Mark Grieshaber inquired, "What is the general group experience (I am
specifically asking of male participants with significant others) with partner
tolerance/approval of britcar related activities?"
Well, my wife, Mary, takes a slight interest in cars, with a more than slight
interest in big Healeys and big Porsches and BMW's--claims it's her German
ancestral heritage ;^). On occasion, I've walked in to find her actually
flipping through my Road & Track, which she used to put down immediately as if
she weren't allowed, although she doesn't anymore. She says she'll never own
an
English car unless its a Healey, mostly because she sees them as too
unreliable,
but the lines of a Healey always catch her attention.
To her credit, her last boyfriend (he liked to put Chevy small blocks in Datsun
pickups, of all things) taught her how to change her oil and check her fluid
levels. Since getting to know me (and marry me despite it) she's rebuilt the
clutch slave cylinder and replaced the driver's door window in her Toyota,
which
is all the repairing it's required in three years. I see her point about
reliability now, not that it dissuades me from working on my Spitfire Mk. 1.
She tackled the repairs she's made because she saw just how simple those same
repairs were on my Midget and Spitwad, and that she's as smart as me, so why
not. I did keep an eye on things, especially the honing of the slave
cylinder's
bore, but in general she just read the Haynes manual and followed the
instructions as if she were making a pie. When she's through grad school, I'll
definitely help her find a nice Healey which she'll work on herself.
To breifly sum up the spouses of freinds without internet access: one couple,
Marc and Carole--Marc owns a sports car parts business and Carole likes to
drive
MGB's, but won't touch their mechanics; Bob and Donna are retired Air Force
officers who each work on their own project cars, Bob his VW's and MG TD's,
Donna her MGB and Land Rovers; of Don and Caroline, Don works on his B and
other
peculiar cars and Caroline goes to the MG club pizza meets, but doesn't like to
even think about cars themselves in any terms other than sensations and
emotions; of Mark and Susan, Mark works on his Healeys and MGC's at a slow
rate,
Susan loves the cars and the clubs and especially the driving, but doesn't
twirl
wrenches. Then I know lots of other couples where neither partner works on
their cars beyond changing oil and checking tire pressures, so I won't mention
them.
In general, the individual personalities govern who works on what and with how
zeal, with some of the spouses feeling an interest and getting encouragement
from their husbands and others who feel no interest in it at all. I know of
only one woman who worked on her own cars without the prompting of a man in her
life, Kate with her Midgets and Minors, and I have never heard of her ex-
husbands or boyfreinds who had any interest in working on their cars, or even
of
any who became interested while knowing her. I wonder about others' views.
-- q---,9_\_---p
***** -(o)====(o) > <---Anybody got any ASCII drawings of Spitfires?
Scott_Kucera_at_SYMOR-SUPPORT-2@symantec.com
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