In the ten years I resided in Lithuania, I spent a lot of time around cars. My father made a living importing cars from France when I was probably five or six. He would go up there with some friends to the car flea markets (exact term... Thousands of cars lined up, sold by owner), buy a few, drive them all back to Lithuania, sell them for a profit, and repeat.
Who wouldn't love to do that? I asked him what was one of the funnest cars he had bought and it was a Renault 5 Turbo.
One thing about Lithuania in the early 90s is that we had broken free of the USSR not long before and 80% of cars were Ladas and Volgas. Every once in a while, usually in the bigger cities, you might see something imported like a Lincoln Town Car which blew my mind at the time. Now in 2018, it's not like that anymore because the nation is prospering but that early 90s car culture (if you can call it that) really inspired me. Seeing BMWs and stuff like that. One time, my father's friend came to visit with a Honda CRX he had bought and let me tell you - the whole neighborhood was looking at it. A CRX! What's hilarious is that I distinctly remember that it had a Firebird flaming chicken on the hood! It's not like anyone knew what a Firebird was anyway so it fit well until I realized what it was years later.
That's a Volga. The design is obviously stolen from some American car but this was the luxury car of the day, despite the fact that it wasn't luxurious at all. I admit they look great but you don't want one! I'm telling you right now.
Now, in Lithuania at the time, almost everyone lived in apartments originally built by the USSR and they had a weird system where each apartment had a garage... 10 miles away.
It was normal to walk to the garage to GET your car if you weren't going to use it for a few days. That was also the place where friends would work on these cars, sometimes all day long. Although at the time I was more interested in burning stuff, I think some of that oil got into my blood.
Matter of fact, it's in there. My grandpa was a championship rally racer and my dad did very well here locally in Florida.
Before I bore you, my point is that I grew up in an environment where my family would be driving down the road and one of us would point out a nice car and we would talk about it. So what drives me? Truly?
Too easy. Yes, that's Lexy 2. It's evolving...
It's the fact that my father always told me to reach for my dreams and not listen to anybody. I'm trying to create a life for myself that I can be proud of. I want to build things with my hands and leave a mark on this world.
I wanna do something unique. I want to open people's eyes to the fact that nobody can tell you what you should do with your life. And damnit, sometimes it looks like you're doing the exact opposite to the people around you but they don't realize the dream you truly envision and strive and sweat and bleed for every day.
It's at this time that times are hard. You're learning your trade, you have to get creative and do side jobs for money, and hope and pray that's enough until you make it! Meanwhile, there's people in your face telling you to forget it and get a real job. It's hard, really.
People. You want to start a business? It's something that's been on your mind for a long time and it involves an interest of yours? No doubt in my mind you should go at it full force. That saying didn't come from nowhere. What is it? A job ain't a job if it's doing what you love.
But if you're on the fence and wouldn't mind just working a normal job, do that instead because you're going to half-a#@ your business, probably give up, and go find a mindnumbing job anyway. If you want to start a business but you don't think it's the right time, well, even though you would get a head start, I would say you should wait until you get really inspired. That way you're not putting out just decent content but good stuff. I just got let go because of health reasons and that coupled with the fact that I LOVE cars and upholstery, that very first day, I was working on my business for a good six hours non-stop.
So why am I here? By God almighty I am here to inspire people, teach people, and help people to think differently. That's something that I hope I get across in my posts. The whole idea of the website is that you can do a lot with little!
So what about the car, Rokas?!
The car has been beautiful to me except for a little problem. It's leaking oil now. Yep, every 3-5 days I have to add a quart. It's better than the quart a day I was doing. The oil filter was so old that IT was leaking.
Changing it helped slow the leak down but there must be another one. For now, I have to save up money to fix that and put in a new water pump and timing belt. Soon.
I think some of the seals are leaking, unfortunately.
Besides that, the car came with a problem where "it needs new bulbs" meaning "it needs a new Brake Light Switch because you have to jam it into reverse and the car never puts the brake lights on." Which is fine. It was an easy fix and worth the money (of buying the part...) to learn. I posted a tutorial on it on this website if you ever come across that problem. It fixed my traction control aswell. Before I did this, the TC light was flashing in my dash. Obviously the Brake Light Switch is part of what that system needs to work.
Before, I had to yank the shifter down and to the right to get out of P but that problem is gone. I hated it. But what was really strange about fixing that problem was that it seemed to let my engine run a little better. It could be in my head or just a coincidence but I swear it idles just a little higher now and just drives really good.
See these come with plungers when your brake poop line gets clogged.
I also was blessed with a nice set of tires. Sadly, they are 18in but they're $150 tires. I'm still on these OEM 16s, reppin... No really, I need bigger rims. I'm probably going to sell these so I have project car money for now.
As a side note, my health - at 29 years of age - is bad enough to where I may have to stop working! Yay! But the good thing is that I've been focusing on cars.
Running this website, practicing upholstery, doing side work related to cars, working on my car. I'm dedicating myself to what I love. I won't be able to help but make some money if I love this so much. But trust me, it's not about the money. But a man doesn't feel right not providing or at least he should if he's a real man!
Everything going well, the car should be fully reupholstered within a month and I will definitely post an article. Most people don't show ANYTHING before it's done but why would I not show you a mock-up? If you like the idea, steal it.
I'm teaching myself upholstery. Besides this website and the business, if I work (I might get disability, sadly), upholstery will be one of my money makers and probably the one that makes the most money, too. I found my passion. Cars in general is a passion but upholstery by itself is, too. There's a certain satisfaction you get when you reupholster the car and see it change completely.
If you're wondering how I came up with this style of interior, it's the Celsior. That car (Toyota's version of an LS400) had a cloth interior and they came with seat covers that covered only the upper half. So this is a bit of a throwback. The cloth piece is finished. The bottom piece is not.
Where the seat cover is now is where the leather is gonna go. In the back, the whole seat is going to be completely covered with the same leather. There's also going to be some trim pieces of another leather. If I revealed that, you guys would have no reason to come back...
Since you're probably thinking "What is he gonna do to make that look good?" You should come back for an update. This is the leather...
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