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| photo source: MoneyBlitz.TV |
Delusions of grandeur? Maybe.
My Mustang sat around for around five months while I tried to convince myself that it couldn't really be the manifold, again. Then I bit the bullet and swapped the manifold, all hoses, and the serpentine belt. All that only ran a bit under four bills.
My Daughter's car needed a new set of tires. I couldn't swing another set of Bridgestone Turanzas, so I went with the same Falkens that I put on my '96. Not as bad a bill as I feared, but with the alignment it still was more than six hundred bucks.
It's been quite expensive taking care of my daily fleet. The truck needed new front brakes, and of course these are integral with the front hub. A new set of Hankook tires, a front end alignment and the bill came out to a bit over a grand. I wouldn't budge on my choice of Hankooks. These are the OE tire and the truck has always handled, steered, and rode quietly and smoothly. All these factors make the truck a delight to drive. I couldn't take a chance on losing THAT.
My Mark VII still needs me to pull the rest of the wheel cylinders off. My regular cars have needed more attention lately, so it just sits.
The XJS needs that front suspension to come apart. After the transmission replacement, things have come to a stop. It has not achieved daily driver status yet, but I do drive it occasionally.
My XJ6 front suspension could use the same attention. Come to think about it it's been at least six months since it's been in the driving rotation. Maybe I should finish making that spring compressor!
There must have been some kind of logical reasoning behind my decision to acquire all these cars.
I do have a reason that seemed logical to me, at least at the time.
Well maybe not logical, but with strong emotional appeal. It made plenty of sense to the irrational side of my brain.
Maybe even heroic.
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| I remember seeing this movie as a kid. |
Who wouldn't want to be the hero of their own adventure? I did when I was eight years old, and I still do at my age! Who doesn't think that they would leap at the chance to join this courageous crew on their challenging odyssey?
You've got to define your own narrative to be your own hero. Battling harpies, giant animated statues and risking the wrath of Poseidon. All to secure the Golden Fleece. Could it get any better?
That particular opportunity probably isn't going to make itself available anytime soon.
I've mentioned the magazine "Where Women Create." before. Browsing through this magazine always fills me a feeling of envy, these women are doing what they want to do. They found a way to fulfill their dream and actually run their passion as a business. After reading their stories I'm usually filled with a spirit of inspiration, like when I first started this blog.
There was an article in a recent issue of Jaguar World about a gent has been collecting for 41 years. He has amassed a collection of over twenty cars, some pretty darn good ones too.
There are two times when it makes sense to buy the old cars that you find interesting.
First, when you are young and dumb and the cars are cheap. This is a period when most people, your family, spouse, and friends will think that you are sort of "peculiar." You will usually end up hogging all the extra parking spots on your street which will not please your neighbors. Eventually calls will be made to the "parking authority" and tickets and notices will accumulate, and the herd will be thinned.
Second, when you are older and a bit more affluent, and you realize that you are running out of time. I have never tried to recapture the feeling of my high school years. Maybe because they weren't very good the first time around.
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| photo source"cicustoons.com Gotta keep all those balls in the air. |
So I took the dive to start acquiring some cars that are desirable to me. Was this the best time to do this? Did I have the space, money and energy to take on this task? Maybe not, but for one thing, there is no time like the present. And for a guy my age, all I've got left is the present.
For another thing, these cars are about as cheap as they are going to get for a decent example. I've seen so many cars that I've owned in the past start to climb on the value ladder. Those Sixties Rivieras, Fifties Cadillacs, even those Seventies Datsun Z cars have exited the Bargain Basement for the "Big Time."
So my hands are quite full and it is taking a juggling act to hold onto what I've got, and to make some progress with my project herd.
I've mentioned a story that appeared in the July 2015 issue of Hot Rod magazine. Here's a link to that story http://www.hotrod.com/articles/old-school-hot-rods-built-in-a-one-car-garage/
Just like those Ladies in "Where women Create" Dan built a home for his passion. No excuses, just action, So what's holding US back?
Compared to that shed, my two car garage looks almost like one of those Garage Mahals.
This article really lit a fire under me. I realized that the time is now. If I didn't reach for that Golden Fleece I was just going to sail on by into a sea of mediocrity. (Enough of the Argonaut imagery!)
For most of us there is always the lack of something; time, money, space, knowledge, or probably most deadly, enthusiasm. In Pirsig's book, "Zen and the art of motorcycle Maintenance", he refers to this as the "gumption trap."
This is a situation where something has to be done for work to continue, things are now coming to a standstill, work is grinding to a stop... And we still just can't bring ourselves to deal with it.
Pirsig liked that term "gumption." It has a good old fashioned ring to it, something that our Grand Daddy would say. I might define it as energy, combined with determination and most importantly, action. It can be in short supply at times in the old car game. Really, in every aspect of our lives.
Somehow we've got to recharge our "enthusiasm batteries", how can we do that?
If we have a group of friends that share our interests, we can feel our batteries recharging as we discuss our project. Maybe even one or two of them can drop by and lend a hand.
We can go to a car show. This can backfire if it leads to despair that your car will never look as good as those that are there on display. If the owner is the builder, he can tell about his own struggles in moving the project along.
Back in the day, we would read car magazines to get that jolt of enthusiasm. I've always maintained that this has always been what enthusiast magazines were for.
Now we can watch videos like Petrolicious, that can help restart the fire. But be careful, You know that you can waste hours down that rabbit hole.
Or we can work that overtime to afford the new parts that we need.
Or list those extra parts on CL, and sell them to raise a little extra money
Or we could just go down to the garage and start turning wrenches! In "Boy Gets Car" Woody realizes that his friends are not going to help him with his car, so he finally drags himself down to the garage and fixes those brakes. A life lesson for all of us.
Sometimes, you just have to do the work.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a prison of our own making. It only becomes a prison if we let it reduce us to inaction.
Chew your way out of that "gumption trap!"
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| photo source:Quickmeme |
Have a happy Memorial Day weekend.
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