Anyone get OCD about their build?

Just wondering if I'm the only one, who at times, gets obsessive compulsive about things being perfect? Like the other day when I put my motor in, the mount on the engine chipped some of the paint off of the mount welded to the frame. After I got it in, I saw the chips lying on the frame, and it's been bothering me ever since. No one will ever see it, it doesn't jeopardize anything safety-wise.....but I *still* know it's there. Part of it is my character, wanting things to be perfect, the other part is seeing other guys on here who do it day-in, day-out, do it perfect and make it look easy.

 

If I did nothing would ever get done

 

I used to get that way...drove my car and it started to rain..all I could think about was the water gettin in under the new paint..sold that car and never tried to do
another perfect one...they were designed to be driven..and you can have more than one if you don't become obsessive....d32

 

Not at all, my OCD is very real. "Did that tranny filter go in all the way...shit, the pan bolts are already torqued...Well, I don't have another gasket...I'm sure it's fine...but I don't know, I better pull it apart again and double check." etc. etc. etc.

 

Deyomatic, I thought I was the Lone Ranger. Thanks for feeling the pain

 

I can totaly relate with you Deyomatic i am the same way

 

It's the reason my ride is not done and everyone else is having FUN!

 

I`ve learned the hard way about trying do it perfectly...It`s too easy to give up on a project...It`ll never get done cause I`m always taking it back apart and fixing something that doesn`t make a tinkers damn...

Put it together and dreve it!!!

 

my stepdad has ocd when it comes to his car and all he dose is babysit it. there is nothing wrong with flat black primer and just cruzn

 

The same type of questions plague me. "Did I torque down the trans mount bolts adequately?" "Did I modify this piece correctly so that it doesn't cause my car to explode on the highway?"

 

I WISH I was that far along!

I dig your fitty, btw.

 

Try spending hours and hours making door gaps perfect on a '51 F1.......I finally gave up.

At some point you just have to get the project done and drive the piss out of it.

 

yes ! painted and polished areas that will never show ! indexing bolt heads all the same way , so on and so on ! thats why my truck is still in pieces !

 

Let me give you an example...

I worked half a day cleaning and powdercoating the granny 4 speed transmission case in my dually work truck.

I work 50 or more hours a week in my shop though, so I still make good progress on my projects even at the OCD pace I work at.

 

Damn good insights here! I'm obsessive too but overall it shows that we care. People want me to work hundreds and hundreds of hours detailing their cars too! I've seen guys sweat and worry about little details and get lost in the project and never get 'em where they can even be driven and just give up on the whole thing,,burnout.
I'm guity of that too but I did get mine running,, sometimes I drive it as stress relief and remember where I'm headed on this project. Don't be too hard on yourself as Car Shows aren't won by hacks but people who are just as obsessed.

 

It's not ocd, it's being anal and i'm right there with you

 

I get OCD but I just can't seem to get anything perfect....

 

I think I have ADD instead. I get so far on a project and get bored and never finish it.

I've been collecting parts for one car for three years -

 

I think with ocd nothing is ever perfect

 

Only 3 years? Man that's quick.

 

Sure it is, but only after the fifth (or sometimes seventh) time you check it.

 

My credo is "The way you do one thing is the way you do all things."
It haunts me?

 

OCD, Thanks at least I'm not alone, I can't understand why you wouldn't want your project perfect. Sure I may never finish any of my projects, car, house or landscaping. I know how IT SHOULD LOOK, if it doesn't I redo it untill it is right. NOTE: This condition has NOTHING to do with keeping things neat and organized!

 

OCD doesnt just have to do with keeping things neat and organized

 

Yeah, but about all I've done is collect parts. Well, when I first got it I did a brake upgrade on the front and put missing glass back in it, but... after a change in plan, now I need to find a TBI car with a more or less square gas tank that has an inlet on the left -

 

I understand. Had to just lay everthing down tonite and come in the house.

 

I have it, but not as bad as I used to. What seems to help is getting that first "chip". I had the frame and other suspension pieces painted on my T this time around. Chipped the paint on the frame and "I" beam axle the first day installing it! My buddy was laughing at me and that is when I realised that I wasn't building an AMBR car, I was building a hot rod.

But I still take my time doing things. Hey, I don't want my car looking like a heap. That's one step away from a RR!

 

I'm 55 years old and up until about 8 or 10 years ago, I thought it HAD to be perfect. No matter what I was doing, painting, striping, building a trans, whatever!
Problem was, I let it spill over into the way I dealt with my family, my employees, etc. One day I heard something that to me, was very profound. I was watching a preacher on TV and he was talking about the "sin" of pride and one of the "symptoms" (for lack of a better term) is perfectionism. He asked a question and it was like he was reaching right out to me, he said "What's wrong with excellence?" Now that may not have resonated with anyone else in the world, but it spoke volumes to me.
Now, when I get so wrapped up in trying to get it perfect, I think about that question... "What's wrong with Excellence?" To some, it may sound like one and the same, but not to me! Anyhow, my stress level has dropped dramatically since that day.

 

thats why my trucks has been in progress for 7 years i am always doing things 2 or 3 different times cause i am not happy with it just looks ok

 

That's almost the exact same thing that happened on my engine mounts. I had wrestled it in there, and it was a one shot deal. My engine hoist's jack was going out, and this was it's last ride for sure. I do all work outside for lack of a garage...and Frozen Ballsack season is now upon us. Once I began lowering it in, there was no coming back up. I nailed it, got it in there, then noticed the chips where the engine had drug over the mount, chipping off the paint. I knew I was bad when I seriously thought "Hey, I could take the bolts out and lift the engine *just* enough to get some paint back on there, then lower it back down". Don't even ask me about the little run of paint that I found on the back side of my newly painted exhaust manifold that I discovered this evening.....sheesh!

I think it grew out of several things, the largest being my perfectionism, the other being this board (which I harbor no ill towards it, to the contrary!). I am always learning new things, but I look at guys who go on and on about using this mad paint process to strip down and do a bagillion step paint method on their frame off project....and I end up feeling like sh*t for using some rust converting rattle can stuff and *not* doing frame off. Not that I didn't clean the frame/suspension the best I could....but I'm not going to spend a year with the thing in pieces when it's not going to be a show car and it's not going to rot away in the least by doing it my way. There's right and wrong, then there's "right" and "taking the fun RIGHT out!" No RR here.....but definitely no show car.