Driving a manual

[gfloyd]

So I have a 5 speed, the only car my boyfriend and I have (we're happily living in sin). We just moved and now he's going to have to drive it. This wasn't a problem in Davis as we only used it once or twice a week. He's having problems learning how. I'm not sure if it's me or him. Anyone have any tips on teaching him? Right now another car isn't in the budget and he needs to get to work and shortly I won't be able to take him.

[Linty Fresh]

So I have a 5 speed, the only car my boyfriend and I have (we're happily living in sin). We just moved and now he's going to have to drive it. This wasn't a problem in Davis as we only used it once or twice a week. He's having problems learning how. I'm not sure if it's me or him. Anyone have any tips on teaching him? Right now another car isn't in the budget and he needs to get to work and shortly I won't be able to take him.

Hi, gfloyd. I learned on a stick shift, so it was no big thing, but I've heard that it is hell to master after learning on an automatic.

My advice? Take him to a remote road or deserted well-lit parking lot, ride with him, and let him spend the day learning how to synchronize pushing the clutch with shifting gears. That's probably the safest, most effective way. Make sure it's not a bad section of town, of course, and make sure you have plenty of room to maneuver and avoid any vehicles/pedestrians that might happen by. This will save both your nerves and time, because there's nothing quite so distracting to someone learning how to shift gears as a white-knuckled passenger in the front seat (as I found out the hard way learning to drive with my dad).

Oh, and make sure he goes really slow at first. When learning stick, slow and steady is the key. He's got to start out by concentrating on the clutch/gearshift. When he can do that without concentrating, then he can work on his speed.

Good luck with this.

[kunilou]

After a stretch of more than 20 years without even coming close to a stick shift, I had to learn all over again.

What Linty says. Go to a flat parking lot. Get out of the car. Have your boyfriend practice letting the clutch out again and again and again until he feels like he's found the friction point.

Step two, combine clutch and accelerator until he feels comfortable starting out.

Step three, find a hill, do it all over again.

If he has reasonable coordination, he should feel relatively comfortable inside of an hour.

Let him drive around town for a couple of days and then introduce him to downshifting.

[Boyo Jim]

No gas pedal at first. He should be able to start moving from a dead stop just by letting out the clutch with the car idling. When he can do that, he can start adding gas to speed up the process.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

He should be able to start moving from a dead stop just by letting out the clutch with the car idling.

Not on my mom's Hyundai.

[Lissa]

I had an awful time learning to drive stick. The worst for me was learning not to kill the engine when I had to brake on a hill.

I learned in my grandfather's field, driving on the dirt roads that surrounded it. He had insisted I learn to drive a manual before learning to drive an automatic. I was extremely frustrated by it because manual dexterity is not one of my gifts.

I finally stomped back into the house with tears of frustration brimming in my eyes and announced flatly that I wasn't going to do it any more. Almost all cars these days are automatics, I argued. I'd never need to know this.

Grandpa looked at me and solemnly said, "Lissa, what if you ever find yourself in need of a getaway car and the only one available is a stick?"

Defeated by his devestating logic, I trudged back out to try again. It took me a while, and it probably screwed up his transmission, but I eventually did get the hang of it.

My advice is just to be patient. Find a deserted place to practice and don't get frustrated if it takes a while.

[Renee]

Not on my mom's Hyundai.

Nor my Celica. I didn't learn to drive like this, and honestly didn't even know you could do this, and I've been driving stick on a daily basis for 10 years.

My advise is to emphasis that you can feel the correct tension in your foot and leg when the clutch is ready for the gas, with enough practice. (I know these aren't the correct terms, but I'm not sure what the correct terms are.) When I learned, on an old 300 Z, my dad pretty much said nothing but "go slower with the clutch." This led to me taking 30 seconds to let the clutch out and still killing the poor car. It was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. But I love driving stick now, and doubt I'll get an automatic until I am old and gray.

If he gets too frustrated, just get out of the car and walk around for a bit (another good reason to be away from traffic when learning). Don't let it get too tense, that will just make it worse. And plan on it taking a few days. There is nothing worse than getting stuck at a stoplight and people honking at you because you can't get the damn car started.

I firmly believe everyone's first car should be a stick, if at all possible. If it's all you have to drive when you're a teenager, you will learn how, and quick. Everyone should know how to drive stick.

[Boyo Jim]

Nor my Celica. I didn't learn to drive like this, and honestly didn't even know you could do this, and I've been driving stick on a daily basis for 10 years. ....

I didn't learn that way either, but I heard that tip elsewhere and found it really useful in teaching a friend,'

If you're using both feet when trying and failing to get the car moving, it's VERY tough to figure out which part you're doing wrong. So you isolate the movements. Mot cars should be able to start rolling with the engine at idle speed, but if not just tell your friend ro give it enough gas to run at a fast idle, and then forget the right foot. Just leave it frozen in place while he concentrates on getting a feel for the clutch.

[Harmonix]

I agree with boyo jim. You can get just about any car to move without the gas( assuming you don't have a crazy stage 3 clutch or something).

In a dead flat parking lot have him raise the clutch until the car barely starts moving. thats the friction point and he must move the clutch up thru it extremely slowly without gas in order for it to not kill the engine. Oh, and have him do it barefoot.

Also, the best advice I ever got when I was learning was that if anything started to go wrong. CLUTCH IN. You can't hurt the car when you're just in neutral.

Do you understand all the different parts of the car? I think I learned how to drive stick quickly because I understood the theory of it. I knew all the inner workings of what happened when I did what.

Go aggies!

[Harmonix]

alternatively for the left foot only method you can have him bring the clutch up to when the car just barely starts to move and have him leave it there until the car speeds up to a decent speed. Then he can raise his foot thru the friction point.

[QuickSilver]

No gas pedal at first. He should be able to start moving from a dead stop just by letting out the clutch with the car idling. When he can do that, he can start adding gas to speed up the process.

I agree with this whole heartedly.

The only caveat is you must not be on an incline surface. An empty parking lot is a good place to practice this. Also, a poorely tuned car (low idle speed) or an engine with really low torque may have trouble pulling at idle speed. But I believe most cars in good state of repair can in fact pull at idle with the clutch gently slipped with no gas applied.


That or get a new boyfriend. 'Cuz seriously... what good is a guy that can't drive standard? :dubious: :D

[Johnny L.A.]

Let him drive around town for a couple of days and then introduce him to downshifting.
And then... Double-clutching! :D

[Martini Enfield]

As someone who learnt to drive in a manual transmission vehicle, and has owned both manual and automatic transmission cars, I have to say that I think ALL new drivers should be required to learn to drive in a manual car... it certainly taught me a lot more about how the car worked, as well as understanding torque, RPMs, and so on.

Are there any good driving schools in your area? It might be worth simply paying for someone with the necessary qualifications and patience to teach your boyfriend the intricacies involved in a manual transmission...

[Johnny L.A.]

Are there any good driving schools in your area? It might be worth simply paying for someone with the necessary qualifications and patience to teach your boyfriend the intricacies involved in a manual transmission...
I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that drving schools, like car rental agencies, use cars with automatic transmissions.

[Lissa]

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that drving schools, like car rental agencies, use cars with automatic transmissions.

My driving school used all automatic transmission cars.

[Martini Enfield]

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that drving schools, like car rental agencies, use cars with automatic transmissions.

Most driving schools here offer you the choice of either manual or automatic transmission... my fiancee is trying to learn to drive, and she's had a couple of lessons in a manual and just can't get the hang of it, so now she's learning in an automatic and having much more success.

[Johnny L.A.]

I took Driver's Training in high school. They used automatics. Since I haven't used a private driving school, I don't know what equipment they use. But I've tried to rent cars with standard transmission when I travel. No joy. The reason I'm given is that only a small minority of people want a standard transmission, so that's what the agencies provide. Without phoning driving schools in the area I have no way of knowing; but I assume that they operate on the same principle: that people don't want standard transmissions. Being simpler to drive, it behooves the school to make things easy by using automatics.

Which reminds me of high school...

Dad taught me to drive in his Toyota pick-up (or 'ute', if you prefer), which had a standard transmission. In school we were driving on a mountain road and the instructor told me to shif into high gear on the way down. What do you do when you shift? Why, you push in the clutch of course! :smack:

[kinoons]

The only real good news is once he learns to get rolling in 1st gear, the rest of them come pretty easily.

I'll throw another vote in for large empty parking lot (most churches work great for this) and for using mainly the clutch.

[Sage Rat]

No gas pedal at first. He should be able to start moving from a dead stop just by letting out the clutch with the car idling. When he can do that, he can start adding gas to speed up the process.
Thirded. My brother had me try this and it made all the world of difference for getting my foot and not just my braind to understand what I was doing.

[Cat Whisperer]

I was going to suggest that the first lesson should be, don't try to teach loved ones to drive. :D

Okay, if you're set on teaching him, yeah, go to a parking lot and let him get used to stalling the car I mean getting it going in first. I don't agree with the others here; I think of the clutch and gas as yin and yang - clutch on, gas off, ease clutch off, ease gas on. Once he gets the hang of clutch off/gas on in first, the rest is pretty much gravy. He WILL stall it repeatedly while driving, and he WILL hold up traffic on a hill and get so frustrated he'll want to cry, but that's all part of the fun (hell, I've been driving manual transmissions for 10 years now, and I still dump it once in awhile. It happens.)

And make sure the parking brake is always off when he tries to get it going.

[Boyo Jim]

Oh yeah, and make sure he puts the parking brake ON when he leaves. There is no PARK gear.

I hav pissed off everal folks over the years by putting their emergency brake on after I'm done borrowing their automatic cars. I've driven stick for about 25 years, and I always forget you don't need the extra brake on automatics.

[Quartz]

Umm... does his license cover manual transmission cars? Here in the U.K., if you pass your driving test in an automatic, you're only licensed for automatics. You have to take another test for manuals.

[spingears]

So I have a 5 speed, the only car my boyfriend and I have (we're happily living in sin). We just moved and now he's going to have to drive it. This wasn't a problem in Davis as we only used it once or twice a week. He's having problems learning how. I'm not sure if it's me or him. Anyone have any tips on teaching him? Right now another car isn't in the budget and he needs to get to work and shortly I won't be able to take him.He has to know the why as well as how a stick shift works. If it is synchro-shift there should be a minimal learning curve.
A plain gearbox is a gray horse of a different color. Do you double clutch when shifting?
I learned to double clutch downshift on an old farm truck when I encountered a steep hill ending in the river/lake.
Took some fast and fancy footwork to avoid the drink.

[Mr2001]

Umm... does his license cover manual transmission cars? Here in the U.K., if you pass your driving test in an automatic, you're only licensed for automatics. You have to take another test for manuals.
It's the same license for both in the U.S.

[Johnny L.A.]

A plain gearbox is a gray horse of a different color. Do you double clutch when shifting?
I can't speak for the OP, but I'd bet money that it's a synchro box. I was reading a 1962 issue of Car & Driver and basically the only bad thing they had to say about the new MGB is that it lacked synchro in first. MGBs didn't get synchro until about five years later, but it seems from the context that all-synchro boxes were desired if not expected over 40 years ago.

My MGB (still in restoration, but I expect work to resume any day now) is a '66. My Triumph Herald is a '63. (It didn't have synchro in first, and it's not working between 3rd and 2nd.) I don't personally know anyone who'd be able to drive them (except for me of course). :D

[Boyo Jim]

Umm... does his license cover manual transmission cars? Here in the U.K., if you pass your driving test in an automatic, you're only licensed for automatics. You have to take another test for manuals.

No such issue in the States, at least where I've lived: Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. There is no shifting test, or license rating for it, for private cars. There are some additional requirements for commercial drivers, but I'm not qualified to speak to those.

[Cicero]

Double clutching- it was always called double declutching in this neck of the woods. (If we are talking of the same thing- no synchromesh). It was horrible.

[Johnny L.A.]

It was horrible.
Nah, it's fun!

[Cicero]

Nah, it's fun!

You must have had considerably more talent than me then. :cool: And the drum, non power brakes. Give me a mdoern car any day.

[TheLoadedDog]

Three things..

1. Third gear is your friend!
In a modern manual car, the box is relatively forgiving of poor gear selection. If your b/f gets flustered and forgets what gear he's in, have him simply knock it into neutral, let go, then jam it straight up. It'll be in third, a truly wonderful gear. You can be in third at 15mph and you'll keep moving. The car will protest, but you'll get going (slowly), and you won't be embarrassingly stalled in the middle of a bust street. Similarly, if you get it into third at 60, you won't cook the engine or crash, so long as you don't stay there. Apart from just taking off at the lights, or speeding along a desert highway, third will cover most driving - at a pinch.

2. Practice ALONE! Any halfway smart person can drive a manual, but a really bad thing is to have somebody in the passenger seat when you're trying to learn the friction point. Even worse is if that person is the owner of the car. Kangaroo the car in private!

3.If in doubt, over-rev. Spinning the wheels a bit is less embarrassing than stalling. And a wheel-spin is something a newbie can recover from without getting flustered, unlike stalling. If you screwed up the take-off the first time, how are you going to manage now that you KNOW the people behind you are getting impatient. Stick it on 3000rpm if you have to, and slowly clutch out.

[gfloyd]

Thanks for the advice. I didn't have much trouble learning, as I knew about shift points and such before I started driving one. I did learn in an automatic, so I sort of understand. Oh, and in my car, it doesn't move much at all, other than backwards, with just releasing the clutch, you need to gas it. And third gear only works from about 20 to 35. I find fourth to be my friend. Oh, and I don't have a tac, which makes expain what's too much gas.

[Cheesesteak]

So you isolate the movements. Mot cars should be able to start rolling with the engine at idle speed, but if not just tell your friend ro give it enough gas to run at a fast idle, and then forget the right foot. Just leave it frozen in place while he concentrates on getting a feel for the clutch.I prefer the idea of using a high idle rather than a low idle. Bring the RPM up over 1000, and hold the gas steady from that point forward. It's more forgiving than a low idle, and just as easy to keep concentration on the clutch.

Remember, when the clutch starts to catch, you're NOT releasing it, you're keeping it partially engaged untill the car gets up to speed. Novices expect to release the clutch right when the car starts moving, but the car needs to get up a head of steam first. I think they need to focus on stopping their clutch foot when the car starts moving because natural inclination is to release.

[Johnny L.A.]

He WILL stall it repeatedly while driving, and he WILL hold up traffic...
A couple of months ago I saw a girl at a stop sign who just couldn't... erm, 'get it in gear', so to speak. I had to drive around her. I went to the corner gas station and refuelled, and she was still trying to get the car moving. I was going to offer to get her out of her way, but she finally got moving. And this was on a flat street. Good thing she was in Birch Bay, and not a city!

About hills. That takes a bit of technique. In an automatic you just put on the brake. When the light changes you give it gas until it moves. On steep hills your friend will have to learn to jockey the clutch, accellerator, and the hand brake. Best to save that for a later lesson. ;)

[duality72]

The analogy that helped me was to drive like a cat kneads: one paw goes forward as the other comes back, and then vice versa. I had tended to think of operating the clutch and gas as two separate processes, when it should be more like one synchronized operation. Then it was just a matter of experience to work out the interaction.

[ShibbOleth]

I learned to drive on an automatic, but later bought a manual (to save money -- I was in college). I had the dealer show me what to do, then I bought the car and learned to drive it on the way home. Necessity will teach you quickly; I only stalled once on the way home.

So I'd recommend: tell him what to do, then drive him out somewhere in the middle of nowhere and leave him with a car, preferrably someone else's, and tell him if he loves you he'd better be home before dark.

:D

[Kevbo]

Teaching/learning anything to/from anyone emotionally attached to yourself is a minefield. The more difficult the subject matter, the bigger it is apt to blow up in your face.

Find someone else to teach him. Seriously.

You have been warned.

[Spiff]

Take to heart what Kevbo said above. And what featherlou said earlier.

I tried to teach my new wife to drive a clutch and it nearly ended our marriage before it had really begun.

We were truly newlyweds and were about to go on our honeymoon: a multi-country trip across southern Europe in a leased manual-transmission car.

I knew how to drive a stick, and was therefore planning to drive the entire trip, but I thought it wise that she at least have some skills on a manual transmission in case something happened to me. (Like too much vino tinto, for example :) ).

Anyway, what I thought was wise ... wasn't!

[A.R. Cane]

This thread evoked a memory that made me laugh. I once tried to get my wife to push start my pickup. I must have said something like "get me up to around 10 mph. and then back off". I was looking in the mirror to see her coming at me at about 10 mph. She banged into me and I must have cursed rather loudly. She left the car in tears and headed for the bedroom. Took me several minutes to coax her out and make her believe it was my fault.
Then there's the time that I tried to teach her how to ride a mo-ped.......

[TheLoadedDog]

I learned to drive on an automatic, but later bought a manual (to save money -- I was in college). I had the dealer show me what to do, then I bought the car and learned to drive it on the way home. Necessity will teach you quickly; I only stalled once on the way home.
My ex did that. She couldn't drive a manual, and answered an ad in the paper for a second hand automatic. When she arrived at the guy's house, it turns out he'd lied (or the paper had made an error) and it was a manual. She told the guy, "Look, I have to pick up my kid in half an hour. If you want me to buy your car, you'd better teach me to drive it, and you'd better be a fast teacher." So he did. Although, when I started going out with her a year or two later, she was always labouring the motor by changing too soon and not revving high enough. Every time we took off from the lights, the car sounded like it was going to stop. She wouldn't listen to me when I suggested she wasn't doing it right, but after riding as passenger in that car with me a few times, I noticed she just quietly altered her driving style. :D


One thing I don't agree on is the always learn in a manual idea. I maintain that when you're at that very early stage of crawling around the parking lot looking at the pedals, it's better to have one less thing to worry about. Once the learner is okay with driving an automatic in general traffic, then introduce the gears and clutch, and that should only be a morning's lesson. Similarly, the best vehicle to learn a manual in is a large, powerful one, preferably a honking, great diesel SUV. Those things have mondo torque and are very forgiving of mistakes compared to, say, a micro-car with a biting clutch that you have to work the gears precisely just to keep up with traffic flow. Learners are always initially scared of driving a big thing, but they don't speed as a rule, so it should be fine. Of course, in the real world, the choice of vehicle to learn in might be limited, but ideally, I like to teach people in a variety of vehicles, if possible.

[burundi]

I dunno, this summer my husband taught me how to drive stick and it wasn't too horrible. I don't know what the roads are like where you are gfloys, but what finally did the trick for me was driving the car at the beach. Long straight roads at right angles, not the windy mountain roads up here.

Originally posted by Lissa
Grandpa looked at me and solemnly said, "Lissa, what if you ever find yourself in need of a getaway car and the only one available is a stick?"

This is the only reason why I learned. I don't like driving stick; I don't need to drive stick, but, by God, I can do it if I must.

[Waverly]

No gas pedal at first. He should be able to start moving from a dead stop just by letting out the clutch with the car idling. When he can do that, he can start adding gas to speed up the process.Not on my car. This doesn't seem like a terribly good idea.

[Harmonix]

Not on my car. This doesn't seem like a terribly good idea.

i've done it in an old corolla with less then 100 hp and a prelude with a stage 2 clutch. I'm pretty sure it can be done in any car.

[Nava]

Three things..

1. Third gear is your friend!
In a modern manual car, the box is relatively forgiving of poor gear selection. If your b/f gets flustered and forgets what gear he's in, have him simply knock it into neutral, let go, then jam it straight up. It'll be in third, a truly wonderful gear. You can be in third at 15mph and you'll keep moving. The car will protest, but you'll get going (slowly), and you won't be embarrassingly stalled in the middle of a bust street. Similarly, if you get it into third at 60, you won't cook the engine or crash, so long as you don't stay there. Apart from just taking off at the lights, or speeding along a desert highway, third will cover most driving - at a pinch.

2. Practice ALONE! Any halfway smart person can drive a manual, but a really bad thing is to have somebody in the passenger seat when you're trying to learn the friction point. Even worse is if that person is the owner of the car. Kangaroo the car in private!

3.If in doubt, over-rev. Spinning the wheels a bit is less embarrassing than stalling. And a wheel-spin is something a newbie can recover from without getting flustered, unlike stalling. If you screwed up the take-off the first time, how are you going to manage now that you KNOW the people behind you are getting impatient. Stick it on 3000rpm if you have to, and slowly clutch out.


My car's "longest" gear is 4th, it's a Yaris Terra. Hereabouts we call a "short" gear one that's useful at a narrow range of speeds; a "long" one is useful at a wide range.

I haven't seen this mentioned but haven't read everything either:
Practice the gearbox on a sitting car. Car stopped, clutch pressed, just shift the gearstick around: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, reverse. Reverse can be bitchy, in many cars you have to lift a bit or press a bit to get it in - a bit, don't do like a friend of mine did and pull the knob off, we're still pulling his leg about it 20 years later. Lift foot occasionally to prevent cramping - remember that you can only lift the foot when you're not trying to move the stick. Do whole sequences, then do "change one, lift, change one, lift..." - it feels dumb but helps learning to synch foot and hand. First few times do it looking at where the knob goes; then move to doing it without doing at it directly (to learn how to tell what gear he's in by touch and by what little he sees or doesn't see - I don't see the Yaris' knob in 5th, barely in 3rd, see it clearly in 1st). After he's able to do the sequence without looking, he can move to skipping (from 2nd to 4th for example), if he wants to. All of this without moving the car.



Here in Spain the normal thing is manual; whenever I'm in the US and get an automatic I really miss that third pedal - but I can see why it would be harder to move from automatic to manual than the other way round.

[Cat Whisperer]

<snip> - it feels dumb but helps learning to synch foot and hand.<snip>Here in Spain the normal thing is manual; whenever I'm in the US and get an automatic I really miss that third pedal - but I can see why it would be harder to move from automatic to manual than the other way round.
Then, once you get used to it and you have to drive an automatic, you have your right hand and left foot waving around uselessly at times during your drive. (Although the left foot can be used for accidently stomping on the brake pedal, if you're truly gifted.) :D

[gfloyd]

I have issues when I drive an automatic, including one memerable time I kept trying to bump the "clutch" ie the brake, and get out of a parallel parking space. It took me longer than I want to admit to realize why this wasn't working.

I've given up any hope of anyone ever being able to get my car into reverse without a least two tries. It has this horride safety on it that makes it near impossible. I can only do it on the first try about one in three times. My father insists it's so you don't accidentallly shift into reverse when aiming for fourth. I argue this is almost impossible as is. Ah well...

[Dr. Woo]

I can't speak for the OP, but I'd bet money that it's a synchro box. I was reading a 1962 issue of Car & Driver and basically the only bad thing they had to say about the new MGB is that it lacked synchro in first. MGBs didn't get synchro until about five years later, but it seems from the context that all-synchro boxes were desired if not expected over 40 years ago.

My MGB (still in restoration, but I expect work to resume any day now) is a '66. My Triumph Herald is a '63. (It didn't have synchro in first, and it's not working between 3rd and 2nd.) I don't personally know anyone who'd be able to drive them (except for me of course). :D

I could! I learned to drive on a '56 Volkswagen bug, and believe me, they had no synchro in first (or a gas gauge, for that matter). It was a bit challenging to learn, especially since my instructor (my boyfriend) chose an orange orchard as the venue for my first few lessons.

That '66 MGB is a great car - I have some fun memories of zooming up PCH in one of them many years ago.

[Red Stilettos]

Double clutching- it was always called double declutching in this neck of the woods. (If we are talking of the same thing- no synchromesh). It was horrible.
OK, I know how to drive a stick and I have a basic understanding of how it all works. But, what is double-clutching (or double-declutching)?

[Mr2001]

OK, I know how to drive a stick and I have a basic understanding of how it all works. But, what is double-clutching (or double-declutching)?
It's a way to manually match engine speeds when shifting to another gear. You shift into neutral (using the clutch one time), release the clutch, raise or lower the engine RPM to the correct speed for the desired gear, then shift into gear (using the clutch a second time).

[kilgoretrout]

I used to think I would never learn how to drive stick, but I always wanted sportscars with manual transmissions, so I eventually bought one and drove it to work(40 miles away) by myself. Along the way I realized that my problem was that I always just dumped the clutch when I was trying to get rolling instead of easing it out. Now when I teach my kids or friends, I tell them to either ease off the clutch slowly with no gas as posted by others, or to give the engine about 1500-2000 rpms and use the clutch to control the takeoff speed.

[Johnny L.A.]

That '66 MGB is a great car - I have some fun memories of zooming up PCH in one of them many years ago.
May as well post an update here.

The guys who were supposed to be working on my car, weren't. I moved it to a yard to get it out of the shop. Found a guy who restores British and Italian cars. My car is being moved to his shop Tuesday. I'll ferry the parts from the first shop (a hobbyist's machine shop) to the new one over a couple of days. The new guy says he can have it done (less upholstery, which is being done by someone else) in maybe two months.