Do-it-yourself’ing isn’t for everybody. Even a job as basic as changing a car’s oil is sometimes better left to a pro if you don’t, I don’t know, ever want to be dirty. There are some “repair jobs” that really are as easy as snapping to Legos together. Somehow, I have been vexed by one of those jobs for half a year.
Brandon would like to spend his spare time bonding with friends under the hood of a project car. The problem with this plan is that Brandon doesn’t have a lot of experience, but what he and his friends lack in skill they will make up for in determination. What car should he buy?
It’s been twelve months since I finally got the vehicle I’ve wanted forever: a 1975 International Scout. It’s taught me a lot. Well, mostly it’s taught me that the cool old truck you’ve had your eye on can cost as much to run as a supercar.
Matt and Sophie’s YouTube series, “Engines And Unfinished Business,” about their casual Toyota restoration is better than any gassy, monstrous “car build” show I’ve ever seen. It’s cute, simple, and must be credible because British accents!
Sometimes those sleep deprived, middle-of-the-night Craigslist spelunking sessions end in the discovery of a true unicorn—something that appears to be perfect and pristine on the outside, an ideal fit for your garage and your dreams. But even if you hit on such a vehicle, it can hide dark secrets within. This was one…
Building a project car with limited money and skills forces you to find creative solutions to basic problems. But sometimes finding the dumbest “solutions” end up making me feel like a goddamn genius.
Exotic car ownership is a bit of an experiential mixed bag. Sure, it’s interesting to be the person that gets the most attention at the gas station, but you’re nevertheless plagued by problems of the common driver, with the added sting of prices for repair procedures being every bit as comical as they are terrifying.…
It’s already November and my Detroit-based fleet of cars is in disrepair, meaning I’m going to have to engage in a practice only the toughest of souls ever dare to undertake: Michigan outdoor winter wrenching, also known as “frostbite.” That is, unless I can get these things done first.
Whether it’s your favorite French pastry or a pair of shoes, the fact that something is handmade usually means that it’s more exclusive, but likely won’t last as something made by an uncaring robot with no emotions or a chance of making mistakes. Here’s what happens when the effects of time, coupled with 60,000 hard…
It was a clunk, then loud banging from behind me, and then the engine cut off. Any other time before and I would have been in a flash of panic, checking and forcing a restart and I don’t know what else. This time, man, I just put it in neutral and coasted ahead into the night.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that no one wants their hand built sports car to blow up in their face, which is why having a warranty is so common on cars not exactly known for their ability to fend off calamity. However, I’m here to tell you what it’s like when you don’t have that important safety net in place,…
Yes, I bought a Range Rover and it has problems. This story may sound familiar, but not at the absurdly low price I paid for my Rover, and how cheaply I am able to repair the issues.
The sonorous roar coming from the back of a performance car as it straddles the upper registers of its RPM range is most of the reason people buy the damn things in the first place. Here’s how I made my otherwise timid Aston Martin into the snarling beast I imagined it to be, without spending a cent.
A wise man once said, “Don’t talk about it, be about it,” which is a phrase that has the ability to both motivate people and trigger drunken fistfights at sporting events. This saying is also the main reason I just bought a used Aston Martin V8 Vantage for less than the price of a brand new, mass-market family sedan,…
When people talk about what they’d hypothetically do in an extreme situation, it’s almost always bullshit. Panic is a powerful thing. It can’t be accounted for. That’s why, instead of me harping on about how my cross-country S-Class towing-a-trailer experiment went swimmingly, I’ll share the panic-filled tale of how…
For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, moving day is a life milestone that tests your patience, your wallet and your sanity. Chucking all of your stuff in a truck and transporting it across town is hard enough, but when you don’t have a truck and are staring down the barrel of a 1,000 mile journey, your only…
Hack some rusty cool car out of an overgrown junkyard, then affix all the cool body stuff to a somewhat usable frame. It’s a dream I’ve always wanted to follow and it’s exactly what Roadkill did with what might be the world’s worst Buick and an also-horrible ‘70s Corvette.
It had somehow narrowed down to hours, how I was measuring time. It wasn’t a question of days or weeks anymore. I was doing hour and mile calculations to see if I’d make it back in New York by the time I needed to be back for work. And stuck on the side of the road again, New Mexico heat all around, it felt like I’d…
Whenever I see a 1998 Acura Integra with a cursive decal on the front window saying “Daily Driven,” my reaction is a curt “Yeah, no shit.” However, if you own a heavily depreciated and insanely complex luxury car like I do, the prospect of driving it daily on a shoestring budget becomes exponentially more interesting,…
