You Never Know Until You Try
The old saying ‘you never know until you try’ should be more prevalent in the car community. Too often, people become concerned with what others have done to prove that they themselves can do it. I see this predominantly with wheel fitment and ride height, but it holds true almost everywhere. Often, we are afraid to step out and do something, especially if it involves an irreversible change because we are scared to mess it up. This week, we’re talking about stepping outside of your comfort zone in the effort of gaining experience. | | | | | Recently, I was looking at the interior of my E30 and decided that I was unhappy with a few spots in the leather. I am rather meticulous when it comes to caring for my interior, as I was lucky enough to find an E30 with a near-perfect interior years ago when I bought it, but several years of regular use has left a few discolorations and scuffs in some spots on the driver’s seat. Since I rarely drive it now, and it hasn’t done much more than a few trips in the past two years, I thought it would be finally worth actually re-dying the leather seats and door cards so they would all match and won’t be worn down quickly since I barely drive it. | | | | | However, because my interior was in otherwise remarkably good shape for the age; no rips, tears, leather pulling away from the frames, or real damage, and it was still a good color, I had hesitated because I didn’t want to make it worse somehow. I had never dyed an interior before and therefore I thought I would do more harm than good. | | | | | Similarly, I have never done any cutting, welding, or fabrication to take my E30 to the next steps as far as a build is concerned. I’m no welder by any means, and I want to go pretty crazy with my E30 since I barely drive it now, but it’s such a nice car, I’m afraid to mess things up. That’s where a recent purchase came in and changed my mind and attitude completely. | | | | | Recently, I fell into a 1984 BMW R100RT airhead motorcycle that was mostly disassembled and came with nearly everything I needed to build it the way I wanted. Since it required welding, painting, some fabrication, I had to dig into that if I wanted to ride it. Instead of my usual apprehension, I just started cutting and welding. In this case, I thought, I can’t make it any worse since it’s already in a million pieces and hasn’t been touched in years anyway. If it isn’t running and is all kinds of broken, I can’t mess it up! | | | It was during the rebuilding process of this bike that I had an epiphany: I wasn’t doing anything that couldn’t be undone with some time, and as I progressed, my confidence in my abilities to fix my mistakes grew. It was through this hands-on experience that I was able to gain that confidence and understand that, without just simply doing something, I was never going to be able to do what I wanted in the first place. | | | | | Frankly, as a writer, I do a lot of reading. One of my biggest advantages is that I absolutely consume any information I need and will exhaustively research whatever job I am about to attempt well in advance. Unfortunately, that is also one of my biggest weaknesses, as I constantly doubt myself and assume that there is always more information I need before I can start whatever project I would otherwise have just jumped into without hesitation. With the bike, I just said ‘let’s do it,’ and got to work, ditching my fear of failure and picking up the welder to start sticking metal together. | | | | | That attitude change came into play when I pulled the trigger on a few hundred bucks worth of leather dye and all the materials I needed, dug out my spray gun from the basement, and started ripping apart my E30’s interior. I may not have known how to re-dye my interior, but I’ve got some paint experience. I know how to take my interior apart and put it back together. I can mask things, and anything I don’t know how to do I will learn by doing it. If I mess up, it’s ok, the worst I can do is end up back where I started. So, paint gun in hand and a hopper full of dye, I started spraying. | | | | | After a weekend of exhaustive labor, a lot of ‘hurry up and wait,’ I had my freshly re-dyed seats finished. They aren’t perfect by any means, they have some runs (hey, it was the rainiest weekend I’ve ever experienced and there was no escaping the humidity,) but they certainly looked incredible enough to put a smile on my face. | | | Had I kept following my previous path, I would have likely not found myself enjoying a new process that had such a risk of failure. By leaving my inhibitions behind and trying something new, I found that there was nothing to be afraid of when it comes to making ‘irreversible’ changes to my car. I had to remember, though, that cars are just cars. If you want to make it the way you want, then at some point, you’re going to have that moment where you either go forward or stay where you are. There isn’t anything wrong with either, but if you want to see your goals completed, you’ll have to take a risk. | | | | | So, this week, instead of tearing into owners of specific vehicles, I leave you with some motivational content. Whatever project or upgrade you are planning for your build, don’t let your fears stand in your way. The worst you can do is fail, but at least you tried. Chances are, you learned enough in that failure to know how to fix it and try again. Master Yoda was wrong when he said ‘there is no try.’ You have to try so that you can ‘do.’ So go out, attempt that job you’ve been scared of, and don’t worry about messing it up. It’s just a car, or a part, or some tools. The only thing that matters is that you learned and improved along the way. | | | | |
