Projects Have you ever bailed out on a project?

my temper and beer got to me one night told a buddy if some dum a## would give me 1800 I would sell this piece o f ++++ he left and came back with cash and trailer 15 yrs later he is still driving the 31 chevy coupe . but he will buy me a beer every now and then

 

Exactly

 

Buy high, sell low


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I do the same, but I try to make up for it in volume.

 

I've bailed on a couple of two legged projects in the past....and was she pissed.

 

But you were probably money ahead in the long run @wbrw32

 

I got a '32 Ford chopped 3 window in 1976 to start on when I finished redoing my '55 Chevy. Just a good body, bare frame, and few odds and ends. By the time I finished my '55 in '79 I was burnt out on building. Got my '34 Chevy coupe in '82 because I didn't have time for a ground up build and I wanted an early coupe on the road like now. Twelve years after I got the '32 a guy asked if I would price it.
I was not trying to sell the car but I gave him a take it or leave it price. He took it. I don't think I bailed just priced the car and it sold. I have no regrets. I sold it for way way more than I gave for it. With all the glass 3 windows now I rarely even look at one any more. Of course if the right 5 window showed up....

 

Getting close. I built a T, avatar, now I may be in overhead. Working on a '39 Ford Tudor. Actually made progress today so maybe it will work out!

 

I bought a 1964 chevy II SS factory 283 and powerglide. It was painted a dirty off white/tan after driving by it with its for sale sign for a month. I stopped thinking the guy would want an arm and leg for a SS 400. It had mild rust on both quarters but a arrow straight body and a clean black int. after driving it for a few the wife started bugging me to do some thing with it.I didn't have the skills to change quarters sold it for 2800 to a guy who sweared he would fix it up. Saw it a few years later all ratted out driven by some punk makes me sad to think of it 30 years later.

 

Too many times. Last project was cut apart and most of my handmade parts (cowl, etc.) put out for the scrappers. Saved the Jaguar parts just in case.

 

Almost Every one .
Project cars?
Made money on all of them
Finished a ‘55 Chevy and a ‘64 Polgara 500.
Lost money on both.

 

sounds like you've been there too?

 

I found a '62 Falcon on Craig's list and paid too much for it. The longest drive I ever made it that car was the first one bringing it home from the seller! Bought it new tires and starting working on lots of "little" problems. Each weekend I thought I would drive it to work that Monday and something else would always pop up and kill that plan. Finally ripped out all of the old crappy, patched up wiring and installed a kit from Rebel Wire. More drive train problems, brake issues, persistent oil leaks, the list goes on and on. We starting calling it the "Falcon Valdez". After almost a year we drove it to a local cruise night for the first time. More oil everywhere and had to tow strap it the last 1/4 mile home. It was on eBay the next morning. Sold it for less than I paid originally. This is still my favorite photo of it. On the new owner's trailer! Bye bye!

 

Too or three or more, I am certain.

 

I have mentioned this truck in another thread, but will do so again here. I bought a 1957 Chevy 3100 from my grandpa. Hey, it was a one owner, and that owner was one of his good friends from way back in the Hocking Valley coal era, should be good, right? Wrong! I paid Grandpa for it, and it went from the front yard, to the barnyard. Herefords like rubbing up against things, and really liked this old truck. They rubbed up against the front fenders, and tore open the patches over the headlights. They rubbed up against the rear fenders, and tore off the taillights. Chalk up a new set of taillights. This happened in a span of about 36 hours. The tires had a lot of tread, but must have been the second set ever put on it, because two of them blew on the 5 mile, 30 mph trip to the Texaco I worked at. Tires? No problem, except they were 16's, and they weren't too easy to come by in 1980. Cheapest solution? Some used 15" tires and wheels. It had an external oil filter, one of the lines cracked. New line. I had a large sized friend, who had to put his entire weight on everything he touched. He got in it to move it one day, and put all his weight on the door and broke the lower hinge loose, and then stepped through the floor. It took several hours to patch that up. The generator died. Could not find a used one, so a rebuilt one was had. By now, I've had this hundred dollar truck for about a week, and spent 3 times that on it, and every evening after work. Looked at the points, the rubbing block was gone, and the rotor had worn to the point that it had a hole in it. Points, condensor, cap, and rotor. It was October, and the first cold snap required a new battery. About this time, I decided it was not worth the time, effort, and dollars this thing was costing, so up for sale it went, and it became the property of a proud new owner. For a hundred bucks.

 

all the time , part of Hot rodding

 

Sold my painted & home built full fendered 302/C4 auto 1932 3 window in 1977 for $5,500 for a down payment on a house, no regrets
Now whenever I buy anything the wife questions I bring up how "I gave away my coupe for her..." lol

 

sold a bunch when another project seemed like a better idea.
sold one when I lost my good job... bare metal rotissirie job on a 65 Mustang. got it to the point where the engine compartment and undersides were beautiful and the car ran and stopped, but still in primer and no glass or interior, headlights tail lights ... had $7500 in it and sold it for $4500.00. hundreds of hours wasted, I could have spent that time at the titty bar.

 

I bailed on the 32 Ford lakester that Dale Grau drives. Built the chassis, fit the body, built the box, built and fit the hood, radiator and shell, got it rolling with dummy motor and rebuilt 5 speed then it sat in my shop as customer projects took precedent. I finally put it up for sale and Dale grabbed it and finished to the level it is today. I broke even. He told me the other day he'd hit 60,000 on the car. Probably should have finished it?

 

I let this one go five years ago. Probably a good thing, I never did figure out what I really wanted to do with it.

 

Hello,

After our 40 Willys C/Gas Coupe explosion and fire, we thought about building another gas coupe. This time with what we learned from our mishap, we were ready to go when my brother recovered. Over the next 6-8 months, the world for us was changing, high school got a little harder as a junior and we were all growing up faster than normal.

Surfing was helping, but now, thoughts of taking off for a year after high school, on a surf trip all up and down the coast from Canada to Peru started taking precedence for me. Europe was mentioned since no one surfed there in the early 60s, but that was going to raise the cost way out of reach.

I knew I had to plan it fast or my parents would go nuts to see their youngest, wallow around and not go to college. My brother was getting better in his recovery and his ideas were to build a Willys pickup truck with a huge motor, another 671, injection, and this time definitely a B&M or C&O Stick Hydro for power. Everything that we did not have on our C/Gas Willys coupe. That meant almost every waking moment was going to be in the backyard garage starting from scratch again.

At first it was exciting talking about it. Then reality hit. Both of us looked at each other and asked if the new build was what we really wanted. My brother had his writing, surfing, and he just picked up a 250cc Greeves Motorcycle to mess around in our neighborhood dirt property. We were both changing with the time off from drag racing.

Jnaki

When it was time, we both sat down and said what we wanted to do at that point in our lives. I wanted to travel after high school. He wanted to start desert motorcycle racing in So Cal and in Baja, coinciding with week long surf trips. We both were going to postpone college for a year or two. That was the final postponement of building an A/Gas 671 supercharged Chevy in a 40 Willys pickup for the drags. Up to the time he passed away in 1992, we always thought about this postponement of our drag racing careers and how it affected our family, good or bad.

A final note: While in a hospice in Santa Barbara, we watched the films we had taken of each other driving the 40 Willys at Lions. First in the B/Gas class, then with the modifications and extra weight, in the C/Gas class. They were nicely transferred to a VHS tape for viewing. He was a happy camper after watching them over and over. Since then, mysteriously, the original 16mm color film of the Willys and the VHS tape disappeared, starting my long, lasting search for those valuable photos and films.

 

I've bailed out on a few cars over the years.

I bailed out on my first car, an OT '86 Mustang LX convertible I never really wanted in the first place. The trans went on it, and I didn't even like the car, so I had the trans repaired and sold it at a loss to a friend who I told the car was a POS. She didn't care, and bought it anyway.

I bailed out on my 57 Chevy, my next car, after it got hit hard in the back. The insurance paid generously, I sold the running car as well, and between the two made more than the car was worth before it was hit. I rolled that money over into what is the 57 Ford I still have 17+ years later.

If you have a real emotional attachment to the car, I don't mind spending without consideration for the final value (within reason). But if I don't truly love the project, it makes fiscal sense to pull the plug when you're getting in way too deep, cut your losses and move on. There's no shame in that.

 

Yes, life is too short...

 

Wow!! My dream car!!

 

I bailed on this '48 after completing all the dirty work sandblasting and primer. Sold it 3 months after back surgery as it was becoming a albatross not being able to work on it. Fully recovered now and know I can do the work,,,,. Still have my completed hotrod to drive.

 

I had a '50 Chevy fastback I worked on in spurts, had the V8 in it and needed a trans crossmember, a guy offered me stupid money for it so away it went.

Probably for the best, he had the resources to put the body on a rotisserie and using some of the parts I scavenged redid the whole bottom of it, then chopped it, then built a new frame for it, it's very non-traditional with a Corvette suspension and drivetrain. But it's also almost done. I would have had it rolling as a beater.

I may even buy the frame back, I have a '39 coupe that's an old stock car that could go right on there.

 

Yep. I drove this '53 Chevy as my daily driver for about 5 years with a really tired 235, 3 on the tree, vacuum wipers, as stock as you can get. Then about 15 years ago I decided to take it down to the bare frame and do a total rebuild making it into a king-cab. Extended the frame 1', shortened the bed 1', extended the cab 2', tricked out the 235, installed a polished case 200R4, power steering, power brakes, A/C, cruise control, power windows, tilt wheel, split power bench front seat, center latch stock tail gate, extended running boards, powder coated all running gear gloss black, all non-exterior sheet metal gloss white, two-tone catalyzed urethane basecoat/clear coat, frenched headlights, '59 Caddy tail lights just to name a few of the mods. Finished it about 7 years ago, started the engine ad ran it for about 5 minutes then shut it down. Ready to tune and start driving. It sat in that condition while I did a resto of a '59 El Camino with my grandson, and built my Mysterion clone. I never started or drove it again, sold it earlier this year.

 

About 25 years ago, money got a little tight; and I sold my chopped and channeled ‘32 roadster. Did manage to keep the ‘67 327/350 HT code engine , I had in her. Still stings, if I let myself think about it. Oh well, still have a bunch of other fish in the frying pan...

 

Now, I find this to be very interesting...never thought about this way. Hmmmmm

 

I had a 66 Chevelle 2 door hardtop that had some minor damage in the A pillar area and I flat did not have the skills at the time to make the repair. In hindsight it was a simple repair and I should have kept that car. I still have the 4 door parts car I bought to strip for the build.