The Cal-look Lounge

As some of you know I recently purchased a '66 bug from Arizona and had planned to drive out to pick it up. Well something came up that prevented me from going and this necessitated having the car shipped to Florida. The only problem is it costs significantly more to ship the car and would require the use one of our credit cards. Usually this is not an issue but it just so happens that the only card we have with that much space at the moment is in the possession of my wife, and well, it seems I may have forgotten to mention to her that I bought this car. The original plan was to just show up with it and say "Look what followed me home". That tactic seemed to work with the last puppy I brought home so surely it would work with a cute VW right?  Yeah, not so much. Needless to say, when she found out it was a bit of a stormy night in the Brooks household. She did end up giving me the American Distress card and the car is now in transit. But in penance I have to renovate our master bath before any work gets done on the VW. She also said something about a ban on any further VW related expenses, but I am sure that was just said in anger and she didn't really mean it. 

I was telling this story to another VW nut I know and he told me of a similar experience with his wife. He found a really good car for a great price and bought it on the spur of the moment as some times happens. You know, you see a good deal and you have to move on it quickly. So he bought the car and towed it home after dark and stashed it at the back of his large wooded back yard thinking his wife would never notice it. Not a good idea. He ended up actually having to sell the car rather quickly in an effort to further his existence on our little ball of dirt. As they say, no good dead goes unpunished.

So anyone else have a similar story?

--louis

My wife flipped out when I spent 900 bucks at the swap meet during the VW classic in '06.  It didn't matter that I turned all that "junk" into 2500 within 3 days of coming home, and putting rain gutters, and shutters on the house with the money.  She swore in Tagalog for a week.  "Bastos"!

that's why I build other guys' engines.... she has no idea what's mine and what's another guy's stuff.

A wise man once said "It is easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission".

Louis, that is a good one especially since i was directly involved with the purchase.  Let me tell you a story from my distant past.  I used t be really into dirt bikes.  This was 1978 and my father had recently passed away and I was the beneficiary of a very small insurance policy.  Honda had just come out with the really great 250 Mx motorcycle that was incredibly fast and had incredible suspension travel.  I had already borrowed $100 from a close friend to put a deposit on the last one in town.  When I got the check I paid back my friend and high tailed it to the Honda dealer to pay off the bike.  The owner of the the Honda dealer was a friend and former neighbor of mine and he agreed to deliver the bike in two days.  When the bike showed up the wife was livid and a shouting match ensued.  My friend unloaded the bike an got the hell out of there as quickly as he could.  The wife asked why I didn't tell her about the purchase.  My classic response was that if I told her about it there would be a fight and when I finally got it there would be another fight.  I figured it best to cut my losses and have only one fight.  Bye the way that woman is now an ex-wife.  I never looked back.  Don't have the bike any more, but I have a lot of piece of mind.  I don't suggest you do what I did.  I just thought it funny.  I have been happily married to the same woman for over 23 years.  Not going anywhere...

well these confrontations always rear there head guys.there cant be a woman out there that doesnt disapprove of men buying parts or cars.my story is that when i started nosing round a few cars at shows early last year my other half said," how are you going to buy that" she was right :-[ we had just bought our first house which in britain is stupidly expensive so i laid on the,"youve got your house now id like my car" thing.eventually she came round to the idea and decided that if i could afford it then i should buy one.after looking at a couple of cars i saw the car i own now as just a completed bodyshell for sale.basically it was complete bar engine,box,suspension and wheels.we raced up to london the next day to see it.now having spoke to the owner everything was available for the car minus wheels and front beam.obviously the price was double now with all the bits attached i.e. proper built 2276 and pro-drag box dont come cheap.well i spoke to the owner and my car buddy mate about the costing.well i went to the bank sorted the money and voila it was alll mine :D now there was a problem in all this :-\ i told my future wife that id just bought the shell and the rest of the bits would come as and when i could afford them.another problem i had was that the owner was going to deliver the car and the front beam and wheels we would strip off so he could take them away.now i know theres a few little white lies that could be gotten away with but a driving car after youve just purchased a bodyshell aint going to be bluffed at all.one sunday morning we were having breakfast and relaxing and i just bit the bullet and said "by the way that car im buying is the whole lot now" suffice to say we are getting married next year.it wasnt that much of a problem although i do get thrown "that car" at me once or twice but hey ive got thick skin ;D it cost me a fair old wedge to finish the car but i sold all my project building parts to fund the rest.all of my clud friends reckon it was a bargain and i agree but the future wife or anybodys wife, girlfriend,bit on the side whatever your labelling for them is wont see what you see ::)

Confessions, well you can guess that i have a few, however its not all my fault.....

It all started along long time ago in 2004, i had a few cars and this was fine, i decided to buy another as a surprise, however in the waiting period (shipping time) my wife took ill (stress-depression) and my buisness had a big problem, a baby was on the way and it seemed easier not to say, well as things have improved over the years and the collection has grown it been easier to be economical with the true to avoid any heated words, as I dont want push the situation. I had a friend whom lied to his wife about another woman for 4 years, i dont speak with him now as i have no respect for this type of behavior, however some times i feel bad for my actions back then but i was trying to avoid any further pain......

However i found the soloution = Open a car storage buisness and no-one knows whats yours or not !  ;D

lol, my mrs isnt too bad, because she figures i earn money and she does too, and she spends her spare cash on rubbish, and I buy vw parts! having said that, we have a baby on the way and I have just sold some old stuff and given her the money for getting some nursery furniture. My justification is that I dont drink much, or smoke, and almost everything I buy has the same residual value after I have finished looking at it, so I can move it on again, and in most cases, like with my dealer frames, they end up looking much better after I have finished working on them. having said that, I only have 1 bug, not lots!

I don't have too much of a problem there, this is inside our house and it's all her shit. That said I'm not allowed on The Samba until the '73s finished, talk about selfish...

 >:(

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/General/CarShit.jpg)

Haha i didnt have this problem with my girlfriend but with my dad when i came back with Jack Sacchette's ex pro stocker ;D

"Honey, I've had that thing for a while now..........where ya been?!?"


Always always always DENY DENY DENY! 

One of the reasons that I decided to ask my girlfriend to marry me (the wedding is July 10th, btw) is that as long as the bills are paid and I don't spend every waking hour in the garage, she doesn't care what I spend my money on. My father on the other hand has to hide that sort of thing from his wife. I've been storing a '66 Dodge Dart that he bought around Thanksgiving and still hasn't told her about.

I bought my red 67 a week before my wedding. When the house payment was due two weeks later, I didn't have the money, as it was spent on the car. Needless to say she was not too happy. Years later when she was out of work and we could not pay the bills, my car collection came to the rescue. I sold some of my best cars :'( Now she always says yes to any car as long as we have the money.

I think that's one reason that my fiance encourage my car habit as well. Last year, I flipped (bought and sold) a couple Subaru's and paid cash for a very nice engagement ring!

aah womans... :D :D ;D

Mine is comfortable with my car habits, for the most part.  Before we got married I explained that the habit was very likely not going away and if she thinks she may not be okay with it, say so now.  I also managed to get her to agree to me putting a few dollars from each of my paychecks into a separate account for car stuff.  So far it is working pretty well.

She's been out of work since last May, so things are tighter than they have been now.  But when we were both working if I had a justifiable reason to buy something, she was fine with it.  I also have a few cars around that I really should get rid of, but I am dragging my feet on that.  One car should bring some usable money, but I know that if I sell it now, the money would best be put towards paying bills and such.  I'm ok with that, however if it were to be sold when money wasn't tight, it would naturally go to another of my projects.  So I guess I am a bit selfish in that right.

Right when i came home with my latest project (69 KG) dumped everything in the kitchen wheels engine, tranny etc my wife, wait a minute i have no wife, uh nevermind.

I can't recall EVER trying to pull one over on my unsuspecting wife....... ::) :-X

great thread! seems like I'm blessed with my girlfriend... it's not just that she supports my car addiction, she's got some gasoline running through her veins, too. She's got her own lowered '64 Ghia,  where she'd like to put a bigger engine in. And if that wouldn't be enough, she dreams of a another Ghia, with full rollcage, stroker engine, beat up paint etc.. to blast through the swiss alps... And to complete her dream garage, she'd like to have a late 60s El Camino. Well sorry, guys... she just called me.. I need to help her pulling the engine from the Ghia.  8)

Let me see... 30 years of marriage... owned over 200 cars... all of them "a smokin' deal honey!"...

I have no idea where to start. Suffice to say my wife knew my habit when we married. She thinks I'm obsessed with cars (I am), I still drive her nuts with "good deals", but cars are really my only "habit/drug"

On the other hand when money was tight, I would sell what needed to be sold...  :-\

As Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that".

~DR

When I was about 20 and in DKK, I had a girlfriend that broke up with me because I spent more time with my cars than I did with her. She even had a bug [one of the reasons I was attracted to her] but it was just a car to her. I think the last straw was on her birthday I gave her a Berg Single QP header for her car. I thought it was the coolest gift, but I think she was think more along the lines of some jewelry. Go figure.

Oh well.

22 years later I married a gal that loves Volkswagens, she comes to most of my club events and an occasional show. She supports my current project even though I haven't finished my last project and suggested building a bigger garage to house them all. If that wasn't enough, she wants me to get her an early bus for her to tool around with!

I'm blessed.

-jeffrey

Well I dont want you guys to think my wife doesn't support my hobby. She has been very supportive to the point of letting me take over the garage, furnish it with some nice tools, buy a lot of parts, and build a storage building just for my bug stuff. She just wants to be consulted on the larger purchases is all. She does the same with me when she wants to buy something. My car has soaked up a considerable amount of our spare income the past few years and now she would like to see some of it spent on the house. That's fair

--louis

I think my wife's generosity comes form the fact that I moved form Cali to New Jersey to marry her!

-jeffrey

that's a keeper!!!!

Back in 1977, For a Christmas gift I bought my girlfriend (now wife) a complete Doug Thorley V-8 conversion kit for her Vega ::) She thought it was cool, I thought it was cool, her parents thought we were both nuts ;D

~DR.

my wife has always supported me in most of my purchases, as long as we got the money spare she doesnt mind,


you just need to play the game ..... If you havent got it then dont spend it, my Dad used to like to bet on the horses and left us short some times when we were kids growing up


I wouldnt do that to my kids

family first , toys a close second  ;)   

Hey Louis i can build you a new bathroom and you can pay me with "old vw stuff" ;D

Michael

Jay Leno's measure is basically if a woman will watch the Le Mans film marry her.  :D

if only.....

I think something like the first 18 minutes are without any dialogue at all! It's a big ask for sure.  :o

I normally put it on on Valentines Day.  ;D

haha good one. same thing for Two Lane Blacktop. "...hey, why there's hardly any dialoge in the whole movie..?" "– um well, should there be any? I mean, they're driving!"

My missus lasted only the drive with 911 in the French countryside in the beginning of Le Mans :D but it's okay, I don't do very good on Gray's Anatomy nor ER neither..

Anyway she considers Volkswagens as "harmless" and lets me have my fun with my hobby :)

"SHUT UP!!! YOU'RE MAKING ME MISS THE MOVIE!!!!"  ;D

I feel blessed to say I don't have a wife...or girlfriend. I keep hearing all these stories from friends about how their wive's complain and gripe about their hobbies. The funny part is, I always tell them at the wedding "Don't be nerveous about your wedding-It's the divorce that's gonna screw you!" ;)  I think a few buddies have realized that too...