Do you ever say to yourself this is it, no more getting anymore cars. I will keep what I have. I am done and will just drive what I have. Being retired, I don't have the income I use to have so I can't just go out and buy and fix up cars like I use too and just want to drive instead of working on them. Anyone else feel that way? Exterminator
My thoughts exactly, I would rather go driving then fixing them at this point. I still look every day at E bay and c/l but know with limited income those purchases are not going to happen without letting something else go. I am looking forward to thinning the collection and buy a really nice driver but the market seems to be slow at the moment and buying another project does not seem to be the way to go.
It's that 'too good a deal to pass up' that gets me. I can usually pass on cars that are selling at market value, but when something comes along that's an obvious steal, hard to say no.
Or you get in my situation, 75, wife just went in nursing home so if I want to keep her there when my savings run out, I need to stop any expenditures that aren't food, clothing, lodging and medical. Medicaid does a five year forensic lookback to certify you as eligible. Blessed to have my '40 and be able to drive it. Nothing wrong with enjoying one last hotrod. Nothing like a dose of reality to cure the fever I have had since I was 14!
I'm retired but still working,I want to build more cars but I can't work all day and work half the night in the garage like I use too. Maintenance on my 3 hot rods is a job within itself . I still want to build another roadster or a coupe but I have my old 65 Ford truck to get running again and then there are those if the right deal comes down the road daydreams. HRP
having at least one driver, even if on the rough side, is top priority - then a dream project that may not ever be fully done helps keep you out of the easy chair & away from remote control
I'm 58, going on 59 shortly. The T Bucket I'm building now, will probably be it, as far as building goes. I'll keep and update it, but frankly, the journey needed for a ground up car isn't in me like it used to be. So, I'm doing this build the best I can. Oh... it's an addiction, not a fever. There's a cure for the fever.....
I've always wondered what having one on the roads was like, always had projects come and go, never finished. Bob
I agree with you, I will stay in the car hobby till my end, but with later model cars, will keep one to my demise, do not enjoy working on them much anymore, (Arthritis) my last 2 old cars are for sale, sooner or later they will sell and we will enjoy them until they do, have them where they are good to go, just keep them polished and drive them, that is the fun part for me, the travel, shows, cruise's and the people. The car Hobby has been fun for me my entire life, just has changed some with time. In the group of senior's I know, hang with, things are changing for most as age, health issues start to factor in.
I hear ya. I still hang out with a lot of my car buddies that I have been since the 70's. We use to hang out at each other's garages, help build projects, go racing, always something. Now we just sit in our lawn chairs at cruise nights and talk about "the old days". I'm still building, been my profession but even that is coming to the end, I'm in the process of shutting down the shop. I just hope the health holds out so I can build one more, finally a keeper for me.
Its a bad disease. Just today as I was helping a guy load up a 64 Impala I sold him, I questioned what kind of cars he had. He said he just bought several and was selling them off. Stupid me had to find out what cars he had for sale after telling him I was trying to get rid of the ones I have now.
A year and half from now I will have retired. Always had to stay busy doing something with my hands. I am sure I will get the bug to start another but my problem is....of course money. I have no interest in selling any of my vehicles. That would be the only way to make it happen. Am also not about to start a project that’ll take years to complete. So show me the way to the fishing hole. I know damn well I’ll be finding a “good deal” and spending some of my retirement money just to stay at it.
I have noticed you mentioned this a lot. Maybe you should just sell off ALL of your projects and buy a car thats already a driver.
Retired whats that? I still hitting on all cylinders. I not only have vehicles I have livestock, farm tractors , bulldozers a backhoe and a dump truck sawmill and log truck. The grandkids need to get bigger. We got a chain link fenced yard. but Grayson aged two excapes every chance he gets. And goes straight to a D4 bulldozer and pretends he is driving it.
Met a guy today getting gas in his '56 Chevy 4 door, I saw him walk into the store as I was pulling up to the pumps. As I was heading in, he was coming out and I said "hey, plates match the year of your car"...so led us into a 30 minute talk about things. Guessing he was late 60's, early 70's, just had the car painted....he'd had it for 3 years doing a bunch of work to it before paint....anyways, he told me he always had an "older car", to work on, or fix up...just what he liked to do....sound familiar to anyone here? He told me "I guess it's been about 15 years ago, I said no more cars, no more spending my weekend, free time, etc, working on things, I had to get a new hobby"... He picked up golf, and went on to tell me for the next 10 years or so, all he did while plating golf on the weekends, was talk to his friends about the car's he'd built and worked on...then a few years back they asked him "Do you like playing golf better than playing with cars"?...He said "No, I don't think so" so they told him to go find a car to work on. He told me it was like a burden had fallen off his shoulders, now his ex-golf buddies come by after they play, and would sit and BS with him while he was working on his '56. I told him I thought about doing the same thing, just selling and giving away every last spare thing that doesn't belong to the cars I have that are close to being on the road. He told me "Don't be like me, don't be that guy". Went home and started sanding the fenders for my '36...kinda put me at ease. So, yes, I've thought about tossing in the towel, but I don't want to be "that guy".
The Jalopy Journal
