Thoughts of the Week - Mental Health, Restorations & Cars
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- I started by talking about mental health and ended up giving loads of different other advice and views as usual.
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I fully agree that cars and mental health seem to run side by side. They are a wonderful escape and as long as you don't let the car become the new source of your pain then your good. I fully agree that cars can cause problems.
I'd an era of a specific Freelander that I'd spent nearly 12 months rebuilding and I came to realise that it was the pain in my life. I'd focused in the wrong stuff.
I'm currently selling in several cars as I've too many and trying to make things more manageable, as otherwise they just can become the negative spiral which is exactly what they shouldn't.
Great video bud.
I'm really glad your having a clear-out because that is something I've mentioned before, too many cars causes the opposite of the effects you want them to have in your life. Unfortunately many car enthusiasts need to go through this "phase" of buying and buying, until they wake up and realise it's not rosy at all!
Cars absolutely mess with your mental health - Insurance, MOT, Tax.
all three are a pain tbh!
I find it is a single edged sword for me. Fixing things can be rewarding, but without the kick of acievement because I struggle so hard to get there. My Mk1 Focus (2002) has been off the road since October after I put a full tank in. I changed the speedo sensor on it for a trusty Lucas one finding the old one was covered in milky coffee rather than oil. One of the cables lost its washer on the selector mechanism so I fixed that too. I took it off the ramps and checked my speedo and shifter around the block and all was well. I had some transmission fluid as I was planning to do an oil swap anyway so I improvised a suction device with a sports bottle and tubing, took a little oil out, about a litre, and replenished it with some help from wifey. Taking it off the ramps for a second time, I couldn't get reverse gear for some reason. It put up a real fight. but somehow got off. Moving it 3 yards forward was equally difficult and the car broke my spirit right there. I was convinced that I had mangled the gearbox somehow and it sat for 7 months through the winter.
Since then the expiry of the three bills for him motivated me to have another go, but it wouldn't start. The short cable on the starter to the body was busted. That took a few weeks to get out and I fixed it with some flattened copper pipe and solder. It startes wit a squeal and had a seized alternator, so I treated it to a new one and a belt which I can't get on, so the old one will have to do, despite following your good video.
I was in a good place until I read the wrong MOT unknowingly listing repairs to repairs at the back end. I thought I had a failure on my hands and needed to do more work on the rear subframe, specifically to the rear suspension arm and spring, and I thought I would do the sway arms and the banana arms as well with both sets of the sway bar bushings. I have an angle grinder a welder and a torque wrench and a breaker bar but no torches, no pry bars, no "widow maker" clamps and no help.after waiting over two weeks for the parts to come and to survive a cold and get started, I have got myself stuck. cutting off and grinding back many of the nuts and bolt heads, but I am stuck and have hit a wall. Nothing is coming out. The sway bar bushings on the frame are too rusty to touch. The lower arm and spring will not pop out, the sway bar arms are as bad. I did get the banana arms out, they were the only things that seem to come undone with a breaker bar, but one of them took an hour of knuckle scraping 1/12 of a turn at a time and all my puny strength to get out one top bolt. I can't get the new one in and get the bolts located. The spirits have left me again. It is my unfavourite time of the year. I hate hot sunshine and I have a car sitting on two stands begging to be prised apart but I just can't do it.
Now I am a sixtytwo year old man with a stoma which limits my ability to achieve anything for risk of hernias to it. Having the car back rolling means I can see my family, get wood for my shed and make beer for the first time in nearly a year.I want Scottie, the Focus to survive thirty years and expire with my license, but me and my non-existent ego is leaving the poor boy exposed to all and sundry outside my door abused and embarrased. My three brothers are 60 (nearly), 70 and 75 but are not mechanics and not close enough to help out. Maybe in August when it cools down a bit I can have another go, but the parts are here and the car is waiting, but I don't know what to do.
Thanks for the video, it might be the kick I need, but I feel I am safer fixing cars on a PC at the moment.
Keep going, what a brave story to tell - this is half the problem and it sounds like you may have started to give yourself the "kick" before I did :) Little job by job, nothing great gets built in a few days. A cliche but true
I feel for you. I have only 1 brother who is 55+ that is only mildly interested in fixing 2000 era cars. He wants to sell my expired dads car to his friend.
It has been on my drive for years it has to be said, I can get £300 for it scrap. I need to put a stop to my bro coming up with £1000+ but I do not want to scrap a perfectly good car.
Very good video Andrew. This has made me think a lot Thank you. 👍🏾
Very welcome