I wonder...

I wonder what it would be like to not be a gearhead. To not spend every waking moment dreaming of things I would do to cars that I don't even own.

I wonder what it would be like to not keep my cars obsessively serviced and clean. To be able to just do an oil change without cleaning everything on the under carrage with WD/40. Or rotate the tires without cleaning all the suspension components.

I wonder what it would be like to not break down the pros and cons of replacement tires at least a year before they are going to need replaced. And then change my mind at least twelve times before I actually pull the trigger.

I wonder how much more money I would have if I didn't spend it on trying to make my cars faster over the years. I meen they have all been street driven daily drivers not race cars. There really is no porpuse for it.

I wonder what happened during my devoplment that led me to be this way. The concept of going through life without being obsessed with cars is so foriegn to me. I imagine it must be similar to how I appear to normal people, like this guy must be from another planet, it's just an appliance to go from A to B.

Sounds like quite a boring person to me

I could never imagine that

It would be a lot easier if I didn't care about cars.

nicksta43 wrote: I wonder what it would be like to not be a gearhead.

I've had that nightmare before. shudder

But, I can tell that you can't fully fathom this sort of thing. You wouldn't be doing your own work on the car, you'd take it to someone like me to do it for you.

Not being a gearhead,to me, would be a fate worse than death. My mind cannot fathom such a life.

stanger_missle wrote: Not being a gearhead,to me, would be a fate worse than death. My mind cannot fathom such a life.

I always felt that way, but lately I've found myself in this odd tail-spin that has culminated in me not really giving a E36 M3 about cars.

However, I still have an incurable addiction to the process of driving, and I'm still obsessed with ways to make my car go faster, handle better, and stop quicker.

I just have zero desire right now to turn the wrenches to make those things happen.

Is there an App for that???

I wish I wasn't such a gearhead. I'd have slept more, had LOADS more money, and probably a better family life. Cars have consumed me, only now at 38 years old am I starting to tone it down a bit. Ive said at least 100 times that I wash I had never been a gearhead.

I'm sure if I hadn't been one though, I would have been into something else expensive.

As other's have said, it'd be easier. I'd have money, my garage would be for parking cars over-night, not over-years. I'd have money. I'd pay others to fix my cars (I'd only have one car). Paying others to fix my cars may prevent me from having more money.
But, I wouldn't have it any other way.

It would be like this:

If I wasn't a gearhead I'd just be a photographer. Just as expensive... but that could actually MAKE me money.

But I can't drive my camera, so here I am.

My apartment would certainly look different. I wonder what would replace the Saab ads/posters, UTTC posters, GRM calendar, random turbo, detailing stuff, GRM mags, car parts...

nicksta43 wrote: I wonder what it would be like to not keep my cars obsessively serviced and clean. To be able to just do an oil change without cleaning everything on the under carrage with WD/40. Or rotate the tires without cleaning all the suspension components.

Get married and have kids. You'll find out.

Step into my shoes... I have no interest in modifying automobiles. I just want to buy something that best represents what I want in a car and let it be. Then again, I have worked weekends for the last ten years, with school and work consuming most of the time midweek, so maybe things would be different if I had whole days off.

I just asked my daughter (poor girl lives in a house full of gearheads and scifi geeks, and she is neither) what it's like to not be into cars, and she said, "It's kinda boring, I never know what you guys are talking about, but cars aren't pretty, and motorcycles are too loud, and I like princesses, and that's enough for me. Oh, and Daddy needs to build me a new Barbie house, so I can play Barbies while you guys work on the new ugly car."

So there you have it, from a 5 year old non-gearhead, life would be boring and confusing and you would like princesses and Barbies

Duke wrote:

nicksta43 wrote: I wonder what it would be like to not keep my cars obsessively serviced and clean. To be able to just do an oil change without cleaning everything on the under carrage with WD/40. Or rotate the tires without cleaning all the suspension components.

Get married and have kids. You'll find out.

LOL, I've been married 8yrs and have a 5yo son. When I'm working on the cars he's cleaning his powerwheels jeep.

I kind of have a different view. I'll admit that the older I get, the less I want to turn a wrench. Half of all the work I've ever done wasn't on a cool street project or a race car/autocrosser--it was a thrash to get something back together so that I, or a loved one, or a friend, or even a neighbor could get to work on time & save a job. Sadly, I'm discovering that it's made me kind of resentful. I didn't mind it when I was 20 or 30, but now that I'm 50, I'm just tired of it. It's really rearing its ugly head lately (stupid crank sensor was delivered 3 days ago, and I haven't installed it yet), I guess I got lazy taking the DD to the shop during the couple of years between the end of the child support and the layoff.

That being said, here's the difference..I guess I'm kind of like grafmiata. It's not the cars, it's the sport. I still love driving. I still love flagging. Just being around racing people is what makes me glad I suffer this affliction. I'd still rather be around people who actually participate in life, rather than calmly & quietly watch it tick by.

So, yah. Soon as the orange slices & hot sauce finishes off my bronchitis (and the rain quits), I'm going to jack up my 20yr old "overdesigned" German POS and replace the crankshaft sensor. After all, it would be no less of a PITA to do the same thing on a Camry..but the Corrado's just more fun to drive. Hey, if I can find a job, I can still get the damn thing healthy enough to autoX next season.

I guess the 'long story short' would be..when I wonder what it would be like not to be a gearhead, I shiver in fright. Without the sport, I'd be Father McKenzie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dsz4dB6DuM

friedgreencorrado wrote: I kind of have a different view. I'll admit that the older I get, the less I want to turn a wrench. Half of all the work I've ever done wasn't on a cool street project or a race car/autocrosser--it was a thrash to get something back together so that I, or a loved one, or a friend, or even a neighbor could get to work on time & save a job. Sadly, I'm discovering that it's made me kind of resentful.

As someone who IS older, let me point you towards a middle path. I like fabricating, and wrenching is sort of fun, but I only do this on something that we don't depend on to get to work. Worry and deadlines take the fun out of this.

Being a gearhead means I am considering the actual choice of swapping the sliptronic auto out of the Jetta for a 5 speed manual.

Not being a gearhead would require lots more money but less physical exertion when a problem arises in any of the autos I own.

I can't imagine it beyond that. I have been a gearhead for as long as I can remember. I actually just thanked the man responsible. A friend ten years older who had all kinds of neat stuff when I was a kid in the 70s. Just found him through Linked in of all places.

To the OP: you wrote exactly what I think from time to time. Until I fall asleep and start dreaming of the next project!

I have so many obsessions, I would spend more time on them. I would probably worry more about having a cooler looking or newer car rather than a car that runs properly and is fun.

It started with cars and it always comes back to cars. In college when I couldn't really have a car I turned to rock climbing. Within 6 months of an injury I fell back to cars and had two land rovers in the driveway of my rental house. When a house full of babies made it hard (and expensive) to play with cars I played with bicycles. Then I learned to play the violin. Now the kids are bigger and money is less tight and the cars are back. I was never really sad away from cars, but I was never really as happy either.

I would go back to cycling and mtn bike racing. Right now, I really wish I could find a balance to let me do both. Maybe when I don't spend most of my free time rebuilding s house I'll feel less burnt out.

JoeyM wrote: Worry and deadlines take the fun out of this.

Can't agree more.

I couldn't imagine not being a gearhead. I am not able to live vicariously though others (as in following football etc) I have to be elbows deep in whatever I do. I also like a good challenge; not many things get me to thinkin' as a good old fabrication or etc problem and I am not happy unless I have three or four irons in the fire so if I didn't have that I'd probably be a miserable lost soul.

nicksta43 wrote: I wonder what it would be like to not be a gearhead.

I'm not sure I am a gearhead. I'm more of a design/build person.

Here are a few of the things I built or done over the last 44 years on the weekends.

I've built furniture, boats, houses, trailers, and go carts. I've built RC airplanes, cars and boats, I even scratch built a RC submarine out of 4" PVC. I went through a plastic model phase, a model train phase, a diorama phase and am still working on a antique clock phase. I've built a pneumatic automated can crusher, several steam engines, and restored 4 antique farm engines. I've restored antique tractors. I taught myself to run a lathe and a mill. I'm still working on the gas turbine. The Mk1 ran to destruction, the Mk2 is coming together slowly. I've had a hand in building two Lemons cars. I've made black powder and used it in homemade fireworks. I built a Jacobs Ladder out of a 12v coil and a couple of coat hangers. I built a Megasquirt. I've rebuilt engines from .21ci to 350ci and everything in between. I've done bodywork, and painted a couple of cars. I've sunk a well and plumbed a house. I've installed a septic tank and drain field. Most of that was for the fun of it, some because I was too cheap or poor to pay someone else.

Yesterday I designed and built a fuel sump system for the Lemons car out of a marine fuel filter, and today I turned a picnic table into a trailer. It was a fun weekend.

I'd have to say I'm not a gearhead, I just like building stuff and it doesn't much matter what it is.

I didn't learn how to work on cars for the love of it. It was the necessity, kind of like FriedGreen. There is a certain satisfaction in a job well done, but that's about it. I absolutely HATE working on the daily drivers, I love working on the cars I don't need. I do LOVE driving. I also love hanging out with gearheads. They are the most level headed people I know and most of them love to have fun.

Maybe there is some gearhead in there after all.

I think this is the image Toyman MEANT to hotlink.