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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

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Last modified on 05/09/2006

Thanks, Fidget!