Hot Rods Who else does NOT enjoy working on your cars?

I guess I can't stand not finishing things. I like to get things done. If I don't keep moving things pile up. I am just getting caught up around my place after having knee surgery last August. I could not do much for some months and I hate that. anyway I like the fabrication part of a build. I like to design and build.

 

I actually like working on my car's, problem is 95% of the time I'm working on somebody else stuff and that I'm getting sick of and unmotivated. I have really got to learn that word "NO" way better.

 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, very classy, like the cars you work on. Bob

 

It is over 100 degrees in my shop 9 months out of the year down here in Florida, but it doesn't stop me from getting out there and building other people's dream cars.
It gives me the money to spend on parts for my projects. I am 67 and still go at it at least 6 days a week. At 36 you could not make me tired. Now I get tired easier and work slower, but still do what I can .

 

In the hottest months, cooling the shop can take the electric bill from $175 to $300 or $325 but that extra $150 three or four months in the summer sure beats having to sit in the house and wish we were playing with the cars.

 

When that next car you want becomes available the current car you need to sell gets done real fast!

 

Sell it as fast as you can as is if you don't want to loose the next one. Bob

 

We all go through slumps, I'm in one now, usually I am building like a madman. Right now, it's an effort to go to the shop, no interest, happens every now and then. I've learned to let it pass, never know what tomorrow brings, however, I will say, tomorrow I gotta replace calipers, rotors and pads on my duramax, I love working on hot rods, but shit like tomorrow doesn't turn me on at all.

 

I don't particularly like any of the grinding, drilling, degreasing, scraping and stuff. I don't like it at all.
I hate crapwork.
But these ideas I get just keep on bugging me.
Eventually I have to do something about it.

Then when I get tired of it all, again, and start driving a BrandX for a while, I become invisible.
No more thumbs-up.
No more watching in the store windows to see the reflection of your cool car drive by.
No more pointing and smiles.
People no longer walk up to you at the gas pump....
refreshing.

for about a week.

then it's disappointing.

Then I start getting bugged at myself for taking too long a break.

Time to try out more cool ideas....

Ok, so I like being able to fade into a crowd once in a while, but driving a plain vanilla anonymous dull cookie cutter appliance just drives me back to the workshop with more ideas on how to cure the boring-ride-blues and make things fun again.

Enthusiasm comes and goes.
Rest when you need.
Then let it drag you back in....



why be ordinary?

 

well .....
I teach how to fix cars during the day
fix cars at home(mostly mine)
work on crap on the weekends
go to most all local runs
try to arrange vacations near shows
visit junk/scrap yards just to shop
watch shows about cars

 

It took me a lot of years of working in independent shops, tire stores, dealerships and a muffler shop to discover that I didn't really like working on cars for a living. I did good at it and was good at it but my real desire was working on and building my hot rods and customs. I like the creating but am pretty burned out on the repairing. Years ago when you used to see adds for "a great work car" in the paper or little nickle I came up with the saying that anything advertised as a work car meant that you most likely were going to have to work on it when you got home at night so you could drive it to work the next day.
Most of the cars my wife has driven over our 48 years of marriage have been ones I bought cheap and repaired before she could drive them. Some were really nice cars that just needed a bit of work like the Buick Electra that I bought in Texas and did a brake job, put on a set of shocks and a set of tires. Car had been owned by an older lady who just drove it and never hand any maintenance done to it. It was only 5 years old at the time. That was one in a list of cars that I bought or was given and fixed for her.
I've got to change oil in my dualie and fix the turn signals so I can tow my boat to Annecortes next week to cruise the San Juans for a few days. Even that little bit of repair work is a chore that I don't want to tackle as it is repair work rather than creative work. I've got two cannons I want to finish to take with me and need to load about 50 black powder blanks for them to take a long. We are having a memorial for one of my boating mentors who was also a Hamber on Saturday the 12th at nook and firing multiple cannons in his honor. .

 

Wow, I wish my summer time PGE bill was just 325!

 

I was just bitching about my July 2017 Com-Ed bill being $101 (has about a week of AC use)! Thanks for the perspective review. Gene

 

You not the only one

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I feel your pain mate, that sounds just like my love/hate hot rod life.

 

I'll work in the heat, preferably outside and I move a big patio umbrella around. The cold is okay too, 45 is t-shirt weather to me. I wired my Ford on a series of 95-100 days, drank my share of adult beverages just to cut the dust a little. I take pool breaks on hot days.

I'm not doing much work on the car now due to the heat, just what it needs but rounding up parts and tasks to do once it drops a few degrees towards September and October. I had an exhaust hanger come loose last Saturday... this I had to get under and fix and generally look the bottom of the car over and check things to see if they were loose. Some time just farting around on things can lead to a head of steam and get going on other things.

 

As a younger man I worked at various non automotive/non construction jobs. Loved working on houses, building houses etc. Now I do remodeling for a living, it is now 8 months into building my
own garage. It is tough to get motivated when you do it all day, and life happens also. Hernia surgery
in my case really slowed me down, as well as the wear and tear of being 63. The end is finally in sight,
I am compounding the drywall now so my truck can finally come home soon and I can work on it.
Break the job down to small bites, tackle a little at a time so you get a feeling of progress it will get done.

 

Great thing about the old car hobby is that they will just set and wait for you. When the motivation isn't there or life gets in the way just close the garage door move on. When the time is right everything is just as you left it.

 

When I was younger my daily drivers were vintage cars and I hated working on them because it would necessarily be after a work day, something broke or it isn't running right, and I had to drive it to work the next morning. It was a stressful deadline especially if I didn't have the right parts.

Today I love driving a modern daily driver and working otherwise on the vintage cars. The only deadline I have now is hours before the funeral director rolls me into his shop. I'll admit to having more joy some days then others.

 

I fixed cars for a living for about 10 years and grew to hate it... working for assholes who only cared about how fast you worked. Not a care about the customer or the car. So I got out of it, best thing I ever did. Now I do it right at my own pace.

 

It's stress relief for me, it don't talk back, I get to do it the way I want, when I want to do it. I am busy building a new shop at home, so I have not been able to work on my current project. I can't wait to get back on it so she can be done for HAMB drags 2018. Outside of drag racing, most of the time I'd rather build than drive.

 

I have had issues working on my 31 coupe project even though I have more than enough parts to keep me more than busy. It all started when we sold the house nearly 5 years ago, the chassis, body, engine as well as all of the parts were boxed up and stored, not seen again for well over a year. Then came dealing with parents selling their home, liquidating and moving them into assisted living. At that point we moved into new home, then came grandchild #2, working on restoring aspects of my 62 Chevy II, maintaining Pop's 30 A coupe that I inherited, trying to get my brand new dream garage organized. Then came grandchild #3, then I turn 60. So, my time is split between kids, grand kids, wife, parents, dog, house and property, working full time etc. Leaving very little time to start, let alone build, a project car from the ground up that I have had for over 6 years. The wife bitches every time I want to work on it. So I am one guy that has become quite discouraged about working on my car, every time I look at it I get more sad, I have been working on old cars and rods since I was 15, I'm but a shell of my former hot rodding self. I used to really enjoy and even look forward to it, but nowadays not so much. :-(

 

Joliet Jake, in my opinion, you need your ears boxed. Not being critical, but you've given up too much of yourself, maybe you need something like a heart attack to show you, that you and those around you only got one life to live and living it well is the goal. Some of us here have been down this street, My heart attack was last sept 11, almost a year since I escaped death, very close call.
If you enjoy building, then you need to devote some time each week at the expense of other things and pursue the dreams you have, and not end up wishing you had later when you can't. If you had devoted a few hours a week six years ago when you got the project, you might be driving it by now, and that would bring some joy to both you and your wife.
I'm not judging or being mean, life is to be lived, pleasure is to be enjoyed, friends are awesome, and projects are gotten to enjoy the work of putting them together. Just being part of a community like the hamb is awesome, a brotherhood where we can bounce ideas off like minded folk.
I suspect that's why you're here.

 

My 2 cents, I am a carpenter that always worked and maintained own vehicles.
When I was a kid I had a couple flathead hot rods, then muscle cars and motorcycles.
Then when married with kids, was low maintenance cars all I had time for.

Now disabled/retired I enjoy working on molly my avatar. So simple nuts and bolts, and all metal.
Is more like physical and mental therapy to spend time with her.

 

My problem is that I made my hobby into my job. That bull of "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" is a damn lie. It's getting to where I really hate working on cars. The sad part is I love working on cars. I like cars. I hate the customers and high and mighty attitudes that come with them. The customers that watch all the silly car flipping and building shows and get a really skewed perspective on the time/money equation. I deal with customers all day and then I'm burnt out and angry then never work on my car. My custom car sits unfinished in the parking lot and I get sad as I walk past it to my daily to go home. Then the cycle starts all over the next morning. I hope I can get through this. I don't know what I would do without custom cars in my life.


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Bunch a sob stories on hear. If your older than 60 years old then you have a pass. But understand when an old man stop he dies short after. My uncle is 84 and farms his land everyday. If you want a friend get a dog. If something feels like it's missing its most likely the Lord. How the heck am I reading so many GUYS saying they don't like the WORK. Check out that guy who said he was 61 and is on cardboard. That so cool. It's not what you got- it's what's in your heart. The guy who said to start weaving baskets made me laugh so hard. The biggest joy I get with cars is the feeling of being self sufficant. The look on my wife's face when she looks proud of me and the patience I learn with everyone of MY mistakes. Check yourself next time you throw a wrench. Relax and breathe because such is life, a storm with problems around every corner. Be ready.

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I don't think they are sob stories at all, looking at you're AV pic, I'd guess you to be in you early 30's...when I was that age and into my 40's, I could play 18 holes of golf, 4 times a week, take the weekend off to do real family stuff if needed, and pull all nighters working on any project I had..cars,home,etc...25 years later, I'm sore after playing 18 holes on a slow Saturday, knees hurt, backaches and so on.

Good on your Uncle, but as you get older, you may be just like your Uncle, still going strong, but you might look behind you at the friends you had,that slowed way down over the years for various reasons.

All people age differently...hopefully when it's triple digits outside and you need to replace the U-Joints in your daily, you won't take it to a shop and think back "man, this stuff never bothered me back in the day".

The Lord isn't going to keep you from dehydrating, getting the shakes and a 2 day head ache...then again, many will feel it's the Lords will it happened.

 

Being in federal law enforcement i can't wait to get home and work on the car to clear my mind but some days i wish i would have bought a finish car.

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I miss tech week

 

I'm with you all the way hating cars is part of loving them it's like a marriage enough said

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