do I keep doing this to myself ? This winter, I had no major upgrades planned, maybe some new headers and a little refining here and there. I'm thrilled to have my dream car, and I don't have to have (nor can I pull off) the nicest 55 chevy around. I was also planning to piddle around with my recently aqquired 59 GMC a little, just to make sure it was worthy of the daily beater role. Simple, nice, no major, painstaking, frustrating, head beating against the wall when the dent fairies ( a theory I have...although it might just be my lack of skill) show up every night after I block sand...again... work involved at all. Then a friend of mine says, "Hey, I have 3 gallons of orange paint I'm not ever going to use, it might look good on your 55." Okay, it is a little rough looking, and orange was a color I was thinking about....for in the future....sooo... maybe, I'll just do a quickie for this year. After all, 3 gallons is plenty of paint to do the car twice.... Soooo, as I discover more than one layer of yellow paint on my car, what do I do ??? get a 7" 36 grit sanding disk and start taking off layers....don't worry, I stopped at the factory paint, and I'll DA the rest. Here it is....March, and I'm off to the races...again...last year, it was a new drivetrain, this year it's new paint, from the bare metal up. Do you guys do this, or am I the idiot my wife thinks I am ????
yeller is easier...it's already yeller. Oh, and get ready, there's a bunch of crazy bikers coming to your neighborhood (well, Piedmont anyway) Memorial weekend.
look at my build thread.....mine came apart for final fit finish n paint....projected 1 year build time....it ended up being a section and a frame off.....all from dreamin whilst drinking a Dr. Pepper on a 5 gallon bucket at 3am one night.... it is what it is
you're nuts, you shouldn't do that stuff. I made sure to get my 55 down to metal before I got it running, then I spent the next 14 years driving it in primer, THEN I painted it (and it just took about a month). But watch out for the trucks...my latest 57 one ton, I was gonna slap some paint on it, I ended up spending two long weeks taking stuff apart and doing bodywork and paint on it. And the thing still looks like crap, but at least it's one color of crap.
I'm always saying i cant wait for the day i can own a cool car and just drive and maintain it. My latest snowball effect is directly linked to the last "why in the hell" decision. Lowering the car. Okay i could cut the coils and be done with it. However i've done that before and didnt like the ride. So new springs. No new springs available in the drop i want. Custom springs and new shocks then. Not just any shocks, adjustable (i tow a trailer) and made to match the springs. So far then its just fancy shocks and springs (£600). Well as all the F&R suspension is going to apart i may as well repaint it all up and replace all the bushes, balljoints and steering joints (£300). Brake hoses are looking iffy so replace the lot. Same goes for brake lines (£150). The front discs aren't to clever and one rear piston is weeping and again whilst there i may aswell do the job (£200). Stance and rims to me are everything so i can't just do one thing. I have some smooth early rims that i want to use so blasted and painted, new caps, WW's and trim rings i'm up for another £700. Oh i'll need an exhaust aswell as the original will scrape and bang about, say £200. OTT quite possibly but i'm getting less eager to spanner on cold floors and if i take care of pretty much everything in one hit i know its done and won't need doing again for a long time. If i apply this principle in 10 years and untold lost costs, i'm going finish the car and eventually be able to cruise and just maintain it. However, knowing the person i am i will drive it for a few months, get bored, sell it at a loss, buy something new and then the next "Why in the hell" moment happens. Repeat until dead! Dan
Great, his wife thinks I am idiot, she doen't even know me! Well I guess it saves time, now if I meet her I just will not talk to her if she is going to be like that!
I have proven to her that I am at least a useful idiot...I can lift things, open jars, and fix stuff around the house....so she's still nice to me sometimes.
I was just going to replace the idler arm bushings.... now I have the body off the frame and the entire car is scattered all over the shop... has been for over a year now.... I must be a member of the "Idiot" club too....
Also known as the "while I'm at it I might as well" syndrome. We all have a serious case of it at some time in our hot rodding lives and some of us never have full recovery.
Well I got a stude that was a quick together 6 years ago, slam a motor on the motor mounts that the fella begoe me built, scuff it and blow some Blitz black on it some salvage yard buckets and drive the hell out of it. Well one thing led to another, you know the drill. It still sits in my garage waiting for me to do the next thing to it.
I decided to take apart my perfectly good Drag Car to convert from automatic to 4-speed. I know the 4-speed is gonna be a blast but this little project is taking time and money away from my Hot Rod build not to mention I will not be ready for the start of the racing season. You are not alone.