Hello! Over the past 8 years, I've owned about 15 cars. Some I still have, some I don't, but I put a lot of work into all of them. Got to thinking...I'm mostly into 50/60s cars and muscle cars, and I have several of each, but it's taken me a while to get what I was really looking for...then I realized why. More than half of the cars I've had have been distraction cars...cars that really weren't exactly what I wanted, but hell, they were cheap, a good buy at the time, kinda-sorta fun to drive (after I got done with them), fairly cool, and I actually made a few dollars on a few of them. If you look back at your car history, have there been a few/more than a few distraction cars?...you bought them, because, well, why the hell not? Not that they're a bad thing, but they CAN be just that...a distraction... Chris
If I didn't buy any of the distraction cars in my life I could have a garage full of 32s. I'm not kidding. I've flushed more money down the toilet than I like to think about.
Agreed. That's why they're all gone...although the money I made off of them helped finance other projects that I really DID want...
I have a few cars I work at different levels of progress....when I get worn out on one, I switch to another...keeps my sanity intact....but, I always intend to finish. I would lose interest in any car if I wasn't enthused about it and the final outcome...it would take up valuable garage space....so, I only do the cars I really want to see finished,...and then enjoy them.. I have too many distractions outside the garage to include my cars....my garage space is my ''special place'' from all those other distractions
A few through the years, but learned from experience, think it over for awhile, before making decision on buying/selling/trading and the project/build idea ship has left port, sailed and sunk. At this time of my life. Seems to be a major project just keeping up with my junk, Randy N. (friend) quote: "All my stuff is junk, All my junk is broke." Have had that feeling most of summer, worked on my junk more than ever this summer, winding down here in the Beautiful Northwoods, trees are starting to change, cars are good to go and will be happy to take a break from car hobby/work.
I don't know how many -'I'll just drive this until I get the time/money to fix the other one, then the second car suddenly needs work too'- cars I've owned. Sadly mostly OT cars, and I can't help thinking I would almost have been able to outright buy a finished 32 3window, or 51 Merc if i had saved all the money I wasted on them... On the other hand, I would have just wasted them on different stuff anyway, and I would have had to walk everywhere for 15 years....
After going to too many funerals of friends who never got their dream cars, I decided to quit screwing around with "distraction cars" and go to the top of my bucket car list. What I really wanted was a 33-34 ford coupe. I bought a piece-a-shit dirt racer body as a start and traded a "distraction car" 53 stude coupe for a 34 rolling chassis..I was on my way and been building it for the last 8 years. I also sold off all my distraction car parts which freed up space to store only parts for my coupe project....what a liberating thing to do! Having and building distraction cars gave me the experience and confidence to build my dream car. Now, if I can ever get it finished!
I have used a few distraction cars to fund building my 37 Chevy p/u but never got many after that since I want to concentrate on what I want to get done. I am not getting any younger so I want to stay focused now which still seems to be hard to do.
The Jalopy Journal
