This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.
This time it is Oliver Marks who takes a break from his job as an 'Enterprise 2.0'consultant and blogger to write about the joy of restoring auto beauties.
“My antidote to looking at the screen you're reading this on is lying under old cars and trying to get rusty nuts undone while road dirt and oil drop on my face.
I've been obsessive about cars ever since I can remember - I grew up in Coventry England, home of hundreds of motoring and engineering manufacturers creating everything from parts to complete vehicles.
I moved to California, easily the best place to live in the US for all things automotive, in 1991. No one seems to know how the desire to collect old cars builds up as motor heads get older, but after having things reasonably under control for most of my life I embarked on making a CD Classic Jaguars Interactive in partnership with Jaguar Cars in the mid 90's and set up a motoring multimedia company
Jaguar's golden years were very much centered around my hometown Coventry and I got some of the important historic cars out of the museum there to film and photograph and had full access to their archives. Although I subsequently got sucked into the silicon valley dot com boom which was more lucrative than the motoring CD niche something triggered in my brain and I started lusting after owning old iron rather than just admiring it at shows.
I've got a pretty big circle of acquaintances internationally focused around obscure cars and trucks - the internet since its debut has been a godsend to car guys, and I know many more people through that medium. Forums and FAQ's are an invaluable form of shared collaboration between owners of specific types of vehicles, and the level of shared knowledge amongst people you'd possibly expect to be technologically illiterate if you met them in person is astounding.
While most people think of collectible classic cars as beautifully styled vehicles with glossy paint and lush interiors, it's the restoration and modification of projects that interests me. I don't have anything shiny at the moment although I am hoping to paint the 1957 International Harvester Metro van I'm focused on right now in early October - outside Rod's Radiator in Pacifica, a small town south of San Francisco right on the ocean. Rod recently boiled out the Metro gas tank for me. I have a friend who recently retired from his Jaguar garage who I got a lot of Jaguar parts from including a rebuildable XKE radiator so Rod will be doing that for me soon.
I think the 'change is as good as a rest' problem solving part of futzing with old cars is a great way to switch gears from thinking about business and technology issues, and I've actually solved business problems by thinking them through while pounding away on some mechanical problem or doing bodywork.
Of course, there is the physical workout factor of wriggling around under, inside and over cars, often with some vocalizing of ancient anglo saxon epithets. Admittedly, the dust, rust and solvents aren't conducive to the best type of aerobic workout.
My father used to rebuild the carburetor of our family car on the dining room table when I was a kid. These days we're at the mercy of electronic warning lights on the dashboard telling us to go somewhere with a dealer only software package that can read the error codes in order to have a technician perform repairs. In the 1920's stranded motorists used to take the sump off engines with big end bearing issues and wrap bacon around the crankshaft between bearing and piston rod and it would get them home!
I am lucky to have a basement shop space in San Francisco's Mission District under a commercial garage, but it makes far more sense to live somewhere rural where you can display your lawn ornaments (non moving car projects) instead of keeping them in the center of a large city down a steep ramp.
The upside is I can walk to my workshop and back from home, plus it's a good place to hang out. I just got back from dealing with rust traps on the Metro and have a few new problems to solve. Replacement parts aren't available so I'm going to have to fabricate a new version of the door jam that just disintegrated into fragments of rusty metal and road dirt. A lot of complicated curves and beading...but what a beauty!
Here's a tip to finish this post off: if you can't get a screw out of something because the screwdriver head jumps out of the head (or has mashed up the slot) use a cutoff wheel in a Dremel tool to cut a larger slot in the head of it. You can then use a heavier screwdriver to exert more pressure on it and unscrew it. Ideally soak the screws with penetrating oil (Kroil, Gibbs or WD40) and use a bit of valve grinding paste on the screwdriver tip to help it grip. A whack with a hammer on the screw via a punch can help knock it loose from a rusted thread. If the screw's head shatters you were going to have to drill it out anyway and a lot of the metal is already removed...
Now, what was that question you asked about Microsoft Sharepoint? :)”
Comments