The second installment in the retrospective exploration of the evolution of a gear head.
Stage II -The Experimenter
Now that the budding addict has his own vehicle, he begins to develop a sort of twisted sense of balance between the desire to fit in with the crowd and the need to be unique. He’ll visit the internet in search of communities frequented by other owners of the same vehicle in order to glean critical information on how to make his ride faster, more powerful, or better looking. As the vehicle still represents that elusive independence of his awakening, he will start to see others performing maintenance, repairs and modifications on their own and he will seek the ability to do so himself.
The Experimenter now finds himself learning things through hands-on training, also known as trial by fire. In a perfect world, similar projects will require the same steps, parts and procedures, but the Experimenter soon discovers the often cruel intricacies of Murphy’s Law. What can go wrong, will go wrong, and usually just before dark on Sunday evening, when you have to drive the car to work or school in the morning. In this way, the Experimenter gets his crash course in troubleshooting and organization, as well as logistics. (Coordinating inbound parts and transportation until they arrive and are installed, hopefully resolving the issue.)
My Experimenter Stage
With cash in hand from the sale of the “GeeP,” I walked into a Jeep dealership the weekend after Labor Day 1996. The plan was to order a new Wrangler with a hard top, AC, and whatever options were needed to get those bits. I came face to face with a white, 1997 Eagle Talon on the showroom floor. It was love at first sight. Soon after buying “Daisy,” I would be installing blue, ricer headlights, wrapping the tail lights with white, perforated vinyl from work (for the white-out look, before clear tails hit the scene), and even changing my own oil.
In 1999, I discovered 2GNT.com while trying to find information about my car on the internet during a lunch break at work. I was hooked. Here was this multi-page document on the internet detailing the “Power Stages,” including a handful of FREE mods I could do to get started. The first mod I did was hack the airbox, but since I didn’t have a Dremel tool to cut it apart, I used a Unibit at work to turn the airbox into a piece of black swiss cheese. It was awesome. Before moving to Phoenix in 2001, I would get a really nice Magnaflow muffler installed that was the wrong size for my car and looked like total ass.
My First Major Project
Daisy was leaking oil all over the place and a trip to the dealership once I was in Phoenix revealed that the headgasket was gone. They wanted $1100 to replace it and said that it was timing belt time as well, so the grand total for the work would be about $1500. With my newfound tech support and confidence (and the help of a small handful of local friends who were also owners), I decided that I could not only do the timing belt and headgasket for that kind of money, but rebuild or replace everything below the head too!
I did my research, the parts were ordered, and the work began. When all was said and done, for the amount of money the dealership wanted for a gasket and a belt, I got ALL the gaskets, ALL the belts, new hoses, high compression forged pistons, forged rods, new bearings, and underdrive pulley, a cold air intake, and a header. It was awesome. From then on out, I was completely and totally hooked. There is no feeling in the world like turning the key and hearing the engine that you built roar to life under the hood.
So what about you?
What was your first mod? Your first major project?