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Spinning My Tires is one man's view of the world of cars. Random thoughts, ideas and comments pop up here, all of them related to owning, driving and restoring cars. I've been doing this car thing as long as I can remember, and have enjoyed a great many car-related experiences, some of which I hope to share with you here. And I always have an opinion one way or another. Enjoy. E-mails are welcomed--if you have thoughts of your own to share, please send them. Additional Spinning My Tires editorials can be found on the Archives page. 5/9/06 (Editor's Note: Hang in there a few more weeks, guys. Once this first house is done and my new business--www.century-partners.com--is up and running smoothly, I'll scale back from 7 days a week, 10 hours a day and get back to a regular schedule. And that means the Buick gets back on the front burner. Please stick around!) I'm Sick of Beating Up My Cars Does everyone have the same problem I
have keeping my cars ding and scratch-free? I’m sure I notice stuff on my own
cars more than others do, but I also notice it on other cars, and it sure seems
to me that everyone else’s car looks better than mine. My cars appear to get
more than their fair share of bumps and bruises. So how are you guys doing it?
How do you keep from getting stupid scratches and dings in your cars? I park far away from other cars in
the parking lot, and as a result, all my cars are thankfully door-ding free. But
they have all kinds of other stupid bruises that just make me insane. My Mustang
has a “pimple” in the rear quarter panel where something with sharp corners
was in the trunk and shifted, popping a corner into the sheetmetal from inside.
Hence, the pimple. My Protégé has a scuffed front
bumper, right below the foglight, where I bumped a rock while backing out of my
parents’ driveway last fall. It also has a broken front grille, courtesy of
some jerk in an F-150 with a low-hanging trailer hitch parallel parking in front
of me using the “touch method.” Before I even saw the hole in the grille, I
saw the hitch and just knew. Thanks a lot, pal. I’m still waiting for that
phone call. I loaned my gigantic red Dodge Ram to a buddy about a
week ago to buy some lumber and some rebar for a flower box project. As a truck
rookie, he didn’t know to hang the long items out the back of the bed.
Instead, he stacked the 10-foot long rebar (rebars?) against the tailgate with
the ends sticking out next to the cab, so they ground against the paint as he
drove. By the time he got to my house, he’d worn a nice little groove into the
right rear corner of the cab, right down to shiny steel. I was bummed, but the
truck already has plenty of battle scars, so one more didn’t matter. Or did
it? And just last Sunday, I scratched
Juila’s Audi’s rear bumper when I grazed a tree, again at my folks’ house
(I need to stop going there). To make matters worse, we just got the TT back
from the body shop where both the front and rear bumpers were replaced after
Julia was the meat in a 3-car sandwich. And this was after I made them paint the
rear bumper twice because the paint didn’t quite match the rest of the car. Crap. Why is this happening? Does everyone
suffer these “more than a nick, less than a dent” accidents or is it
just me? Who can afford to keep fixing them to keep their car in perfect
condition? Certainly not me. And none of the bumps to my cars will “just buff
right out.” So here I am, a car guy who exercises extra care with his
vehicles’ appearance, and I can’t keep them reasonably perfect. I don’t
expect to avoid little chips on the nose or along the rocker panels (though I
have a hard time living with those, too), but I seem to be a magnet for small
misfortunes. I don’t handle these injuries very
well. When I scratched the Audi, I shouted the absolute worst of expletives and
threw my sunglasses out the window. Now I feel self-conscious driving the car,
as if other people will see the car and think, why doesn’t that jerk take
better car of that beautiful car? I feel like a high school student who
sprouts a bright red pimple on the end of her nose the day of the senior prom. Conspicuous
is the word I’m looking for. I think it goes with the territory of
being a car guy that we don’t like this nonsense going on with our cars. Maybe
some of you even feel these injuries like they happened to you. And if you’re
like me, you’d probably prefer the injuries to your own body instead of your
car’s. So why the heck does every garden-variety car fresh out of the carwash
look better than my cars? Dammit! So is it just me? Am I just a
lighting rod for these minor accidents, or does it happen to everyone? Does
everyone pay to have them fixed as they happen, wait until there are enough of
them to justify a trip to the body shop, or ignore them altogether? I think
I’m in the second category and Julia has promised that after each house is
completed, we can spend a little money fixing up each car in turn: bumper
repairs for the Mazda (and maybe another set of new wheels to replace the
bent ones I bought a year ago), bumper repairs and a new timing belt for the
Audi, and maybe some paint, new big brakes and 17” shoes for the Mustang.
Maybe. Anyway, drop me line at toolman8@sbcglobal.net and tell me your secret or at least let me know I’m not alone. I’m sick of beating up my cars. See you next month! E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net This page accessed Thanks, Fidget! |