Drive Way Do - Gooders

Heaven forbid people should be friendly and want to talk to other folks anymore.

We should all have our blinkers on and not look at or speak to anyone else.

Haha, no you're not alone. I also work on my car in the street and get absolutely plagued by passing interest.

99% of it starts with the exclamation "That's an old car" which I will hear 20 times any day I spend working on it. I am at a loss how I'm supposed to respond. I've toyed with acting surprised... "What? Is it? I'VE BEEN SWINDLED. THEY TOLD ME ITS A 2009 HYUNDAI ELANTRA!".

Then there's all the anecdotes and reminiscences about their cars which have to be politely entertained. Most of which are boring/curse word because they're not motor heads and have no idea what they're talking about.

There is one old boy round the corner who clearly knows his stuff and I always like chatting to him. He's about 80 and he's always genuinely interested in how it's going and what I'm tackling. He's the only one I actually like passing a few words with though.

There's also an old bloke a few doors down who's not interested in Cars at all, but like to be sociable. Only trouble is he has dementia and so every time he sees me he remarks "Oh! You've got yourself a new car have you?" And I have to remind him "No John. It's the same car I've had for the last two years". He sometimes walks passed on his way to the shop, makes that comment, then passes again on his way back ten minutes later and says it again.

The absolute worst ones are the ones who fail to recognise you're in a tricky/crisis situation and desperate to get it resolved ASAP, and you might be contorted Painfully and wrenching on an awkward to reach bolt, grunting cursing and sweating, and they stand there asking you inane questions and telling you about their old Triumph Acclaim the had in the 80's. I had that a lot when I was trying to retrieve dropped springs out of my gear box. I'd see a glimpse through the endoscope and at exactly moment someone would loom in through the door and say "THIS IS AN OLD CAR!".

I find it incredibly difficult to remain polite and neighbourly when they seem to be oblivious to the struggle being undertaken by struggling amateurs buried upside down in engine bays.

I get this too, it definitely helped us settle into the new house (when it was new, been here years now) and it's never even got close to annoying.

People stop for a chat, ask about the cars and bikes, ask for advice, tell you stuff about their old motors and in some cases come back with photos of said old motors.

I think it's funny that people will take advice from, and double check advice given by a garage, with some geezer cluttering up the street with old motors.

I totally agree. I'm always polite and respond and tell them the info they seem to want to know (a bloke ran up to my car when I was outside my mate's house a few weeks ago and excitedly shouted "J5.5?... J5.5?" whilst pointing somewhere in the region of the passenger side doors. I smiled and nodded and said "You have a good eye!" And he Said "Ah, I knew it. I KNEW it!" then he gave me the double Thumbs up and ran back into his house. No idea what he was referring to. He wasn't looking at my wheels") and even when wrenching painfully with no time for pleasantries I think "If I'm rude to this person who is showing some interest in my interest what does that say about me?". So I chat with everyone, and only very rarely I have said "Feel free to have a look around the car but I'm at a critical point so I really need to focus on what I'm doing, but any other time I'd be happy to chat".

Personally I think that's fair enough. I'm not an actor in an open museum display, I'm just trying to fix my ball joints.

My neighbours have so far shown some interest, asking about the car. No one who has spoken to me seems to recognise or even know of a Trabant, although the look of concern and mockery from my Romanian neighbours was priceless. The only one that's annoyed me is a guy who came and asked me about the car for a while before trying to recruit me for his Jehova's Witness group nearby. The answer to that was obviously a no and trolling questions about alternative religions, i.e Paganism, seemed to send him away quite quickly.

I was quite lucky. When I was young my neighbour had a lad my age and I grew up with him, anyway misses did a runner with the kids, or they're under the patio one of the two but I kept talking to his dad. I knew he had a lot of toys, he actually taught me to ride a motorbike at a very young age. Anyway I moved away and lost touch with him.

Fast forward about ten years and I was looking through the window of Mick Gould's Chevy thing at Santa pod in awe at the amazingness of it all and I'm a good 200 miles from home, I then got a tap on the shoulder expecting a "slug your hook chap" but sure enough it was my old neighbour! Since then we regularly cross paths, have a good chat and all in all he is a great chap.

When I liked at the same address another neighbour had a 105E with a pinto and webbers, another chap had a near on spotless MGB, another neighbour had a lot of bikes which I always liked and another neighbour used to always off load his old mini spares onto me.

Where I am currently it's a bit of a flop, I have a neighbour with a lot of cool cars but he just seems a bit of a boob. He was welding some parts up the other day, I offered him my murex with a bottle of gas but he'd rather stick with his gasless thing, fair enough. Best was when I was going out for dinner and saw him on his driveway with a head torch trying to fit some trim in the winter. Seemed only courteous for me to offer him one of the site lights in the back of my truck and it was as if I had spat in his face. I don't want to be that persistent dude over the road that always gets in the way, but if someone's struggling I'd like to make it a bit easier for them as much as possible, but oh well.

Some people are sound, I like friendly people, it's the ones that moan they're phoning the council because it's illegal to change your own number plates or some such bull honkey.

I'm not to bad here,my neighbours are so used to me doing stuff in my garage or fixing the whatever mode of transport i own,that they comment if i'm NOT doing anything!

I have 2 immediate neighbours who will fix their modern dailys,one bloke down the street who plays with motorbikes,and one bloke who has a racing catamarang thingy that he fettles a lot.

A few times i've had a knock on the door asking if i've got a spanner that will fit 'this' .....
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But mostly when i'm tinkering i get ' what have you broken this time!' .......

I always try to be polite, you do meet some interesting people

Once though I arrived home in my very poorly XJ40 with smoke and noise coming from under the bonnet because it had a holed piston (didn't know that until the head was off) and a neighbour asked if it was broken, then said that's what you get if you have those fancy cars, laughing!

How I kept any hint of politeness that day I don't know.

I don't get a lot of passing traffic as I live at the end of a cul-de-sac but if people make conversation I really don't mind. We hadn't lived here long when I bought a Mini with a really loud exhaust. The old guy from two doors down, who is usually a right miserable sod, came to see me one day. I was expecting a bit of grief about noise but he took my hand and put a pair of 1960s Mini cufflinks in it.

I always think that if I offer a bit of advice, break out the jump leads, or just indulge their conversations, they'll not make a fuss if on occasion I make a bit of racket with the angle grinder.