DIYauto.com: A Complete Reference

After spending the last 5 years building an encyclopedia of automotive knowledge, DIYauto.com has finally gone live. It’s the brainchild of Steve Balistreri- an automotive engineer who has worked on the C7 Corvette and a true gearhead.

“It’s such a great time to be an enthusiast,” Steve says. “Just about any information you need is available— somewhere. The frustrating part is finding it, and conversely, sharing it. You can carefully document a build or a project and never be sure if the people who can use the information will get it, or if it will get lost in the shuffle. The current situation is like a town without a library. We want to build that library.”

Until now, forums and similar websites were the only source of information on builds and DIYs and reading through all the threads would be too time consuming. DIYauto.com manages to get around the problem of scattered information by compiling a detailed database which can accessed with just a few clicks.

“Often people will look online for a DIY or specific piece of data before working on their car. It is frustrating spending the first 20 minutes of your wrenching time clicking through multiple sites and sifting through conflicting information. With DIYauto.com you’ll be able to find it all within three clicks of the homepage.”

DIYauto.com is a carefully designed online library which focuses on DIYs, builds and hard data presented in the simplest and cleanest possible manner. While users can share their builds with the online community, they can also access detailed information in the form of owner’s manuals, wiring diagrams etc.

Press Release:

A culmination of 5 years of effort, DIYauto.com is an enthusiast-built encyclopedia of automotive knowledge focusing on DIYs, builds, and hard data and is set to change the way enthusiasts work on their cars. Frustrated by the difficulty in finding specific information from a vast and fractured landscape of enthusiast websites, Steve started the project using lessons learned during his experience as an automotive engineer. With help from hundreds of gear heads, thousands of DIY and build articles have already been donated to the project.

“It’s such a great time to be an enthusiast,” Steve says. “Just about any information you need is available—somewhere. The frustrating part is finding it, and conversely, sharing it. You can carefully document a build or a project and never be sure if the people who can use the information will get it, or if it will get lost in the shuffle. The current situation is like a town without a library. We want to build that library.”

Steve has worked on many projects during his 10 years in the automotive industry, including being the lead NVH engineer for the C7 Corvette axle. “I learned that no matter how good your data and procedures are, they won’t help you if you can’t find them when you need them.” He found the same issues when working on his cars at home and heard that many other enthusiasts felt the same way.

“Often people will look online for a DIY or specific piece of data before working on their car. It is frustrating spending the first 20 minutes of your wrenching time clicking through multiple sites and sifting through conflicting information. With DIYauto.com you’ll be able to find it all within three clicks of the homepage.”

Most automotive sites are built for sharing news and fostering discussion, not information storage and retrieval. DIYauto.com organizes and preserves author-donated articles such as DIYs, build threads, and car reviews on vehicle pages with data tables, wiring diagrams, owner’s manuals and vintage advertisements. Vehicle pages are displayed on timelines that show all vehicles made by a manufacturer in a way that is easy to browse and visualize. Information on the site is editable by users, so the breadth and accuracy of info on the site will grow as the number of users increases.

Started as DIYautoFTW.com, the site’s name changed to DIYauto.com last fall. Steve’s brother, Nick, is also a gearhead and moved to the Detroit area from Milwaukee to work full time on the project in spring of 2015. The goal for the site is to be the best resource for automotive information online and a positive member of the auto enthusiast community.