Driving your ride while working on it???

Would love to get to that point soon. Hopefully this by this fall. I swear the 60 just sitting there and waiting to be back on the road gives me more grief than it would if I were driving it. It wants to be driven and I'm not there yet. Can't wait until I am though.

 

I have had mine on the road since June, no finished interior or carpet, still in gel coat and working out the problems as they come up.

 

Mine is a constant ongoing project and happens to be the only car I have, therefore I have no choice but to fix it while I drive it, A couple recent repair while driving situations were

1. Driving home from work, got off the highway and started smelling gas. I stopped on the side of the road, got out and checked the tank (which on occasion has leaked small amounts), nothing. I kept on going and stopped by one of my regular parts shops and heard a sizzle/pop. I open the hood and found my carb cracked. It was pouring fuel ALL over the engine. I happened to have a spare carb at the house and hitched a ride to pick it up. The bolt pattern was wrong and it just so happened that there is a machinist at this shop and we got it to fit along with the linkages and fixed the problem right there in the parking lot, I continued on home to have some beer and eat some dinner.

2. Stopped by my mechanics shop to settle up and had just left after telling him she had been running like a dream and bam, dead engine in the middle of the intersection during rush hour. I rolled it through the intersection and down a hill into a parking lot. Thinking it was vapor locked, it being high 90's all day I popped the hood and sat there for a bit. Got to thinking and found out it was my ignition wire, it had cracked causing the car to die. I opened the trunk(mobile shop) and rewired the entire ignition system, again in a parking lot.

Needless to say, yes I do work on my ride as well as drive it. Isn't that half the fun of it??
T

 

I too am guilty of driving them before they are done. Drove a 37 Chevy pickup for over 10 years with a partial interior and still in primer. Realized I was having way to much fun and just worked on things when they needed immediate attention. In my mind I guess it was finished enough.
Recently I got a little more organized. My current rides both have a "things to do list" in the glove boxes that I do check and have actually completed some of the items. Sometimes I even add new items. The idea does work but the reality is that neither car is completely finished yet. I am happier when I am behind the wheel anyway.

 

Its the only way to go!!..............ud

 

That's like waiting to have sex until after your married, don't sound like no fun to me..

 

Yes that's very true but here and a lot of other places it has to pass a motor vehicle inspection to be driven legally on the road and I agree with that.

 

I drive mine as soon as they are road worthy, because are they really ever finished?

 

Drive it whenever you can. It'll help you stay interested and keep your eye on the goal, even if it never gets completely finished.

 

I learned a long time ago that I don't drive a car I have built or a boat I have restored until every last screw in in place. If I don't do that I keep putting off finishing it because I am having too much fun using it. I drove my 27 in primer for 11 years before I finally tore it apart to redo it for just that reason.

Don

 

Any time I see a 'fng' get a new old car; my advice is always "just get it running and drive it".

When I bought my car, I had always planned on driving it, and making improvements as I went. I didn't want to be 'that guy' with the project in the garage.

What I didn't realize, was how much my vision for the car would change after I started driving it. For example, I originally thought I would swap out drivetrain for LS1/700R combo. Now that I have put 5k on the original drivetrain, the LS1 is out of the question. Other things have taken precedence.

I get to drive the car and save up my money for the next mini-project. For the past three weeks it has been down because I am rewiring it. The weather is gonna get nice here in Texas, and I will drive it for a while; then I think, maybe a trans swap.

Once I get it mechanically where I want it, I will have to take the plunge and go body work and paint. I am dreading that because I know that will take a long time, but a lot of that can be done while it is a driver too.

Kelvin

 

I find that if I drive my car and work on it at the same time, I tend to weave considerably, as though I am texting. So, no, I tend to separate the two activities, purely based on safety concerns.

 

"Back in the day" cars were driven while in progress. Today they call it a rat rod and it may just be finished even though it does not look like it.

Go to a Billet proof show or rat rod club sponsored show - if you want to be amoung "unfinished" cars that are driven.

 

That has really put a damper on my enthusiasm for driving one of my projects before it is finished these days.

Back in the "day" being the 70's for me when I was working on the 48 and driving it to work, school and everywhere else guys would check it each time I took it to a rod trot to see what I had done since they saw it last. Now days it would just be another primered rig in a sea of primered rigs.

 

No foolin'...... At the Rat Bastards show last Sunday with the COE, I would have fit in better had I left the heavy pitted rust "patina" on it........

 

One of the reasons I like the HAMB is that people don't judge if your car is unfinished. I start driving mine as soon as they are road ready and safe. My car will be finished someday, but at the rate my finances are going, "someday" is nowhere in the visible future, but I can drive something in progress right now, and nothing is more soothing than sound the of dual exhaust as I roll down the road.

 

Heres mine, yes like to keepem mobile while fixing them up. I did frick up on this project though.
I had the frame and chassis without body, should \have cleaned painted it, and did whatever before I through the body on.
My plan is to smooth the old girl out and shoot on an enamel paint job. I already stripped the cab, shot on epoxy primer, now fixing dents and waves, more primer surfacer, and paint. I will then pull box off in winter, and prep and paint her. The running boards and rear fenders will be blasted,. for ease of comfort....

 

I know what what you mean , and dropping a wrench and hitting a bump and having it go under the seat is a real PITA .. !!!

 

I've never had a driver that wasn't a project but I've had projects that weren't drivers. My '63 SS wants to kill me every time I touch the brakes and my '35 Tudor is a series of large chunks in various garages. I'd drive 'em if I could...

 

Kinda like the new HAMB.

 

As a teen in the 60's, my rod was the only car I had so it had to be worked on in small steps and kept on the road almost all the time, or I was walking or bumming rides from friends. That was the norm back then.

Back about '98, I got my '51 to have a driver rod while I worked on my long term project. ...and except for two longer down periods early on for suspension and paint work, I have been able to keep it as a driver with minimal down time. That includes new engine, new transmission, new rear end, and new interior, all the while off the road for only short time periods of mostly a couple weeks each. Now, it needs some rust repair, and a lot of panel fitting, and new paint; but that would take it off the road. I will just keep on driving it until my current project is finished. Then I might consider doing some work before I get on to my next project. ...but I may just keep on driving it as is for many years to come.

 

I drive mine.

 

My 60 olds will see the road long before she is done. like everyday.

 

I do it on occasion but it's not easy holding the tools and steering at the same time.

 

actually all kidding aside I would love to be able to drive my car , but with bad floors and no engine it kind of makes it a bum deal , In the past I used to drive my "projects" on the street even though I had a daily driver , as it breaks "the got to have it finished" criteria in your head , so you do not start loose interest in it . ( which has happened to me in the past ) as a hobby seemed to turn into a job . also it perks you up as my DD's were putt putt cars , nothing like the tone of a warmed over v-8 to stir your soul .

 

Yeah, I also drove my 40s and 50s cars daily because they were my only transportation...we all did. they were daily drivers. I was working at an Enco station in Portland Oregon when I bought a 1959, 389 with a 3 speed to replace the old original, wheezy 347/selcta-shift 3 speed in my 57 Pontiac. I had a lilttle money saved so I rented the hoist [20 bux a day] from my boss and bought a muncie 4 speed to replace the 59, 3 speed. Was able to get it all done, using a Hurst syncro-loc 3 speed shifter [ran outa money before I could buy a 4 speed shifter] in 2 days total including going through the driveshaft pile at the local wrecking yard to find a direct fit shaft. Had to catch a ride home those 2 days but I was use to it...happened whenever I had the car down for more than a day.
Was normal for all of us and we all helped each other to keep on the road.
This is just one story of many about keeping our cars/hotrods/customs operational.

 

I've been doing that for 35 years. Many improvements over the years but it's just a shiny beater at this point and it will probably never get the complete frame off that it deserves (and needs) because part of me is afraid that if I ever do tear it down that far, it will take too long to get it back together and I just like driving the damn thing too much!

 

I remember a story from way back, '50's, in HOT ROD probably, about a guy chopping a '47 style Ford coupe,,and using it as a daily as work went on,,,

 

In the early 70's my Model A pickup was my daily driver so any work that required any down time needed to be done had to be accomplished on the weekends.

If the truck wasn't running I had to con a neighbor into giving me a ride to town. HRP

 

My 53 F100 Is no where near done but I still manage to drive it around town. Good thing for my insurance covers free towing for break downs. Had it out 5 times already. Had it towed home twice. All part of the fun.