nosey neighbors

Brad54 has the right idea. Worked for me too. I had one neighbor that kept calling the cops on me. She called the city offices too. Seems she didn't like the amount of primer I was spraying one day. I schmoozed the cops and one even turned out to have a '56 F-100 like I did. Also turned out that I was allowed to spray up to 5 gallons a day in that residential area. I couldn't afford to spray that much but you get the picture. The cops told me that as long as I wasn't accepting any money for the work I was doing I could do small stuff but nothing big. Otherwise I'd have to prove that it was my own stuff I was working on. Then...she moved. I win!
I have since moved and have let all the neighbors know what I do and that I will work with them if I do anything that becomes a problem for them. I have to put up with some of their stuff and they have to put up with some of mine. It seems to be a balance we are living with quite well.
Good luck.
Michael

 

We have a neighbor aka (Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched) always peekin' out her window...presented us with a bill to have her car professionally detailed. She claimed she had seen us painting a car in our garage & that we had gotten "overspray" on her car. Nevermind that the car we had painted was bright yellow & her "overspray" was white. My husband walked over to her house and scratched the paint off of her car with his fingernail...seemed to be LATEX. We suggested she check with the people NEXT door to her, who had just had their house painted WHITE. DUH. She has a for sale sign in her yard right now...God help her future neighbors. We are glad to be rid of her though! haha

 

I have neighboors that live across the street and three houses down that call the cops the minute my Truck is on the street or if ine of my ****boxes arent registered...Its cool though my others neighboors and i have gotten them back many times...

 

I'm pretty lucky. All of my neighbors are pretty much main stream, square types, but they're all pretty nice. They usually get a kick out of it when a bunch of freinds show up in loud, kooky old heaps and hot rods. A big group of folks used my house as an early morning gathering point for the trip to VLV. Most of my neighbors came out of their houses to check out all of the noisy old cars and cycles. As far as I could tell, they all got a kick out of the whole deal.

Plus, the neighborhood kids have a habit of riding up and down my street on those miniature motorcycles, quads and such. It can be annoying, but I don't let that bother me. Live and let live seems to work pretty well in my neighborhood.

 

I know what you're saying Mike... I heard a knock at the door a few days ago, and when I answered it, it was 3 maybe 10? yr old boys (Never seen 'em before, but they said the live on the next street over)... askin' if it'd be ok for them to look at my Hot Rods.

They were totally diggin it, and when I started my chevy II up, you'd have thought I gave 'em crack... they were all ear to ear grins when they left...

Made me feel pretty good too!

 

Here's my story about the neighbors:

My city has on it's books a law that states any vehicle that is not registered is considered abandon. Another law states that any unregistered vehicle has to be inside an Enclosed building. Another says that it is legal to park a registered vehicle on the street as long as the vehicle is not left in the same spot for more than 72 hours.

My property is always well taken care of. My gr*** is the greenest on the block and weed free. My trees and bushes are always trimmed and no garbage is anywhere near my home. I have, what I would believe, one of the best looking yards in my neighborhood. I have a 2 car garage, which I have managed to cram 3 cars into. Four of my other cars are in my driveway and the rest are at Dad's shop. Of the four in the driveway, 2 are registered (licensed), one truck I use to go the dump once or twice a year and the other truck I drive when it rains / snows. The other 2 in the driveway are projects for another day and are not licensed. Both are pre 60's vehicles with all of the parts on them: gl***, fenders, wheels ect. My daily driver gets to park in the garage, so the scene in front of my house hardly ever changes. I guess that’s why the neighbors thought everything on my property was "abandoned".

I got a notice on my door one day stating that I had to remove all of the abandoned vehicles on my property and that I had 14 days to comply. The city's notice was very accommodating. It said they would even come and get the vehicles and take them to the S**** YARD if I couldn't, free of charge!! WHAT! S**** YARD!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I thought 'why would anyone take anything I own to the s**** yard?' Anyway, I digress... Well this was before I was aware of the city's definition of an abandon vehicle and the proper storage there of. I promptly called the number the notice gave me to call for answers to any questions I may have. I told the Detective that I did not have any abandon vehicles on my property, all the vehicles on my property were cared for, treasured and owned by me! He then made me fully aware of the city's laws.

Let me pause my story right here for a minute. A few days prior to this, I had an over-the-back-fence talk with my neighbor to the West of me who had just moved in almost a year earlier. I thought it was strange because he NEVER talked to me. All we talked about was my cars. He asked what make and model each one was, and what I did with each one. He started telling me about his Grandpa who had a car like that, and about his friend that had one like this one here in high school, ect. At the time, I thought 'man my neighbor is really a cool guy, he's seems to be kind of into cars. Maybe I should get to know him better.'

So back to the story: As the Detective was yammering on about the city's laws, I recalled the conversation I had with my neighbor a few days earlier, and put two and two together. As soon as the Detective was finished, I said "Well, I tell you what I'll do Detective, I'll take each vehicle that I own that is not registered down to the DMV tomorrow and get tags on them. Then what I will do is get every car I own, which is a total of nine, and park them in the street in front of Mr. Staton's house." The Detective said "You can't do that". I told him that if I had a registered vehicle, that I could park it on the city's street for 72 hours before moving it to a different location according to the city's law. He said "Well you would have to move all nine of them every 72 hours then". I then said "I'll do it. Every 72 hours, I'll just switch spots with each car 6 feet forward and move the front car to the back of the line, right in front of his house. Anything to teach Mr. Staton to mind his own bees wax! My property has been this way for 7 years, and no one has complained about it once before now." The Detective said "Well hold on, we don't want to start any feuds here, let me talk to him".

I have not heard ANYTHING more about it, and that was 4 years ago. Good thing they didn't call my bluff!! Mr. Staton moved on about 2 years ago. Good riddance.

LP

 

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we live in the country, and we dont have a noise ordinance, BUT there's a thing called KEEPING the PEACE. The cops didn't seem to care too much....just told him to keep his radio down unless a good song came on. lol. ****ing women.




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actually, i told the cop i always turn the radio down and quite grinding and hammering at 9pm. i also mentioned that they call the house all he time and annoy me. he told me not to worry about it and if i wanted to crank the radio up to go ahead, even if it's after 9pm. i still keep the noise down after 9 on the weekdays (i usually call a night about then) but some people you just can't please. i won't make, i'm going to drive them ****in apesit untill THEY move. they think they can be a pain in MY ***? SHEEIT, i can be a WAAAAAY bigger pain in THEIR ***. just don't do anything illegal. at least not that they can pin on you ...

 

my neighbors arent bad at all,and i live in an aparmtent!granted i'm not making noises with my tools,but i practice my guitar at nite all the time and they dont say a thing,and i dont have a small practice amp.i've got a half stack that has 2 settings..off and loud enough to make ME say "i'd better turn this thing off.." when i'm standing there playing it,and i know i've done this around 11 at nite or later,so they're pretty cool.they dont even mind me out in the parkin lot takin up half of it layin under my car or cuttin out panels for it
creepy

 

Ohh, I have a horrible neihbor below me (damn Condo).
The In Laws were over once and they live in the country. They dont think to be light footed. At 7pm the cops came by about a noise complaint. I was like "wtf? its 7pm and my in laws were just stompy" The cops just rolled thier eyes and said thanks and neer heard from them again.

It wouldnt be bad if she could speak english but you cant talk to her. My wife lost it on her one day and she looked teriffied. Havent heard from her since!

Ohh, and we are moving in a couple months. I am coming back the next week with a dozen rotten eggs to toss on to her deck

 

Back when my 73 gremlin'yeah yeah laugh away ' was my daily driver for a few months it was rattlecanned flat black was loud but i always made sure to creep around my neighborhood with it to avoid trouble and attracting cops'plus it had ****ty drums all the way around and was squirrlly as hell'.most of the neighbors dug it but some woulds stand with this i have a large jagged piece of wood up my *** look on thier faces and right as i p***ed em at like 15 mph they yell'SLOW DOWN'and i'd reply most of the time with a good romp or two as it had a well tuned AMC 343 V8 in it but one stopped me one day and started screaming at me saying don't ever drive this piece of **** down my street again or blah blah blah so when i left i gave the old ***** a nice'John Force'style burnout and she never ****ed with me when i came home that way again.

 

I don't have to worry about my neigbors much. My next door neighbor has one harley and is building another bike for his wife. My neighbor across the alley usually spends a couple a hours a night out in his shop drinkin' whiskey. I "visit" him on occasion just to keep on his good side. Needless to say neither bother me much - even when I start up the 39 with open header. They usually come over to watch.

 

When I see a neighbor is away on trash day, I take the cans from their curb upto the house.
I loan them tools, air the kids bike tires, and have on occasion mowed yards for thoxe who are away on vacation for a couple of weeks or more.
When I have a gathering, such as the Burger thing when the HAMB drags went on, I go around the "hood telling my neighbors what is happening and invite them to participate.
Cool neighborhood to live in.
I am sure, like most places, there are those who do not really enjoy what goes on, but no complaints, yet.

 

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When I have a gathering, such as the Burger thing when the HAMB drags went on, I go around the "hood telling my neighbors what is happening and invite them to participate.
Cool neighborhood to live in.
I am sure, like most places, there are those who do not really enjoy what goes on, but no complaints, yet.


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Your neighbors rocked for putting up with all of us.... Very cool...

 

zman, actually, they enjoyed the hotrods almost as much as we do.
I still get questions about when Its gonna happen again.
I do have great neighbors.

 

some of us are lucky as hell the rest including me have it rough, hopefully when my rides are runnig again they will chill but until then i'll be cool w the cool ones and **** the rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

wow I guess ive got it pretty good then.My neighbors havent called the cops on me yet which is pretty surprising. We live in a suburb so people here are usually pretty stuck up about everything so I usually try and keep the welding and grinding and stuff in the shop and when I can’t Ill do it when they arent outside. I think they get pissed off kinda soon tho. My lawnmower broke down a few weeks ago so my gr*** is ridiculously long and ive got a lawnmower in pieces in my driveway. (not to mention the race trailer at the end of the driveway that looks like hell.) plus I was setting the timing on my car the other day and we brought the rpms up pretty high. But yea If I was you id just try not to piss em off too much and when the cops show up just BS with em and let em know your the good guy.

 

I still live with my folks in a pretty nice middle-upper cl*** neighborhood. We usually have two cars in the garage and three in the driveway, and I am usually swapping motors and axles and doing whatnot on a pretty regular basis, especially in the summer. The neighbors think we're crazy but have never complained. The one old guy two houses down runs a service station and collects orphan cars, he digs it! And the hooptie behind us pretty much has a junkyard so they hate him. So we're in great shape!

Speaking of freaking the neighbors... I was at the Canfield Swap last weekend (maybe Grumpy saw it) and saw a '50s Chevy Panel Wagon for sale with a really horrible ********/SS paint job. I am sure that was it's prime selling point.

 

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Back when my 73 gremlin'yeah yeah laugh away ' was my daily driver for a few months it was rattlecanned flat black was loud but i always made sure to creep around my neighborhood with it to avoid trouble and attracting cops'plus it had ****ty drums all the way around and was squirrlly as hell'.most of the neighbors dug it but some woulds stand with this i have a large jagged piece of wood up my *** look on thier faces and right as i p***ed em at like 15 mph they yell'SLOW DOWN'and i'd reply most of the time with a good romp or two as it had a well tuned AMC 343 V8 in it but one stopped me one day and started screaming at me saying don't ever drive this piece of **** down my street again or blah blah blah so when i left i gave the old ***** a nice'John Force'style burnout and she never ****ed with me when i came home that way again.

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sounds like these people around the corner from me...i was setting the timing on the delta and driving around in 1st gear to really feel how it was taking. so i go by their house at about 22 in a 25 zone, but it was in first gear so the engine was screaming through the straight-pipe and the wife yelled at me to slow down. i turned around to explain what i was doing and be nice, but when i pulled up she snidely said "THAT'S BETTER!!" so i said "since when is 22 TOO FAST?!" at which point i hammered it and took off with a squeal and went back to play with the timing a little more. every time i drove by that day i'd floor it for that 3rd to 1st downshift and chirp the tires for her. now every time i go by there i hit the gas a little too, and when they are outside i rev it to about 4 grand when i get to my house so that they can hear it since they're only about 1/2 a block away. they are the only ones i've had problems with though. the other neighbors don't even complain about my car choked and idling at 5:30 in the morning before i leave for work, even though i'm sure some of their windows rattle

i'm kinda scared now though about bringing my new project home and having some stupid neighbor complain thanks to all these stories...it's gonna have to sit in the yard either until i get back from phoenix in a year or until i take it down there to put together while i'm at UTI. but since the neighbors across the street have about 12 (seriously) vehicles around their house (only 5 of them are in working order when everyone's home at night i'm not too worried.

 

When we moved into this place, the neighbors were worried. The house is a rental, and apparently has been a rental for the last twenty years or more. They've had some real losers in here before, so the locals are always concerned when a fresh batch moves in...when we showed up with a slew of hot rods, their fears began to swell.

Knowing how things can be, I took some initiative. First- introduce myself to the neighbors on both sides, and find some common ground. Turns out one neighbor used to play with dune buggies in the sand. We talked over beers for hours, and now we're tight. The neighbor on the other side plays in a blues band, so we hit it off too.

Both of them warned me about the freaks across the street. One guy is a little crazy and completely anti-social. The other is an older retired guy who is known to complain. I made it my mission to befriend these two...even though the "cool" neighbors on either side of me told me not to bother, and that they'd given up trying to be nice.

First- The Old Dude..

I'm no fool. I wait a few weeks and I'm on my best behavior. I see him outside one day, with the hood up on his tiny old import sedan. He's shuffling around the garage...looking for something.

I bet it's automotive, and I bet I've got it right here.

I cross the street and introduce myself. I ask if he needs any help with the car. Turns out he's a quart shy on oil, and he's worried about it. He's pensive, and very much to the point. Respectfully, I volunteer a quart of my finest 20W-50 Synthetic.."the best," I tell him. He bites, reads the label, and thanks me. I sense him relaxing, and he asks what year the cars are over in the driveway/garage. I tell him all he'd like to know, and he begins to tell me about the '65 and '70 GTOs he bought new. Tells me about hauling *** and having a ball. Talks for a half hour about his wild days in Germany when he was in the Army.

We hit it off.

Fast forward a week or so. I'm out in the garage (as usual) tinkering on something, and he saunters across the street in his plaid shorts, polo shirt, black socks, and sandals...to bring me a Bud Light. Tells me he doesn't get out much because he has to take care of the wife, who broke her back (!) in a fall. She's recovering, but really slowly. Other health issues are making it rough on her, and rough on him, too. No wonder he seems grumpy. He's a former party dog who's spending his golden years trying to take care of the woman he's loved for the last 50 years.

We're pals now.

One down, one to go...

The nutcase across the street has an '88 IROC. It's tired, beat up, and looks like ****. I bide my time, knowing it'll fail someday.

Sure enough...it takes longer and longer for it to start. Eventually, it stops being able to start, and he just keeps trying...

Hearing that poor car turn over for hours is driving me nuts. For me, it's like listening to a kid get beat up over and over again.

He's GOT to break down soon...He's got to ask one of those "mechanics" across the street for help...

My roommate is a suspension/brake guy, and I'm an engine guy. This one's all mine...

Finally, it happens...The roommate comes in and says.."Larry broke down Dude. He asked if you could look at the Camaro..."

cool.

I check it out, and tell him to go get a new IAC. He does, I install it, and the car fires up instantly. He's happy, and we're pals now. All good.

Done, and done...

I now have positve relations with all the neighbors. Hell..they don't even get along with each other. But, we're all cool now. No one complains, and because we're all pals, they come over to see what's happening when one of the hoods is up...as long as no one else is over.

I planned it. I planned all of it. I knew, eventually, everyone has car troubles...and no one likes to pay to fix them.

We have a common talent here, and if you're smart, patient, cool, respectful, and willing to listen to long-*** boring stories (like this one), you'll probably never have issues with your neighbors. Share your skills, be kind, and always wave.

Kill em' with kindness, and if you're persistent, you'll win em' over.

I know there are some who can never be won over, and some who just love to *****.

I never make noise past 10pm, I keep everything clean, my non-running/registered project cars get car covers, and I don't have issues. Ever.

Scotch!~

 

Want to move in my "hood?
A nice all brick 3 bedroom rental just came available yesterday, with a LARGE back lot tree shaded and lotsa hiding places for cars.
the old guy across the street has a fridge in his garage.

 

Never had this problem-live in a culdesac with a guy running a 454 in a 70 elky, an ex-dragracer in a wheelchair who does metal art and a scary white trash dude with a crazy Rotweiler that blast Metallica while he wrenches on his 80 GMC smoking dirt weed. Needless to say-I"M IN HEAVEN...
now if I could just pay the rent