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FreeCarKits FreeCarKits Guides · Diagrams · Parts Kits
About & Press

A reference library built in a Boulder garage by two ASE-certified techs — not a parts-store affiliate feed.

FreeCarKits was started in 2019 by former dealership service manager Marc Delaney and ASE Master Tech Renata Okafor. We pair every free build guide and OEM-sourced wiring diagram on the site with a pre-bagged, ready-to-ship parts kit — so you stop hunting four forums and three retailers just to swap a starter or wire a dual-battery setup.

1,840Free build guides
312Vehicle platforms
14ASE-certified techs
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An open shop manual on a drafting table with hand-written torque specs in the margin.
Lifetime free revisions Every kit ships with a QR code that pulls the latest schematic and torque-spec updates for that build.
File ref. FCK-2019-001 · Boulder, CO · Rev. 41
Who built this and why

Two co-founders, two shop-floor careers, one reference library.

Both founders still turn wrenches. Marc owns operations and customer-side build reviews; Renata owns technical accuracy, the ASE-certified tech team, and the OEM-diagram pipeline. Together they wrote the build-guide review rubric the rest of the team follows.

Portrait of co-founder Marc Delaney standing in a working garage bay. Co-founder & Operations

Marc Delaney

Co-founder · Former dealership service manager · ASE Advanced Engine Performance

Marc ran a 14-bay service department at a Boulder County dealership for 11 years before FreeCarKits. He got tired of watching customers walk out with a $1,400 quote for a starter swap they could have done on a Saturday — if only the parts list, the wiring diagram, and the torque specs had been in one place. He owns operations, kit sourcing, and the customer-side build-review queue.

Prior role
Service manager, Boulder County dealership (2008–2019)
Credentials
ASE Advanced Engine Performance; ASE Master Auto (pending renewal cycle)
Owns at FCK
Operations, kit sourcing, build-review queue
Daily driver
1994 Ford F-250 7.3L IDI, 312k miles
Portrait of co-founder Renata Okafor holding a multimeter in front of a wiring schematic. Co-founder & Technical Lead

Renata Okafor

Co-founder · ASE Master Certified Technician · 19 years specialty experience

Renata spent 14 years as the senior electrical-diagnostics tech at an independent Euro and domestic shop in Longmont, working on everything from 1972 BMW ignition systems to CAN-bus retrofits on 2022 Tacomas. She writes the technical-accuracy pass on every FreeCarKits guide and oversees the OEM-diagram pipeline — the in-house drawings, not crowd-submitted ones.

Prior role
Senior electrical-diagnostics tech, independent shop, Longmont CO
Credentials
ASE Master Certified (A1–A8); L1 Advanced Engine Performance
Owns at FCK
Technical review, OEM-diagram pipeline, ASE tech hiring
Daily driver
2021 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road, dual-battery FCK kit
Press citations

Named and cited by the publications our readers already trust.

Every citation below links to the specific issue and date so you can verify it — not a vague "as seen in" line.

  • AutoWeek Best Free DIY Auto Resource 2024 Gear Guide, April 2024 issue, p. 62
  • Grassroots Motorsports Top DIY Resource November 2023 issue
  • Hot Rod Magazine Featured DIY Resource March 2024 issue
  • The Drive 2024 Buyers Guide Top Pick 2024 Buyer’s Guide edition

As cited in their respective issues — FreeCarKits does not pay for placement, and we do not claim OEM endorsement by any vehicle manufacturer.

Why we pair every guide with a kit

The manifesto, drafted in the same Boulder garage where the first kits were bagged.

In 2019, Marc spent a Saturday helping a neighbor swap the starter on a 2003 Toyota Tacoma. The job itself took 40 minutes. Hunting the correct solenoid, the right battery terminal kit, the right heat-shrink, and a torque-spec sheet for the bellhousing bolts took the previous six hours — across four forums, two retailers, and a YouTube video that got the fuse rating wrong.

That is the problem FreeCarKits was started to solve. We do not believe build knowledge should live in 40 different Discord channels. We do not believe a $9 wiring pigtail should require a 45-minute parts-store trip. And we do not believe the diagrams should be crowd-submitted — the ones in our library are redrawn in-house from OEM service manuals, by technicians who actually fix cars for a living.

Every free guide on this site is paired one-to-one with a pre-bagged, ready-to-ship parts kit. Every kit ships with a QR code that pulls the latest schematic and torque-spec revisions for that build — for the lifetime of the project, at no charge. If a part in a kit does not fit, we replace it free. That is the whole model. No forum hunting, no SKU spelunking, no out-of-date diagrams pasted from 2011.

— Marc Delaney & Renata Okafor, co-founders, Boulder CO

Team & credentials

The 27 people behind the library, by role.

Hire-to-retire averages: 11 years of specialty experience per technician. Every build guide on the site passes a three-pass review by the team below.

  1. 01

    ASE-Certified Technicians

    14 on staff

    ASE Master, A1–A8 and L1 coverage. Owners of the technical-accuracy pass on every build guide. Average 11 years specialty experience.

    Cert. coverage
    ASE A1–A8, L1
    Avg. experience
    11 years
  2. 02

    Content Engineers

    6 on staff

    Author the build guides, photograph the step-by-steps, maintain the revision log, and run the QR-code revision pipeline that ships with every kit.

    Output
    ~22 new guides / month
    Revisions
    Lifetime, via QR
  3. 03

    Parts Specialists

    4 on staff

    Source, kit, bag, and audit every SKU that goes into a kit. Own the 94.7% kit-fitment accuracy rate and the free-replacement guarantee on every part.

    Fitment rate
    94.7%
    Guarantee
    Free replacement
  4. 04

    Support Engineers

    3 on staff

    Answer the inbox, the chat, and the Discord — staffed by technicians who can read a wiring diagram, not a script.

    Coverage
    Email, chat, Discord
    First-line
    Live tech, no script
By the numbers

The library, the kits, and the community — in verifiable figures.

  • 1,840+ Free build guides live on the site as of Q1 2025
  • 312 Distinct vehicle platforms covered, 1965–2024
  • 218,000+ Parts kits shipped since launch
  • 412,000+ Registered DIYers across site, newsletter, and Discord
  • 4.86/5 Average post-install rating across 218,000+ shipped kits
  • $186 Average savings per project vs. sourcing parts individually across the 9 major parts sites we track

Survey-derived averages from internal data (Dec 2024, n = 4,118 projects reported). Dollar-savings figure is an average and is not guaranteed for every project.

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