next shop include a lift large enough to get a Sprinter in the air. At 63 I'm going to do it as long as I can. I used to have arthritis pain in my left hand but since I've been using CBD I don't have any issues with it.

__________________
Jim

There are many ways to get some elevation on a car to work on it easier. A rocking lift can be made from scrap steel. If you have the room for it. It can have wheels and a trailor hitch even. Anything is better than working at floor level.

i laugh at how long it takes me to get out from under a car and how much 'planning' i need to do to accomplish standing up compared to just a few years ago

__________________
0o==o0

James 4:8

"...let us put aside the blindness of mind of those who can conceive of nothing higher than what is known through the senses"
-Saint Gregory Palamas, ---Discourse on the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ


Centrally located in North East Central Pa.

If I wrench 4 or more hours 3 or more times a week I tend to be in decent shape and don't mind crawling under a car. It's when I don't wrench for a month then my back goes out or if that doesn't happen when I do wrench I feel it for a few days. I have many projects so at 66 I'm usually under some vehicle but if I had the room a lift would be in my garage.

__________________
92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I feel your pain. At 64, with 2 heart attacks and a near stroke, in the not so distant past, working safer and smarter is a necessity. Sometimes, I have to resolve to making 2 day projects out of under-the-car tasks. Living in Texas, heat is a major, and possibly dangerous, factor as well.

Ditto the padded floor mats idea. I'll be increasing my square-footage in the near future. It even works for taking a quick nap while you're down there.

Sure, the work can leave me sore for a few days, but I've witnessed, and experienced, how quickly one can decline if you don't remain active. Also, it keeps the brain active by research of new ideas on how to tackle new projects.

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

I'm not 60 yet and yeah, wrenching hurts unless you are prepped.
Biggest thing I do is make sure the car is high enough, and the tools are within reach. Working on a wood floor beats concrete every day.
There is no hurry either. My wife's car is done by a local shop. The rest of the fleet cycles in and out depending on status- I always have an alternative driver.
For real pita items, I convince my 25 yr old son (who has his on projects stored in my barn) to assist.

__________________
95 E300D working out the kinks
77 300D, 227k, station car
83 300CD 370k, gone away
89 190E 2.6- 335k, no more
79 VW FI Bus- 145k miles, summer driver
59 VW Beetle ragtop- 175k miles
12 VW Jetta- 160k miles

I'm 73. I simply wouldn't and couldn't do what I do without a hoist, a shop crane, and heat/AC in the shop. I paid $1700ish for my hoist DELIVERED from Pace. So far so good and it's about 10 years old.

Dan

about ten years ago my son and I visited an aviation museum nearby, where I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman who was working as a guide in a large hall filled with spectacular vintage aircraft of all ages. I was intrigued by a monstrous radial engine from a WW 2 bomber that had been cutaway and hooked up to an electric motor, the better to view the internals as it rotated. I told him that my dad had been a flight instructor in the Army Air Corps during that era, and hearing this, he seemed to be enthused to have someone to talk to about airplanes (it was a slow day at the museum)-it seemed clear that for him it was a lifelong passion (he was in his late 80's or perhaps early 90's-he told me but I can't remember exactly).

His other "job" at the museum was as an unpaid volunteer, working long days throughout the NY winters in an unheated hangar next door, rebuilding a large plane similar to the one that engine had belonged to. He talked about how quickly the tools and heavy engine parts would suck the heat from his hands, making the work particularly uncomfortable and time-consuming due to the frequent breaks required; at the same time the look on his face made it clear that there was nothing else he'd rather be doing. Whenever I have to work on the car and it's less than perfect outside (my "garage" is the parking lot at my apartment building) I think about that guy...