Are You Wrenching for Sanity

[AZ Landshaper]

Haven’t tuned in to what’s happening exactly. I find that turning a wrench helps to keep me sane. Of course it helps that I don’t do it for a living and it’s never required. However when I find my self in a real anxious or agitated state it helps to calm my mind (until I snap a stud ). I’ve always been happy to work on things with my hands and anything that shows a tangible final product is rewarding. I quit my paper pusher job todo landscaping. Not a great paying gig but I get to see a lot of rewarding projects come to fruition and have made many people happy in the end. My impatience keeps projects moving along.

In the end I head home to relax w a wrench in one hand and a flashlight in the other.

I’m not alone in this compulsion.

This guy is a compulsive “mechanic” in the hood
_________________
Support Small Business.

-------------------------------------------------------
85 Weekender w/ EJ22
Previously
64, 71, 72, 73, 76, 81, 84, 85 & 87 Campmobiles and Westfalias
and a 67 bug.

[Cusser]

Sometimes for Insanity. Mrs. Cusser's Yukon's windshield wipers need replacing; they are old-style Bosch blades on the shepherd's crooks. On the Yukon one cannot lift the wiper arms up more than an inch or two; even after searching on Google and watching YouTubes, I cannot get the Bosch blades off.

I'll likely let guy at O'Reilly try, or just cut off the old blades off with my Dremel tool.

To me, this stuff was easier when we just could readily buy wiper inserts and "thread" them into the existing arms.....
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[Erik G]

Mr Cusser - notice where my index finger is. push the little plastic thing in, wipers come right out. This is my VW towing vehicle but pics my get taken down

[Zundfolge1432]

[Cusser]

[67rustavenger]

I agree with AZ Landshaper.
Over the last many months I have spent time in the garage wrenching on my engines during the cold wet winter.
I seem to gravitate into the garage around 6pm and leave a few hours later.
A couple of engine rebuilds and working on intake manifolds have distracted me from the day to day stress that has befallen all of us this last year.

I live alone and cannot see my grandkids until I have been vaccinated.

So I work on my projects.

Over the last two weekends. I have had a break in the garage work, helping friends and family buy new to them used cars.
Cashed, a member here and I drove to Auburn, Wa. last weekend and picked up a 66 he was interested in. He made a deal and we towed the car to his house. The 66 pic is well below in this post.

My nephews wife asked me to look at a Dodge Caravan for her today.
She's a new mom and I was happy to sit with her 1 month old son River, while she test drove the Caravan. She made a deal and bought that vehicle.

I still push paper. But it's all online. So it's not too bad to deal with.

But, the garage is my sanity salvation. I enter the space, fire up the music and heater and slowly get to work.
Bliss!

[ALLWAGONS]

I have been saying this all along, I agree with you 100% Wrenching on my VW's keeps me sane and busy. During the warm months I've been know to work on my cars or sorting parts til 3:00 when the wife call me to come and sleep!

Martin
allwagons
_________________
I'd be UNSTOPPABLE if not for Law Enforcement and PHYSICS.

I recycle old cars and parts, other than when I rot, that's as Green as I am going to get.

Thanks to my Tesla driving neighbors, I feel more relaxed driving my SUBURBAN and old VW's.

NON INFLUENCER APPROVED

[Cusser]

When my job was "eliminated" after over 4 decades, I took advantage of the subsequent months to resurrect my 1970 VW that had been sitting on the side of my house for 23 years. Yes, Mrs. Cusser EVERY year complained about what was I going to do with the VW, but that's more for topic https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=689529

My goal was to get this back to nice-running condition, rebuilding the 1971 VW engine which Mrs. Cusser ran to the ground after ignoring oil pressure light and oil pressure gauge after an oil cover stud vibrated out. That's also another topic https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=197185&highlight=oil+stud

Anyway, that resurrection took me a few months and helped me bridge the time until I joined senior softball leagues, and helped me keep my sanity. I re-did all the brake stuff except drums and steel lines, cleaned all the electrical connections, got tires, rebuilt the 1971 engine, painted tins, got rubber seals, etc. I was fortunate that I had 52 weeks severance pay plus pensions from the company in addition to my 401k. Here;s the resurrection thread https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=664950&highlight=resurrection+1970
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[Manfred58sc]

Been wrenching almost my whole life, still enjoy it personally and professionally. I can not speak to my personal sanity in any objective way when reflected upon this insane society. A tough day in the shop makes me too tired to be mad at stuff.
_________________
Fat chick owner/operator

[Cusser]

Like today my youngest daughter broke a wheel on my inexpensive hand truck she'd borrowed, had two old mower wheels that fit; did have to get two 1/2 inch "speed nuts" from Ace Hardware on the corner though, easy fix.

Also couldn't adjust the volume on my CD-cassette-AM-FM stereo in my '88 Mazda truck. Couldn't find a way to re-set everything, so disconnected the negative battery cable, then re-entered my radio stations, and then the volume worked fine. Too bad the manual didn't state anything about this, but this is its first hiccup in the decade I've used it. It was the absolute LAST unit available, Amazon, bought it when it got to ONE unit remaining !!!
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[nsracing]

I love to wrench too. But to do it for a living - I don't think so. That is too much pressure for me.

I wrench for leisure - boat engine, mower, weedwacker, so on. I like to build things useful wether be a broken grill nobody wants or a ladder needing tlc.

I like reloading ammunition and shooting rifles and pistols. I like fishing, hunting, taking long drives. I like to camp.

I do all these to keep my mind off work - I work in a hospital. When I am off, I don't want anything to remind me of something I do 3-4 days a week, every week.

So wrenching or cooking or camping, chopping something works for me to keep me in line. The hunting puts meat on my table.

Next for me will be a nice small farm for my old age. Then I can wrench all day long.

[brando90gl]

I’ve been “wrenching for sanity” for a little over a year now. My wife and I’s small business has been completely shut down due to the pandemic since last March. I’ve spent pretty much every day of this horrible scenario down in my shop. Just before the shut down, I had acquired a ‘67 Beetle that needed a ton of work to bring it back to satisfaction and blew through that project too quickly.

Then back in June I decided to sell a ‘73 BMW R75/5 sidecar rig I had rebuilt several years back that I wasn’t riding. Asked the moon for it and a super nice young man bought it for my asking price the next day. Sold higher than any toaster tank Beemer that I know of. Amazingly, that was more than enough to finance a ‘68 Westy project that all it needed was everything. Blew through that, bringing it up to complete roadworthy-ness in a month or so and went out on three or four socially distant camping trips. Still needs some body work, but I kept my sanity restoring it to incredible mechanical reliability. Again, too quickly.

Fast forward to a little more than a month ago and I had sold another truck I had that I really didn’t “need” as much as I needed another VW to keep me sane. I went to look at a ‘70 single cab that needed tons of attention. Made an offer at around half of the PO’s asking price and a week went by and he accepted. Drug her home on the trailer and began the grueling process of figuring out what the fuck was wrong with this truck. Total wiring mess, doors that barely closed from Brazilian seals, Oreilly's rebuilt long block with pulled studs and a warped head with less than 100 miles on it, frozen rear brakes, etc, etc. Well, it’s my daily driver now and despite a hiccup with a new set of drop gates, it’s hopefully going to paint next week ( just gates and bed). Rescued the bed from spray on bed liner with lots of elbow work and an Eastwood sct tool, Ospho and several coats of Masterseries silver.

Done these three cars this year without the credit card, feels great and I’m still as “sane” as I was before this thing started. Although it may be questionable what state of sanity I might have been in before this.

Things have been looking up for our event based business these last few weeks. Gigs are being scheduled and some sort of normality is definitely on the horizon.
_________________
67 Type 1
68 Campmobile
70 Single Cab

[Zundfolge1432]

You can tell there is an age gap here in responses. Wanting to do something and being able to do something are separate items.

[mark tucker]

I did it for a living 85% of my life.I loved it.of coarse 95% of that time it was on high performance units. In witch most I also got to see my handy work from the drivers seat in the way I thought they should be driven.( test drives before and after) .I sincerely miss all that. Massively. as for wrenching nowdays....well I hate working on the wifes honda element. witch currently has a dead fuel pump that Ill be changing with her help next tuesday or Wednesday. Im not looking forward to that....kinda wish the fuel pump dont come in today someday I may be able to get back on my 356 work. butt first!!!oops, -t. I have header to build for my roadster.

[Zundfolge1432]

I did it because I enjoyed it but also for the money. When I was a kid I joined uncle Sam’s canoe club and worked the engine room with 1200psi boilers. Then I wanted to be a man so I worked the oil rigs in Gulf of Mexico. Then I trained to be A and P mechanic and I worked as a gantry crane operator at a place that did concrete forms, never hurt or maimed a person. Then I built airplanes for the govt. got laid off went to work at an airline and went to sleep for 32 years. I was lucky got out alive. So wrench all day then go home and work on VWs. Sane or insane what’s the difference? As I was saying pick something you like you’ll never work a day in your life.

[Abscate]

At the peak I was supporting 9 drivers and 6 cars in our household so I wrenched to keep the running costs down by buying older cars with good bones, bringing them to Stage zero, then doing my own PM. I runVolvo, VW, and BMW

Two of them are driving seized engine free cars that I managed to unstick the engines and get running on the cheap.

Newest member of fleet is a 2006. Last car payment was 2003
_________________
.ssS!

[nsracing]

I could probably shoot wild boars all day long and make sausages. Im in the process of mounting a red-dot on the -14...a Blackhawk Down copy and see if it works on 4-legged targets. Down south, people get jobs killing wild pigs in farms overrun w/ them.

That could be a job I can enjoy.

[AutoMechanic]

I wrench professionally and for sanity. I love it would not give up the job for any reason. . I wrench at home on the Volkswagen and both Mazda trucks and my Jeep and my van and my two Camry when they need it. Work has been so slow over the past year that I haven’t got to do much wrenching at work because our state is still heavily restricted on what we can do.