It all started with a bid on BringATrailer. Actually, it all started with a nasty downhill skateboarding accident up in the Sierras, but that's another story ...
When I saw the car, my favorite color scheme, I thought "Why not put up a bid?! I never gonna get this car for that price, anyways!" Little did I know, that at the time (2019) BringATrailer wasn't super-hot yet. And no one really bid on cars on a Wednesday afternoon. So I got a car. Unseen. No questions asked. I called the seller: "Uhm, does it actually run? Or do I literally need to bring a trailer?" It ran. And great at that. I drove all the way back from Sebastopol and couldn't believe my luck. A well-maintained car. Well, sort of, as I would soon find out.
BTW: Idiot as I am, I completely forgot about the BringATrailer fee and sales tax.
I don't have a garage, so I rented a space under a student multi-housing unit. Everytime I started the car, four car alarms went off. All my tools fit into my trunk. And I started to replace almost every part — not because I had to, but because it is a bliss to work on this 'bucket of bolts'.
I figured, that given the hourly rate of a car mechanic when they see the car, doing work myself would probably be 6-7x cheaper ... that means I can break it up to 6-7 times and still get away less expensive than hiring a car mechanic!
So, whenever I need to do some work, I ask myself: "Can I figure this out in 5-6 tries?" After all, it's a bucket of bolts, you take out the flex and the welder and off you go. Sort-of.
I particularly enjoy tinkering with suspensions. There is so much lap time to be found with a great suspension setup. That includes lightening the unsprung mass, creating custom uprights, and calculating different steering geometries, roll centers, and bump-steer/camber changes. A lot of fun. A lot of trial and errors. Well, mostly errors.
By now, I am a total car nut, buying and collecting hard-to-find spare parts and body panels, "just in case". I don't know how that happened. But I'm enjoying it.
I am driving these cars. I am not a rivet-counter. These are race cars. They are meant to be raced. Yes, they are not all original. Yes, I stole parts from Fords, Chevys, Cadillac, and countless other brands. Who cares. These are not just moving 200 yards across a lawn. They get dinged, raced, crashed.
And then you fix them again.
