Manky Monkey Motors

As we know,there is an awful lot of time consuming work/development etc in a scratch built trike(or any vehicle TBH)As we are making lifestyle changes in our household(giving up cars after 45 years of building,just doing the trike .Also having a major clear out of car/bike/household stuff)I was wondering what the wives/partners etc of other builders and tinkerers thought about the amount of time spent in the workshop on your 'toys'?
  Personally I dont ever recall a time when SWMBO has stopped me doing this in about 40 years of being together!Even when the kids were born/small I kept building stuff.I even have a story ,and other ones,about the time she lifted a Rover V8 eng and box when she was about 7 months pregnant! But thats for another time!I have always thought she has been very tolerant of this,including car bits on the kitchen worktop etc etc.I know she isnt really interested in the stuff I build ,but I also know when the vehicle is built she gets a great sense of pride when admirers ask who built it.She often says that she knows exactly where I'll be when Im not in the house,(cos I dont go to the pub or out in the eves with mates etc.)
 Rod

I'm very fortunate that the lady in my life is a bit of a petrolhead too.
I actually met Tanya through this very forum. She has a liking for "prestige performance" cars and owned 3 litre BMW Clubsport coupe, (horribly chavvy in my opinion). I'm a biker/hotrodder & not really into modern production cars, but thankfully Taz saw the light & we've compromised by flogging the Beemer & taking on a classic 60s American muscle car project. A couple of years down the line, we've got a rolling bodyshell & an empty bank account -but Taz can say Yeah, I own a V8 Dodge Charger.
She also owns a part built Reliant trike & fully intends to pilot my V8 hotrod when it's finished.
I can't afford to go to the pub any more.   :(

Exactly how I get to spend so much time painting!!! That and the 'percentage' she gets from any profit I make on work (not that there's much of that about at the moment unfortunately! Hopefully, that'll pick up soon)

i used to spend every moment possible tinkering with projects in the past & mrs bus would be tollerent to a point , then she'd let me know when i was taking the p**s. since my bruv had a very big offing a couple of years ago i aint realy had the inclination for the bikes or the tinkering. now mrs be keeps telling me that i need the tinkering thing again cos she now sees how i have changed for not doing it...........i guess she understands me better than i gave her credit for..........thanx helen xx

my mrs is glad shes a "shed widow"

Its strange(good) that some women are very tolerant of their partners when it comes to tinkering in the workshop,whereas others want to control all aspects . Ive been to friends houses ,and stood in the garage or outside talking cars,when the friends wife/partner has shouted for them to come in to do the most basic job/watch the kids etc ,which could have waited a while until at least the end of our conversation! Im sure they do it to let me know who is in control in 'their' house! My missus thinks that they are wrong to do this,and just cant see the point in it! I suppose thats why we've been married 31 years,and still going strong!

I just bought this little fella...2.8i and my missus prefers it to the bikes, but she generally supports me in all my misdeeds....and is currently helping with the build of a new workshop



(http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb134/steveredd/z3c.jpg)
(http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb134/steveredd/z3b.jpg)

Cuddles has never known me any different. She just wants to see her trike finished now, and so do I  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Ive been told NO MORE PROJECTS once the trike and camper are finished well not for a whole summer anyway. But that said my good lady is a proper good egg.

Well my man doesn'y go any further than what used to be the spare room where he is building a double O gauge railway - as a change from going fishing.

But what I REALLY resent is that being a female, when I want to get out to the garage to work on the trike, it has to wait till I've cooked the dinner and done the washing and the Tesco order........


 ::)

Ha ! thats very true BG! My missus hasn't actually got a hobby,but likes to comment that her hobby is the kids and me! I respect her for that.

I don't want respect I want TIME!    ;D

 ;D

Got no complaints!

Caroline never bats an eyelid at my projects.  ;D


I drag also sorts of stuff through the house, Lathes, scooters, bikes and engines oh and a Boat  :o

The Garden also has a Bus, Trike, 2 cars and a van. A large trailer and a small one too  :o

Luck bloke eh  ;D

Well it's your own fault....I do the all cooking and the  a lot of the shopping, so you should have chosen better  ;D ;D ;D   ;)

...and since when was it a females job to cook...it's a proven fact that all the best cooks are men  :P :P

treading on thin ice there mate

she knows I'm only joking












...I hope

well i dont mind doin my share of cookin n cleanin as our lass is always helping me she is nearly as much a petrolhead as me an if you saw my house and scrapyard (not garden) its full of projects i think i lost count at 29
one day a couple of mates turned up to me washing pots while she was stripping clutch on my triumph chop in front hallway they just couldnt believe there eyes  lol

Back in the 1920s my dad was in the Navy and while he was away my mum used to strip and decoke his Harley engine ready for him to rebuild when he got home on leave.

Now BG you must be so proud of your mum
I remember as a kid my little firery mum (5 ft 3 in)screaming at my (6ft 2 in 22 stone ) old fellow
(now just imagine a council house way back when men were men and women didn't wear dungerees and they had an outside lavvie and the posh one's had an inside bathroom)

mum: what the bleeping  hell is the norton doing in my  bleeping  kitchen why can't you put it in  the bleeping   bathroom
dad:cos the speedtwins in the bathroom
mum;why don't you put  bleeping  speedtwin in the  bleeping  bath
dad:cos the cubs in the bath
mum;ok you  bleeping big bleeping  bleeping  what do you want for your tea
you can put your own words to the bleeping bits  but I can assure yiou they are all stronger than bugger 

Odd thing was I never knew about my mum and the Harley, or even that my dad had been a biker, till I was visiting an old aunt some time after Dad's death, and got talking about the fact my daughter and her hubby were bikers.  Aunt Margaret said 'do they go to the island?' and I didn't even know what she meant!  Turned out my uncle (Mum's brother) used to race a bike he'd built himself, my Dad was a mate of his and that's how he met my mum - so you could say I only exist because of motorcycles!