Well, it was a loooong summer. This one is gonna get sort of personal and lengthy so settle in. This entry is going to sound as pretentious as they come. It will sound cocky and shallow at times so my apologies if I come off that way. If you know me and I assume most of you really do, you'll know that I mean everything I say with the most humblest of intentions.

When it all comes down to it, Roxy is finished. She is basically at a point where I feel my initial goal has been met. I went back the other day and re-read the entire blog from start to finish and it was fairly enlightening. I started out with a $700 car and little to no knowledge about cars. I had a bullshit socket set from Home Depot to my name. Prior to Roxy, I had a MK2 named Betty for which the toughest mechanical endeavor I had to face was a shifter rebuild. It took Kate and I three hours to do that job. So suffice to say, I was green.

Through Roxy, I learned how to prep and paint a car, do bodywork, hire someone to do intensive work on a car such as reupholstery, custom bodywork, mechanical work beyond my means etc. I learned how to work on engines, I learned about offsets and wheel and tire selection (thanks Ethan). I learned about fabrication and invention. I learned how to swap a goddamn heater core for christ's sake. Even better than these skills, I met friends that helped me realize my vision along the way. They were the ones that I called when I had questions. They picked me up when I was stranded on the side of the road with a blown water pump and took time off on the weekend to paint my car. They were the ones who not only swapped my engine but swapped another one after the first swap went bad. They bought wheels for me in the ghetto and then shipped them to me from another country. They put up with me when I started my period over Roxy and was emo for a week (thanks Kate). Plus, I met all these wonderfully evil people in the MK3 forums who are relentlessly angry yet entirely friendly and downright awesome in person or through lengthy PM conversations.

Roxy also gave me a shitload of hardship. There were A LOT of times when I wanted to quit (and Kate was there every time to kick me in the taint to continue). I tried to be positive about everything and looked at each failure as a lesson to not do the next time and I think that held true. On the good side (and I don't know if this is sad or not), if I were to build another Roxy today, I could build the same exact car, for half the price. If that wasn't clear to you, I wasted MASSIVE amounts of money on this project. I try to rationalize it as the price of education but still, if I didn't understand that I spent far too much money on her, it would be a great disservice to my growth as an adult.

Then there's some of the lessons I learned. There were a few big ones that I took harder than others.
1) Never rely on anyone but yourself and if you have to rely on someone else, expect to be disappointed but be happy when you aren't.
2) Your price calculations will be wrong. Whatever you thought something would cost, expect to double it in the end.
3) Zipties really are indispensable with cars. Who knew?
4) Getting into PVW is every VW drivers goal no matter what they say or how indifferent they act about it. I don't care how much they say they hate the magazine or that it's changed for the worse, everyone reads it and it's the greatest magazine for our culture.
5) Actually getting printed in PVW is an entirely other task all together and I don't want to talk about it for a really long time.
6) When people don't understand that trying to be internet famous is all a big joke to you, it kind of backfires in your face sometimes.
7) Being internet famous is awesome. I don't give a fuck how cocky that came off as.
8) Lastly, and this is really important... having a girlfriend/wife that loves cars and especially loves to wrench is pretty much the radest thing in the world.

There were great moments though. Not only did I have the pleasure to do all these excitingly new projects to a car with my friends, there were some even better experiences than others. I got one of my car career-long idols to work on my car. He was given the right to introduce me to forced induction. Then, with my girlfriend at the time, Kate and I got to ride a train from Florida to Virginia together, an adventure in itself. I got people to actually call my car by her name in public (which is awesome). And I know this is a douchebag statement but I experienced admiration for the first time with Roxy. I'll be totally honest with you, there is nothing better than parking your car at a meet or a show and have people walk up to it and take pictures of it. It's stupid and materialistic and shallow but I'm not gonna lie, it always makes me smile. Maybe it's a form of payoff for the hardwork, I dunno. I'll just shut up now.

It's been a three year journey and for the first time, I am finally not depressed after show season ending. I know she's finished (for now?) and I can finally just relax. I can't say I'm at a point where she is enjoyable to me but I think she will be fairly soon. It has been disappointing that I managed to build a car that is 98% illegal in the town I live in, has seats that will probably give me major health issues in 5 years time, doesn't start when it's below 50º and has an exhaust that wakes up the entire block when I start her BUT, I feel awesome when I get to drive her. When I have a bad day, a 20 minute drive and a few boost runs on back roads always manage to make me feel better. I think that's the biggest difference between a normal person and a car person. It's not just a car to any of us. It's something that has a soul and it's something that we like to spend time with/on; something to covet and enjoy. Of all the shit that she's put me through, I can't disagree with any of the last statement at all.

Btw, I decided not to talk shit in this post because, well, it's not worth it. That's another one of the lessons I learned. See? I'm maturing. Kate would be proud.

This entry was posted by JKREW, on Thursday, October 8, 2009. You can leave your response.