Interesting things you've learned since, owning a fast car..

[grumpyvette]

Interesting things you've learned since, owning a fast car..

(1)most of my friends , that Ive taken for a ride,start too strongly suggesting I remove my foot from the throttle long before the car reaches near top speed

(2) everything costs more and takes longer to repair than I remember it taking previously

(3)you always seem to have more freinds with broken cars than freinds willing to help on your car.

(4)people rarely show up when they say they will for anything.

(5) owning a couple corvettes helps keep you broke!

(6)when you start fabricating custom parts with a milling machine and welder the older guys start to get interested, and ask questions,the younger guys start telling you it will never work, and suggest just buying parts

(7) theres many parts found in salvage yards on (NON-CORVETTES) that can be used on corvettes, IF you have some fabrication skill.

(8)if you can,t figure it out its usually only because you didn,t read the instructions, or do enough research, before buying parts and jumping into the problem

(9)buying new tools opens frequently opens up options you didn,t previously know you had

(10) theres always new ways to do things and new tools to buy ,and new skills to learn.

(11) even young guys new to the hobby can at times teach you a great deal, so pay attention.

(12) take your time to work safely, your going to regret rushing if you don,t

(13) owning and referring to a shop manual during repairs can save your hours of work

(14)almost anything on a 20 plus year old car made of plastic tends to be easily broken.

(15) stepping back and taking a day off during solving a problem gives you time to think it thru carefully

 

[DorianL]

Things I've learned:

1. Once fasterners are installed... don't walk away, torque them there and then! Sometimes you forget! If you do, God help you!

2. Take breaks during the project. Helps keep your mind cool and your energy topped up. You make quicker progress with breaks.

3. Be sure you have 100% trust in every step of what you do. Check and reach check each component and assy before installing.

4. Having the right tools makes the job a LOT easier.

5. Water/Methanol injection is a good thing.

6. Locking headers and collector bots are a good thing.

7. The odd sound you hear is probably not what you suspect it is. Either it's really innocuous, or its a an unexpected disaster.

8. There's no such thing as too much power.

9. Make sure that jack plate is well centered. Chevelles crashing down is not a good thing.

10. Brakes, steering and handling first.

11. Wear a shower cap (collected from hotel stays.) Keeps your hair out of ATF, oil and dirt when yer on yer back working in the drive way.

12. Wear eye protection when working under car.

And
13. Quality parts are cheaper in the end.



I'll follow up on Grumpy's point one with ref people telling me to get my foot off the gas way early.

I remember once I had a lovely intern in my car. Cute as a button she was. I was dropping her off home. This is back when I had the mini-blower. (NOW, NOW no sick jokes please!!!!!) Anyway, we're at a stop light and she asks me what the B&M floor shifter is for. No prob, I'll show you.

I dropped it down into first and GENTLY pulled away from the stopllight... gently accelerated to short of 4000 rpm. We're not going fast but, by this time the baby-blower is howling and the slightest impulse to the gas pedal makes the entire car shudder and buck... We must have been going what? 20 MPH tops?

The Intern is now SCREAMING at me in a panic. Telling me to SLOW DOWN (wtf?)

I easy of the gas and shift to second... and she's grumpy the rest of the ride and tells me: "I HATE this car. It scares the shit out of me." But we weren't accelerating hard or going fast at all? "I don't care, I hate this car!" Ummmm, ok... She really was upset. Hehehehehe

Now the lady-friend is: Ira, kill that Porsche!