At Home Mechanic

We are often urged to “think outside the box� which sounds good, but does anyone know what that really means? Simple solutions to simple problems are often elusive.
Scientists tell us that great musicians can actually visualize music as having color or shape. I am willing to bet that artists and designers have a way of visualizing spatial relationships that the rest of us mere mortals cannot comprehend. While you and I may see a pile of stone, others can see a building, a bridge or a wall.

Continue reading "Soda Can Center Caps" »

Now that I have all the major systems working (or removed) on my 1987 Honda CRX Si hobby car, it is time to start dealing with the sniggling little details that keep your car from being "perfect." Being the compulsive type, I expect that I will never get the car perfect but I am willing to try.

Continue reading "A project car NEVER seems to be finished." »

Some things in life are natural, expected and in some cases inevitable. Spring follows winter. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Salmon return to their home streams to spawn. And a new driver will crumple a fender within weeks of receiving his or her driver’s license. While it can be unsettling for a new driver to make his or her “mark� on the driving community, a small amount of sheet metal damage should be viewed as an opportunity to learn a valuable lesson about paying attention to detail and not being overly confident behind the wheel.

Continue reading "A Natural Progression" »

My beloved fiancée and I am are searching for a new home, a house that will not be “hers� nor “his� but rather “ours.� Buying a new home in Southern California is not like shopping for any other commodity, you do not just order up the perfect domicile. Rather you scrape together every penny you own and hope to find a lean-to that will not be over priced beyond your economic circumstances. Part of the process is to slowly drive through the streets of your prospective new neighborhood to “get the lay of the land� as well as hoping to find a diamond in the rough that you can mortgage your soul to own.

Continue reading "An Opel GT calls out to me" »

I had dinner last night in a fancy Hollywood restaurant. The kind of place with a platoon of recent immigrants parking cars out front and no sign to announce that this is restaurant or any other kind of business. A consciously casual patio ambiance belies the scary menu prices this French-cum-Moroccan joint charges. The wait staff sport faux French accents and crisply pressed slacks while the patrons schmooze in the patois of the Movie Biz in their designer denim. The diners are slim and beautiful; the handsome young Best Supporting Actor nominee sitting at the table next to ours blended nearly unnoticed amongst the tables of Actors, Script Doctors and Producers.

Continue reading "Hollywood is different" »

Regular readers of this space (both of you) know that I am planning on building a car from scratch. Not content to merely fixing up an old car or modifying a newer car to have more performance, I want to stretch myself as a mechanic and fabricator by building a car from raw parts. In my mind's eye, the car I would build would be purely fun; an open topped roadster that would deliver 100 smiles per gallon, low loud and quick, it would be perfect for carving up a canyon road or romping around a race track.

Continue reading "I am still thinking about building a car" »

I have a “modest proposal� to make, something along the lines of Jonathon Swift’s Modest Proposal made back in the late 1700’s. Ol’ Johnny boy was a leading whit and political satirist of 18th century’s London, sort of the Bill Mahr of his time. Swift’s famous proposal was that the best solution to the pressing issue of hunger amongst the working class was to “eat the Irish.� While the joke may not translate today, at the time it was a considered a shocking and obviously satiric answer to a legitimate problem of the time.

Continue reading "A Modest Proposal" »

In the last installment of my rants into the void of the Internet, I gave some pointers on getting your beloved automobile to the attention of journalists and editors who might be persuaded to put your car in their magazine. To get your car into the pages of an enthusiast’s magazine is the pinnacle of achievement for the home automobile hobbyist. It is the recognition for all the hours of labor in the garage devoted to building, restoring or improving your car. Even if your friends, family and significant other can not understand your slavish devotion to a pile of inanimate parts taking up space in the garage and making a dent in the family finances, the thrill of seeing your car in an enthusiast’s magazine is nearly enough to compensate for the abuse you have endured to achieve this confirmation of your automotive addiction.

Continue reading "The secrets of automobile photography" »

The “Buff Books,� as they are known in the magazine trade, are those titles that appeal primarily to enthusiasts who have a narrow focus; for the purposes of this forum: automobile fans. The Buff Books are deluged with heartfelt offers from readers to begging the editors to please feature the reader's car in their magazine. For a car nut, the pinnacle of achievement is to have his or her car displayed on the pages of their favorite magazine. Let me tell the secrets of getting your car into your favorite magazine. But first, you have to understand what motivates a journalist and his editor.

Continue reading "Inside the mind of the automotive media" »

It is official; I am giving up the inline-six-cylinder-in-a-Cobra-clone idea. After doing some more research I discovered that the smaller 200 cubic inch Ford inline six is probably never going to make the 300 naturally aspirated horsepower that I am looking for and the large 250-300 cubic inch Ford inline six is physically too long to fit in the Cobra’s engine compartment and there is very little weigh difference between the big six and the small Ford V8 that is the normal power source for the Cobra and its clones.

Continue reading "So much for he six cylinder idea" »