That's what's great about the H.A.M.B., just when I'm having the same issue, someone opens up and I find I'm not alone.....I do the same...find one thing to do, get it done....that's when the satisfaction sting hits and I've been rejuvenated....at least for a while....what burns my ads is when I work so had on something to just have a complete failure....I guess that's when I just take a break outside the garage.....
You'd be amazed at what you can get done with a few mins. This was done in sessions of spare time that would normally be waisted over a period of about 6 weeks. Some sessions less than 5 mins and a handful 30 but no more. some days a few sessions some days none.
If you have the personality type that can let you work on something that often, with so little reward every day....not me....I want to see results in a day or two.
There's those days too, and plenty of big ones. Like I said before it was all with time that would normally be wasted, pissed away and forever gone. Instead there's what's pictured. Polishing a Trans is sorta mindless and you can think about all kinds of stuff too. When I was a kid, I redid all the stainless trim on my GTO to perfect show polish by hand while I watched tv. Could have just pissed that time away too. A Little bit every night while it was winter time. No the gratification isn't instant, but looking at judges sheets and seeing the remarks is a pretty big chunk of gratification and a whopper of a trophy.
I think part of it is I'm pretty disappointed in myself for putting so much time and money into my Model A... I have a 2yr old son and it's just such an impractical car. I should have spent that time and money on my 46. I think tomorrow will see some progress. May not be the progress some of my friends want to see but I had a long talk with my dad today and I'm in a different mind set and ready to drive this car.
Right now I am building a 1929 Model A Boat tail speedster, because I want to. I am going to have to rebuild the rear brakes and I just sent forMechanicsHand book, untill it arrives I am doing other thing to take my mind off this task I have to Master. I am not looking forward to it. I need motovation too. Don
Here's a link to the build thread. Its kind of confusing because I change my mind every 30 seconds. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/index.php?threads/732732/
Ok, what else would you rather be doing? When I get like that.....I just have a little pep talk with myself and head out to the garage and as mentioned.....next thing you know hours have passed by and I really get a lot done and feel a whole lot better about it!
Your not alone!... In two years...I've bought a house and built a shop. Moved in....moved car in.... Now...at a stand still....just staring at it..... looking at it.....dazed....and confused!...... I gotta get back out there!!! Thanks for the motivation!
All week at work I get motivated and have a game plan! Then the weekend comes and nothing. I get discouraged over some dumb little detail that is out of my control right now and presto! Weekend over.
Unfortunately my motto and reputation are "when it runs, it's done". Good advice above. My 32 coupe wont be driven this weekend to a big show up state because it has no heat. Sad part is the heater went in first. When the radio hit the heater I yanked it. Tough to go finish/fix minor issues once the car is roadworthy. SAD.
I have a 48 tudor sedan too that needs a radiator... fan got into it. Easy fix just sitting in the way in my driveway.
Well duder I think my advice, which I will try to serve up with out the smart as quips I typically give you is this. 1: dead line. One like a show like you did for the A but keep your budget. If it snow balls and you don't make the show you still get a ton done. You know I've got a new deadline every couple of weeks but I make about a third of them if I'm lucky. Having a hard date to aim for is the important part. Not actually making the date of that makes since. Take the A or the Tudor if the kustoms not done. It's not a big deal we all miss the dead line but it's having a target that keeps you focused. 2: maybe we should start a shop night/ morning. We can rotate who's house or stuff we work on or in case of a looming deadline we can thrash together. Not only does more hands make it go faster but I know I get more energy to work on my stuff after working on someone else's. Not having there worries, budget or hold backs let me actually enjoy tearing into the project with out reserve and then I go back home ready to do the same to mine. 3: this is the big one. You've gotta work on it more than on your weekend. I know your schedule blows and you have family. But find a slot in your day every day to try and get out there for at least 45 minutes. It honestly feels like it's not enough time to get anything done but once I started doing that I found that I had a head start on the weekend thrash. I get up and do chores and get things going and if I'm done by X time I have 45 minutes before I need to stop and go to work. Some days all I get done is stripping the insulation off the wires for a new switch to go in. But it's something, it's a bite. And it's the little stuff that throws a weekend thrash off. "Shit I didn't think it'd take 45 minutes to get those wires stripped, glad I did it today it would have totaly fucked my Sunday plan" It works. No one has time, you have to make it. Just find a window, it hasn't got to be hours. And if the tedious stuff is boring to you then you only need to do it for 45 minutes and your on to whatever else you've got to get done. You need to figure it out, you need to make you happy and quit giving a fuck what your friends will think. Believe me, if we are your friends at this point you could put a pink 4 banger in that car and it wouldn't make any difference in what I thought of you. Other wise you need to sell everything but the 48 and be happy to drive it and have fun or your going to be that guy with 30 unfinished projects that your gonna fix up someday. Hard truths.
Oh! And get that build thread going! Posting regularly even if it's something small or asking a question will help keep motivation up. You receive encouragement and you want to be able to update at least once a week so you try a little harder to make it worth posting about. I know I felt like I was only posting stupid little shit for forever but then I looked back and saw how much progress I really had made. I had the thread to look back on and show me I had made progress.
Sometimes what people say motivates me. You say your car has all the hard stuff done and its the trinket stuff that causes a problem with your motivation. From where I'm sitting, I see a car that has just been started! The chop is not done, its just roughed in. All the welding still needs to be finished up. There is no motor or trans in the car. Since when is a motor and trans installation something trivial? Obviously, if the welding on the roof is incomplete, there is little or no interior. Can you even sit in it and go "zoom, zoom"? At least you have all the brakes and suspension completed, right? Oh yea! It still "needs a simple rebuild". Maybe you should start by cleaning the garage! By your estimation, the truck cab I have sitting on a wood platform in my driveway must have all the hard work done as well. I have added pieces below the doors and now they open and close without the cab wobbling around. It only needs a frame, a drive train, door latches, windows and floors. But the "hard work" is done....... I see you have a project that will never be done, never be driven, and never enjoyed! Now, prove me wrong! I'll throw down a challenge to you. I'm motivated, my truck will be on the road by the end of next summer, maybe before. I'm betting I will have mine will be driving down the road before you get yours driving down the road! Gene
make a list. pick item on the list and complete it. put some time in every day. you'd be surprised how much really gets done. clean up every time before you leave. cleaning out the garage is a bad place to start. get tired, quit.
Other side of the chop is done. Once I figure out something the other side is cake. So yeah hard part done. There is an engine and trans in the car. All brakes are rebuilt just need to run lines.... boring. Interior is complete and upstairs.
Lmao !!!! "So yeah hard part done " flatout51 Member from Kansas City MO Well my girlfriend is pregnant and i was in need of a family car. So i got a 46 long door coupe! I want to build this car as cheap as possible and still have a reliable driver. I have a great Merc cranked 59ab and a 47 truck open drive floor shift three speed. I have a good banjo and an open drive conversion. I'm stealing all the breaks and spindles off of my model a build for the front... So I really dont need much other than small stuff. Here are some pics of it when i got it. Broken rear spring and all! Well I got my girl pregnant , so yeah the hard part is done~ I have always had this problem~ but since I need a family car I'll just build us one. It just needs small stuff- so yeah the hard part is done~ I started 3 years ago and I haven't finished one darn thing on it yet but yeah the hard part is done~ I think I'll wait till my kid is 5, I think at that age the trivial stuff left will be easy since its just busy work. Who in their right mind would put any significant value on what you've accomplished? You say its the hard part because you believe it is, but in reality its worth nothing in its 1/2 finished state. You say that you're SOOO motivated by a challenge yet the challenge in front of you is whats keeping you down. All the motivational speeches and pep talks in the world won't help until you can see your thinking is off and needs to be rearranged. Most guys can get a chop roughed out in about 2 days, you've got 3 years. It takes about 2 weeks to get it all sorted and the silly details worked out and finished- You've got 3 years. It takes about 3 days to fully plumb a car with all custom stuff and detailed work, you've got 3 years but yeah the hard part is done~ I'm under deep conviction that what you see as trivial is the parts that scares you & you want to avoid them. By falsely naming this 1/2 done work as the "hard part" it gives you the right to walk away with a sense of accomplishment and that you can now tend to "more important things" suited to a man of your caliber. Having a "My work is done here" type claim fitting of a superhero comic. Putting a fire out at the orphanage is a very commendable act- providing that 1/2 of it isn't still left burning. The hard part is housing the children, cleaning up the debris, and then rebuilding the facility. Here's you're challenge & hopefully it motivates you. Go conquer the things you're scared of and quit hiding from them.
Impractical? When I was 2 my old man owned a Henderson 4 and a Deuce roadster, I had an older sister and the four of us ( counting mom) would use the roadster for road trips. When I came home from the hospital he owned the Henderson and a Nailhead powered '41 Willys pickup. *When my daughter was 2 I had a 45" Harley and a '56 F-100. I guess the F-100 was more practical than the ol' man's roadster, it had a bed for hauling. Don't let the 21st century mentality of what is and is not practical guilt you into not living. Make sure your kids have what they need, treat your woman like a queen and go on with life. As for getting things done, I removed and shipped the nailhead and transmission from my sedan this week, two jumps of about a half hour each. I tried the Hurst mount for the new (different?) mill on the existing mounts and saw that they will need a little jiggling. Walked away and repaired my bike so that I have some way to get around. I may get back to the project today or not I have other things that need my attention, but I certainly won't feel guilty about it, you just don't eat an elephant all in one sitting. *before some dick comes on here and calls me a macho fatalist look up the meaning of the word fatalist, I am not into predestination and I certainly don't think that anyone should live like I have I am just using my past life as an example.
Motivation? The easiest and surest way is to clean and organize your shop. Really, it works. Put all the tools away, clean the benches, organize and put away all those loose nuts and bolts, clear the floors and give them a good sweeping, add some storage units and find a place to put everything, replace the burnt out bulbs and light the place up. There is nothing better to get the juices flowing than a nice clean, well lit organized shop. Trust me. It triggers your imagination so you see what can be not what is.
LOL putting tools away and sweeping the floor perhaps but cleaning the benches, now that is a stretch.
When I was more motivated at the work place I would clean the shop and scrub the floor on Friday afternoon so when I got to work on Monday it was clean and ready for a week of making it dirty.
I would love to see you rough in a 46 Ford chop as well as I have in 2 days! No way you're pulling that off. And nothing scares about the build. I've done it all before. Motivation is why I started this thread not to hear your ideas of what kind of man I am.
Easy brother, some times a swift kick in the pants is the best motivation. " There's nothin' to it but to do it!" That said I'm getting off the computer & going to the garage!
Man all I wanted was ideas on getting my motivation back. Not opinions on my build or what I think is trivial compared to what others think. All those types of comments do is remind me why I stay away from the HAMB.
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