We are not mechanical.

But we are cheap-ass bastards.

These two attributes collide from time to time. We can either open our wallets (not easy when your patron saint is John Elwes, said to be the frugal inspiration for Ebeneezer Scrooge) and hire someone to fix our mechanical issues or we can take on the task ourselves. For some projects, like a bad air compressor in the AC, there’s no discussion.

But other times, such as this week when the driver’s side door on our 1972 Chevy C-10 won’t open, we search in vain for that mythical old man who toils under his shade tree, resolving old truck issues ‘cause he just likes working on them and thus only charges for parts. Yeah, right.

So, we open the toolbox and log the iPad into Youtube and attempt to “be mechanical.”

We managed to remove the door panel with almost as much ease as the two videos we watched. We carefully saved the screws and other parts, including the “jesus spring,” named because folks yell the lord’s name when they pop the part and it flies away. We jiggled. We lubricated. We moved the parts that move. We read random pages of “Zen the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” Then we let things sit a while.

Still, the door won’t budge. We are undeterred. For now. We’re going to drive this beater for a few days in the hopes that something will break loose (not break!). If nothing else, we have a new-found appreciation for the inner workings of a truck door.

And maybe we’ll just learn to enter and exit the vehicle from the passenger side from now on. Cheap is as cheap does.