a place to work in peace. (edited.)

[dan]

wonder if anyone ells has this issue here. 🙂

made some changes, didn’t want to make it sound like I am belittling my grandfather, my time with him is very valuable to me.

you see the best place for me to work on my car is my grandpas garage, he has 3 bays, no lifts though, but a wide rang of tools to use, sometimes its nice to be able to work with my grandfather too, not much time . however… whenever I go there my grandpa always pulls me aside constantly to help him with some tasks, sometimes when working on a car I need to focus, I kid you not when I did my break job at his place, I had to help him plant trees and put tire chains on his tractor, it was kind of funny planting trees and fixing a car in the same day. something I have been wanting to do for a year now is ZZP intake inserts, will they increase horsepower? ooh yea they will, the plastic intake runners inside the 3800s intake plenum are long and narrow, and the lower intake plenums casting has massive gaping bowl which causes intake air turbulence, the intake is really good for the low end brute torque the 3800 is know for, but makes it so the top end sort of dies out, the ZZP intake runners are fatter and shorter, and cover up that bowl in the lower plenum so there is much less turbulence, some guys note a gain of 30HP, and a nice top end power boost where the 3800 seems to lack a little. I have also been thinking of installing L-32 fuel injectors, they help a little too, but they are costly.

issue is this is a slightly… involved procedure, removing the fuel injector rails, and upper plenum takes a little time and concentration so I don’t drop bolts and sockets into the intake, it can be done in a couple of hours but as long as I have to plant trees and do odd jobs on the side it could be a several day affair, but while I am there I don’t like looking a gift horse in the mouth, so I have a hard time telling my grandpa, I can’t stop what I am doing right now I need to focus, so my zzp intake runner project has been put on hold. :dry:

anyone ells experience issues like this?

Topic

[Jerry Gilles]

I have not experienced this ,but I will say make every minute count with him , as one day you won’t have him anymore and you will be very happy with your self that you took the time to be with him. This means more to him than you will ever know. I would give anything to have my grand children with me, unfortunately I can’t ,long story , but you are lucky to have this relationship with him. You are also to be commended for this. Neat post ,thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[Nick]

Grandpa taught me how to do an oil change and tire rotation. What I wouldn’t give to do just one more remedial task with him.

[dan]

[quote=”Jerry Gilles” post=121891]I have not experienced this ,but I will say make every minute count with him , as one day you won’t have him anymore and you will be very happy with your self that you took the time to be with him. This means more to him than you will ever know. I would give anything to have my grand children with me, unfortunately I can’t ,long story , but you are lucky to have this relationship with him. You are also to be commended for this. Neat post ,thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family.[/quote]

this too, while I am there I don’t just want to cast him aside, he finds time with me very important, and I do treasure him very much, I don’t like the idea of him passing some day, most keslers in my family live to there 90s or older, and I hope for my grandfather it is the same, he is 72 years old and he is out cutting wood, a lot of men his age are in wheelchairs, 72 years old and cutting wood! he has taught me a lot, and though at times admittedly it frustrates me, I don’t want to hurt his feelings, and I do want to spend as much time with him as I can.

[dan]

[quote=”SigSaurP228″ post=121936]Grandpa taught me how to do an oil change and tire rotation. What I wouldn’t give to do just one more remedial task with him.[/quote]

yes, I feel very lucky to have my grandfather still with me, I am not saying what I say to bash him or say my time with him is not valuable to me, but yes, I understand, I feel very blessed to still have my grandfather with me.

[Erin]

Ohh yes, I know the feeling. The older relatives tend to be quite needy. And yes, you are normal to feel frustrated by it at times, it is natural. Makes it even harder when you are working or living in their space. What the hell CAN you even say? I am not here to lecture or tell you that what you feel is wrong. I know the feelings you have.

Let me tell you how I know this – before she passed away, I was staying at my mom’s house. Pretty embarrassing situation at my age. A couple of times I would be doing something and my mom would say, “Honey, can you help me find my teeth?” I thought, “Oh for the sake of Jesus F***! NOW I have heard everything.” But that isn’t what this is about.

I do not know how close you guys are but if you are close, or with any relative you are close to – when you lose them, the emotions you go through are unreal. You get sick, your body does weird things, you start to question what kind of a sick-ass joke it is when here is this person who saw you when you were a day old, and one day all you can do is watch them die of old age. You truly believe you could have somehow stopped death. You finally realize that you don’t understand death. Part of your very identity is now gone.

When he is gone, you will remember planting trees or doing whatever. You probably won’t remember much about the GP you are working on though. Someday it won’t even matter.

Except in the worst cases, family relationships are not something to take for granted or toss to the side. I have done that before and it just…
You get a little older and your kids are grown, older relatives die, you are divorced, people move on with their lives, friends are too busy all the time, and the very last thing you care about in life is “how much horsepower does my car have?”

Things can be frustrating, just try to find an honest balance the best you can

[Nick]

Consider the remedial task shop and tool rental for the day. Without his tools and garage where would you be working maybe outside in your driveway?

I can assure working in a 3 bay garage is much more comfortable than working outside? Seems ro me grandpa is generous in allowing you to work in his shop.

I have a 6 bay shop with shop air (currently working on getting a lift) i work all day wveryday with a toddler. (He has cable tv and a huge toddler safe play area) for every hour of work I usually only accomplish 40 minutes worth. But at the end of the day I love every minute of it. I plan big things (like pulling an engine or transmission)for when I know i will have help. But there is something nice about knowing he is right there with me while I make the money to put the roof over his head.

Cherish every minute of it. From my experience my grandfather had forgotten more about carburetors than I will ever know. Use his knowledge and advice, thank him for it by not helping him plant the trees do it for him.

[dan]

[quote=”Summer_Night” post=121959]Ohh yes, I know the feeling. The older relatives tend to be quite needy. And yes, you are normal to feel frustrated by it at times, it is natural. Makes it even harder when you are working or living in their space. What the hell CAN you even say? I am not here to lecture or tell you that what you feel is wrong. I know the feelings you have.

Let me tell you how I know this – before she passed away, I was staying at my mom’s house. Pretty embarrassing situation at my age. A couple of times I would be doing something and my mom would say, “Honey, can you help me find my teeth?” I thought, “Oh for the sake of Jesus F***! NOW I have heard everything.” But that isn’t what this is about.

I do not know how close you guys are but if you are close, or with any relative you are close to – when you lose them, the emotions you go through are unreal. You get sick, your body does weird things, you start to question what kind of a sick-ass joke it is when here is this person who saw you when you were a day old, and one day all you can do is watch them die of old age. You truly believe you could have somehow stopped death. You finally realize that you don’t understand death. Part of your very identity is now gone.

When he is gone, you will remember planting trees or doing whatever. You probably won’t remember much about the GP you are working on though. Someday it won’t even matter.

Except in the worst cases, family relationships are not something to take for granted or toss to the side. I have done that before and it just…
You get a little older and your kids are grown, older relatives die, you are divorced, people move on with their lives, friends are too busy all the time, and the very last thing you care about in life is “how much horsepower does my car have?”

Things can be frustrating, just try to find an honest balance the best you can[/quote]

my grandfather and i are very tight, we have our disagreements thats for sure but at the end of the day we are like two peas in a pod, we are so much alike in so many ways, but when it comes to big tasks like replacing intake runners on my car, my grandfather would actually probably be lexuring me on how i should be spending my money, and not on performance parts 😆 my grandpa is funny like that, he is one of those guys who is really tough and doesn’t like to show a lot of emotion, so his concern is typically show buy lexuring and bickering, but in the end inside that shell of solid steel is a soft heart so easily broken, its just finding a way to pierce his shell.

but if it wasn’t for him and my mom teaching me the value of the dollar i would probably be like the vast majority in america, don’t actually own a dollar, just working every day to pay off a crap ton of bills, it seems like at the factory everyone has to work overtime just to make up for there payments, they don’t own a dollar they have, almost there entire paycheck pays for bills and rent and life, the scrap is used to pay for what little fun they can have, i don’t live like that and i guess its because its from my grandpas harping that i need to save my money and not spend it on useless garbage. lol

when i made this post it was more or less referring to the car and the situation and not my grandfather, offending my grandfather or griping about him was the last thing i wanted to do, the situation was the frustration of me not just being able to work on the car. the biggest contrubutor over all now that i think of it is simply my odd work hours too, however i think it would make a fun project for me and my grandpa to put those intake runners in my car together, but knowing my grandpa he would just lexure me on how i need to spend my money, but he is concerned that is all, he doesn’t want me to live in debt paycheck buy paycheck. 🙂

[dan]

[quote=”SigSaurP228″ post=121975]Consider the remedial task shop and tool rental for the day. Without his tools and garage where would you be working maybe outside in your driveway?

I can assure working in a 3 bay garage is much more comfortable than working outside? Seems ro me grandpa is generous in allowing you to work in his shop.

I have a 6 bay shop with shop air (currently working on getting a lift) i work all day wveryday with a toddler. (He has cable tv and a huge toddler safe play area) for every hour of work I usually only accomplish 40 minutes worth. But at the end of the day I love every minute of it. I plan big things (like pulling an engine or transmission)for when I know i will have help. But there is something nice about knowing he is right there with me while I make the money to put the roof over his head.

Cherish every minute of it. From my experience my grandfather had forgotten more about carburetors than I will ever know. Use his knowledge and advice, thank him for it by not helping him plant the trees do it for him.[/quote]

my grandfather does give me plenty of good advice, however sometimes silly, one thing he really likes to use on just about every single nut and bolt is antiseeze, i have to tell him on some of the newer cars its not always a good idea to use antiseeze on everything, in fact with cars getting newer he asks for help now and then on his cars because i know how to work with the newer ones, and i help him, i take those moments while i can. he tells me a story about his uncle claton, there are some trees planted in his front yard, he tells me about how him and his uncle claton planted those trees together, and the trees help him remember the last few moments they had together before his passing, i guess he was really attached to his uncle, though he never talks about him much.

for me the entire property is memmories, i remember growing up as a little boy and running from the apple trees to the house when it was lunch time, he would race me, there used to be a swing set right next too those pine trees he talks about and i used to swing on it, the garden where we planted pumpkins and corn and tomatoes and all sorts of vegetables, and the rows and rows of wood we cut together, i hate the thought of him passing, not only will my grandfather pass but i would hate to see the property sold to some guy i hardly know, because all the memmories are there too.my grandmother died when i was 11 years old, probably the fondest memmory i have is when she would sit in her lawn chair in front of the old farm house and watch me play on the swing set or drive a lawn mower around that my grandfather fixed up for me when i was only 7 years old.

its not that i don’t like spending time with my grandfather, its just with such a involved project that my grandfather honestly probably wouldn’t really approve of it would be hard to do it there, i don’t want to be rude, thats the biggest thing, kind of the point i was trying to make, now that i sit back and read my origional post it didn’t really sound like that.

[Erin]

There is always a “Better” way to spend money but I don’t think a few mods on your car are going to put you into financial dire straights. It is something you enjoy. Chalk it up as “entertainment dollars”.

Right now I live alone. I have a detached garage but it is not fancy, just a private place to work on my car when need be. It works. But – No one asks what I am doing, no one there to help if I need to bleed brakes or whatever, no one gives a damn. I do the repairs, clean up, and that is that. My thought is normally, “If something goes dead wrong and I get hurt, I am f***ed”.

With the whole tree business, I would not say do it all FOR him, he probably wants it to be a team effort. I will go on a tangent here and say maybe planting trees is sentimental. I know there are only so many one can plant but that is not the point. You said something about the trees him and his uncle used to play around…

When you get older, you will find certain objects, places, or activities will take you back to a happier time and place. For me, it is going for walks on warm days through a certain part of town. To anyone else, it would seem silly and dangerous (it is along a few real busy roads) but it is the same place I walked when I was still a kid, during summer mornings, before the heat set in and things got noisy.

Sounds like you have such a place already. I won’t pretend to know the whole situation but maybe that property can one day be yours? I bet you this much – that place will always be “home” when you are strolling memory lane. Maybe it can be your physical home too.

Older people like to give advice but we all have to make our own mistakes.

Just so you understand something about me –
I had a pretty good childhood. Yeah there were times i got my ass kicked or struggled but overall, memories and nostalgic stuff for me comes out of the 80’s, when I aged 5 to 14. I cannot let those years go. My dream is to drive to the old apartment (10 miles from where I live now), throw my keys, wallet, cell phone in the car, have it all vanish, walk through the front door and say, “Hey just checking in, what time is dinner gonna be ready?” and never have to look forward. I try to relive the good ol days as much as I can. Stuck in them.
Try not to become me.

[Author]

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