Welp. You saw how it started. It was literally like a small drop of… I don’t know, unicorn juice got added to the kombucha I was chugging and then completely took over my body. I NEEDED this. I needed something to subdue the pain and this is my medication. Did you know that it’s actually your brain that produces drugs? When I race the adrenaline actually makes me shake for a few minutes after my runs. I desire this. There’s even a guy out there who races his Vette with the plates “MY MEDS” on it.
I’ve decided that all gifts, from here on out, on every gift giving holiday, (including birthdays, Christmas, Father’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Boxing Day, Sadie Hawkins Day, Fridays, and any day that is marked by hours) should be car parts. All I wanted for Christmas was car related toys and I got my wish! I got a crazy cool gear shit knob, an impact wrench, and a sweet cold air intake. It has me grinning from ear to ear, even now.
The cold air intake from 27won was something that I could install myself and I couldn’t wait. My neighbor offered to let me work on it in his amazing shop with all the tools once could ever need. When I got there he pulled out a cart and set me up with all the things.
I wanted to do all the work myself with my neighbors watching while drinking whiskey. They thought that was a great idea. My cold air intake didn’t come with any instructions so I had to watch a youtube video that skipped over some important parts! This is where I credit my background as an artist and more specifically, a metalsmith. It’s not that metal was the primary material I was dealing with for this upgrade, but that I’ve been trained to problem solve spatially. Maybe that’s why I love tinkering with cars so much. (I’m saying this from the future because since the time I did the work on Trixie, my love continues to grow.) It also doesn’t hurt that my first job as a teen was working at an auto parts store for 4 years.
I made some mistakes, lost a screw in the body of the fender (which neighbor found) and in the end it took me 2.5 hours. If I had a manual I think I could have cut the time in half, but for now I didn’t mind having to put my critical thinking to use. Eventually I’m going to want to be efficient.
Edit: This was a post written in 2021 that never got published. Made some minor changes. I still love my cold air intake and the extra boost it gives me. I have since gone on to modify and work on many more cars and it’s a love hate relationship that is ultimately very rewarding.
My cars complete me,
~S
Leave a Reply