Maintenance leads to the dark side...

Mechanogeek

Mechanogeek

True Classic
I have a friend that just started doing her own maintenance. Replaced some light bulbs on her Fiat 500. This is actually a big step for her.

I finally found the quote I wanted to use before... “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” Yoda.

Maintenance is the path to the dark side. Maintenance leads to repairs. Repairs lead to rebuilds. Rebuilds leads to overhauls. Overhauls lead to restoration. Restoration leads to modification. Modification leads to suffering. :)
 
Be sure to start with a really cheap car so the money spent on modification...er...maintenance won't lead direct to suffering.

I like our neighbor lady (what an archaic term, is this little house on the prairie, in northern Va). Anyway I see her once in a blue moon doing repairs on the family cars since her husband is clueless and has no desire to work on the cars. She just dives right in with assistance by youtube and my tools. My kids, on the other hand drive straight to my house to brew coffee while they wait for me to tell them the tire pressure light is now out because I filled the tires.
 
Carl,

Here is my unsolicited advise. I think you need to give you children T-shirts with WWDD on them, "what would dad do". Then only help when they are wearing the T-shirt and have answered the question. When they get the answer correct have them try it while you watch.

If that works you could probably start a new business selling WWDD T-shirts to other fathers.
 
I have been slowly shutting down....the dad shop thing....one weekend I did nothing but oil changes and realized I had not retired to become a Jiffy Lube. Told the kids to go to the real Jiffy lube.
 
carl said:
I have been slowly shutting down....the dad shop thing....one weekend I did nothing but oil changes and realized I had not retired to become a Jiffy Lube. Told the kids to go to the real Jiffy lube.
Click to expand...
I can hear my...er....your wife saying "why are you making the kids spend money when you can do this job in 15 minutes."
 
carl said:
I have been slowly shutting down....the dad shop thing....one weekend I did nothing but oil changes and realized I had not retired to become a Jiffy Lube. Told the kids to go to the real Jiffy lube.
Click to expand...
Carl, they re only doing that because they love you. They know you enjoy working on cars, they are just trying to find more ways to make you happy.
If you want them to stop allowing you to have all the fun just offer to help them do the work. Tell them that they can use your garage, and your tools, and that you will even help them - you know - tell them what to do, etc. Tell them that it will be a great bonding experience.
You might find that they change their mind about taking the car to an oil change place. That's what happened to my brother.
 
I hear a lot about bonding experience and my wife lectures me about "making memories" with my grandchildren. In that respect I may not have been the best father or grandfather. I did go to a few of the kids' crew races (very boring to watch) and religiously went to my son's youth club football games. If any of them had taken up automotive sports I would clearly have been involved.

Todd, you are correct (I have decided that Todd's wife and mine are clones).
Mike, If they really loved me they wouldn't ask their dad to crawl under their cars to change their oil.

I think four kids, three dogs, 20 years of minivan ownership and four yearly trips from DC to Long Island (visiting the in-laws) can make any guy crabby!

And just so you know, I don't do any maintenance on my two real cars, just tire pressure and washer fluid.
 
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