.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

Barnstormin’: That Guy


Barnstormin’: That Guy

As I was finally starting work on the Javelin the other day, I was sitting inside the car, hammering steel that had been serious defiled in the car’s previous live as a dirt-track stock car. As the car was sitting in my driveway, I noticed when a pickup truck pulled in. I thought the guy was turning around, but when he sat there for a minute or two, I decided to get out and investigate. Then I noticed him pull out a digital camera and aim it at my house.

Imagine my husky self, with a welding helmet on, a three-pound demolition hammer in one hand, bloody sweatshirt, and a still heavily bleeding cut on the other hand, advancing at a high rate of speed toward this truck. The guy stopped and I calmly asked, “Can I help you?” Turns out he works for a mortgage company and apparently one of my neighbors is behind on the payments or some junk. He saw the Javelin and asked what year it was. Before I could answer he started in on telling me about a 1970 GTO he just “finished.”

Then he became, “That Guy” when he said, “Man I wish I had been into cocaine, if I had all that money back I’ve spent over the years…” Yeah, um, no. It was my first, “That Guy” encounter of the year. Show, cruise, and racing season has not started here in New England, so the rate and frequency of these encounters will pick up as the Spring comes along.

One of the most vivid, “That Guy” encounters I have ever had happened when I was back in high school working at the Shell station in my home town. The old guy that owned the place was really cool, and my buddies and I were allowed to hang out there and work on our junk after hours in the garage (imagine a gas station with a garage!) so long as we did not cause trouble. We took pains to make sure we didn’t lose the privileges or screw things up.

Anyway, one night as the regular band of henchmen were converging at around closing time, a customer pulled in for gas. I went out to pump it and he asked me about the cars that were parked at the station. I told him they were my friends and we were able to work on stuff once we closed up for the night.

The guy launched into this crazy story about his “baby blue.” This “baby blue” was, according to the “owner”, a 1979 Camaro with a “454 and four on the floor with 4.11 posi.” He was telling me nothing really specific about the car other than repeatedly saying “454 and four on the floor with 4.11 posi”. About the fifth time he said that, my buddy and co-worker Dave Keenan walked up and heard him talking about the Camaro. Dave asked innocently enough, and with a slightly wry smile, “So what does it run?” This guy thought about it for about 15 seconds and said, “She’ll do about 180-190.” Dave immediately doubled over in laughter and I managed to collect the guy’s money before doing the same thing.

So what gives?
I guess a lot of this is about being comfortable with yourself and your stuff. I’d rather have a discussion with a guy that has a totally riced out Civic that he loves and has poured his time into than someone who is obviously fabricating their entire story on the spot.

In some ways it seems that the world of hot rodding is getting more inclusive by the day. People are far more willing to accept a car that is “wrong” so long as it’s the owners’ vision and sweat that has been poured into it. For example, we have a member of our forums that owns an early ‘80s Ford Escort, not exactly something that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but I’ll readily admit that the car is bitchin’ because the guy is doing what he can to hot rod his car his way. It’s good. A real Ford Escort beats the snot out of a fantasy-land Camaro every day of the week.

Undoubtedly, you’ll be faced with “That Guy” this year and you’ll probably not have a bloody hand, demolition hammer, and welding helmet at your disposal to scare the crap out of him. What’s your approach? Do you do like I do and just nod and say, “Oh wow!” repeatedly, or do you bring the thunder and call him out?

Spill it!


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0