Since day one, Haynes has been all about helping you, the home mechanic, to carry out your own repairs on your vehicles. Here, we celebrate those who use their spare time and Haynes Manuals to repair and improve their pride and joy, and even better, to use that car for the good of others.
DIY champion: Craig Hollins, Western Australia
Vehicle: 1989 Ford LTD Limousine
Craig Hollins from Western Australia is a man who loves a bit of charity. But not receiving it. Quite the opposite in fact. Craig is a man who does a bit of work for charity, more specifically, the annual Variety Australia Variety Bash.
What’s a Variety Bash? Well, it’s Australia’s longest-running charity motoring event, and in essence it’s a whole load of good-intentioned but perhaps slightly unhinged people driving wholly inappropriate cars through the Australian countryside. They do this in aid of Variety Australia, which raises money for sick and disadvantaged children across Australia, and the cars they use must have been built before 1997.
Craig’s car is more inappropriate than most, because the vehicle he and his mates use to traverse some pretty rugged scenery is a 1989 Ford LTD limousine. Clearly, you don’t have to be mad to work there, but it helps.
Craig’s band of charity travellers have used the LTD Manual to carry out some modifications and upgrades to their vehicle to help it deal with the terrain.
As Craig says: “We’ve used the manual for several little tasks. First was swapping out the auto transmission.” Not so little then.
He adds: “We also had to replace the radiator, repair the electric windows, brake pads all around and even replace the front seats.”
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You can see in the image that Craig and his buddies have also fitted more off-road-appropriate tyres, as well as a bull bar at the front and a rack to carry a couple of spare wheels at the back. Probably helps with weight distribution, too.
And as for the NASA colour scheme? Well, a limousine does have a lot of space in it…
They were right to use a Haynes Manual as their reference material. Every single Haynes manual and Autofix procedure is thoroughly researched, and each step-by-step guide tried and tested so that you can rely on it when you’re carrying out a fix at home.
We know all this, because all of us at Haynes enjoy sorting out our cars and motorcycles ourselves, and that’s why we want to see how you get on, too. And the good news is that lots of you enjoy twirling a few spanners (and the occasional hacksaw) while repairing and restoring your pride and joy.
We’d love you to follow in Craig’s footsteps by showing us what you’re working on and how you’re using Haynes to help you out.
Just send us a few details about yourself and your vehicle to yourrepairs@haynes.co.uk
Let us know about any issues you’ve encountered or any problems you foresee, plus a few pictures, and we’ll feature you on our website and social channels.