Oh, boy.  You’ve really done it now.  Was it a friend-of-a-friend’s-cousin’s-roommate?  Was it the little old lady down the street?  Was it (gasp!) an ad on Craigslist?

Hush, hush, it’s okay–we all had something or someone that pushed us over the brink from “normal person” to “that guy down the block with his head buried under that thing’s hood at all hours.”  One day, you’ll make peace with your personal gateway to the Realm of Classic Cars.  In the meantime, you’re stuck in this weird and wonderful little world.  Come on.  I’ll show you around and share a few of the lessons I wish I had learned before I ever called the number in that back window.

Lesson One: Talk to People.

Look around you.  Okay, so maybe don’t literally look around you.  It’s probably a mess.  But take a metaphorical look around the classic car community and get to know your new brethren–the dealers, the hobbyists, the mechanical wizards, the rogue engineers.

Okay, this time it’s literal.  Go out and meet these people–maybe get in touch with us and ask about our next Pomona Swap Meet.  Get to know these people.  You might already be intimidated by the sheer amount of information that makes up the world of classic cars: manuals, forum posts, how-to videos, and online wiring diagrams are just the tip of the iceberg.  The people you’ll meet at car shows and swap meets have, in addition to impeccable style and supermodel looks, a wealth of knowledge about the machines they love, their history, and their little quirks.  I know I’m not the only classic car enthusiast who would be happy to share what I’ve learned since I started work on my first rat rod.  The hard part is actually getting me to stop sharing!

Lesson Two: Everybody Has an Opinion.

Opinions are like armpits: everybody’s got one or two, and there’s occasionally a good reason for having them (like teaching your nephew how to make weird noises).  Asking for advice on maintaining or repairing a classic car can feel a little bit like kicking a hornet’s nest, especially if you’re just starting out.

Fortunately, opinions are not like hornets–getting a closer look at one, or five, isn’t going to result in any stinging, swelling, or swearing. Okay, there might be some swearing, but struggle through it!  Behind every fire-and-brimstone proclamation that only an idiot would put that transmission in with this motor, there’s a rationale.  It might be a good rationale, it might be a poor rationale, and it might be a hallucination induced by bad seafood.  The only way to find out is to look beyond the surface.  Chances are, you’ll find enough facts that you can come up with an opinion of your own!

Lesson Three: Show Your Work

How can anybody possibly get mad at you for picking “doing science” over “doing the dishes?”  They can’t!  At least that’s what I tell my wife.  But chore immunity is only a minor reason for taking a scientific approach to working on your new classic car.  Accurate record-keeping, which can range from a sketched-out diagram on a sticky note to a beautiful spreadsheet detailing the condition and age of every part in your car, will become your friend as you learn the ins and outs of classic car maintenance.

You see, things are going to go wrong.  They may not go wrong immediately, and they may not go wrong in an essential area, but eventually things are going to go wrong.  What would you rather have on hand when that happens–a vague recollection of the last six times you went out to fiddle with something, or a set of notes detailing what you fiddled with, when you fiddled with it, why you fiddled with it, and what you definitely thought you did not need to fiddle with?  Yep.  I thought so.

These three lessons will come in handy whether you want the ultimate street rod or a Corvette that looks like you just drove it through a wormhole from 1968.  The world of classic cars is big, complex, and capable of making the best of us feel like a fourteen-year-old wielding a set of jumper cables for the first time.  Get used to that feeling–the process of overcoming it again and again is one of the great joys of working with a classic vehicle.