Why hurry? - Revcounter 441

By: Guy Allen

Date: 16.07.2020

Why drive everyone mad with a deadline?

There are days when it would make sense to have a live-in fleet manager, and a mechanic. Perhaps two of the latter. Then they could keep track of where the hell eveything is and what we’re up to. And whether we really are in a rush for something.

The way things are around Chateau Guido, there are usually at least a couple of projects on the go – at least one car and one motorcycle. Though if we’re talking a bad week, that number can rise exponentially when they gang up on their owner and decide to break faster than you can fix them.

For example, with the rapid onset of winter in the southern states, it did seem like we were propping up the entire automotive battery industry single-handed. You might know the feeling – the first cold snap comes along and all those batteries that were just hanging in there decide it’s all to hard and keel over.

That’s before we get on to the more involving projects, such as daughter Ms M junior’s Corvette. It’s a nice enough car, but we recently threw it at Mick’s workshop because there were a bunch of ailments to be sorted and, with no hoist at home – not to forget a lack of time and mechanical talent – it made sense to flick-pass it.

Dropping off a job of course raises the ugly question of when do we want it back. Sometimes I really do need it tomorrow, but that’s rare as there’s usually some other great galloping money-pit that needs exercising.

It’s taken decades of training by a string of mechanics to get my head around this, but if there really is no hurry, there’s a lot to be said for allowing everyone time to properly assess what’s going on and nut out the best solution. Ms M’s Corvette is a good example. It’s a really nice car, but there were a bunch of old car things going on, like dodgy brakes.

The quick solution would be to buy a bunch of replacement parts and whack them in, yes? Ah, nup. The catch with that is some replacements inevitably won’t fit straight in and can end up costing more time than they’re worth.

Having a more relaxed schedule allowed Mick the dubious luxury of spending time making brake lines that he knew would be a perfect fit, because he had the car a metre away from his workbench. What we’ll end up with is something that’s right, will last and will work. Probably more efficient in the long run.

So a life lesson learned because of a set of 50-year old brakes. Who knew that could happen?

Speaking of patience, our Production Editor/Designer Angelo Loupetis celebrates 150 issues with this magazine.

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