Best friend could not believe I did not get violent

I decided to take my car to the carwash today. Just a great day to get the 31 coupe out. I then stopped by my good friends house; we were talking out in the road by my car. This truck stops and a guy jumps out of the passenger side telling me he loves rat rods over and over. (I thought we were getting mugged, when buddy pulled up 50 feet and waited.) He walks around the car naming off parts and years all wrong. I just keep asking, "How did you know that?" I have a 32 grill he said it was a 26.

He then started the you know what you should do is... I told him I would take all that in to consideration. The entire time my friend keeps looking at me waiting for me to blow my top, like I have in the past. I never did, just keep thinking what a dumb ass, please leave . The lack of his knowledge did not bother me but when he started telling me what I need and should do, I was dumb founded.

I went over to my friends house to talk and catch up not to befriend the village idiot. Some days I attract the weirdos.

 

That's pretty funny. Sometimes I just take the pAth of least resistance

 

Humor the ignorant. I think you did good. Most times, I really do try and educate. Then there are the ones like you were exposed to. In those cases, you listen and all the while, keep the jerk meter running on 'em. Makes for a good laugh later or a funny thread.

 

" I prefer to step over the shit rather than into it"- The Enigma
(Yes, the guy tattooed completely from top to bottom with blue puzzle pieces laid some Heavy Zen stuff on me, right after being accosted by a "man of faith")

 

My favorite is when they follow me into my garage to look at my car. I am polite but thinking, I didn't invite you, get the fuck out of my garage! And don't come back and steal my stuff!

 

Means you are getting more mature (old).

 

I like these guys that think they know all, but are as dumb as a rock. I have made two very sweet deals after I found out what they had and they didn't know what it was.

 

Dudes like that remind me of a Lance Sorchik cartoon I saw in Rodder's Digest about some dude trying to impress his girl at a car show as he points out the features on a Choppinchannelduececouperoadster.

 

Yes, been there done that too.

 

the perfect example of what i call

"Detached amusement"

Let the other guy be an ass while I laugh inside!

 

forgive them , for they know not what they say and do! besides the dude gave you and bros something to laugh about today!!

 

Wouldnt have made much of a difference with just you, your bud, and the dumbass there, but if there would have been a few more people around you could have made a complete tool out of him. May have even taught him a lesson, or two. I dont claim to know it all, and when i dont i try to do a little less talking, and alot more listening. It takes a village to raise an idiot.

 

Right on, man.

 

There's a really good muffler shop not far from my house and last year after I got my '32 Roadster together I stopped in to make arrangements for a system install. The owner is in his 80s and his son is the installer. I described my car and how I wanted it piped. The old man kept telling me that '32 Fords didn't have a k-member after I told them that I wanted the pipe to go between the battery and k-member. I just let it slide. When I took my car in the old boy wasn't there and the son apologized for his dad. It's not a big deal, no reason to argue with someone who thinks he's right. The son told me he was able to finish my job faster without his dad there because the old boy would constantly be telling him he was doing it wrong. I am lucky my dad wasn't like that. The shop did a great job and nobody got their feathers ruffled. So you handled the situation the right way, some people just want to ratchet their jaw. The FOGGER

 

Your friend is better than mine are. Usually they egg these genius's on when they come and talk to me just to get a rise out of me.

 

Your experience and reaction is why I am not a cop or a teacher or anyone else that must endure ignorance because of their job. I am a big fan of BLUNT. I would have straightened that guy out soooooooo fast. I agree that it would not have helped anything at all .... would likely have engendered some animosity from him, but I don't brook stupidity with any patience at all. Dummies should be sent packing. A fool like that is not curable, and I am not a doctor for doofs.

In retrospect, I am impressed with YOUR patience. You managed to enjoy the 'detached amusement' already mentioned by someone here, and the guy was left with his dignity (or his version thereof).

dj

 

You gotta have fun with these guys.... Once I was attacked when a buddy and I went to get a burrito, a guy came up asking questions about the '52 Plymouth I was driving. When he asked "What's the engine?" I said a "Black and Decker aquarium pump", and he actually said he had one of those in a car like that once too.... I kid you not!!

 

I'm with you, I don't tolerate stupid very well................

 

I was thinking of making a thread about this exact subject, and asking how to handle these people. It happened to me today... I was working in my garage, and this sketchy looking guy walks right up my driveway and into my garage and tried to begin an extemporaneous discourse on all kinds of car BS he thought he knew. AND, he had a camera around his neck and was taking pictures of my stuff... WTF!! I told him I was really busy and was super cold with the guy but he just wouldn't leave. What is the deal with these people? I can understand someone being stupid, or not knowing something, but what is going on in these people's heads that makes them talk out of their ass...literally making shit up on the fly, while speaking with someone who they are trying to impress, and who is obviously well-versed in the subject. I wouldn't try to impress a theoretical mathematician by walking up to his black board and writing a bunch of random symbols that don't mean anything, and pretending that it's a real equation.

 

careful james he might have been getting an inventory of your stash man!

 

Its also funny when you get equivalent comments like "I used to have one just like that except it was a brown 4-door, and I think it was a Dodge" as I get out of my 56 Chevy custom. And some guys always try telling me about all the chopped Mercs around back in the day when the guys who actually had cool cars back then said there wasn't a single one anywhere back then in this area.

 

If I've got time, I don't mind talking with anybody who shows an interest in my truck, unless they start telling me how I should have built it differently or what they would change on it if it were theirs. My truck is lettered as a shop truck for Drake Motor Co., the local Ford dealer from the '20s until 1956. One older guy looking at my truck said "I remember when Drake had that truck." I let him have his memory, didn't have the heart to tell him that my truck was in Colorado when Drake had the Ford dealership here. I'm running a 307 Chevy painted Ford flathead green with the valve covers lettered "Ford Experimental OHV." I have a whole cock-and-bull story about this rare experimental OHV being one of only 16 built and the only one known to exist in running condition, and how Mr Drake managed to get his hands on one of those engines and getting the dealership mechanics to install it in the dealership's shop truck. I have had people gullible enough to swallow the story hook, line, and sinker. Gullible people are such fun for one who is able to keep a straight face.

 

my favorite has always been the one I get asked the most.. man what do you have in that a v-8? usually I tell em its a 6 or a 4 cylinder.. sometimes they catch on.. other times.. well.. I had people coming up asking me how they could hop up thier 6 banger like mine...

 

I was followed home and right into my garage by a Outlaws M/C member on his Harley. He wanted to inform me that my car was a "bad motherfucker. " He was also digging my Triumph while walking around the garage. He was cool, but I was thinking the same thing, sure hope he doesn't come back when I'm not around.

 

Usually these guys have their girlfriend/wife with them and have to show off their huge knowledge of anything automotive. Years ago i had a '65 Impala SS; a guy with his lady walks up and proceeds to tell her how he had one just like it; "fastest car in town", looked under the hood and said "yup, small block just like mine"... I had recently installed a BB 402. Then he looks at the rear tires and tells her; "I had a lot bigger tires on mine though", the ones I had on were less than a fingers width from both the frame and the fender lip.......She was really impressed!!!!

 

. One of My all time favorites are the oh so knowedgeable ones who insist on telling you about the oldsmobiles with the 442 c.i. motor!!!!!! You try explaining to them about 4 barrells, 4 speeds and duel exhaust, but they keep insisting that no... It was all about those 442 cubic inches......
C'mon.... I know i'm not the only one......
It reminds me of a chicago area newspaper guy who described racing his old Impala which featured the small block motor and the 409 body....

 

but you know what i really thought that the older you get the more tolerent you got. hell not me the least little thing now,(well stupid little thing ) just sets me off. especially stuff about MY cars trying to impress the girlfreind.

 

Yep, Its one of the things that goes along with driving one damn fine automobile. Happens to me all the time, I just go along with it. No point in trying to correct them they are just trying to complement you.

 

reminds me of the time i set the two junk tires off my 92 cadillac next to the road.
3 guys in a s10 pull up and jump out to pick them up, i simply say "Hi There" to be considerate and go back to wiring my 58' Del rays dash. just then i hear, "So this is a nice cadillac you got here" i'm a little shocked being underneith my dash and tell them, "thank you, its my daily". to this the guy respond's, "but it doesnt have a sterring colom in it?", then i politely tell him that my del rays a chevy not a cadillac, my broughm is a cadillac. then he gets a little irate and said, "NO, my dad had a 55' chevy and it didnt look like this!" at that point i was stupifyed and told the guy, if you want the tires, take them and go.

but the best was one guy that just wanted to take a look at my car while i was outside working on it, i showed him the engine and when i told him it was a 91' 350 from an Impala SS, he gave me a strange look and said, "Is that the original engine?"

 

I had a guy step out of a toyota car roller (80s shit box) at a fuel station and asked me how the hell a guy like me got a car like that and that my grandpa must of gave it to me.

Or if I had a dollar for " gee mate they don't make em like that any more"