Am I the only one who has difficulty explaining to others what I'm trying to do?

"I'm building a sports car in my garage"
"Oh, what? An old MG or something?"
"No, from scratch"
"You mean a kit car?"
"Sortof, but there isn't a kit"
....resulting in either baffled confusion or indulgent looks that seem to say "Yeah, sure, whatever you reckon. Keep taking the pills."

I finally got through to someone on Friday that I was building a chassis, from scratch, to my own design and was stunned by the next question. "How do you make sure the chassis is flexible enough?" "Sorry, flexible?" "Yeah, so that it all bends the right way to keep the wheels on the road". This was from someone who claimed to have previously rebuilt a car from a wreck in his garage! To say that I found it difficult to answer doesn't even come close.

Am I wrong in assuming that people might have some slight inkling as to how a car actually works? Although, given that an acquaintance once asked me (apparently without any intended humour), "The clutch. That's between the engine and the gearbox isn't it?" maybe most people really have no idea at all.

So, enough rambling and ranting (too many glasses of wine ). What do you tell people or have you just given up trying to explain?

Dominic
Brisbane, Australia

i get that one in car parts shops all the time, you say its for a kit car and they say what kit! so i just call it a self build now, which seems to confuse them into silence!

my mates laughed their arses off when i said i wanted to build a car from bars! thats what motivated me in the beginning.

edit: and about people not knowing stuff about cars, my mate reckoned he had a turbo on 3rd gear... in an old golf CL! plus he though it was injection, on a c reg, and that his new polo was poo and used carbs, even though it is probably faster than the golf....

some people eh?!

[Edited on 20/12/03 by JoelP]

I get this with my locost - I just say i'm building a car from scratch, I bought a load of steel and have been cutting and welding it to make the body.

If you use enough words they are used to - body, steel, cutting and welding, they sort of get the idea, look at you a bit strange and either say you're mad or think thats amazing.

Ususally they think its amazing till i tell them how long i've been building it.

Mines been built and on the road for ages now yet I still get people telling me that you can't do it because of the regulations and you have to be a proper manufacturer. I just leave them in their own world where they belong.

yours, Pete.

i dont tell too many people, they just look you all wierd, and i dont really have much to show for time at the moment, just a load of lines in autocad.
similarly tho, since ive started renovating my house id been telling people that i was raising the floor in the bathrroom so the bath was sunk right down, and theyd smile and nod there heads and so "yeah thats nice" as if they think youre bonkers. and now that the bathroom is nearlly finished they say "ooh thats really good, didnt know it would look like that" i guess the same will happen when/if the car gets finished.



Russ.

My wife supports my desire to do a self build, but the rest of my family and friends just don't seem to get it. They always ask why? or just say What!? I guess there comes a time where you talk less and do more. Some people try talking me out of it! Since I'm not that close to starting my build, I try to just keep quiet untill I have something to show.

Good thread!

In general I don't tell people. Oddy, here in southern California, home of the car, no one cares, or understands. While everyone drives a car, they're treated like a refrigerator, something to be used, only. Between that and the smog laws, relatively few people work on cars themselves anymore.

So I don't tell anyone unless I've known them a while, and then only if I think they'll find it interesting.

[Edited on 21/12/03 by kb58]

Hell, I dont even have to tell peopel I want to build my own car for them to think I'm nuts!

I made the mistake of taking a kit car mag into work one day (A mechanics shop). Man that was a bad day! Everyone had a cheap shot to take at me. I just shruged it off, they all drive crap cars anyways and have no intrest in performance cars.

I usually keep quiet about my cars unless the person I'm talking to knows a fair bit about cars.

You get a bit sick of the usual "oh he's building an Airfix Kit. Have you run out of glue?" comments.
Funny how thay always come to you for help when their car is playing up though!

It amazes me how many people claim to be brilliant drivers, yet couldn't show you where the oil goes in an engine!

I was once asked how you top up the oil in an engine. The poor guy had been struggling to top up the oil by pouring some down the dip stick hole. He wanted to know if there was a short cut.

I was also asked if it was true that all automatics were made by Ford. I didn't understand until they mentioned that auto box Fords often had "Ghia" written on them. A Ghia box.

I once owned a Skoda rapid. I loved peoples reaction to me putting shopping in the front. I used to get really odd looks and people would tell me that the engine would be damaged by the shopping being packed around it. When I told them that the engine was in the back they were very confused.

For really funny looks try telling an A Class owner that their engine is the same as that in a Skoda. It is but they'll never believe it.

A little similar to Cymtriks Skoda, I used to load the shopping into the front of my old X19, and then load the rest into the back. i was often asked where the engine was - I just used to say it didn't have one

I drove around in a bond bug for a few months. I got some funny looks when the roof opened when i got out. People used to ask me why don't you get a proper car. I'd say were's the fun in that

My mental health is questionable at the best of times, so it's pretty hard to raise eyebrows round here......

Typical exchange round here....

Me.."I'm just popping to the moon"
Wife.."Oh yes dear, light side or dark side?"

Back to the filling and sending before my medication wears off.........

No this is off topic but ....

Does the moon rotate ? I was just about to post a witty reply when i realised i didn't have a clue as to what I was on about (no change their then!).

Just wondering if the dark side ever got the chance to be the light side.

the dark side and the light side swap every 28(?) days, but the same bit is always facing earth. Cos a moon 'day' is the same length as a moon 'year'. if you imagine a revolution as a day and an orbit as a year...

[Edited on 21/12/03 by JoelP]

still off topic...

I saw a website that claims they have the right to sell plots of land on the moon (and other planets) for $29 US per acre at http://www.planetaryinvestments.com. Funny what kind of stuff you see on the internet sometimes. One time I saw a company that sold insurance for alien abductions. They are probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Yeah, the dark side of the moon is never visible. We always see the same side from here.