Who is the Wannabe Hotrodder?

So here we are... a wannabe hotrodder making a blog.
What is my story? Why am I here? here is my story:

    I was lost, but found my way… hopefully. I am not your typical hot rodder, sadly I fall into the wannabe category but not due to lack of desire or heart. Sadly I strayed from the path and was blind to my true self for many years.

   When I was a young lad of 15 men and women’s hair was big, America looked like a bright neon color-gasm and I had a 1969 Firebird. Truth be told I didn’t DRIVE this glorious example of Detroit muscle I looked at it sit and waste away every day as I jumped on my little Yamaha 80 and drove off to the bus stop. My father was a truck driver and saw this old beast sitting behind an industrial complex getting snow plowed into it as it sat motionless begging for life. He told me about it and I eagerly expressed my joy. I wanted to build the Firebird into an asphalt destroying beast.

   My friend who came from a well to do family just down the street had a 1965 mustang father/son project and I was jealous. See, me and my father were not what you would call “close.” At that time I was a troublesome punk youth and he was a shall we say angry ex-marie truck driver that things weren’t going so well for. SO we butted heads quite often, not that we didn’t love each other it was just teen son versus father stuff that many families endure. Present day we are best friends. But I digress, I knew how to work on cars as we were often laying under $500 beauties in the mud swearing and rigging things to enable us to get to work the next day. But I didn’t  know how to “work on cars.” I loved driving fast and I knew enough knuckle busting to get by but neither of us had the time, money or patients to dedicate to making an engine-less very rough project car a running driving hotrod.

   Time passed, things changed. College and a lovely girlfriend (now my wife) took center stage and the sad old Firebird sat and rusted into a rats nest. My wife and I moved to Florida after college and my parents brought the old car down as I still had the dream of restoring the Firebird. I could still see the beauty hidden behind dust and rust, at times I think I was the only one that could still see the beauty. This time I managed to get an engine running and put it in the car but still didn’t have time, money or true know how to dedicate. Finally dejected and broken hearted I had to part ways with her, it is a realization that to this day stings. That is the way of the world for a wanna-be. Days fly by as cars come and go, the fire and passion of speed gets replaced by modern convenience and tepid grey cars that seem to be powered by boredom. Each car more boring and soul-less as the last.

   Flash forward to 2013, life takes a change. My old truck was feeling its age and I needed to find some wheels. I shop around and find a low mileage well maintained 2005 Honda S2000 roadster. Not a hotrod by any stretch of the imagination but fast, real fast. Slowly like a character from Steven Kings Christine novel my true passion started to take over again. The tire burning speed loving part of me that died all those years ago awoke with a vengeance. Something that had changed was my mind set and my skill set, strangely age provides wisdom and clarity if you let it. Over the years I restored pinball machines and worked with metal blacksmithing and welding in my spare time as hobbies. I invested in high quality tools and learned tricks to help my restoration projects yield better results. I also grew as a person learning to plan and approach things analytically and logically. Finally it clicked in my little pea brain that all the things I WAS missing with my feeble restoration of the Firebird are now part of me and well within my means.

   Every day I read magazines, watch youtube videos and try to learn everything I can. I am the wannabe on the outside looking in, hungry and burning with desire. Every day I squirrel away every cent I can. I am still a wannabe hotrodder driving a car most true hotrodders wouldn’t even spit on but I won’t be soon. The dreams are ever present, my resolve is strong and soon I will have a fire breathing dragon that rattles windows and scares children. So for now, I am a wannabe but not for long.