The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Old Dominion Stovebolt Society (MD, VA, West VA, DC, DE and PA) Rites of Passage for DIY mechanic - yours?

This story from Hagarty, 11 Rites of Passage for Every DIY Mechanic, was pretty funny. John said most of these are not rites of passage but possibly every day occurrences for most of us.

Some of the comments were pretty good, too. A few added their rites of passage, also. Enjoy and chuckle.

I can relate to #6 Disappearing Parts. There's the first part I bought from a fellow Stovebolter hiding in the garage somewhere. Fortunately it's just the battery cover and won't be needed for a while.

Pretty much all of those at one time or another 👍😁🇺🇸

Yes to "All of them". The comment "Builds character" fits like a glove - LOL

The first one, “roadside repair” , reminded me of when I finally got my first house and it had a garage! Anyway, I had a 56 Chevy station wagon that I just put an engine in and then very next day headed out for an 1100 mile one way trip with my wife and very young son.
We got about 1 hour out and the alternator broke loose. I put a vice grip on it and drove the rest of the way.

I was being sooo careful disassembling my 54 3100 but alas it happened... a 1/2 inch bolt wrung off. Dadburn it! After thinking about it over a couple of beers, I remembered that I had a couple of 1/4" left handed drill bits. After center-punching the stub I put one to work. I drilled in about 3/4" thinking it wasn't going to work when all of a sudden rrreenckk and out it came! "Weee Doggies!" As Uncle Jed would say!

I’ve done most of them more than a few times over!

Don

Ditto for me, Rite of Passage #6: Disappearing parts, I practice on a daily basis but not limited to parts. Wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers whatever tool I just happen to place down seems to vanish!

I do think they missed one. When a small part like a bolt or nut disappears down into someplace where it’s near impossible to retrieve, or you think it might have! The engine is one place I can think of. Thats where magic fingers and magnets on a stick come into place. A few strategically places rags often eliminates the issue but too many times haste got in my way!

Also, while in my haste working on my work bench, I’ll drop a screw and you hear it hit the bench but is nowhere to be found. I have allot of patience so I usually do find the item, but a old towel on the bench or a tray, would have save me allot of wasted time.

Phak, your work bench comment reminded me of one of the photos in the article. Surely all our Bolters have a workbench that looks like that fella's, right?
For sure. Why does that happen? And not only in the shop! Something drops, we see the trajectory, but it's landing spot is not where it should logically be.

When I have the missing part syndrome, I soon become angry, almost a catatonic state and develop hysterical blindness.
I wish that I was joking. I get so irritated, especially when I recall seeing said part several times when I didn't need it yet.
I was looking for my compression gauge and looked through all of my tool drawers but couldn't find it. I went and bought another one. Once I settled down a few days later I found the missing one in the middle drawer on top of everything else in that drawer. It was right side up so I could read the dial!!!

There is a medical term for a condition called Scotoma, “a blind spot in your vision”. Although that is an actual physical condition, my “Scotoma’s” are psychological and self induced!

This comment made on that page, "Finishing a job and having parts left over and wonder what you missed." I remember the first time I helped John do something in the early days of Skonk (his Chevelle) and way before the Stovebolt days. I only (barely) knew VW bug stuff (and I had an older brother who helped with that back then -- talking about high school now). Got the setting now?
So, this was a tune-up kit of some sort for Skonk. (He can fill in those crazy details. ) Well, it was all done BUT there were several little *things* left over. That concerned me ... but not John.

That's what the empty coffee can is for. Holding all the leftover parts after finishing a job.

The rest of THAT story ...

So there we were ... newlyweds ... I was a USMC 2ndLt starting flight school in Milton Florida, Peggy and I had just moved into our first home together -- a two-bedroom duplex onbase at NAS Whiting Field in Milton, FL (had a carport). And I decided we (note the use of the pronoun "we" ...) needed to rebuild the carburetor on my 1970 Chevelle convertible. It was a Holley 650 double pumper. Having no workbench, we used the next best thing -- the kitchen table!

You can fill in the details for yourself. You've all probably been there and done that. It was the first of many tests of our marriage.

36 years later, we're still married!

Broke her in the right way. Most couples miss that part and marriages fail because of it. Thirty-seven years of proof backs that up.
It does not, however, come without a price. You will be spending a fair amount of time doing stuff with your bride which you ordinarily would not get caught dead doing otherwise.

"Deja Vu All Over Again"- - - - -except the kitchen table rebuild in 1976 in central California invilved a Torqueflite 727 automatic transmission- - - -and the profit I made on that job paid our rent for two months! It's amazing how well stuff like that gets tolerated when it puts food on the table and and a roof overhead!
Jerry

Actually, in our relationship, I have been found doing things I NEVER thought *I* would be doing. Included, but not limited to, trying to keep up with motorheads in an old truck forum and learning a whole bunch of new terms (and making up some of them ).

Ms. Peggy, you are a peach. Ole John married well.

Carl, One of my favorite movie quotes is Sir Ralph Richardson as The Supreme Being in "Time Bandits"

"I'm not entirely dim."

True that.