French Mechanicking(á ensku því þetta var fyrst fært inn á Deviant Art)If my car were a person it would have a driver's license by now. That's both good and bad. It means it doesn't have any electrical gimmicks so if something goes wrong odds are that I can fix it myself. But on the other hand it's ageing and that means added maintainance. And lastly, it's french.
The french have an approach to mechanics which always reminds me of Richard McDuff's sofa. In Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (by Douglas Adams, as you should well know), a sofa is irreversibly stuck on the staircase to Richard's apartment. It can't be edged out. Being a geek and a programmer he makes a computer simulation of the whole situation and makes the following discovery: Not only is the sofa impossible to remove, but there is no way for it to have got into that position in the first place.
In France, these conundrums are embraced by the car industry and every car is put together like a mix of origami and complex 3D puzzles. For example, it can't be considered normal to basically rip the car apart just to be able to get the oil pan out. My Clio is half-way through it's curing process now and my fingers are recharging their healing powers. Chin up.
tack tack
--Drekafluga--
