Photo courtesy of Vincent Levitt, somewhere in Michigan, via Facebook (“Back In The Day Muscle Car Photos”)
Wordless Outtake: There Goes The Neighborhood
– Posted on June 20, 2014
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Curbside Classics Archives
Photo courtesy of Vincent Levitt, somewhere in Michigan, via Facebook (“Back In The Day Muscle Car Photos”)
Who’s the DILF?
Haha not what I’ve come to expect here!
I never expected to hear these types of comments on this site.
I don’t know why but you guys have wrecked CC for me. And no, I am not homophobic nor ignorant I can’t explain it but something just isn’t right anymore
Relax Richard, let the guys have some fun. Nothing wrong with that.
It’s just a sign that this is an open-minded place, and I like that, I like that a lot.
Here’s a typical M(echanic)ILF you’ll probably like more, I know I do….
(Source: http://theatergroepflint.nl/)
I have come to view CC as a safe place. A slightly nostalgic trip into the past free from the usual internet clatter. A family site that was all about the cars which left all of the other crap to the other sites.
The last thing I expected to see here was men saying they would like to fuck other men.
There goes the neighbourhood indeed.
I have come to view CC as a safe place.
That’s exactly the goal, but not just for your specific version of what is safe. We try to avoid being overtly salacious, but we also don’t deny our sexuality, no matter how that swings. We’ve had a number of posts that had sexual content to some degree or another, but they’ve all been hetero. Here’s just one example: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/curbside-caption-damsel-in-distress/
A little equal opportunity ogling is hardly uncalled for. And it’s not like it was intended in this post. At least I assume so.
Whereas I’m proud of the fact that CC has largely avoided misogynistic, homophobic, racial or otherwise exclusionary content, these attitudes have been seen at times on the comments, to my discomfort. In relative terms, I’d like to think it’s not as common as some places on the web, but I’m always on the lookout for them, and will edit or delete them as I see fit, in order to make CC be welcoming to readers of all stripes and colors.
I’m sorry if your version of a safe place doesn’t coincide with my version as well as others. I think it’s possible to indulge our nostalgia with the awareness that certain attitudes of the past were all-too often exclusionary, if not worse. I don’t think nostalgia and sensitivity to changed attitudes are mutually exclusive.
Richard, there are many of us that wouldn’t do that for a million dollars, ten or even a hundred million in my own case actually (for which we need these days to almost apologize for).. and that’s just bizarrre! 🙂
how times have changed from the sixties when we were kids
perhaps the pendulum has swung a bit too far ..who can say that ?
In the brit tv series ‘Heartbeat’ there is an oddball twist, in that the garage mechanic is a really cute young blue-eyed blonde ..i find this amusing and fun …it’s a GREAT nostalic show with bunches of interesting 50s/60s english cars and bikes being used… but having said that ..honestly i have never seen a girl mechanic ANYWHERE in all my whole life here in New Zealand
Well “The Boss” has spoken and he is ok with it so I accept that and will continue to enjoy Curbside Classic as I have done the day the site was created.
On another point I do appreciate the good humoured well reasoned replies to my post so that is a big plus in my view and only adds to the overall quality of the comments in general.
CC has many qualities and part of that is educational, learning new things and understanding alternative concepts both automotive and socially (the two are intrinsically intertwined) so in short, I learnt something today and I have CC to thank for it.
Richard; Thanks for that, and helping to keep it cool and fun here.
How about keeping this a safe space for ALL readers to freely express themselves as long as they aren’t harming anyone.
No actual harm was done to anyone, except for your nostalgic bubble, and from what I’m seeing, this is one of the few opportunities for non-heterosexual male readers of Curbside Classic to express themselves in the comment forum in a venue that is pretty dominated by Heterosexual Male Wet Dreams where women sat and looked pretty and didn’t have a brain. Perhaps why there isn’t a host of female car enthusiasts on this site… something to think about.
In some odd way, it *might* have made this place on the internet a safer space for others to express a more inclusive part of themselves. Many of the heterosexual male commentors here have made comments that are at times could be offensive to women, people of color, and other minorities.
Agreed. No actual physical or mental harm was done. As long as that’s the case live and let live and to each his or her own.
+1
LJ +1. I’m one of those white males who would rather see the rest of the world (whether they be LGBTQ or whatever) be more loose and free to express themselves rather than everyone being PC for fear of offending anyone else.
I grew up reading dear old Dad’s Hot Rod Magazines and there were some pretty female ogling oriented ads in those pages to go with the semi-annual swimsuit issue. I’m for equal opportunity ogling.
Well said, Paul and Laurence. I stumbled across CC a couple of years ago, and as much as I have enjoyed all the comments, this post seemed to ratchet up the fun factor a notch or two. I have cringed at a lot of the straight male risqué comments that I have seen here, and I see nothing any more out of line now than what has come before. This is a great place, and not being a dyed-in-the-wool gearhead, I have learned more about cars and related topics than I could have ever thought possible. I observed early on that it was like a great big fraternity, and open to all with a love or interest in all things automotive. I love that it has been open-minded and quippy and expressive and accepting. Hope it stays that way.
Thanks, Paul – well stated and much appreciated though your leadership on these matters has been pretty clear all along.
If folks disagree, I’m sure Bertel Schmitt & Co can accommodate their needs elsewhere.
And I would be happy to find that more women feel free to chime in here. I have more than a few female friends who love cars and have owned some pretty great ones.
To be honest, it took me about 10 seconds to actually notice the car.
DILF – took the words right out of my mouth. At least its being fixed…most Camaros in my hometown go on blocks and stay there.
Maybe there ought be an app called “Gear Grindr” for guys who love guys who love cars. 😛
That is brilliant! Though there are a lot of LGBT car clubs all over the US but in major cities – GearGrindr would be great for LGBT car people to connect. Some might have a shop so work won’t have to be done on the street!
Find me a heterosexual version of “Gear Grindr”, and I would buy it the quickest. The reason why is because straight men (such as myself) also have a problem finding “partners” that love cars (the only female I know that loves car is my sister, and I indoctrinated her into the “cult of cars”, for lack of a better term).
haha..NO! they only love diamonds, rubies, gold and silver, shopping, unlimited clothes, shoes, necklaces, bangles, big houses, small fluffy animals…and that’s about it!!!!!!
You should have a talk with my little sister (she’s only 8, though), one if CC’s many female commenters/readers, or even CC’s female contributor, Jana Lingo. Expect enlightenment. If none else, look for women that put up with their spouse’s/kid’s obsession with cars (my mom).
Sometimes “put up with” is enough. My wife is about as far from a car person as you can get, but she was okay with me buying my 780 for no other good reason than “I really like it and it’s not too expensive”, and has given her approval for my Malibu rebirth project once I have a garage to work in.
Having a significant other who is a true gearhead would be very cool at times, but could be very expensive others! Also could lead to the dreaded “too much togetherness.” 🙂
Also I’m all for this site being equal-opportunity inclusionary, so more power to the comments so long as they don’t disrespect anyone else. Which the post in question clearly did not!
Whoa, Perry! Had to look this one up. Internet slang never ceases to amaze me. Guess I should turn in my card ;>)
This would never happen in Rancho Mirage, Code Compliance would have been on this guy’s ass in five seconds.
Don, I heard that expression at a party recently so rather your spending more time on the internet, perhaps we need to get you into the city once in a while to keep that membership card up to date;-)
The best “ILF” I’ve ever heard was uttered by a totally non-creative ex-girlfriend. It was her one shining moment of brilliance:
HILF – Homeless I’d Like To Fuck
“GILF” anyone??? (as in ‘geriatric’)
huh?? ~ some nice >93yr olds perhaps.. .. .. since we like curbside ‘classics’ 🙂
You’re right, CA Guy, it’s kinda quiet down here, but then, I’ve always been sort of the quiet and naïve type. I’ve learned more from this site than I ever thought possible!
I am in total agreement with you. The car is wasted on me in this photo. He’s a dreamboat.
Yums the word!
Looks like he has 8 there and not 6.
Engine size, of course…
You horny toads can’t even see his face and you’re drooling all over the keyboard. Men, you’re all alike, no matter your stripe! :p
Upon close inspection, he appears has the face of Dom Deluise, which I am suprised GBT men would have such “lustful reactions” to. People (of every and all stripes) are weird in their idiosyncrasies.
Or Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley:
Check out BearCity for a better sense of the excitement generated.
I know I’m speaking for the minority of men here, but my attention is definitely not on the Camaro….
Oh, Laurence! Get a-um-station wagon? I’d love to see how you would shoot this scene.
Only if it’s a Wagonaire so I can…. yeah nevermind….
+ 1 might not be such a minority…..
+1
+1
+1
+1 Helloooo Daddy!
DILFtastic
+1 – for sure.
I know exactly what you mean Laurence; that transmission is just riveting!
I know that the tranny is riveting, but what about the engine? Is it a small block or a big block, and which one at that?!
+1
Such a great photo and check out those muscles! Anyone else thinking 1980s? I have no problem with people doing this (I rotated my vehicle’s tires in bare feet) unless they make a mess and do not clean it up. Sure I can come up with some other reasons.
I kind of doubt this would fly in Portland since dismantled vehicles on the streets are a no no, but it all depends on where you are and who you are surrounded by. I like living in a place that lets you do things and not get all up in your business, but if I really want to have freedom I need to move to the countryside.
My town just has an ordinance on vehicles being in the street for over 24 hours without moving. So this would still be allowed, you’d just have to be very quick!
I swapped an engine in my friends car at his apartment complex parking lot and they had the same rule. We just pushed the car around the lot when we ran out of daylight 😀
In Miami there is an upscale area called Coral Gables, back in the 1970s I went to Coral Gables Senior High. They had/have a law on the books that pick-up trucks can not be parked on your property if visible from the street. Not just work trucks with advertising on the sides but any pickup, no matter how nice it was. I don’t think it was enforced unless a neighbor or someone complained. Now a days with Chevrolet Silverado pickups selling for close to 50,000 dollars and a Cadillac Escalade at around$85,000 I don’t think it is enforced. After school we moved to a nice neighborhood called Pinecrest where you can do what you want on your property, within reason. My 2 cents
They just changed it
http://www.local10.com/news/Coral-Gables-pickup-truck-ban-lifted/17619396
Reminds me of myself swapping engines in my Windsor, but at least I had a driveway to work in.
At least the guy is using a hoist for the engine; that makes him nearly a professional mechanic in my book. Back in the day I can remember helping swap engines using a convenient tree and some logging chain. It will easier to reinstall the engine if he takes the front clip off the Camaro.
Yep, I was going to post the same thing – although it sounds like we had it easier than you, at least we had a chain hoist to help out. I can also remember the time we pulled an engine with a come-along. Not smart – I guess we got lucky nobody was maimed or killed.
I know that bolt I dropped is here, somewhere!
I bet the local metal scrappers are running circles around that block!
The engine block or city block?
Both! lol
In my current blue-collar exurb, this wouldn’t be a problem. My problems are more with people who don’t fix their cars at the curb, but on my property.
My driveway has paved parking for four cars, but usually has no more than two in it. My neighbors opposite have three (four?) vehicles, but parking for only one. Consequently I have looked out my front window a couple of times to see the nabes working on their (or somebody else’s) pickups in my drive. I don’t mind, but they really should knock at my door and ask first — rather than just begin the operation then wait for me to come out before they say “Hope you don’t mind us doing this, but your driveway is flat and the street is sloped, so….”
Now, I like these people well enough — based on what little interaction I’ve had with them over past two years — but it’s not like we send each other Christmas cards or anything. But they’ve been here longer than I have, so I don’t want to come down too hard on them while I’m still “the new guy on the block.” And they have either cleaned up afterward (or not made any mess in the first place), so no harm done. Still think it’s a bit presumptuous, though.
However, as the owner of an older Camaro in need of occasional fixing myself, I can relate to this photo. Especially as I’m now considering buying a second Camaro as a parts car. So on my street, that “There goes the neighborhood” guy could be me.
Been told Gasoline eats away pavement so that is a side effect if they do not clean up. I had to clean up a wee Gasoline spill at a place I was renting with dish soap, rags, elbow grease, and some high pressure water.
Gasoline will eat asphalt, but not concrete – so it depends on the kind of pavement you have.
Oh. I actually need to look up definitions then since I think of pavement and asphalt as the same thing.
I remember when the roads were paved with cobble stones. But the term comes from Latin, I think.
Teddy, concrete is white. Asphalt is black – well, at least until it oxidizes. Concrete will also last a lot longer than asphalt, but asphalt is a lot cheaper. Prices for both have grown tremendously in the last 15 years.
Something happened in the last 2000 years or so. The pavement moved to the top.
Maybe it’s about time to redo a figure of speech: pounding the summum dorsum.
In your case, the neighbours may be upset because your parts car is occupying their work space.
You should buy 2 Camaros. That will keep your neighbors out.
But a better approach might be a bit of diplomacy. After all your neighbors got skills and tools.
Good point, Wolfgang. No doubt they have both more skills and more tools than me, as I’ve never possessed a whole lot of either.
This reminds me of the time my neighbor Bob did essentially the same thing, with a Datsun B-210, and on a rather steep hill. His motto was “I fix it until I break it.” The car actually ran pretty well after then engine swap. Back when I lived on the same street, I used to change the oil on my ’66 Catalina and my ’76 Vega out on the street, just by driving one side of the car up onto the curb. No jack, no problem, and plenty of elbow room. None of the neighbors ever complained; I guess they had better things to do.
Your mention of using the curb as a ramp reminded me of one of my adventures.
I had borrowed my Dad’s Suburban for a road trip. Three days from home, the exhaust blew out at the 90* elbow coming off of the exhaust manifold. It was deafeningly loud inside the truck.
I cut up a soup can and bought a few worm-gear clamps from the hardware store. Then I drove up on the curb like yourself and slid under the truck, wrapped the steel from the can around the pipe where the hole was, and alternated between tightening the clamps and tapping it with a hammer to conform to the shape of the pipe.
My roadside fix worked quite well. My dad left it like that, and it wound-up outlasting the rest of the exhaust system.
That reminds of a trip back to WA from Bismark,North Dakota via Mt Rushmore. I had broken my own rule about fueling on trips. I had messed up and failed to fill up in a larger city particularly when heading out off the interstate for longer distances. I should have filled at Dickenson before getting off of I 94 to head south on US 85. So I had to buy gas at a tiny station in the middle of nowhere. Not only was it outrageously priced it had some crap.
Next morning climbing a hill out of Rapid City on the way up to Rushmore the fuel filter plugged up and about all I could coax out of it. Luckily I was just leaving town and I turned around, was able to keep up with traffic on the down hill and found an auto parts store. I picked up the filter and the quick disconnect tool. Of course like many late model EFI vehicles the filter was under the vehicle. So drove it up on a curb to be able to safely get under and change it. However I had pumped a ton of crud into the gas. The next day late at night it started doing it again. Thankfully there was K-mart in the next little town that we limped into. It was the only thing open in town and just about to close. Thankfully they had one on the shelf. I did the curb trick again and we were able to make it on to that night’s destination. The next day it yet happened again and it was a curb in the Walmart parking lot that did the trick. This time I bought all three that they had. Which turned out to be smart because it happened one more time and we were miles from anywhere when I was forced to take the exit after going a mile or so at 30 mph on the freeway. Out in the middle nowhere I drove it into ditch to get the needed clearance.We made it home on the 4th filter and it was good from then on.
My first thought was to crack a joke about how this must be where the old stereotype about F bodies came from, but my mind moved on to how the number of places a guy could do something like this is dwindling. Most newer suburbs/communities have such restrictive zoning regulations that often you can’t even park a car outside.
I once spent a week doing body work with air tools out in my mother’s driveway back in the early 80s. I’m sure it was noisy and smelly, but none of the neighbors complained because it was not a normal occurrence. I take my hat off to the guy for tackling such an ambitious job under fairly primitive conditions.
My neighborhood is quickly becoming somewhat slummy. I can easily get away with stuff like this, because I’m otherwise a pretty good neighbor. I keep my house up, mow the lawn, and don’t have a ton of people over.
Most of my neighbors couldn’t care less, however, as they’re too busy shooting off fireworks until 4 am or creating domestic disturbances in their front yards. Yep, I live in a sweet little town.
You reminded me of a story in which the right car can do wonders to alter the behavior of the neighbors.
When I lived in a town an hour north of Kansas City, July 4 saw the midst of a terrible drought. The grass was brown, everything was parched, and the fireworks were making the place sound like downtown Detroit in Robocop. Anyway, the knot head neighbor of mine (adjacent and behind my property) is shooting off fireworks toward the house at 10 pm. I back my police package Crown Vic out of the garage, sans illuminated headlights, and the reposition toward them. On goes the 250,000 (or whatever it was) candlepower spotlight. After hearing “oh, shit!” screamed about a half-dozen times, the fireworks ceased until late June of the next year.
You have to manage situations as best you can.
Not being able to park on the street in front of your own property sounds so odd to me, not only because we normally had one car parked on the street when I was growing up (it’s no fun to have to rearrange cars on a single-width driveway) but because where I live now doesn’t even have a driveway (or a parking lot as it’s an apartment building). It’s street parking or nothing. The charms of a neighborhood built between 1890 and 1930…
Would a soundtrack help?
What HOA??
Dang! And I thought I pushed the envelope to the limit when I used to change my oil on the street very low key as the cops if they would see you would give you a big fat ticket. This was 20 years ago when I used to live in an apartment with no parking.
I adjusted the valves in my Peugeot 304 on the curbside in Heidelberg. A guy who came by made a snide remark “What the heck, fixing the car in the street?!”
I suppose he did not like what I did right there in his den. He was a known squatter.
Driveways are better for this sort of activity no rush to reassemble then I prefer to think it improves the neighbourhood.
Yes. Places where you see people working on their cars on the weekends are some of the best places to live.
yes it’s very good for the neighbourhood.. but i prefer MILF chicks and/or hot grannies doing the engine work and tranny changes ..sorry that’s just me ..but i know it’s unfashionable and uncool to say that
Nah, it’s okay. My experience is that folks are pretty much accepting in these parts.
I did head gasket replacement on a 75 Mustang II V8 on the street once. The biggest eyesore was the car itself, a faded to chalky purple Ghia with a 1/2 white faded to cracked yellow vinyl top. It was a fairly upscale neighborhood, but no one complained. It took a couple of days, but I put everything away and closed the hood at night.
And I felt bad for my neighbors when I left my work in progress 55 Plymouth in the driveway for several weeks because I needed the garage space for other projects.
A friend of mine converted his VW into a Baja Bug in the parking lot of the Enlisted Barracks of a Navy Hospital in the 70s. The CO drove by and checked on his progress every day.
I could not live in a neighborhood where people did this kind of work on their cars out in view, no matter how cute, good looking and naked they might happen to be. And given the way people drive I would not expect this fellow to survive long given today’s rubber neck drivers…..yes, there is a joke in there somewhere.
Holy crap ! .
I grew up on a Farm and have been a Junkyard Junkie my entire life but I would never , _EVER_ do a thing like this in the street and I live in The Ghetto now .
It’s one thing to limp/push/coast it home and have at it curbside but this is ridiculous .
In your driveway anything goes , esp. if you have a fence & tall gate (I do !) but major curbside auto repairs are a no-no anywhere .
-Nate
Respect for that fellow, and hell ya freedom. It’s good to live in places where folks don’t mind if you fix and/or improve things and/or yourself.
My newest acquisition wouldn’t fly on the streets here but fortunately I have a giant parking area with alley access (for alleged unplated road tests)
I used to see cars getting worked on in the back streets when I was a kid, but simpler things like head gaskets, valve jobs and the like. Cars from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s needed plenty of working on to keep them going. Nobody seemed to mind; if you could afford an old car (many couldn’t) they were more likely to offer advice or help. But more usually the cars were terminal, and being stripped of useful parts prior to being dumped. We used to think it was great fun to climb into an old abandoned car on the way to or from school and pretend to drive it.
Once a friend found a rusty PA Vauxhall (weren’t they all?) dumped in a back lane with the keys in it. It sort of went, but only on about three cylinders. We took it for a spin up and down the lane. When he’d had enough, he got it up to about 20mph, then tried to stick it in reverse. It disappeared later that week; neighbours got tired of kids driving it, and complained to the council.
Tony Soprano, is that you?!
This was totally normal where I live – which looks so much like this neighborhood – 15 years ago, and everybody had a 18′ boat on their lawn too, but now it’s kinda looked down upon amongst the newer and richer neighbors. I refuse to give a shit and will still work on my car when and wherever I please, although I mostly stick to the driveway (never had a garage). Wish I looked like as much of a badass as this dude so they’d never even dream of questioning the Saab guts on the curb!
Sir, please, there is a proper place for engine rebuilding, its called the kitchen.
You are correct sir. We rebuilt my 40 horse vw on the kitchen table. Now I live in the country and work on what I want, wherever I want. I love it.
My brother rebuilt his Opel Kadett engine on the kitchen table.
I built a BSA C15 SS80 on the upstairs landing at my parents’ house. Not on purpose – I had the frame up there because it was nice and clean, then I put the swinging arm and shocks on, because it was a warm, dry place, and while I’m there I may as well put the wheels in. And the engine is done, no fluids inside, so I may as well do that here as well, and this is a nice place to do the electrics, and hook up the other detail stuff, and oh dear, the bike is pretty much finished and it’s still upstairs.
So I tied a rope to the rear mudguard loop, put my brother on that, and me and my dad handled it down the stairs. I was WAY heavier than we expected, and damn near got away from us. But it was a lovely warm, clean place to build a bike
I hear the bathtub is the preferred place to overhaul a transmission. 🙂
You can’t say he’s a shade tree mechanic… I pulled my first engine with a come-along on a tree branch. It was an MGB so not a giant lump. My room mates at the time never thought I would get it all back together (they weren’t car guys).
All I can say is: keep America clean!
This was terrific! There is nothing quite as much fun as seeing an F-body flying through the air.
It would be interesting to see a contemporary car used in a similar stunt sequence.
I wonder if that scene would even be able to be shot anymore. As I understand it Venice was a real dump in the 70s/80s so it was probably pretty cheap and easy to get permits to hurl cars over the bridges like so many movies from the period did.
Newer cars would probably have less cracks in the windshield and hold their shape a bit better than the F body(body structure has come a long way) but that’s if the stuntman can steer with deployed airbags, I also suspect the lightweight cast aluminum suspension components won’t hold together as well as vintage iron/stamped steel stuff.
You are probably right, Matt. I would except the comment on the airbags. No stuntman will drive a car in this way with the airbag in it. It could end his career or worse.
There is one reason why the old chase footage feels so authentic: they actually drove the cars like that. Today you can’t be sure if it was real or computer generated.
You would just remove or disconnect the airbags.
The music in that chase was re-used as the theme for a game show, but I simply can’t remember which. Anybody remember?
The People’s Court with Judge Wopner.
Jim Rockford’s less successful little brother.
Used to do curbside tune-ups occasionally. For a long time I had no garage and worked out in the open in the driveway below a huge maple tree. Everything from engine swaps to body work. These days every street seems to have an unofficial mayor ready to report every real and perceived bylaw infraction. Then there’s the crack/meth heads ready to steal your stuff for a quick buck.
There’s a lot of hot rodders in my area so it all balances out. Two drag racers on my block alone.
Can’t say I’ve ever made a habit of doing repairs curbside. But then, I’ve always lived outside town – wrenching in your driveway out here is not only allowed, it’s pretty much the norm.
My only two memorable incidents both happened in front of my old office, downtown in a city of 3000 or so. The first was a starter replacement on my old ’81 Bonneville, which was rather uneventful.
The second was the day I drove my former ’00 Impala in to work with no hood, and decided that afternoon to replace the spark plugs while they were easy to reach. Some Jehovah’s Witnesses were out evangelizing, and asked if I needed any help. I told them that I doubted there was anything they could do. Turned out I was right… five minutes later I’d finished the job, and they were still struggling to understand why I was laying atop the motor of a hoodless car.
As for the featured picture, I saw it and thought it was perfect for CC. An old car, an old-school repair operation in progress, and it was even happening curbside. I would never have guessed it’d draw so many comments!
I’d love to see more of that Camaro… too bad there’s a sweaty bald guy standing in the way. Wonder what size small block that is on the stand? (I see a TH350 with a Chevy bellhousing; that might narrow it down a bit.)
The interesting thing to me is the extra engine oil pan sitting next to the trans. So was this the case of sticking a wrecking yard engine in and he was getting ready to or had just finished swapping the oil pans and the old engine is sitting on the sidewalk out of frame.
You also have to wonder why the trans is sitting there. With one of those cars it makes the most sense to leave the trans in the car if all you are doing it swapping engines. There is decent access to bellhousing bolts and since it is an AT it is a piece of cake to mate the engine back to the trans.
Here I am in front of my SIL’s house in San Mateo, changing the fan clutch on the Chinook on our first trip to Mexico in it. She was none too happy….
Nice photo! You could have hung a Boombox from that tree or a light if you were out past dark.
Somewhere, in a dark corner of CC, JPCavanaugh is cackling because a 2nd gen F-body is being rendered useless (for the moment, that is)!
” I’d love to see more of that Camaro… too bad there’s a sweaty bald guy standing in the way. ”
+2
Oh, I’m guilty as charged and in a relatively upscale neighborhood too. Just did a curbside replacement of the heater core hose, distributor cap and rotor last weekend on 98 Civic. And when I was working on it two neighbors came out to watch and chat. Told my wife I was bringing the neighborhood together and that next time I’d take some beer out as well. This is what men did in my midwestern youth on weekends – fixed their cars while listening to the ball game and having a beer with whoever stopped by. What do we do now?
Those who no longer wrench on their own cars sit in the waiting room as they watch the game on the big screen HDTV and surf the internet on the guest wifi…all the while drinking the “free” coffee.
You are so right!
now and then I get someone to stop by when I am wrenching on a bicycle or on a car. But it never goes to sharing a drink, not even lemonade.
Same thing with games: it is just about impossible to find a playing partner for a game of cards or chess unless you commit to a competitive club. Why (seemingly) does every activity have to be about competition, performance and score keeping?
Playing games and socializing have been uploaded to a different platform.
At least I found CC on that platform.
Fixing a car, game on the radio, stopping to socialize over a brew…sounds pretty good to me. I do find it interesting though that of the curbside repairs I’ve done (pretty much limited to 2 window regulators and plug wires) no one has ever stopped to chat, and I’m in a neighborhood with significant foot traffic. At least my neighbor did ask if I needed any help when I was doing the plug wires…