Think of the Children

Over the breakfast table the other day my brilliant wife asked me what it was in my life that motivated me to repair everything.

On reflection, I have always had a curious disposition for all things mechanical or electronic. As a child, I would take broken things apart and try, failing frequently, to repair and reassemble them. My success rate was patchy at best.

Slightly serviceable items became fully unusable or stuck together with tape only to break open later, flames emitted from exhaust pipes or carburetors, leaks appeared where there were no leaks before or that familiar acrid smell of melting plastic appeared after powering up the device again.

Over the years, the objects of repair have evolved from transistor radios to rolling back Microsoft Windows latest “upgrade” or even mechanical functions that are now performed electronically. None the less the theme has remained the same. Fix it first.

After each iteration I read more, understood more, acquired more tools and increasingly knew when and how to intervene or to solicit help from an expert.

That is not to say that everything in my house works wonderfully or that fixes don’t require subsequent fixes.

Recently, I also find myself as a father of 4 children trying to find a “thing” with each of my children that is common to us both and not just something I foist on them because I was going to do it anyway (it turns out that not every child loves cycling).

One of the children is a sports person, another is a prolific cook and furious organiser, one is quite young and still big on cartwheeling everywhere but there is one that responds logically and in between the questions you get from a 10-year-old (“Dad, would you prefer to be eaten by a crocodile or a great white shark?”) asks questions that demonstrates an inquisitive mind.

We started small; The Christmas jumper that didn’t light up any more and needed a wire re-soldering, migrated onto how a car works (along with some other scouts who wanted to earn their mechanics badge), and next was the headlight upgrade on our old LR Defender TD5.

The most recent session was on my Jaguar XJS , a still quite affordable classic and the car of my dreams when I was a kid.

I bought the car from Clarkes Jaguar in Sussex a few years ago where it had been beautifully prepared. However, from day 1 it had an imperceptible, let’s call it “boing” sound coming from the rear of the cabin that has become louder over the years.

After several failed attempts with a rubber mallet to replicate the noise on the underside of the car we concluded that the noise came from the rear parcel shelf.

One Sunday lunchtime my ten-year-old and I set about taking the interior of the car apart.

Without going into tedious detail of the process, what was interesting is the breadth of things we covered.

From car design and manufacturing process to how speakers work, which way a nut turns and which nuts don’t turn that way (think Gas adapters and Bicycle pedals), how plastics get work hard and how to glue them back together, logical ways to disassemble things, how seat belts work, soundproofing and so on.

Throughout the couple of hours my child worked their way around the process, solicited help where required and thought through how to approach the problems posed. All this, of course, under the intense pressure of moving lots of “scratchy” components in and out of a car renowned for rusting.

I would like to say that we resolved the issue but the first test drive immediately exposed the “boing” sound again.

However, what did I learn and perhaps all parents from this exercise?

• Without contriving an event, our time together created an environment to employ logic and mechanical know how.
• We discussed the concept of good design and repair over consume and destroy.
• Without trying, we covered a vast array of topics from materials to manufacturing.
• Parent and child spent time quality time together and we had fun.

In short. Time well spent with a common interest, goal and environmental undertone. An exercise I hope to keep repeating.

Why not try it yourself?

Chris

I hope to be one driver behind a new economy of redesign and repair with Governments and consumers that refocus on the source of waste and not just the management of it.

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