Automotive innocence

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I like radio delete cars because the real music is under the hood.
There is no concrete proof that radio delete cars get more maintenance than non radio delete cars.
It is a proven fact that radio delete cars are lighter, cheaper to buy, and quieter than non radio delete cars.
You don't need a radio because the engine starts to sing after 4,000 R.P.M.

But on a serious note:
The fact is, most people view cars as transportation only and don't care how they work as long as it gets them to where they want to go and back.
And this is true since the first automobile was sold to the public.

I have always been in touch with how my vehicles sound, smell, and drive.
Also, I have saved myself a lot of money and grief by knowing when something is wrong with it before it actually fails.
This is a skill acquired with time and experience, and most people do not possess it, nor do they care to.

That is why we have mechanics and always will..........
 
abodyjoe said:
neither are nutty. they just have different interests. not sure why it has to be one or the other. i'm sure there have been plenty on both sides since the beginning of the automobile.

when i'm in my dart or cutlass i listen to things and fix it when it needs to be fixed. not daily drivers so i can play with them as i feel like it. no rush.

when in my honda, subaru or gmc i'm aware of things but hell i don't even check the oil in those cars. they have proven that i really don't have to worry about them so much. honda has 90k on it and other then routine maintenance it has needed nothing well other then being repaired the two times its been hit..lol if they make a strange noise or something maybe i'll look at it some but most of the time i'll just drop them off at the dealer. they are my dailys (well not the GMC but thats brand new and i'm not touching it) and have them fix it. i can't be bothered with them.

i keep jamie in something newer (brand new at this point) or she just uses AAA. she will call me and ask a few questions but if i'm an hour away at work there usually isn't much that i can do for her. i'd much rather have AAA or the dealer mess with the car then someone that doesn't understand them to either make the problem worse or hurt themselves trying to fix it..

in the end who really gives a crap. if you like, understand and enjoy working on them then knock yourself out. if you don't like,understand or enjoy working on them then pay someone to do it. there is no wrong way...
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You said this very well, old classics yes you pay attention because you are the one who services them.
Daily drives, that are new or almost new let the dealer take care of them.
I just scheduled an oil change on my truck at the local dealer, it is still under warrante, so that keeps the warrante up.
No big deal, let them do it, plus it has some minor recalls that they can check.
Yes an oil change it the truck is easy, but a paper trial on the truck is worth more if something goes wrong.
 
For me I have seen too much crap workmanship from "Professionals". Back in the day I learned if 1 thing went wrong you fix it now because if you don't pretty soon 2 things are wrong. Although I don't do everything, I learned enough not to accept a substandard job, and when I talk to a shop they know I know enough not to get taken.
 
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be innocent of not knowing how cars work, I've had knowledge almost since I can remember, thanks to daddy who was a stock car racer when I was growing up, also grew up working on farm equipment, building models, go carts, dirt bikes, got my first Mopar at the age of 14. I was the kid in high school that worked on my buddies cars and taught them how they worked. It was fun back in the day helping a friend hop up his car, we had a small shop built in one end of the barn. I remember how little knowledge my friends had of their cars and couldn't believe it, but nowadays I understand, it would be like me trying to work on a computer. :)
 
Jadaharabi said:
For me it's a subconscious listening. I do not drive with the radio on. I am listening to the car an the sound around it but once again it's subconscious until it's not.
Once it becomes a conscious thing then I am zoomed in diagnosing what I'm hearing and deciding what to do about it.
One thing I noticed with my vehicles gas-powered or diesel-powered especially when I was pulling horses across country there is a certain RPM or mile-per-hour were everything is in harmony. The ride of the vehicle the drone of the road just a general feeling that everything is right.
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This is a lot like me, except I will turn the radio on. As Jabs stated, I do listen subconsciously, until it becomes conscious. But yes, I do think about things going on under the hood when I'm in the middle of nowhere... LOL. Knowing is one thing, but try not to let it turn into worry because that kills the fun.
 
I'm one who is cursed with the requirement to listen and feel every little thing with my cars. I will not let anyone do any sort of work on my old cars except for the guy who does my machine work for engines. Not so much with my newish regular cars as I do let the dealer handle warranty and recalls.
On the opposite spectrum the dad of my daughter's friend owns a 53 Chevy pickup with a ZZ572 and all the cool stuff to go with it, and a 35 Chevy coupe with an LS7, tricked out as well. When the weather turned nice he called the tire shop to come and check his tire pressures and a guy from a local hot rod shop to check them over to make sure they were ready to drive. When he first showed me his coupe I could hear the fuel pump clicking and asked him if the pump was frame mounted. His response was, "I not only don't know where it is but I don't even know what it is. Why do you think something is wrong?"
I'm glad those guys get satisfaction owning nice cars but for me the fun is working on them. But then, I really do wish I didn't have to analyze every sound and vibration when I take `em out for a cruise.
 
I was in the middle of building a 71 Challenger in my garage from a basket case. A snobby yuppie guy from down the block stops by one day while I was working on it. He says "Oh you should have this guy paint your car HE ONLY CHARGED ME $7,000 to paint mine" I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't have $7,000 in the whole car at that point (early 90's) He had a 1938 Vicky show car he paid everyone else to build. Then he spent ALOT of time going to car shows for $2 trophies. I have built and played with cars since I was 10 years old. It's something I've always been into and can't stop. People who are ignorant of cars are subject to getting ripped off everywhere they take their car for repairs.
 
Been in the automotive business for most of my life.
Ignorance is bliss. So many people have no interest in doing their own repairs,or even opening the hood for that matter.
Lawyers, doctors etc are very knowledgeable in their fields, and auto maintenance and repair is not in their realm.

some go to work every day, go home, crack a beer and find something to watch on tv. That is the extent of their life. I cant imagine how many have never gone beyond the city limits,so no sense of adventure.

i have well over 10 grand spent on parts between 3 vehicles and not one of them is on the road. I could have borrowed the money and bought a nice driver and been enjoying myself for the last few years, and by now it would be paid off.
But where is the satisfaction in that??
 
So..I grew up with Hot Wheels in my pocket in my bed and on my mind....I have been wrenching on these cars for 30 plus years. Most of what I have learned was out of necessity growing up with a single mother, if you wanted anything you better figure out how to get it...Its the old saying Necessity is the mother of invention...I hear every squeak, rattle, wind noise and, on and on and on. Sometimes I wish I could kind of shut it off. I find it kind of funny that my wife and kids have always had me around to fix their cars...they dont understand how much money they have saved by me working on the cars and, it's like they think every (sorry Rainy) guy can do it...like we were born with this knowledge. My daughter has recently bought a newer car that I dont care to really work on, general things that's fine, something major no thanks. I told her before she moved out she better have some cash stashed away in case something goes wrong with it because if its something major she is taking somewhere besides Dad's Automotive....lol
 
plymouth67 said:
So..I grew up with Hot Wheels in my pocket in my bed and on my mind....I have been wrenching on these cars for 30 plus years. Most of what I have learned was out of necessity growing up with a single mother, if you wanted anything you better figure out how to get it...Its the old saying Necessity is the mother of invention...I hear every squeak, rattle, wind noise and, on and on and on. Sometimes I wish I could kind of shut it off. I find it kind of funny that my wife and kids have always had me around to fix their cars...they dont understand how much money they have saved by me working on the cars and, it's like they think every (sorry Rainy) guy can do it...like we were born with this knowledge. My daughter has recently bought a newer car that I dont care to really work on, general things that's fine, something major no thanks. I told her before she moved out she better have some cash stashed away in case something goes wrong with it because if its something major she is taking somewhere besides Dad's Automotive....lol
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Same here,and my best friend and his family. I have saved them lots. But they all pitched in bought a roll up door for my tarp shed.
 
For those who don’t know the mechanics of a cars, they are simply conveyances to get them from place to place in their life. Kinda like a microwave oven to heat up their food, they don’t care what makes it work....just as long as it does.

People of different experience expend their attention bandwidth on the things they care about...and don’t waste it on those they don’t.

My family Doctor couldn’t tell you anything about a carburetor, but he can tell you what is wrong with you when you need medical care quite expertly.

We need all kinds and all kinds need us. It is how together we are more powerful than we are apart.

We each excel at what we are best at, helping each other and complimenting each other’s abilities.

Together we are formidable.

Alone...not so much.
 
My sister, now dead from brain cancer, was one of the "total bliss" but it bit her a couple times. Many years she insisted on driving a junk POS and "got buy" on the grace of-----------Dad checking it over on weekends. Loose belts, low tires, low on oil and coolant, you name it. One time she had a VERY nice early A GT slant. For some reason she traded it off on a Toyota, and it wasn't long before she blew it up, rod right through the block. Dad said he had ridden with her once, and she kept trying to shift the auto much like a stick. He thinks she got it in 2nd on the freeway and just over-revved the thing.

Later she had a 74-ish Cutlass, and that thing was constantly "on the edge" with zero maintenance, and it "left" her a couple of times. One time, it quit on the freeway. Somehow she had gotten someone to call her then boyfriend, who was coming to get her, and tow it. So there she sat, on the freeway WITH THE HOOD UP. She never could get that through her head. She could not understand why the two people who stopped WERE PISSED when she told them, "no thank you, I have HELP COMING!!!!
 
I see from the replies what my problem is.....

I don't have a newer "daily driver" ....my "classic car" is my only transportation by choice.

I have daily driven a 68 dart, slant six car since 2014. Every time I've heard a strange noise and didn't look into it, something came up to haunt me. I've done a few repairs on the side of the road and people stopped to see if I needed a ride (and leave the car out there, yea right)

I know this car inside out and backwards and I keep extra parts in the trunk.

This is me being a rebellious kid because back in 2014 my parents offered to buy me a new dart, but I had to get rid of the old one. I refused and made them a bet that I can keep the old one going and so far I'm winning.

Every once in a while even still, they ask "are you ready to trade it in on a new car" NEVER!!

Maybe I would be more "ignorant" if I had a newer car ( anything above 1975) but prolly not.
 
hun, I think you're using the wrong word. I think automotive "ignorance" is more of what you were lookin for.
 
Wanna learn to be a mechanic? Get an old dodge. I did.
 
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