Hot Rods How to tell real gearheads?

When i am all dressed up i have clean jeans on.

 

Yeah, I pretty much stopped asking people anything technical about their engines at car shows, I would get either (Bambi in the headlights look, and I don't know) or the typical buzz words that really don't tell you anything.

 

I have some simple rules I live by. People are as they act, not say. If someone tells you they are honest, keep an eye on your wallet. If they tell you they are a Christian, best to stay away and lock up your wife. If they tell you they are a gear head or a car guy, make sure they don’t door ding you with their Prius.

That may come across a bit cynical but if I meet you and we get to know each other, I’ll know you without a self proclaimed title and me you.

 

While we all tend to be a little bit judgemental of others and their intentions......I do think that a lot of the time people are just trying to fit in and be part of this potpourri of the automotive world called Hot Rodding. Not everyone grew up in a situation where they were exposed to mechanical things and tools, and they may just be trying to become part of it. How would it be if we were all experts .........

Like @BanditBilly said, better to get to know one another before deciding what someone is really like..........

 

I built a 400 pontiac many moons ago and people would ask "what's under the hood?" I'd start out 400 punched .030 over etc etc, you know the drill.

One day me and the ex walking into to Hardee's, had a bunch of college guys sitting there when I pulled in yelled " Great sounding car! What's under the hood ?!" My ex without missing a beat yells back "400 punched .030 over, balanced bottom end, stock crank, prepped rods, TRW forged pistons with chrome moly rings, crane cam and lifters, etc etc.

Once she got done they were sitting there with their jaws on the ground, I giggle and ask her where did that come from ? She grins and said " I got no idea what I just said but I've heard you answer that question so many times I know it by heart" I couldn't argue with that !!

I still wonder after 40 yrs what was going thru their minds while she was reciting the entire list to them and the cool thing was she didn't miss a thing or make 1 mistake !

...

 

Nobody is born a gear head OK maybe a couple HAMBers were born with a 9/16 combo in hand, everyone had to learn this stuff. Most of us learn stuff every time we visit this site. The more I learn the less I know!
Dan

 

My wife and I attended a car show this last Saturday, each taking our own hot rods. I caught her several times "holding court" by her truck telling guy about her Desoto Hemi and interesting tidbits. I was quite proud. Every now and then she would walk over to me and ask something like "what is a cam and does it have one?" or something along those lines. I told her if she was ever bamboozled just come back with "if it's good...it's got it!".

Is she a gearhead? No more than I am a master chef, but she is a cog, an integral part of the apparatus, and she is learning.
At the end of the day, she got a trophy, I did not. Hmmm.

 

If I were you, I would be lodging a complaint with the judges concerning a bias toward attractiveness.
You may have been shafted due to "beauty and the beast syndrome"........

 

She is a cute littl...wait a tick, BEAST?

 

Were you wearing shorts? I bet you were wearing shorts. Man, you gotta learn not to do that......

 

Speedos. Working on my tan before summers over.

 

The old rusty breadbox allusion. That described where I come from exactly. I still have my dad's breadbox and rusty tools, many the same I had used overhauling a 1953 Willys Aero Ace F-head in the summer of 1964, in the backyard of our home in southeast K.C.

 

If you were in speedos, surely you won the "hard luck" award..???

 

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, then you aren't.”
― Margaret Thatcher

 

Been married to the same one for 45+ years. Best moment car related, we were at an auto cross with my ot Mini. She got a winner’s trophy, I didn’t! Earlier in the year we went through the regions autoX driver’s school, which she wouldn’t do unless I did it. She’s driving, the instructor is in the passenger seat. I lean in to check gauges, and the instructor says to her, “just remember, you can drive it as hard as you want. Because if you break it, he has to fix it!” And she drove the car that way…

 

The only true way of knowing who is a “gear head” is when you smell the rear end oil after a third member service. All other ways are just hearsay!

 

Or the gear oil smell AND the finger burns from grabbing the change gears with your bare hands! Yeah, not my brightest moment

 

She did that.............and you let her get away? What does it take to make you happy? (jus Kiddin)