Because I’ve got another general blog about various aspects of my life and I wanna get my car stuff all in one place, I’ve started this one, too.

Allow me to introduce myself…purely off the cuff and not really bio material yet:

My name is Toolwench.

I like cars. A lot. No, really. A lot. Yes, I’m a girl. I like boys, too. It’s probably their fault I like cars so much. I mean, when I was growing up, sure I played with dolls (still have ‘em and then some!), but I also played with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, too (still have most of them, too!). It wasn’t until much, much later that I discovered how much I liked cars inside and out.

And tools… Well, there’s just something about tools. The way they fit in your hand, or sound when you power ‘em up or especially what they enable you to accomplish. From antique doll restoration (yeah, sorry, I’m still hardwired to be a girl!) to muscle car restoration, I’ve used my share of tools and always welcome new ones in hopes that they might be my next ‘lucky screwdriver’ or other storied tool in my arsenal. As a little girl, I was my daddy’s toolwench and I learned a lot about how things work.

I also thoroughly enjoy driving and I drive all of my cars like I stole ‘em. I mean, if I’m gonna have a car, it needs to be driven. That’s what they’re for, right? Plus, I know that if I wreck it in half, I’ll be the one welding it back together, so there’s considerable incentive to listen to the car and not push it beyond what it or myself can do.

Okay, there you have a little bit of background on me.

Now I’m gonna move some of the old posts from my other blog to this one… Scroll down and enjoy!

Why did I title this entry “It’s Inevitable”?

Here’s exactly why:

Whenever I hand a camera to a guy and say, “Could ya snap a couple of shots of me workin’ on the car?” there’s always at least one of my ass!!!! Oh well… All in good fun, I suppose.

I dunno what it is about me and working on my car, but I really enjoy sitting in the engine compartment while I work. It also seems to cut down on the back strain somehow.

This is my least favorite thing to do. I dunno why, but I hate scraping gaskets off and cleaning the surface. It’s not that I suck at it or anything. And I have lots of patience for it, but I’m thinkin’ maybe I just like to have a tool in my hand rather than a rag.

I figured that while I was there, I might as well retorque the heads. Sadly, I’ve only got a hundred pounds to put behind a torque wrench. Leverage is my best friend.

The next couple shots are the struggle to get the intake back in. Yeah, it’s easier to pull the distributor so it’s out of the way, but as of late, it has been easier to work around the distributor than have to re-stab it. So, here I go, getting the manifold back in without smearing the silicone.

Not too shabby. I’m leaving out the oddyssey of the bolt hole that needed tapping in the head, the metal shavings everywhere, the second oil change and the initial silicone mess during my first failed attempt at getting the intake on. Those aren’t important…*cough, cough* (Yeah, they’re just what working on cars is really all about: adventure!)

The next shot was from when everything went smoothly…

Okay, smoothly except when I accidentally sprayed carb clean on the Band-Aid over my busted knuckle from the day before. Yeah, I hit it so squarely that the pad soaked up the carb clean and transmitted it to my open wound before I could get the darn thing off and quit being grumpy about it. (Hey…it stung…a lot…)

After a few more grumpy faces and a whole lot more cussing, I got back to torquing down the manifold.

And at the end of the adventure, I was one seriously happy little chick. I love my car. I love my car. I love my car!