Originally Posted by veganbikes

I am curious why and what you have done to inform the owner in a nice polite way of the issue so they can help resolve it but I won't ask for specifics.

If you just want to do it yourself just get the proper tools and get good quality ones and cry once buy once. Park Tool generally has good videos to help but watch them a couple times and really get to the point of retaining the knowledge then watch the video again while doing the task pausing when needed and don't be afraid to stop what you are doing and watch the video again and again till you are confident in the knowledge you have gained. This is the same thing I tell all of my mechanics when they have an issue and I want to make sure they are doing it correctly. I will sometimes teach them but if I know I am decently confident in the work but not in teaching I send them straight to Calvin Jones and his awesome team to watch the videos as many times as it takes and never to be afraid to ask questions and also to know there are no dumb questions.

I would also get Lennard Zinn's books: Zinn and the art of ____ Bike Maintenance and the Park Tool Big Blue Book and since you are working on older bikes Sutherlands is a great one and I am sure someone has that online somewhere if not made a good compendium of it and I bet the C&V folks know where it is. A good mechanic is one who knows they don't know it all and are willing to learn a bad mechanic says "I got this" and dives head first into the empty pool without checking first to see if there is water. Also a good mechanic knows when to say I am not reading or able to tackle this repair I will let someone more knowledgable then I take it on. When working on your own stuff making a mistake may not be so bad but working on something for a customer could be quite bad and it is important to know when you truly are able to complete the repair safely and within a reasonable time and when you could use help.

Kind of like one of those silly game shows but the lifelines are unlimited and you can swap a different player in if need be and nobody will judge you and if they do who cares it will have zero real bearing on anything down the road.