Proof of DIY work.

A question for all you DIY men/women. When selling your car on, what method do you use to show the new purchaser of all of the DIY work you have done on the car? You have no records to show of it ever going into a garage for repairs or preventative maintenance.

I don't keep records for each oil change. I change my oil too frequently anyway (~6K miles), but I like to see what's in the filter and if anything is stuck to the drain plug. I keep track of the other work I do on the car, and I do save receipts for major stuff my indy does that I can't/don't - like the IMS retrofit. The car is maintained properly, and a thorough PPI will reveal this. If that's not good enough for someone, they're welcome to go find another car. When I picked up my X5 after a complimentary service, I noticed that the tech had carefully recorded the tire pressures for all four tires plus the spare...but my X5 came with run-flats, no spare. The guy just made up numbers to make it look like the work was done. After seeing how unconcerned the service writer was about this "mistake," I found another dealership for future service visits. I'd like to think this was an isolated incident, but ultimately I find it hard to believe that some 20-something guy cares as much about my car - or my wife's safety - as I do. I'd much rather buy a car from someone who can tell me what he did to the car and why over someone with a stack of dealership service invoices they've never bothered to read - but I understand not everyone feels this way.

I keep records. I put the receipt for the oil or parts in my binder of receipts.

I'm also obsessive about disclosing EVERYTHING about any car I sell. When I sold my Boxster, I included a new ignition switch - I knew it was starting to act up, and I hadn't had time to install the new one yet.

Quotes source post: 11441990

I don't keep part receipts in binders - they are all in my Gmail account if I need 'em. I do not want written evidence of how much money I've sent Pelican anywhere my wife might find it.

I keep a detailed ledger of all my expenses categorized on an excel spread sheet. I save all my receipts for literally every penny I spend on the car. I also send an oil sample out every oil change so I've got those reports as additional documentation. I bought my car from someone that was equally as **** as me so I have detailed documentation from day one including the purchase agreement, pre-delivery inspection report, etc. I'm a big believer that good documentation adds value to these kind of cars when resale time comes around. I also believe part of the buying process is assessing the seller and this type of documentation furthers the credibility of the seller.

Quotes source post: 11441996

That can work both ways... when my wife sees how much I spend in maintenance on my C4S, it helps to justify the purchase of a newer Porsche at some point...

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...and I thought that I was the only one.

I keep a Word document with every date, procedure and cost no matter how small. Additionally, I retain 100% of the receipts for verification. On this car, I documented the brake fluid interval with digital photos.

I keep the receipts from everything I buy for the car. Any potential buyers can examine the car and choose to believe me and either purchase the car or not; the choice is theirs and it makes no difference to me.

I too keep a large three ring binder with every receipt and service procedure kept in chronological order. For the bigger items, I also keep a full high-res photo shoot to document the process. I just added roughly 75 photos of having my M96 rebuilt at every stage of tear down to rebuild. I also photographed the carnage of the damage caused by the IMS failure. It's more proof of the internal upgrades I had installed with mileage and timestamps to prove what was done and when. I do not put a lot of merit into basic excel or word docs as those are easily manipulated. It's sad really, that in the past 2 years I have put over 29K into service, repair, upgrades into a car that isn't even worth close to that amount. Perhaps I should have bought a turbo cabrio to begin with

My records are in my head. I'm upfront and tell the buyer all the work I did, one look at my garage will show the buyer that I do all my work. My word is my document, can't bother keeping actual records, life it too short.

I don't sell my important to me cars... the ones I no longer have never needed "proof" of maintenance when sold to a friend or traded in to a dealer. Friends know my cars are up to date and the dealerships don't care.

Receipts, just like everyone else here says, and guess what, they are dated, usually the work I do is the same day or pretty close there after.

I always hire a professional photographer/videographer to completely document all of my DIY work from start to finish. Also, at the beginning of the video I always hold up a copy of a daily newspaper to confirm the date and I have the photographer sign a contract stating that he did not edit the video and I have that contract notarized. You can never be too careful when dealing with a $15-25K car...

I take pix of my work with my iphone. Old part and new part installed and the parts receipt.

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hahahahah love it... Thanks guys. All the work I have done I write down in a book, dates and mileage when it was done. I don't keep receipts. Not that I am selling my car in the near future, but just wondered what others guys did. No records of any work done, came with my car. The car is 200% better now than ever it was when I got it. I have you guys to thanks along with youtube for the success I have had with my DIY work on the car.

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Kudos to you Hurdi for DIYing your car and improving its condition under your ownership. I feel I've done the same with many of the cars that I have owned and I continually try to improve the condition of the "special" cars under my ownership. However, I'd still keep all receipts to prove parts purchases.

Keep all the receipts, track, all work, fuel, expenses on the Road Trip App, makes life a lot easier than an excel sheet, and you can download the data and print it if you need to.

I keep receipt of the parts that I purchase from PelicanParts or ECSTuning... Other than that, its on them if they want to purchase the car or not.... These are 15-25k cars, not 100k cars...

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Yup. No ****. This isn't Air Force One we're working on...the exhaustive documentation might be a little over the top.

LOL! Do all my DIY projects and throw the receipts in a folder. I mainly keep them so "I" can remember what the heck I did. Not planning on ever parting with the car, so I just have fun, replace what breaks and hit the road again. Yeah, it's not Air Force One for pete's sake.....

My meticulous recordkeeping includes a scrap of paper I keep in the owner's manual showing the mileage at which I last changed oil, the most recent Discount Tire invoice, and the sticker for the LN bearing.

I would send them a picture of my garage showing all the tools/air compressor/etc and if they dont believe me then they can hit bricks...

I'll just send a picture of my fingernails. Even with gloves, I wind up with about a pound of oil and grime under the nails. My wife HATES it.

Yeh 5schn3ll hahaha If the guy says he does all his own mechanical work and he has hands as clean as a surgeons then walk away hahaha. I love it.

I take pictures of what ever I'm doing and put into a document. I also take a picture every time I turn over to the next 1,000 miles just to show I have no codes of any kind.