Art & Inspiration Projects that stalled and the reasons we hate them

My brother gets his jollies jaggin' me about my stalled projects. He just posted the following on my FB page: "Hemmings is running a series on how to build a hotrod in ten years. Are you the author?"

I had to respond with: "No. My series is how to change a head gasket in ten years.:

 

BamaMav you are a GOOD man. FAMILY always comes 1st.Bruce.

 

LOL some of those very special way too expensive hot rod parts just move back and forth between projects.

 

Yeh, Beaner, I'm guilty of that on a couple of mine right now. Hey, whatever it takes to make some progress on at least one.

 

There was a couple of boxes of Chevy specific parts that came to my place last weekend for a young man here in town. He wanted to know what he owed when he picked them up and I told him nuthin and he said, "You guys just shuffle this stuff around whenever someone needs it, that's pretty old school man." I don't know what school it is, its just the way that we do things, it all comes out in the wash right?

 

Mine wasn't a stalled project After working on it for 3 years I just hated it.It was a money pit and always let me down.{stuck} Not because it was a Buick Just that 1 car I had. Too many people had the fingers in to it before me .Even the title was screwed up. I love Buicks and station wagons but hated that 1 station wagon.I could made some $$$ on all the extra parts I had but I didn't want anything to remind me of that 1 car!Happiest day was seeing it go down the road on the transporter.Bruce. {Before shot}

 

After shot.Bruce.

 

Just Today My youngest son,s wife Amber had a 5 pound baby girl. So we now have Three grandsons and a granddaughter. I hope one or more of them gets the old junk car bug.

 

I have my project car and woodworking stuff in my residential 2 car garage. Not a lot of space. A few years ago, my New Year's resolution was to sell every car part I had squirrelled away that would not bolt onto any one of our three current vehicles. It was a decent sized pile. Got it done in the first half of that year .... felt great.

Of course, somehow that space filled up again. Time to at least move all the spares for the truck I sold three years ago. Nature hates a vacuum ....

 

For me I always loved all the old cars, mostly wagons and odd balls. I think mostly because I couldn't afford a cool ford back in the day. Kids took up a lot for time and buying and selling was a way to make some extra money, oh by the way did I say the thrill is about the HUNT!! When I'd get home I would sometimes wonder "what am I going to do now". I'm lucky enough to live out of town a little and have some elbow room to heep my over flow. I'm just going to turn 67 next month and my back problems have gotted worse, leaking spinal cord and they say nothing can be done. Anyway I'm not going to set and whine about it, but I have realized it may be time to get rid of some projects. A few years ago I had another 45x50 building (cheap 1) put up to keep the "stuff" out of the weather. I guess I'm afaride of seeing 2-3 empty buildings and now I can fight the mice and rats! Good luck guys and you young ones remember the clock is ticking--it never stops!

 

I'm at 4076, 78 y/o and am tearing apart a 49 mercury eng, going to the machine shop on Mon. I have 4 projects all rollers.One I have lost interest in, and am ready to sell. The 3 others I have varied interest in.
Currently working on my A V/8, no body just parts and wheels and the Mercury eng.
I am in fair physical cond, internals like a 40 y/o, body just worn out. .
I don't get to work on the projects as much as I want, as I am my wifes care giver, she has dementia. That takes time out of the day.
Maybe I can get the A v/8 going. That's my plan.

 

I'm 67 and guilty of having too many projects too - I have eight HAMB friendly cars right now, one is finished, three are now running and useable and four are rollers in various states of "under construction". I would probably be better off to sell one or two and use the money to move others forward but I actually really like everything I have now and don't care to sell any of them.
I just try to move each project forward a little at a time from one stage to the next until they are driving.
At that point I can decide if I want to keep them and take them any further based on how much fun they are to drive. I have gotten projects running and driving only to find that I don't like driving them for one reason or another. They were sold and the money returned to the hot rod fund.
A few months back I bought a running driving '29 roadster on '32 rails, a car I've always wanted. Unfortunately, it ate up most of what remained of my hot rod fund. Being on a fixed income I now have to concentrate on progress that doesn't involve spending much money.
The only project that hasn't made progress lately and could be considered stalled is my '62 Tempest A/FX. I have all of the major parts but for some reason other projects just keep butting in front of it. I still have a vision for it though and I won't give up 'til I get there.

 

I am almost 73 been a car nut all my life. Working on a 1950 Ford sedan now with a coyote ford engine and six speed. I may never finish it but i enjoy working on but gives me something to look forward to most days. I cant sit in the house all day as i still work part time to support my projects. You cant just sit around and think about your age!

 

Right there is where I learned to drive. Sitting on my Daddy's lap, holding on for dear life and actually making that tractor go where I wanted it to go. Wouldn't trade that memory for anything.

 

I am gonna be 71 years old in a couple of months. One of the toughest parts of getting that old, is that my mind still believes that I'm in my forties. My avatar coupe was the last car that I will ever be able to build by myself. I no longer have the strength or the endurance to do another build. Couple that with the income drop of retirement. The coupe is long gone, traded off for a ready to drive car. Sometimes, I still get an overwhelming urge to start on another project car, but realize that even being in pretty decent health, that is not a reality. And I don't want to get in the middle of a big project only to croak and leave my wife another headache to deal with. I am trying to sell my off topic car to buy another early car, ready to go (more or less). Having built every car I've ever owned, it is tough to buy someone else's build. But, I am getting near to the end of that tape measure.