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BangShift Question Of The Day: How Bad Have You Irritated Your Neighbors?


BangShift Question Of The Day: How Bad Have You Irritated Your Neighbors?

When I was gearing up to fire off the Imperial for the first time last fall, I did the right thing. I went to the neighbors on both sides of my house, explained what was going to happen, and assured them that I would be respectful about when I would start and stop work on the car and when and when I wouldn’t have the car running. Understand that right now, the big silver sled is breathing directly out of factory-spec Dodge Diplomat exhaust manifolds that end just inches past the exhaust ports in the heads…this bastard is LOUD with a capital “F”. That was in October, and so far, not one issue out of those two families. In fact, at one point or another, they’ve investigated, asked questions, and seem at least interested, if not geeked out over having a wrench in the neighborhood.

Last fall, I didn’t have a neighbor almost directly across the street. Now, I’ve got three within immediate earshot of any activity in my front lawn. And earlier today, after months of waiting on transmission work (including a vanishing torque converter that will be covered in the next Project Raven update, which should be coming soon) the big silver brick barked back into life for the first time since January, still as raucous as ever, still as unadulterated and obnoxious as ever. Haley just stood on the front porch with her fingers plugging her ears, glad to see that she’s within a day or so from getting “her” parking spot back on what I’ve dubbed “The Killing Pad” (two cars have died there and have had their bones picked clean, just saying…)

Over the years, I’ve moved around tons. From my teenage years in Colorado Springs living in a community filled with retirees that hated having a teenager around at all to my military locations, where a full audience in the barracks got to hear the sounds of mechanical joy and hate, to the apartments in Arizona where I had to make everything happen in one parking lot spot, I’ve had one thing shared in common: someone, sooner or later, will get pissed off that someone is wrenching on a car. I had a family “come talk” with my grandfather when I was doing front brakes on my Monte Carlo. I had numerous staff duty runners inform me that I was not allowed to work on cars, and numerous NCOs and officers get bothered with a phone call when I told a staff duty runner how far I’d wedge a 3/4 wrench up one particular orifice sideways. I had one neighbor in base housing call the MPs on me because she saw a carb backfire when I was timing my Chevelle.

So far, I’ve had good luck in Kentucky…but the new neighbors haven’t been warned about me yet.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see a nice little note on the windshield tomorrow. Surely, somebody has a great tale of the antagonized neighbor screaming and complaining when the wrenches are out? Maybe a little visit from Officer Friendly or the HOA Nazi? Let’s hear about it!


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10 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: How Bad Have You Irritated Your Neighbors?

  1. Just Gary

    I’ve been proactive (& lucky).
    I warn my neighbors when I’d be making noise (unmuffled ’55 Chevys, Ducatis and Ninjas) & specifically what I was trying to accomplish. They appreciated the warning and on two occasions, came over to “help”, or at least be entertained.

    I sweeten the pot by adjusting their kids’ bicycle chains or sharpen lawnmower blades.

  2. Matt Cramer

    Thankfully, my parents’ neighbors were not in when my ’66 Dodge Dart experienced a total brake failure backing down a steep driveway. It ended up well into the neighbors’ driveway before I managed to get it to stop. That could have been ugly – especially if the neighbors hadn’t considerately built their driveway exactly opposite ours and they’d have ended up with a lawn Dart.

  3. cudavid

    small cape houses in city, side by side driveways, asphalt to asphalt, 433\” BBC 76 Nova 850 Double Pumper, no choke, solid lifter, big cam, drive to work every day, winter / summer , left 620 Am had to wack throttle to make up for no choke, 2 big mufflers, no tail pies, dumped under car… just a wee bit loud I will guess.

  4. phitter67

    Letters from the city about “junk cars”. City code enforcement driving by, or stopping,frequently. When I lived with my parents my Dad apologized to the man across the street about me working late at night. His response was the best, “At least we know where he is . He’s not out getting into trouble.”

  5. Robert

    I am lucky in that I have neighbors who are gear heads too! But I know I made some enemies way back several years when I had a big block Camaro and I finally got it all back together and wanted to break in the camshaft at about 11pm!

  6. Chas

    Teenager in the mid 1970’s, living in your typical cookie cutter tract house development in NJ. Pulled the very tired and oily 265 out of my ’55 Chevy to put in a healthy 327. Just threw the old block out in the street, next to the curb. It laid there for about three months. No one ever actually said anything, but lots of dirty looks from the neighbors. Woke up one morning and it was magically gone!

  7. Boss 351 T-Bird

    My \”little cruise around the block\” with my unmuffled Cleveland Thunderbird resulted in a 9-1-1 call which brought 4 city cops, 2 County Mounties, and a TX DPS officer to the neighborhood. Another near incident was when my next-door neighbor\’s wife called the cops about my 24-foot enclosed trailer being parked on the street in front of MY residence. Didn\’t find about the \”near-miss\” until she passed away. Her husband laughingly told me the cops had told her to \”mind her own business\”…..

  8. thefatguy

    ran my own towtruck for a few years…and though we would
    never wrench on stuff except between the hours of 9am-5pm,
    sometimes we get call outs at 1,2,3,4am. just the nature of the biz.
    neighbors called the cops, the county, even the FEDS and told them we
    were stealing cars with the towtruck and stripping/selling parts. total
    lie, but had to bust out paperwork for all the cars here more than once.
    im clean so no big deal-but what a buncha @-hole neighbors. stopped
    when i figured out who it was and had a “friendly talk” with them…
    and they got the nerve to ask for help these days when their car wont start !!

  9. Matt Cramer

    Got another good one…

    We had a car event at work. Open house, dyno day, some tech talks. The area is zoned heavy industrial – you can conduct full throttle dyno pulls with open headers at 2 in the morning, and we have. At that event, somebody decided to show off his 2 step rev limiter in an unmuffled 240SX while leaving, making a lot of noise.

    About 3 minutes later, the cops showed up, demanding to know who was doing target practice with automatic weapons. They had a good laugh when we explained what happened.

  10. tedly

    I used to have to park at a dead end a couple blocks away when I would hang out with a buddy. We’d stay up til 2 or 3 most nights since we both worked second shift. My big block Charger was LOUD. The new family that moved in across the street from him complained because their windows would rattle in the newborns nursery when I started it up.

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