Most of my neighbors seem to be afraid of me, so no problems there! I try really hard to not make any noise to bother anyone, and everything is kept out of sight. I wouldn't want someone working a grinder at 3am, so I don't do it either. I have mostly good neighbors, all the old folks make their daily walks by my house, and always stop to talk. I had good neighbors next door, until they moved up and out. The new ones came equiped with the mini-van covered with liberal hippy bumper stickers, and the holier than thou attitude to match. They moved in on garage cleaning day, so everything was sitting in my driveway, most of it running. The glares were immediate. The wife has made several sideways comments, and insults, without directly confronting me about my garage inventory. The husband looks whipped, and I don't think he's allowed to speak in public. My Fairlane is parked on their side of my house. After several months of ignoring the comments, sneers, and general childish bullshit from people in their 50's, I've taken to working on it where it sits, instead of driving it around front. There's nothing like y-block blow-by to ruin your garden burger bbq! Of course, I have several of those R.U.B.'s (rich urban biker) in my area. I get to hear them blasting through with the unmuffled exhaust and high revs in the wee hours of the night.
My neighbors all know that I'm the neighborhood "guy who can fix anything" so I make attempts to keep their busted shit functioning. Then when I fire up a dragster or sprint car back in the alley I never get any negative feedback. A little "freebie" welding and/or wrenching goes a long way.
After the circle track race cars I used to run the neighbors a quite happy with me building hot rods( except for sandblasting and grinding ).
Those neighbors that know me know im crazy, those that dont know me think im crazy. Maybe im a little intiminating to them. Oh well .. My name is Jack.......They dont know Jack.. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to Fred Eaglesmith's song " Im a pretty good guy" says it all
I'm lucky, my nieghbor is a police officer who always has bikes in the front yard he's working on and he's into hotrods and always willing to help me!
My neighbors think I died.I used to work all night out of my garage,race cars,motorcycles,loud mufflers(if any).Now I own my own shop and I work there all night and day.They probably dont miss me......HAHAHAHA. EVIL
My neighbors like my car, they come out and watch me work on it and my mail man, looks at it everychance he gets whenever I am working on it.....
I dont have a "next door" neighbor, the closest one is about a 1/4 miles up the street and since he sells CRACK, I don't think he'll be calling anyone on me for making too much noise or having junk in my yard. Hell, my grass is tall enough to hide most of the stuff I've got right now anyway!
The day we moved in and I backed the trailer with ol '49 on it the neighbors all came out to see what it was. Most said "cool Merc", to which I said "It's a Chevy, but thanks!" (but right then I knew most of them are car guys-n-gals) My neighbor to the right of me is 84 now and keeps coming by to "check up on my progress". He clams to have a bottle of champian to share when the car is on the road. He also claims he will not live long enough to see it finished, makes me work a little harder each weekend. I want to see the look on his face when we take the first ride together. My other neighbors don't much mind, as I do all the work in the garage and never work past 9:30pm. Heck they put up with the year long teardrop build, so now they know I do finish what I start. See the teardrop here: http://www.RetroTeardrop.com
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121803&highlight=hot+rod+barbeque I'm going to assume that my neighbors are ok with it. Especially since none of them have complained about the car show I have at my house every year! By the way, your invited, see above link. Oh, and if you decide to have a car show at your house, invite the neighbors, it keeps them happy. Oh wait, the next door neighbor, who occasionaly wets himself, complained about front right tire of my uncles truck touching his lawn. This was the morning after I had 24 cars and a hundred people running around my yard for a day! And he complains about one tire! Oh well, truck was moved and all was forgotten. This year will be intersting, though. There will be new next door neighbors moving in the same week as our show. What a surprise that will be for them! I can almost hear them now... "Oh dear, what have we done?! The guy next door has a bunch of old f*cking cars in his yard and there's a bunch crazy drunk people everywhere!"
I try my best to work at reasonable hours, so I don/t piss them off. so far I have had cool neighbors and no problems. We will see how it goes in the new hood. So far my neighbor came over and offered to wire my garage for my compressor. Pretty cool huh? I think it might work.
here is my old hood... talk about tight cc&r's there were neighborhood volunteers that "reported" code violations... nothing like power washing a caddie motor in the driveway... the neighbors loved it... it was for a good cause... although they did get a little concerned at the burnouts
Well, I guess I need to do an update 'cause I just took the '51 for a spin and met a bunch of neighbors I'd never met before. I knew there were some cars in the neighborhood, but jeez! I couldn't go 4 or 5 houses without being flagged down...met a guy with a '37 Ford 5-window with a blown flatty (drool!), guy with a '53 Chevy HT, a couple with a cherry '65 Olds sport coupe, and heard about several others. In two years I'd never met any of these people driving my daily through the hood...one trip in the Chevy and I have a whole new outlook Bryan
I'll let you know....Haven't heard anything outta her recently...but their lawn sure looks damn good!
My neighbors hate me, and for no good reason. I never did hardly any work in the garage, I don't make any noise, all my cars even still have real mufflers on them. If I so much as open my hood in the garage with the door open, my landlord sends me a nastygram about neighbors complaining. Heck, with my new job, I don't even have any tools at home
My neighbors hate me, all except for the little kid down the block who's always outside hammering on some sort of tree house/fort and he's always watching when I've got my garage door open, eyes wide open and smiling trying to figure out what kind of monstrosity I'm creating...otherwise, for the most part, my neighbors despise me even though I keep the noise to a minimum, all of my junk is kept indoors and sometimes I even mow my lawn...I guess they just don't like the idea of a tattooed guy living in their little group with all his death trap contraptions that will eventually be heard for miles around when coming or going...oh well, if they start trouble I'll show 'em how noisy it could have been here in the past year...
Fortunately my neighbor has a machine shop and collects old Ford stuff, works out good. "Put that back, You don't know where it's been!"
If a guy is climbing in the window cops will be there in 30 minutes, if you are getting beaten to death 45, if there is a dead body on your lawn maybe an hour, a dead dog on your street with it's head cut off they tell you to put it in your trash. Frankie fires up his ride and goes around the block and they are waiting at the door to the shop in 2.34 minutes with back up and guns drawn. That's because the neighbors have a noise ordinance and can get you a 200 dollar ticket. Profitable response.
i just flushed the flatheads radiator/block on our on base housing duplex driveway...... yep, it stained the driveway orange...lol my neighbpor looooves me!
My neighbors and I have a great relationship. I've been here longer than most, and we live in a turn of the century neighbor hood with porches that encourage being social. Everybody knows that if some thing needs to be welded, or the car won't start - come get me! I don't mind it either. When I moved in twenty years ago we were all in our twenties and helped each other restore our houses, my skills came in handy. As that group moved out, they were replaced by folks that moved in from the suburbs that weren't into the social thing. After a bit, they come around. I don't work too late or too early, I keep the front of my home clean and well kept, and I share my toys too! Everyone over the age of 14 or so has ridden my mini bike and go kart at least once.
No problems- I try to be helpful and be the go to guy for the "big wrench" or to lend a hand. It helps to have some nice neighbors to deal with. I try not to piss anybody off with loud noises or late hours.
No matter where I've lived or how many junkers have been in the driveway, my neighbors have always been cool, probably because I fix anything and everything, usually for free.
A few love me. The "Old Guys" on the block always stop on their walks and talk to me. One old guy had to stop with his wife and ask if I was drunk or stupid when I got the Mustang. I have had the city called on me a few times but my house is in code all the time. I keep it trim and picked up. I just have more cars that parking...
Used to have a neighbor across the street who lived in what we called "The Little Crackhouse on the Prairie"...he had no electricity, so he had two long extension cords plugged into his Mom's house next door! In Oklahoma, the tag stays with the car, so he'd buy used beaters that had 10 or 11 months wourth of tag on them and drive them until they expired, or five months afterwards, did not matter to him! Anyway, he knew I was military. I made it a point to make him aware of my capabilities, whether they were true or not, and he never messed with my house or my stuff. After a tornado did extensive damage to his house/shack, he finally moved...or went to jail...didn't matter to me, he was finally gone. My other neighbors are pretty good (only have four!), and they are all at least 800 feet away, so we all get along just peachy!
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