Projects sage advice from a Emeritus member

I'll be sixty-eight for another month or so before I start a new lap around the sun. Lost my ambition a couple of years back and haven't done anything on my three torn apart rides in that time. Stumblin' around the shop about three weeks ago I found an ember of that ambition and I'm trying to fan it into a small flame. Spent at least an hour in the shop every day since then except on cruise nights (2). Spend some of that time figuring out where my stuff is all over again and some detailing my daily driver, the only ride I have running out of four. I've also started working on the Jimmy 302 head for my '37 Chevy pickup in the hopes of getting that one back on the road first. Back to baby steps.

 

I have bumper stickers for sale if anyone is interested:
"He who dies with the most toys - WINS!"

I figure my kids need to work a bit for any inheritance left.

 

I know about the get up and go done got up and went!

Post some photos,When I was building the Ranch Wagon and posted progress pictures the reply's were always positive and that kept me motivated.

I too am 68 and starting a new project and when I get the car on the road I hope I have the ambition,motivation and stamina to drag my old '65 ford truck out of the barn and start the process all over again.

We don't ever know what tomorrow will bring but there is no doubt in my mind it's coming and I don't want to be sitting in a rocker saying I wish I had spent more time driving that old car and looking at it taking up space in the corner.

Wasn't that a great motivation speech,now if can only practice what I preach! HRP

 

He who dies with the most unfinished projects - WINS!

 

Thanx, HRP. I have a website that I have been posting my builds to for about two decades now. When I was more active, I had a couple of hundred followers but the main reason I started logging my builds was to remind me of what I did from time to time. I was trying to avoid making the same mistakes over and over. All the effort posting those logs has been helpful.

This is what the Jimmy 302 head looked like when I took it off.



And this is what it looked like when I ceased work over a year ago.



Now, I'm slowly cleaning the ports.

Dayum! Don't know why the image links to my website are not working. First time that's ever happened. Uploaded the images instead.

 

This is the reason why I post on the "What did you get done today thread". It keeps me motivated and I like seeing other peoples progress too. Hopefully there will get to be a whole bunch of folks over there posting there stuff, and motivating each other.......

 

Last November, (2017) I had a fire in my house. We were out of the house for 6 months while the rebuild/repairs were done. I've been home since early May, about 2-1/2 months at this time. We're settled, but since coming home I've had a change of priorities. I'm much more focused on my home now than ever before, and while I have car projects I'm committed to, they aren't the first thing on my mind. The excess parts I've acquired over the last 25 years or so are slowly getting sold off. I'm spread thin between what I have going, and I can't bail out of the projects themselves. Right now the head priority is my son's car, after that is the family truck, and a few other things before I can get back to my own stuff, all the while I'm making room and saving cash to move forward.

In the end, when I'm gone, at least my oldest will appreciate whatever junk is left, and probably keep my cars.

Devin

 

i make all sorts of stuff, electronics, write code, and cars. i'm lucky enough to have a building to work in (400 sq ft) and tended to collect stuff i would use some day... uhuh. when it started collecting on the floor ringing the walls i decided i needed to get EVERYTHING OFF THE @$%$#@#$ FLOOR and that meant purging. it's been 10 years and it's been good.

its easy to get rid of junk -- even an iron pile you just haul it off.

getting rid of the "good stuff" is the problem.

when i would start a project, i'd peruse physically or mentally the pile of Good Stuff for ideas or for components etc. but when i started the Purge i realized that the "good stuff" was what was holding me back! and preventing me from getting anything done.

because when i needed to solve some in-project problem (gauges, or make a bracket, replace dud parts, build a new instrument panel, ...) i would get... stuck... on that "good stuff".

it took a couple years to jsut get started... but i realized that "good stuff" had sat ont hat damn shelf for 1, 5, 10, 15 years, AND I HAD NEVER USED IT. it wasn't that it was good, i was hung on it.

i got rid of anything not directly in line with the *current project*. i'm currently obsessed with this pre-1964 Rambler American chassis, which AMC made out of the '56 Nash Rambler, which has DNA back to the 40's... it's small, very light, very stiff, and insanely well made (with barbaric driveline).

but it's what interests me. with very few exceptions, if it doesn't apply to this chassis in some way, i sold/gave/recycled it. GONE.

not only was this stuff cluttering my shop and iron pile, it was cluttering my brain. more of it was electronic and historical electronic stuff. severely pruned down.

now when i need some thing -- i have to go buy or procure that thing. this is GOOD, not a problem and the piles didn't satisfy it -- now when i need a particular thing, i got find THAT THING and not get stuck trying to adapt some thing i'm hung up on that i have had in my show for a decade.

not quite zero regrets, but damn close enough. my shop is cleanable now and i get stuff done ten times faster and actually, better.

stuff is as much a burden as an asset.

 

^^^^^^^^well stated!

Ray

 

The real answer is "he who dies with the most..."... is still dead.

Projects don't sell, and it's getting tougher to get rid of them...then the estates turn into a angry fighting mess, some think it is all gold, some want it tossed in a dumpster to settle the real estate probate faster.


Try to get one damn car on the road...and drive it every evening... I took mine out once during the day to drop off a part at an vintage-only engine shop, then went for a ride before dark......saw three people working on a early Nova "hotrod" in the next town...so I turned around and stopped to meet and chat.

GrandDad, his Son, and grandson. GrandDad says he had a 34 Ford roadster hotrod in 1955, sold it for $300 to go in the Service!

GranDads son, who owns the Nova, said he met me at the Citgo last night in that town...then his son said he saw my car sitting at UConn that same night! (I had stopped there to meet/find the owner of a early MG roadster..)


Yes, I do get around like The Beach Boys sang...and then get to meet thousands of new people..no lie.

having tons of projects your whole life and never having anything to enjoy, or share out on the road, is just totally pointless to me now.(after surviving an illness) Make excuses all you want, they are just excuses. Sell them off, trade them for help, or ask for help to get one going...you won't regret it when you finally have something to use.

Oh, and to Bob, 37kid....about 5 evenings ago, at 10pm heading home, one mile to go...I smell what I really thought was a "generator or regulator" burning smell, not a hot wire smell...I looked at the "volt gauge" and saw it had dived to under 12.5 as I let off the gas to make a turn...I thought about hitting the "main" battery kill switch..but that would shut the lights off too, so I kept going.. Around the corner, some people had an outdoor bonfire, so maybe they were burning some nasty stuff? IDK, as I have checked the car out in the last few days, and will have to keep an eye on the gauge...but I sure won't use that as a reason not to drive it every night.

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Wiring is 8-10 years down the road on my projects, if I'm still around. Bob

 

One thing that helps me, is that at 71 and in fair health, is that I don't want my wife to have to deal with a lot of my junk. It's unlikely that I will ever have a need for the stuff as my body is in rough shape and I just can't do the physical stuff anymore. A piece of advice: label your stuff and its value. That will help keep your wife from getting taken to the cleaners if you go before she does. Enlist a buddy or two that you trust to help price and move your stuff is a good idea too.

 

at 73, still racin and enjoyin life hope to reach 90 and still be racin as was my hero Elmer Snyder, before he passed so that gives me at least 17 more years of pushin the pedal to the metal. Although it is gettin a little bit harder to get out of the car every year, but that is the price of fun.........me an Elmer in 2016.......

 

I keep thinking about putting all the related parts to a project in one area, or better yet set of shelves. Garage, garage attic and basement has the '39 pickup well scattered, oh look the cowl vent is under the desk.


Bob

 

Anyone is capable of "resetting" their subconscious, to make stuff finally happen. Negative thought patterns attract negative results.

I just got a call 10 minutes ago from a local used car dealer owner...I "re-met" him just this year (when I helped out his neighbor who had broken down in town with a sweet 70 Ford pickup), and then realized he was the "once"stressed out former service manager at a VW dealer I worked for in the 1970s...he is 76, and wants to finish a 8 year long stalled VW bug project car.. I will be going to help, and it WILL happen. All it takes is a "firm desire attitude" on the owners part...and the rest will flow automatically..

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Read some "basic" electrical stuff last night and understand far less now. I may mix up a bag of cement and turn a pile of rocks into part of a wall later today.


Bob

 

Im still enjoying my hoard. And I still enjoy adding to it. And sometimes like to sell stuff. Next Saturday im going to a estate auction at the Hwy 142 &21 Jct near Doniphan Mo. The now deceased collector was close to my age. I knew him and we traded a few times. More likely than not I will buy some bargain's that I will never use. Buckner Auction Co. Chaffee Mo. is doing the sale. There is a listing and pictures on Auction Zip. I don't care what kind of opinions others have. My give a durn is broke. Im old and can do as I want.