Getting older kinda sucks

Turned 71 in March and can still get down under a car and work, getting back up is the challenge.
Back in the 73 I worked as a millwright at a lumber company in Northern Ca.
There was a mechanic there that was almost as old as I am now.
He would get on a creeper and slide under forklift or some vehicle and go to sleep.
At 26 I was a bit disgusted but now I can empathize.
 
Ha...getting under a car is easy, getting back up is the problem, as noted. Hell, same applies to just sitting in an X and getting back out.
One constant over the years, if you haven't drawn blood you haven't finished the job.
Working on the heavy stuff means working smart as noted. I have lots of dollies, an engine hoist and a chain hoist. But sometimes I screw up and pull my back and then wait six months for that to feel better.
I would hate to think what shape I would be in if I just spent all day cruising the internet and watching MSNBC.
 
Well. Made it to the gas station and back. (About 1 mile away) gas gauge works, thanks to the grounding issue. Went up to 180 before I got there and stayed about 180 from that point forward. Yes I was still very apprehensive but pushed through it. Getting older I guess means sometimes mentally pushing through fears too!

Odie
 
Good topic here. It begs for the Viagra commercial slogan "this is the age of getting things done" as it relates to our increasing abilities to confront that which could otherwise hold us back. I strongly suspect that I can handle whatever might happen when I take my Scorpion out for a drive. These days we have these handy cell phones if we need them, I can afford the comprehensive services of AAA, I have a fire extinguisher in the car, I know every inch of its fuel system, and I am fully insured.

Back when I was in my 20's, sexy & strong as hell... I didn't do things like re-torque the lugs before I left on a drive, I didn't think about the risks related to all I didn't do or know for/about my cars. I was always broke. The only things I knew about cars resulted from that which I'd fixed because I couldn't pay someone else to do it for me. My Porsche 924 burned to the ground, my Karman Ghia flipped over into a ditch, and I lost two others to impound for lack of insurance. Still can't believe I never got a DUII...

our 20's vs. middle-age is the difference between knowing and doing better. $150 paid to Triple A roadside assistance is the best money I've spent on my cars. I am now both clean and sober for 16 years, resulting in a much better understanding of how my cars work and what they need. What I can now fix roadside far exceeds what I could have done in a well-prepared shop 25 years ago. I can now keep a job. I am now trustworthy. My very average Volvo Cross Country will always get me where I need to go so my work in progress doesn't have to.

Speaking for myself, getting older really doesn't suck. Lifting the short block of my 124 onto the workbench by myself is something I can no longer do, but exchanging that ability for the abilities listed above is one hell of a trade. This really is the age of getting things done, instead of beginning many things and finishing very few of them. Maybe finishing way too soon...
 
Chad C. said:
Good topic here. It begs for the Viagra commercial slogan "this is the age of getting things done" as it relates to our increasing abilities to confront that which could otherwise hold us back. I strongly suspect that I can handle whatever might happen when I take my Scorpion out for a drive. These days we have these handy cell phones if we need them, I can afford the comprehensive services of AAA, I have a fire extinguisher in the car, I know every inch of its fuel system, and I am fully insured.

Back when I was in my 20's, sexy & strong as hell... I didn't do things like re-torque the lugs before I left on a drive, I didn't think about the risks related to all I didn't do or know for/about my cars. I was always broke. The only things I knew about cars resulted from that which I'd fixed because I couldn't pay someone else to do it for me. My Porsche 924 burned to the ground, my Karman Ghia flipped over into a ditch, and I lost two others to impound for lack of insurance. Still can't believe I never got a DUII...

our 20's vs. middle-age is the difference between knowing and doing better. $150 paid to Triple A roadside assistance is the best money I've spent on my cars. I am now both clean and sober for 16 years, resulting in a much better understanding of how my cars work and what they need. What I can now fix roadside far exceeds what I could have done in a well-prepared shop 25 years ago. I can now keep a job. I am now trustworthy. My very average Volvo Cross Country will always get me where I need to go so my work in progress doesn't have to.

Speaking for myself, getting older really doesn't suck. Lifting the short block of my 124 onto the workbench by myself is something I can no longer do, but exchanging that ability for the abilities listed above is one hell of a trade. This really is the age of getting things done, instead of beginning many things and finishing very few of them. Maybe finishing way too soon...
Click to expand...

You mention Viagra, make me think of the one about the young fellow visiting his 95 year old grandfather at the rest home.
When asked how everything was going gramp's replied that everything was fine. "they feed me and bathe me a give me Viagra every night before bed"
On leaving the grandson asked the head nurse about the Viagra.
"Oh, That," the nurse said,"that keeps him from rolling out of bed at night".
 
I'll give you a definitive example of what aging does...........my electric garage door opener crapped out and I am paying a garage door company to install the new one...I'm so ashamed. I have always installed these things myself in the past.
 
carl said:
...........my electric garage door opener crapped out and I am paying a garage door company to install the new one...I'm so ashamed. I have always installed these things myself in the past.
Click to expand...

GOOD! So this time, it will have a chance to last longer!
 
carl said:
As I have stated in the past, if I wanted this kind of abuse I would go over to MIRA.

Is it strange to say I would rather swap motors on my X than swap garage door openers?
Click to expand...
You don't need to get on a ladder to swap X motors!
 
dllubin said:
You don't need to get on a ladder to swap X motors!
Click to expand...
Well..... there is a point in a swap where you need to have the car up high enough to get under yet you also need to get in through the top of the engine. A step stool is helpful. Although not a ladder, per se, you are up in the air! :)
Odie
 
addictedpunk said:
Ahem, I’m 25.

Where’s Josh from Canada to back me up? He’s younger than I am and already rebuilt an X.
Click to expand...

25 is a good number, I was 25 when my son was born.
I got out of the navy I was almost 22,and married. My wife and we kicked around for a couple of years before I decided to go to college on the GI bill.
I started up the first semester of Jr. college in 1972 and one of the classes was some kind of English class. Creative writing or something like that.
As you can probably tell from my spelling and punkuation [sic] I din't learn much.
Anyway there I sat with a bunch of 18 year old kids fresh out of high school listening to this 45'ish year old professor, hitting on the busty brunet in the from row, while telling a bunch of BS stories.
I was still had a fresh looking face so sort of fit in by outward appearance.
Every once in a while the Prof. would say something about Vietnam, foreign ports or something that happened in the pasted years that I knew for a fact was not the way he told it so I would would raise my hand and set the record straight.
After one such session a young fellow and I got to talking as we walked along and he made the comment that I seemed to know a lot about things and just how old was I.
Well I straightened up a bit more and said that I was 25 years old.
The kid, as it turned out was almost 19, 's brows raised and his eyes bugged when he repeated "25!"
To him I was an old man back then.

As I am getting older my doctor is asking more age related questions.
The last visit he asked if I had an active sex life.
I said yes I was pretty active and he asked if I thought I could cut back by half.
I said sure, which half do you want me to cut back? The looking or the thinking?
 
autox19 said:
Yes there is Fiat content here, so bear with me. I am 51. what I have learned through life is I dont like pain. I found that I am no longer as gutsy in fear of said pain. I used to fling my body strapped to a snowboard off of some pretty high jumps and drops. no worries about if I crashed. Now I find as I am looking down the high walls of a half pipe, or down a pretty steep drop, "if I crash it will hurt, maybe I should go an easier route".
Fiat Part. I have had an X19 in my possession pretty much since 1986. with some of that time being a daily driver. I drove it rain, snow, didnt matter. I would put on a different carb on a weekend without thinking of not making it to work. I Drove it with an adjustable wrench, 10, 13 and 15 mm sockets, duct tape and zip ties in case something went wrong. And yeah, things went wrong. no biggy, I just fixed it ant life went on. I once spun bearings, replaced with a combo of a 128 engine and the X engine and drove it to work 4 hours later without a thought things could go bad.
Spin ahead to today. I have the B16 X. Has it had issues getting to this point? yes. With only the last test drive to work being bad. I now think I have the issues fixed but am having issues getting myself to "trust" it. The 2 issues that came up last time. Overheating and shift linkage unbolting rendering shifting useless. How did I fix them? I redid how the cooling is configured (see another thread on that from a few weeks ago) Cooling fan power plug came undone so I electrical taped the junction together figuring it I needed to unplug it, undoing tape isnt hard. ran it in my drive for at least 20-30 min, many cycles of the cooling fan. no issues, no air in the coolant lines, unlike before. Shift linkage, I did double nuts to tighten to each other, as well as this time using loctite 721. I also am carrying extra nuts and a wrench, just in case. Now everytime I think about taking it out for a test, I back down and either take my van or find an excuse in my head on why I shouldn't take the X this time.
See? I am getting older, the "fear factor" is creeping in. even though I have the tow dolly still attached on the X and my best friend has the truck we have towed it many times back and forth between his house and mine during this project, I cant get my self to pull the trigger again. Afraid of getting stranded? maybe, afraid of another failure? possibly, who knows.

ok, I know this might be a little deep for this forum, but at the same time, you guys (guys in my mind is NOT a boy/girl thing, it is people in general) are my friends. You guys understand the crazy passion for theses things. I also wanted to let people know where my X project stands.

Thanks for the Ear

Odie
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Hi Odie,
I turned 60 last friday june 8! I understand how you feel.
For my case I keep the physical major job for winter and one day/weekend at the time.
Last summer I went to the open house of MWB, what a satisfaction and scary road trip from Montreal area to Columbus Ohio with Kermit! Kermit and I are a team and have done successfully.

Don't throw the towel, just respect your body and take more time it will be an achievement.

Cheers
Yves
 
dragonsgate said:
25 is a good number, I was 25 when my son was born.
I got out of the navy I was almost 22,and married. My wife and we kicked around for a couple of years before I decided to go to college on the GI bill.
I started up the first semester of Jr. college in 1972 and one of the classes was some kind of English class. Creative writing or something like that.
As you can probably tell from my spelling and punkuation [sic] I din't learn much.
Anyway there I sat with a bunch of 18 year old kids fresh out of high school listening to this 45'ish year old professor, hitting on the busty brunet in the from row, while telling a bunch of BS stories.
I was still had a fresh looking face so sort of fit in by outward appearance.
Every once in a while the Prof. would say something about Vietnam, foreign ports or something that happened in the pasted years that I knew for a fact was not the way he told it so I would would raise my hand and set the record straight.
After one such session a young fellow and I got to talking as we walked along and he made the comment that I seemed to know a lot about things and just how old was I.
Well I straightened up a bit more and said that I was 25 years old.
The kid, as it turned out was almost 19, 's brows raised and his eyes bugged when he repeated "25!"
To him I was an old man back then.

As I am getting older my doctor is asking more age related questions.
The last visit he asked if I had an active sex life.
I said yes I was pretty active and he asked if I thought I could cut back by half.
I said sure, which half do you want me to cut back? The looking or the thinking?
Click to expand...
Your comments got me thinking as to what I was doing at 25 and I just happened to have the service log spreadsheet to my X open so I decided to see what the entries were for 1975 (the year I was 25). On 1/7/75 I installed a new FAZA 35-75-75-35 cam, rejetted the 32DMTRA carb, and recurved the distributor. In February I took a ~10,000 mile trip around the US. My clutch return spring broke a few miles east of Flagstaff, AZ and somehow the threaded adjustment rod and slave piston shot out. This physically should not be able to happen but much to the amazement of myself and the Fiat-Ferrari service guy in Oklahoma City it did. Going from Flagstaff to OKC (the nearest Fiat dealer) without a clutch was not so bad thanks to the robust starter motor for getting rolling. I found that by rev matching you could gently slide into the next gear without anything bad happening. The best part was that it was a Fiat-Ferrari dealer and while waiting for the warranty repairs a friendly salesman let me drive a 246 Dino around the block. After the trip I got some Shelby slotted aluminum mags (which are still on the car) and some 185/70-13 Pirelli CN36 tires (no 60 series then).

I'm not surprised by the 19 year old's response. Remember back in the 60s we were all taught not to trust anyone over 30!
 
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I have thought long and hard about it....for at least a minute or two and have decide I will accept personal abuse directed at me here on this forum and not try to contain it all on MIRA. I know this excites a lot of you or maybe just one or two of you.
I don't do Spider.com (is that site still active?). My mind wanders a lot, what were we talking about? Oh yea, I use my engine hoist to lift the rear of an X high enough to drop the motor out the bottom. Good reason not to cut off the rear bumper mounts flush with the body as I attach the hoist chain to them.

I think I'm starting to sound like Canadadan (an old MIRA crank).
 
carl said:
I think I'm starting to sound like Canadadan (an old MIRA crank).
Click to expand...

Canadan was here on Xweb for a while too carl.

I signed up for Spider.com a couple weeks ago, because someone here in STL is trying to start up a new FCA chapter. I figured I would look to see if there were STL folks on that board and invite them. So the board is still there.
 
I often talked/met with Canadan. He's a nice guy with a big mouth and writing like sh**. I think he was banned from Mira for that reason.

Carl, you got a long way to go to sound like Canadan! Hummm... is that personal abuse? Should I go back to Mira? :rolleyes:
 
dllubin said:
Your comments got me thinking as to what I was doing at 25 and I just happened to have the service log spreadsheet to my X open so I decided to see what the entries were for 1975 (the year I was 25). On 1/7/75 I installed a new FAZA 35-75-75-35 cam, rejetted the 32DMTRA carb, and recurved the distributor. In February I took a ~10,000 mile trip around the US. My clutch return spring broke a few miles east of Flagstaff, AZ and somehow the threaded adjustment rod and slave piston shot out. This physically should not be able to happen but much to the amazement of myself and the Fiat-Ferrari service guy in Oklahoma City it did. Going from Flagstaff to OKC (the nearest Fiat dealer) without a clutch was not so bad thanks to the robust starter motor for getting rolling. I found that by rev matching you could gently slide into the next gear without anything bad happening. The best part was that it was a Fiat-Ferrari dealer and while waiting for the warranty repairs a friendly salesman let me drive a 246 Dino around the block. After the trip a got some Shelby slotted aluminum mags (which are still on the car) and some 185/70-13 Pirelli CN36 tires (no 60 series then).

I'm not surprised by the 19 year old's response. Remember back in the 60s we were all taught not to trust anyone over 30!
Click to expand...

I was 25yo in 1972. By May 1973 Nixon was getting the ax and I was getting depressed so I sold my 56 Chevy pick up truck.
With the money I got I packed up my wife and year old son and headed for Northern Ca. and the sequoia national forest where we back packed and camped for the next three months.
I had a 63 Renault Caravel then and it was another three years before I got my first Fiat. It was a 1975 128 sedan I bought for my wife.
I have owned several other 128's but we kept my wife's car for over 35 years.
I didn't get my first X until 1995.
When I look back I find it hard to fit all the past years into such a short length of time.
 
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