Who is the Biggest GearHead You Know?

Thought it would be fun to start a thread about the biggest gearhead you know and a little bit about them. Looking at the projects people tackle on here I know we are pretty big gearheads here but I have a co-worker that is our diesel guy, major engine and transmission guy.He is a true car guy.His toy is a Vortec V-8 S-10. He has built transmissions for me for everything from my toys to my sisters mini van.He has been working after hours in the shop on a LS powered trans-am street/strip car that runs 9's in the quarter. Saturday at work he was doing a performance head swap on a '07 Corvette.You can see the enjoyment he gets working on these hot rods.
When I mention my wagon he gets a gleem in his eye's.We often talk about a few years back our project's would take so long to get going since we were making way more hours in the shop.He also helps me from getting discouraged about my wagon taking so long to get going and has me re-thinking my power for my wagon. He wants to do a 5.3/ 4l60e conversion. He mentioned it a couple months ago and I expressed intrest but knew I would need his help and expertice.He tells me Saturday about some of the things I am going to need to start collecting from the salvage yards and some things he already has that I am welcomed to. Still not sure which way I am going to go with it until I see how money looks after holidays but either way I go he is going to be a big part of it for no other reason than he enjoys CARS.....oh yeah forgot to mention he is going to college for business management, under 30 years old, african american and didn't have the easiest childhood.Every excuse in the book thrown out the window so for this Wayne is a insperation,biggest gearhead I know and my friend!

Please share a story about a gearhead you know for us to read.

Thanks,
Dennis
aka
1tireman

 

That would have to be my friend Bob. Met him through a bike forum I belong to where we have weekly ride in get togethers at local restaurants. He's a Delta Airlines mechanic by trade and a big gearhead otherwise. He just finished up freshening up a custom 34 Plymouth his dad had and has a 71 Cuda conv he's working on now. Originally a 318 car, he's got a 340 to put back into it. Yeah, he's a Mopar guy, has a Neon as a daily driver.

 

Has to be a friend ive known since the late 80s. Drew ... I met him threw my now ex wife. He finds these cars that have been sitting in fields and to the naked eye are nothing more then carcasses. He is a master tech at Kia but until the Chevrolet dealer folded up here in 07. He found this 1959 Buick Envicta convertable that was rotting away in a field here. Went up to the door and waved 500 bucks in the farmers face and was given the title to the car. It was a diamond in the rough. It was all there but spun a bearing in the motor and was left for dead out in the back forty. The car had some surface rust , the top was all there and working but the window was coming apart from the materal. Drew Dumped maybe 1000 bucks into it, and sold the car for 11,000 dollars. Took maybe 2 months.

Another was a 58 Edsel. Its push button tranny had long gone out and it was another that was left for dead. He picked it up for 200 bucks, paid the back fees on the reg and had the whole steering wheel torn down within a week and rebuild the controls for the transmission. Did a tune up on the car and sold it for a few thousand dollars. That car I was sorry to see go. I liked the Edsel. But couldnt afford to buy it off him.

Another was a 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo 454. That car was also a basket case but the VIN on it matched that it was a true SS Monte Carlo. Looked like a bomb had gone off in the inside, the motor and tranny was missing but it wasnt rusty so he bought the carcass for 2500 bucks. He towed it home and started right in on it. Finding a period correct 454 in the wreckers, he rebuilt the motor himself and dropped it into the car along with a transmission. Then sent out for the items needed to rebuild the interior, and finally getting the car repainted. After 2 and a half years of constant work on the Monte it finally fired up for the first time in decades. It was a stunning car. He sold it for 12,000 dollars. Another I hated to see go.


Today hes working on a 1958 Toyota Toyopet. I had never seen one. Evidently they were the first cars imported from the car company to the states. They are a rare car. Drew managed to unearth one outside Los Angeles. Hes working on it now.

Hes kind of a purist like me, instead of bastardizing a classic car by adding a stereo or wheels to it, or lowering it, he tries to bring them back to what they were when it rolled off the dealer as a new car.

 

Don't see many 59 Electras, bet that was cool ride.

 

Its like the buick in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The 68 Impala SS convertable is the one he decided to keep. Raised the car from the dead and has kept it.

 

Gearheads.

I hope this doesn't sound vane but the biggest gearhead I know is me. (ha ha) It sounds even more strange because I have been in auto parts for just over 21 years. Sure there have been those guys who come and go and are always tinkering, but I live, breathe, eat and sleep cars. My daily job is surrounded by them selling parts for Napa, but the job has never driven the passion from me.

I started with my first truck in 1984, it was a 72 Ford F250 high boy. I flew to my grandfathers farm in Minnesota and drove it back to Utah. He gave me the truck the only string attached was paying for a plane ticket and the gas to get it home. Long story short the trials of getting this truck from MN to UT was the beginning of the joy and challenge of repairing your own vehicle. The upper hose blew in South Dakota, the drive line blew a U joint in Wyoming, the transfer case lost a seal just outside of the Utah border. Fun trip when you're 16, no cell phones back then so lots of calls to Dad and visits with "shifty" truck stop mechanics, but one hell of a learning experience.

In the late 80's it was Beetles, I bought and fixed up my first one in 87 and customized it to the limits of my dishwasher budget. I bought and rebuilt two more before finding my first minitruck, a 1982 Dodge D-50 which became an absolute obsession. I comepletely re-envisioned this truck about 8 times. The last time was a 4" body drop, fully back halfed and boxed frame, monster notched, air bagged, bored and polished 2.0 with a turbo from a Mitsu Starion. All the work I did myself and learned so many right and wrongs simply by trial and error (mostly error). The intrest in my mini wained after being president of my local car club for 8 years.

I helped friends build mini's for many years, lowering, building engines and doing most everything I could except welding and painting. I have a brother who is a professional welder and my welds resembled bird sh*t next to his (ha ha), and painting? Well I can handle bodywork but there is a certain knack to painting that you gotta leave to a pro. I painted a 78 Volvo 245 wagon (Carribean Red) looked okay from about two blocks away. I painted a Bug or two that looked passible, but in the end decided paint was not my forte.

Towards the end of my car club experience, 1996, I found "Tilly" which is my 74 Plymouth Satellite wagon. Her only former owner named her Tilly which I stuck with for a while. This car was to be my daily driver until my Mini was back on the road, but from the moment I sat down in the front seat and caressed the long dash and had my mind blown by the 47,402 original miles displayed on the odometer I was 100% IN LOVE! Paid Virginia (her original owner) $50.00 for her, and drove her back from Salt Lake city. The passion I had for my minitruck was completely over shadowed by this car, and soon I found all my efforts going only into the wagon. The more I customized this car the more I loved it. Many many nights awake until two or three in the morning working on this and that. Pulled the engine out and freshened up all the gaskets and seals, everything on it had "sititis". Replaced almost every rubber part on the trans, diff, front end and ended up gutting out the interior. The controversy inside me to be a purist or a customizer with this car was tough at first but the minitrucker within won that decision in the end. After 5 years of ownership I managed to get together enough money to pay my friend Brady to paint this land yacht. It rolled out of the paint booth reborn in Porsche Green, and became "The Shwag". Adjustable suspension came later another project that kept me in Brady's shop until the sun was coming up at times, but every minute I spent with her was pure joy.

"Passion": A lot of people say they are passionate about things, but I think every once in a while a car becomes the definition of passion. This car is my passion, it has become part of me in a way that is somewhat hard to explain to anyone, even my wife, and she understands me better than I do sometimes. This piece of equipment and mechanical engineering is no longer a souless hunk of steel, chrome, rubber and vinyl, It is a living breathing piece of me. I have been offered some handsome somes of money for this car and the answer is always "no". The potential buyers response is often the same "come on man, whats your price?"...there is no price my friend, some cars are just not for sale. Dewey.

 

gotta say...sounds like me...cept older...unfortunately

I know guys that are worse than me....but i was born into it...never even had a choice

 

Dang .... I keep thinking about this question and I can't narrow it down to just one person .
I guess I hang around too many car people!

It would be curious to know how many in here have friends that have a bit of fame in car circles (Famous racers, collectors, engine builders, etc). I have a few and I got to say, although they are major gearheads, they are no more afflicted than some of my "more normal" friends.

A tough question to answer.

 

I would have to say that it is my friend/mechanic, Randy Curry. I have talked about him before. Great guy, honest, and more than willing to help out or give advice. He started out when he was young, don't know when for sure but I know that he went to school for it. He worked at a garage for years saving up money and buying all his own tools and equipment. When he was able to he bought some land and built a house and a garage and opened up shop. He has kept up on all the new changes as best as any one could. He has been working out of his own garage since the 90s. I remember the first time I went there, it is was with my old Marquis wagon. He was so glad to see some one so young with a car like that from the 80s who cared for their car. I didn't pay him a thing that first visit. I can call him anytime for help and if he knows or even if I take the care to him he will help. Never been charged to have my car(s) looked at. People like him are in short supply around here.

 

I'm with some of the others. I'm the biggest gearhead I know. I had a lapse in my life of about 6 months without tools, but I made up for it since!

Just can't imagine not being able to work out solutions to manmade widgets!:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Amen.

The REV.

"I know guys that are worse than me....but i was born into it...never even had a choice."

Amen Rev! I had a father and older brother who were both mechanics. I was bleeding brakes on my dads motorhome at age 9. Drove my first car at 13...sometimes you really don't have a choice.

 

...sometimes you really don't have a choice. [/QUOTE]

Sometimes you don't have money and learn out of neccessity...Think that is why my dad was always working on cars and of course being his son I had to pick it up but refused to do it for a living for years so it wouldn't drive the fun out of it but so far so good I still enjoy cars

 

I would also have to add my dad to that list of gearheads at 67 he is still constantly building something.Right now it is a '79 Nova, couple of weeks ago he decided to start on it since he was waiting for material on his job and had nothing to do. In 5 days he repainted it and put his motor in it...now I have to find him a transmission.I have helped him build a '50 chevy 3100 p/u on a late model frame, '57 del ray, '40 chevy business coupe, '75 corvette and our '55 bel air. He has helped me build a '55 2nd series 3100 p/u, '66 C-10 p/u and now he helps me out with my wagon when I can mess with it.We have always worked on our cars but the last 12 or so years we have been able to work on more fun projects like these so my 67 year old dad would also fit into this catagory pretty easily.

 

Awesome!

It is so great you have your dad to work with and just hang out with. I lost my dad in 1990, right at the beginning of our "able to drink beer together" days, I miss garage talk with him. I miss him every day.

He told me once "you're either a wrench head or you're not, there is no shame either way."

 

Sorry to hear Dewey, I consider myself pretty lucky and that was our common ground when I was in my early 20's since our idea of fun was diffrent You are absolutly right you either are or not. Work with a 22 year old who is supposed to be our quick service/ oil changer. He has no desire to work on a car and is there because he is the service manager's daughter's boyfriend.Been there 7 months and can change oil after 3 months of training.He tells me the other day the jeep he is changing oil in is leaking coolant. I reply " is it a hose or water pump leaking?" he says "where is the water pump" I say " never mind tell the service writer and one of us will look at it!" 7 months,working in service and don't know what a water pump is??? You don't have it and no matter how much my boss wants him to be a mechanic he won't make it.We joke in the shop about babysitting our future service manager because that is what we are doing.