idontbuyit

While, I’m not entirely sure what I’d do with my free time and money if I was famous, but I can be certain I wouldn’t buy a pink Bentley. I think it’s interesting what some people pick up as hobbies when they suddenly acquire money and fame. Rob Dyrdek from the “Rob & Big” show on MTV seems he picks up hobbies simply to have subject matter for the show. I saw an episode of him flying gas RC planes in his house and another where he was shuffling through his personalized poker chips. Eminem has been spotted out and about with 50 Cent doing everything from running their gas rc boats to admiring several of 50’s custom Cadillac parts he was given from Funk Master Flex. Flex had some one off Escalade rims made for him for a surprise TV show a while back. I don’t know if it’s just rappers and their obsession with being in control, but RC drift cars, RC helicopters and anything with a remote control seems to be their go to hobby when they discover their newly found free time.

I’m not sure what to think of it. They could be blowing it on Cristal and red caviar, I suppose. If you’ve got the money to feed your hobby, more power to you. I know the first thing I’d be doing is first picking up a Porsche and then tossing on some aftermarket Porsche 911 wheels on it; then hitting the strip. I’d pick up C6 Vette and selectively choose the high performance Corvette accessories I wanted, without going overboard. Yes, I’ve thought about this a few times. I’d probably be guilty of buying things to keep me entertained as well like air hockey tables, paintball gun packages or other things you might find at an amusement park that would keep a group of young guys busy for a couple hours. One thing you won’t catch me buying is car spoilers. I think that the wings that come factory on exotic cars are about the only place they seem fitting to me; not on your rusted out 1995 Acura Integra.

 

I've just about every European car there is. Okay, maybe not that many, but I the large majority of the cars I have owned (over 100) have been European cars, specifically German cars. I have this weird obsession with anything-German: Dirk Nowitzki, BMW, VW, German beer, etc. Anyways, I have to say one of the best parts of owning these cars is seeing how the modifications I've done effect the performance of the car.

I spent a lot of money adding BMW performance parts to all of my E30s and E36s. I searching high and low for Mercedes Rims before I finally found some that had the proper offset and bolt pattern and I even managed to retro fit some Audi headlights into an older model.VW wheels were always easy to find as the owners usually get tired of a certain style and pawn them off on the next V-Dubber. I've done a lot of crazy things in my day with European cars and been called a lot things as well; "eurotrash", "badge-blank" and a few others. I was once insulted by a group of grown men wearing pink motorcycle helmets…on mopeds. . not much of self esteem booster.

Being picky has always been trait of mine; borderline anal even. I wouldn't say that I have OCD just yet, but I have been known to flip out from time to time when someone gets dirt on my BMW floor mats. There are several ways to combat the situation, one being avoiding having any passengers at all which is what I prefer anyways.

In an effort to end my obsession compulsive behavior, I've began picking up hobbies. I tried RC car racing and I ended up being kicked off the circuit for being too aggressive. After that I picked up paintballing, sinking a substantial amount of money into Angel paintball guns and other accessories I probably didn't need. And while the idea of shooting someone (with paintballs) was very appealing and seemed to work for a while, I grew bored of the games and moved onto other things. I even took up installing auto body kits as a side job; which entailed prepping and painting the car fiberglass and polyurethane kits. That actually was rewarding in that the final product was all my handy work. It's not like installing a performance chip and never really seeing the results. I still do body work for fun, but it's just too time consuming.

My brother has a lot of Motorcycle helmets for sale at his local custom speed shop, but riding a bike is too dangerous for two reasons: 1) the drivers in my city are idiots and 2) it doesn't mesh well with my road rage.

A very unique hobby with good social interaction potential is remote control racing, flying or boating. My brother and I both have gas rc airplanes and it's always a good time when we go flying. There's nothing like being in total control of something, especially when you could potentially crash the mini RC helicopter at any time. Gas RC boats are fun as well and so is dealing with the logs and debris in the Mississippi River. It seems like a no-win situation, trying to combat this anger issue of mine. One day (when I make enough money) I'll just sit back and chow down on Cavier and drink some wine.

There's been several recent studies come out that talk about the growing popularity of classified websites. Sites like Craigslist are getting more and more traffic and specifically, car classifieds are growing in popularity. And I have a theory about that that goes like this..

I think people get sick of the price of dealerships and automotive repair shops. You might be able to relate if you've ever had to pick up BMW car parts or other high end cars like Mercedes Benz parts. Though, the high cost of repair is no longer limited to high end cars. You might find yourself spending thousands of dollars on repairs that you could easily do yourself. So, my theory is that as a result the economy downturn and rising cost of car repair, people are carefully selecting used cars to pick up and performing some of the repairs themselves. Though some still opt to have a 'professional' install certain things on certain cars, for instance Porsche 911 parts might be a little tricky to deal with, but there are things the everyday backyard mechanic should have no trouble doing on their own, saving themselves a few bucks along the way.

If you have plans for doing some customized work on a car you're restoring or just putting your own flavor into, you'll definitely be doing some of the work yourself. It's relatively easy to find people who are willing to install Dodge Dakota parts or Ford Mustang parts, but it's a different world when it comes to modifying projects. I once saw a guy attempt to install some custom Escalade parts on his Caddy, and after several attempts and swear words later, needless to say the lambo doors never made their way onto his ride. He was a talented guy who had a side business making custom poker chips, but he couldn't transfer his creativity and mechanical know-how into installing the custom setup.

Some common truck setups like Ford F150 parts and Dodge Ram Parts are pretty easy to install such as brake pads, body panels and other bolt on parts. Jeep Wrangler parts are pretty simple to install, as the car itself is pretty straight forward. It does depend on the car in terms of how easy the install might be, and you can always count on custom installs to require more time and lots of practice. If someone wants custom air hockey tables mounted in the back of his El Camino; that might be trickier than installing HID Light Kits or even cheap body kits.