What do your neighbors say???

My neighbor across the street is always complaining that my Pantera rattles her windows, and upsets her plants. She even called the cops on me a few times. I always make sure to pause at the top of my driveway with my tailpipes aimed directly at her house and rev it up a few times! Miserable hag.

Michael

My neighbors would say that they always new when I fired up my car. The sound was certainly unique.

Now they say ... They know when I am working on my car because they can here the music coming from my garage.

B.G.

My neighbours say nothing because they know I am heavily armed.

They can't remember that it is a Detomaso. They think it is a Lamborghini. After all these years I am not sure if the world is just plain stupid or just walk around with their head up their ass? Same difference I suppose?

I've got pretty good neighbors. A few of them say that when they hear me "wake the beast", their kids run to the windows to watch me pull her out. I do make a point to not run her before 9:00AM or after 9:00 PM.

Those mind trains set off car alarms, make the dogs bark, and make the kids plug their ears. But regardless, no one's complained....yet.

-William

There's a different mentality at work with people that assume that working on a car is below them. A strange superiority complex that seems to equate not getting your hands dirty with supremacy. Ignorance somehow prevails over interest. And that's the real difference. Interest. Knowledge. History.
I've often thought that women like jewelry and fashon and men like tools and machinery because women are into adornment and men are into accomplishment.
Guys that get smug when they say "I never have to work on my car...if it needs something I take it to the experts" remind me of women in this reguard.
That's not to say that I don't defer to experts. When I needed my ZF rebuilt, I researched it enough to know that I needed to stay out of it. I've gone through old 3 and 4 speeds and even an automatic once and they all worked when I got done, but from what I read, the ZF was a tricky box and I knew I was not up to it. Same thing goes with my Cleveland when the time comes. I've read enough on this board to know how to quiz an engine builder to know if he has a clue. I am not going to risk my numbers matching block on a home rebuild. I did a Chevy 350 for an old panel van once, but I had help and it was no hi-po Cleveland!
There is no shame in knowing one's limitations...but if you're above sorting out your suspension, cooling, AC, or even changing your own oil...well, then you're above the real fun in learning about something special. I don't reguard working on my Pantera as drudgery...I reguard it as therapy!

Mooso

quote:

Originally posted by mooso:
I don't reguard working on my Pantera as drudgery...I reguard it as therapy!

Mooso

Took the words right out of my mouth!
Doug M

Right on Mooso!

As for neighbors, I love mine. Most of them have some sort of hidden treasure in their garages. Lots of Porsches and FCars around me. They think I'm weird because I actually "work" on my car. But I know they feel uncomfortable that they know so little about their pride and joy.

They don't know how to open their hood. I gotta laugh. One guy next to me told me how his Porsche dealer said he has to change his tires every year, like his oil. And he goes along and pays through the nose. "Did you try Tire Rack first"? I asked. He never heard of it.

I asked another neighbor what he likes best about his 430. He answered, "I love closing the windows, turning up the stereo and driving along the highway."

My favorite question to ask them is "Have you ever put your foot to the floor and held it there for 15 seconds?" They roll their eyes at eachother like I'm from outer space.

Anyhow, they drive these cars rain or shine and wake me up every freakin' morning rushing off to work at some ungodly hour. I roll over in bed and mumble to my wife - Eddy 6:45, Steven 7:00, and so on.

Around 11:00 when I get up and eventually roll out of the garage, all their cute wives stroll over to chat with me. I'm the guy they wish their husbands were - minus the "you work on your Lamborghini yourself?" thing.

I don't know if the noise of my cat bothers them. But no one has mentioned anything to me in 10 years.

" I don't reguard working on my Pantera as drudgery...I reguard it as therapy!"

Exacto !!!

My nieghbors dont say a word but then again they all have no admiration for an automobile .. they roll around in the Beamers, Mercedes, and have no appreciation for what they are driving. A sunday morning blast down the street to get bagels ..dosent seem to bother them ..they say nothing. I think all the years of loading my BA/S Comet on sunday am to go racing they consider them selves lucky that all I have is the Pantera ??

Many of my neighbors either have, had, or want, a classic, so the Pantera is something that brings them out of the woodwork - one guy now brings his 66 Caddy out, another just bought an old t-bird after seeing the Pantera and deciding life's too short to wait 'til the stars are aligned perfectly before buying, and a few others are over whenever the cat comes out to shoot the breeze we share stories about what we all drove in our youth.
As for working on it, the older guys are definitely more appreciative of what it takes to own and maintain something like this.
Oddly, the guys with the high-end, late-model cars are less likely to socialize, it's the guys who mow their own lawns and decorate for the holidays, and don't mind changing their own oil now and then that I see out and about.

i have a lot of good neighbors. they never complain, just look & wish they had one but don't know for sure what it is but they are happy that the drag cars are gone for now but you never know what may show up on my door step next -

All my neighbours are out of sight in the woods in my area, so I never have anyone walk over when the Pantera comes out.

As for working on it, I don't, much. I did the Holley cleanup, and then the tuning when it was on the dyno (they only know FI), but that's pretty well been it.

I would probably be much more into working on it if I had not worked that out of my system in my youth. Starting in high school I rebuilt my car's 390 and Cruise-O-Matic; changed leaf springs on my 66 Mustang (dang! should have kept that one), R&R'ed my Pinto's motor, etc. Later I worked in a machine shop, boring cylinders, grinding crankshafts, etc. for a couple of years. And I did all my own mechanic'ing, tuning, welding, crash repairs, etc. on my Formula Ford for three years.

Now I'm ready to let someone else do it. I'll discuss it, I'll help, but they can do the hard and/or tedious stuff.

Now, mostly I want to drive it.

I just purchased #5606 on the 10th of October, and I gave my next door neighbor his first ride.

He loves big American V8's and it reminded him of the 60's vintage (I don't remember what year) Corvette that he used to own that he said required aviation fuel to make it run.

He said he sold the Corvette because it did not have A/C.

I can just imagine what that car was and how much it is worth today!

Kerry