Shop Zen

A Greasy Hot Rodder’s natural habitat is a garage/shop.  Those of us fortunate enough to own a house and have our own shop will tell you: We spend most of our time there.  If we have an understanding girlfriend or wife, they know where we are and what we’re doing.  We’re not out gallivanting at some bar or blowing our paychecks at some titty bar.  They put up with it because their cars are always running and shit around the house gets fixed!

 

As I’ve described in my previous blogs, I turned my two-car garage at my house into a service/repair/fab shop.  Besides wrenching on my ’61 GMC hot rod, I take on side jobs and perform repairs on our daily drivers and families and friend’s cars.  As I write this blog, I have my mother-in-law’s Rav4 on jack stands in my shop.  Her car needs the steering rack removed and resealed.  As much as I loathe modern import cars, I have to say I admire Japanese design with their packaging.  The lack of room to work, not so much.  Nevertheless, I kind of do enjoy working on them (shhhhh don’t tell no one!)

 

Us gearheads can tell you, there is a Zen associated with a shop.  Every other Friday night that’s not a date night with the wife, I come home after work, pour some whiskey and just go to my shop to drink and have some alone time.  Even I just put on some tunes (Rockabilly of course!) and sit at my workbench just to stare at my shop, it calms me down.  All of the stress from dealing with the dickheads and morons at work just seems to float away.   Even thinking of the smell of my shop is enough to get me through a shitty week at work when I’m stuck at my desk cranking out a report for some asshole customer with no sense of realistic scheduling. 

 

As much as we cuss and throw tools when shit gets rough, we really do enjoy what we do.  There’s no better feeling than firing up the car you’ve been working on and taking it for a successful test drive.  This is when it’s time to break out the extra-special dark beer or whiskey and to clean and put away your tools, while letting the endorphins flood your brain.  The feeling of the “First Ride” on a project car is just like sex with a new woman: Excitement and Nervousness rolled into one, followed by triumph.  Eventually, your wrenching skills reach a point where routine preventative maintenance and simple R&R jobs can be done blindfolded.  This is when you crank the tunes, crack an ice cold beer and get to wrenching.  To a non-car person, us Gearheads doing our thing is mystifying; their broken-down car is in good hands and will run again soon.  Chicks dig that shit.  It’s also very satisfying taking any non-car appliance or object and fixing it in your shop.  Again, the endorphins mixed with beer in your bloodstream makes you feel good when it’s fixed.

 

A few weeks ago I had a three-day weekend for Memorial Day.  I hadn’t started on my Mother-In-Law’s Rav4 yet.  Saturday and Sunday were spent running errands and spending time with my parents and wife.  On Monday during the day, I started on her car.  After opening an ice-cold Pabst and putting on some Kim Lenz and cranking the volume, I put her car on jackstands and started to remove the steering rack.  Even though I had power steering fluid running down my arms and dripping onto my face, I still felt the Zen of working with my hands and using my tools.  I got to use my brand new IR impact gun my wife got me for my birthday and my new crow’s feet wrenches she got me for Xmas.  Using new tools always feels good.  I had to stop since my parents came over for BBQ.  I seriously didn’t want to stop.  I could’ve easily wrenched into the night.  It’s okay, beer and steak was just as good as well as smoking cigars and drinking black & tans with Dad.  Point being, I waited until Monday to work on it, while getting errands done the previous two days.  Two days away from work dropped my stress level, and the Monday spent wrenching was the icing on the cake.  I was ready to return to work Tuesday, fully recharged. 

 

The only thing that can break the Zen of a shop is worrying about where you’re going to place new tools and equipment or when a tool breaks or goes missing.  Re-organizing and cleaning a shop brings the Zen back, knowing that you’ll have a fresh start when the next job starts. 

 

On a last note, my wife is expecting our son this August.  The cycle will begin anew where I will let my son help me in the shop, he fucks around and I send him in the house crying, just like my Dad did with me.  Needless to say, the Zen will be unbalanced for a while.  Once my son is old enough, it’ll be “Son, go grab us both a beer!”  The Zen shall then be restored.

 

So, there you have it.  Now you know why Greasers like to hang out at shops.  There’s ALWAYS beer, good tunes, hot rods and metal fab equipment, sitting there looking badass.  So, let’s blast the Rockabilly, drink some fucking beers and turn some fucking wrenches!  Cheers!