why do small projects become BIG projects??

Thanks guys! I know there are no small projects on these cars and that is part of the fun. Although I sometimes have to tell myself it's fun. Haha. Thanks for letting me vent just a bit. I'm just anxious to drive the Ranchero again.

David

 

O/T car, 87 buick grand national, a bad motor mout and replacing the timing chain has now turned into a full engine/tranny build and I havent done a thing with it in two years.

It sucks sometimes, and then other things come up and stuff gets put on the back burner.

 

I call it the snowball effect, I ground the multi-layers of paint off my truck to put a gloss paint job on it...found a bunch of rot....figured if I was fixing that I may as well section it...then figured if I was cutting the truck in half I may as well pull the cab off the frame and redo it....then may as well de-bur the engine and paint it, may as well bust the engine down and re-build it....always wanted a extra gear in the trans....might could put a new one of those in....gotta new trans now but still have the pegleg in the rearend....hm, gotta fix that...and rebuilt the rearend...and my 1 year projected turn around on the paint job is now a 3 year process.

 

I was getting ready to order some patch panels for my daily driver F 250. Now I'm scared.

 

I read once that you shouldn't patch an old coat with new cloth.

Funny thing about old cars one thing leads to another. It is just hard to do no more than keep on driving unless you are a total slouch.

 

A front suspension and engine swap on my 55 has a bare rolling frame sittin next to a stripped, bare metal cab and a pile of bed parts...

 

I have to admit, what makes all the "frustration" worth while is when my kids ask "Daddy, can we ride in Jessie??" Jessie is the name for the Ranchero. And then hearing my 3 year old mimic the sound of the engine.

 

Amen to that. My last home project started with a new floor in the basement and ended up gutting to the studs for a complete redo. Took 18 months to finish.

 

Needed to shore up some wiring under the dash. Need more room to do the wiring so removed the dash. Removed the dash so have to remove the steering column. Now that I have the dash out I might as well strip the paint and repaint the dash, do the same with the steering column. The garnish moldings need to match the dash, so take them out, strip and repaint. With the firewall exposed, might as well put some sound deadner in. Oh wait, might as well put sound deadner everywhere. Remove the entire interior. The floors are exposed now, might as well clean up with a wire wheel and POR15. Hey, the master cylinder access door is really cobbled up. Might as well make a new one while the interior is out.

Needed to repaint the valve covers from some welding splatter on the firewall. New paint looks far better than the rest of the engine. Decided to repaint the engine in the car. Have the parts off to better access the firewall, might as well repaint the firewall while I'm in there. Now I have to sandblast the exhaust manifolds and repaint to make it all tie together.

I haven't even started to think about lowering the back end of the car and what I'll get into while I'm underneath there...

 

My great-uncle (RIP) used to say "Don't disturb the dirt". I now know what he meant.

 

isn't it ironic that stock old engines can not be killed. we have to take shit off and "upgrade" then they run like shit. i cant leave anything alone, which is why i always have at least one vehicle with issues. if i'm really lucky 2 will be inoperable at a time! oh well, keeps you from being bored, right? -DVZ

 

Sounds like we've all been there done that. I hate blocksanding, Takes me
forever.

 

Now I'm worried! I just took the carb off my car to get rebuilt. She may NEVER run again!!!!!! LOL

 

Not so much a project but once I went into a motorcycle shop to buy an oil filter & walked out with a new motorcycle.

 

In industry the official term for it is "scope creep".

Jim

 

Yes, be very afraid.

 

The small one,some how is always covering up a big one,that when uncovered must be fix now and cost much more.

 

Found a website that may help some of us....

http://ownyouradhd.com/

 

Look at the bright side- you could be stuck with golf as a hobby.