You couldn't even talk?

The wife calls be and says, "Please don't get mad but I called home and my Dad has been tinkering with your car".

Blood pressure starts to rise as I ask her what she meant by "tinkering" and she say he had the wheels off and was just checking out the brakes and he said everything looked good.

I knew that already but okay as long as he doesn't start removing or replacing things.

I stop by the house and find

and

Said he didn't like the set up of the throttle cable and was going to modify it so it would take less effort at the pedal.

I was so freaking pissed that I couldn't say anything and just turned around and got back into my car.

that is so wrong. nobody messes with another man's 914!

~a

Unbelievable!



My father-in-law would have things so effed up if he did anything remotely like that............

Hope it works great......for a long time.

The trick is not to get mad but to get even. I can't believe you left without taking some parts "you don't like" from his vehicle. (coil wires are good, I hate those things and they should be made to work better)

Unbelievable. You gotta put up with your wife, you don't have to take this abuse from her Dad.

whyiotta!


Being half Italian and a bit nutty, nothing like that would EVER happen round my place...
Invest in a good padlock!

thats wierd man. I mean, okay for a second I will play devils advocate and say that he probably meant well.

but fabricating new components and getting into stuff that involved without clearance is way over the line...

wow...
time to move the car and park somewhere else...

rich

The problem is the language. He doesn't speak english at all and my Turkish is limited. I jacked the care up last Sunday because he just wanted to take a look at what was under it. While he was looking he said that the bellcrank set up was a poor design and he could modify it for easier operation. What I tried to say to him was that it might be possible but I don't want to deal with sourcing parts and making new ones and that I was fine with it the way it was.

What he probably heard - It could be done but I don't want to buy parts...

I know he meant well but some rules are going to be set...

Man Law!

What the hell was he trying to do with that linkage. Everything is backwards and upside down.

I would be so pissed!!!

thats a tough situation.

You gotta be firm but it sounds like was trying to be a good guy and bond with you over the car a little bit.

WTF! Those are classic DAPO repairs. So you have DAPO repairs on a car that is yours! Check to make sure he didn't cut wires at random places and splice them back together with wire nuts and electrical tape.

-Tony

Allan, your wife and her dad are lucky that you're an understanding man.. It's good that you recognized the problem was probably a combination of language/mis-communication and good intentions.

Best of luck,

Jen

You should get rid of that car ASAP. It has been nothing but a problem to you. I'm coming up with a trailer, get it ready to roll. I'll take to Otto to finish and we'll sell it to Miles for a huge profit.

Just drive up Moby and you can drive it home...

OK, I'm thinking about it. 5 lug finished?

Starting on it this weekend.

Good thing I have "Dad" here to help.

A Greek father-in-law would have just sprayed the thing with Windex and called it 'Done'.

allan...

it isnt too late to trailer it down here for the 5 lug......

we dont speak turkish.. and wont F up your car without asking you first

I will say NOTHING

I will say NOTHING

I will not say .............

Plumber's tape???????

Originally used to hold the barrel nut that the accelerator cable locks into....Dan Root designed bellcrank to utilize the stock /4 cable.

Guess you wont be going on the Big Bear run this weekend.

Okay, here's the latest.

Had a looong talk with him last night using my wife as an interpreter just so nothing got missed. She was very insistant that I didn't say anything to embarrass him or hurt his feelings.

So, I lied.

I told him that although I appreciated his effort trying to make things better, I was stuck with the original set-up due to SCCA requirements when the car is run on the track. I told him that due to the anal mentality of the rule book writers that if I modified the linkage it would bump me out of my current class and make the car un-competitive, so I was stuck with what I have.

He seemed to understand that and immediately put everything back the way it was. I'm sure I'll have to readjust the linkage but for the most part it's back together.

I also explained that in the future, he could only "tinker" with the car if I was present to ensure that no "Rule" violations occur.

We'll see...

Hummm you have a sticky issue to deal with ....its called family
IF you say anything that is the least bit rough on the ole man, it is going to be like pissing on an electric fence. You won't do it twice.

Be brave my son.....be brave and bite your tongue.
Then go and unfuck the car mods. Then electify the car to discourage future actions.

Belay my last....

You are so frigg'in far ahead of me with savy resolutions I feel really stupid.
You da man....

Allan, sounds like a a very diplomatic resolution. Well done!

On a related note, my mom was over the other day and decided to "help" my wife finish knitting our baby's blanket. Man, that got surprisingly out of hand... (Story ends with Jackie undoing all the work my mom did and redoing it.)

Allan, good job on disarming a potential family bomb. Now go get him a 914 so he can fix his.

Yes you did deal with that really well considering revenge is a dish best served

up cold.

Yep, very diplomatically handled.

Yep, I always thought they worked pretty good too. Shoot, I think there are at least 25 on running 914-6's? Somewhere around there.

I am glad to see your car got put back together Allan, hope it's been doing okay for you.

From the outside, his car runs good...I've never driven it......the main problem that I see is the loose nut behind the wheel .....ya think some red Loctite might help?

Allen you handled that very well, it is important to keep "family peace".
Now I'm sure if you father in-law wants to work on cars there are ........a couple of club members with cars on jack stands that could use the help...........Britt

one man's "tinker" is another man's rebuild. hide the car. enjoy turkey!!!

k

Wow - very diplomatic, and a nice angle to take to get what you want.

The knitting story points to something - I am a software engineer - so I have to deal with my work being scrutinized and modified by other people all the time. The car is where I get to do it my way.... so I'd be really pissed if somone started hoking around with it.

Fucking Latka!


M

Allan, take him to the kart track and buy him a beer from the brew pub.

Thank him for the help.

Smile and remind yourself that your wife owes you big time....
wait for the right time for the pay off....
smile...

Since this seems like a good thread to vent: I was just putting together the poor quality, overpriced "changing table" for the baby's room. Piece "W" is broken, and naturally it's not a piece I can work around and fix later. The Canadian manufacturer is shipping me a replacement ASAP. But, according to the CSR, ASAP means 2 weeks. Ok, I'm not all that mad, but still pretty irked!

Heh - in England being pissed means that you have inbibed until the point of heavy intoxication. and the answer is yes

It is better to be pissed OFF, than pissed ON, unless you are into that kinda thing....

Allan, any chance your father-in-law is related to Trekkor?? I see he too has a love for Home Depot

I sincerely hope your wife will make this all up to you. If you need anyone to testify on your behalf in court, we are all here for you.

(if he's got a lot of $, and no none else to leave it to, then think of the twin turbo you'll buy on his dime some day and let him do what he likes )

ROFL...

post of the day award goes to mike LOL

Allan,

Nicely handled. If it were me, I'd have said something like: "I really appreciate that you were trying to help me with the car, but I want you know that the car is very important to me, and I feel that you working on the car without asking me first shows that you don't understand how important the car is to me. In the future, please ask me before you work on the car, and I would always like to be present when you do any work. Again, I appreciate your willingness to help me on it, and maybe we can work together on it sometime."

Blah Blah... A mix of diplomacy and honesty without insulting him.

Good luck with the communication gap.

John

That's funny Mike.

When I took him to Lowes he even commented that it would be a good place to get parts....

AH!,


Lying to the in-laws, mastered the technique myself, nice job. A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. Nuf said.

Erik