How many of you are perfectionists when building a car?

I am definitely a 100% guy, but that is 100% of what I am capable of. So I do everything I can AS good as I can, but that isn't to say its then a 100% perfect car. No my 100% is different to others 100%.
At a guess, what Groucho is saying is good enough for him (So his 100%) I would be capable of about 40% of Grouchos 100% as my 100%.

Make sense??

Doc.

 

In Jr. High back in the day when schools actually taught people how to do things rather than only how to think, I had a Handy crafts teacher named Mr. Monroe.

He was a very good teacher who used to ask each student if the project he was asked to grade was the best that the student could do.

If the student said no he would ask the student what he could to improve the project.

If the student offered a sugestion then he would ask the student to finnish the project and return for his grade.

Some of the students would be in a hurry to complete the required projects so that they could do something that they wanted to do for themselves.

They would say that the shoddy work on the project was the best that they could do.

Mr. Monroe had a gift of knowing the inherent talent of each student and graded accordingly.

The last year of Jr. High I was his teachers assistant in a class that included some Special Ed. students.

Some of them completed projects that were better than some of the projects that the regular students turned in in their hurry to injoy their freedom to work on what they wanted.

He had many Special Ed. students that got As and Bs for grades while some of the more capable students got Cs and Ds.

Mr. Monroe also taught me the importance of building things that were structurally sound.

I thought that one project would look better if one area was thinner.

He pointed out that if that area broke the whole project would be ruined.

Anyway I try to use some of the lessons learned from this man of wisdom.

I took all of the shop classes available but only remember the name of this one shop teacher.

When I paint my cars I will do it myself. They won't look as good as the $1,000.00 + paint jobs that others have put on their projects but they will be the best that I can do.

The frames on my cars won't be chromed and the wheels will be painted early spoked wheels but they will look good and be sound.

After all of this praise of Mr. Monroe there is something that he didn't teach me.

That is that there comes a time in building where deminishing return kicks in.

That is to say that sometimes it takes 10 times as long to make something perfect as it did to make it very very good.

If you try to make your car perfect you might not live long enough to drive it.

There is another aspect of building something perfect. You might be reluctant to drive your $1,000.00 + paint job down a dirt road.

Some of the most interesting things are found at the end of a dirt road, namely your next project.

Dick

 

r*t r*d?......flat black , red trim / wheels....hmmm..

 

Pretty much sums it up for me...

 

How you feelin' Doc??

 

HAHA. I was hoping someone else caught that. Thanks RRD

 

I use to be able to slam a driver in a few months, as I get older it seems to take me a year and three months.... This is a 65 Driver for my brother well over a year in this project.... Damn good thing its just a hobby

 

Something that I forgot in my last reply is that good design trumps good workmanship.

That is to say that very good workmanship is wasted on a bad design.

I've seen beautiful cars that didn't handle or stop worth a darned.

And some that looked downright dangerous.

Dick

 

My job requires me to be a perfectionist. It carries over to my Hot Rod building. It can be a God send or a curse. My wife hates it.

 

Tongue tied!

 

How's the shoulder??

 

perfection is when somebody says this about my ride at a show. "It's almost done. This guy's getting close." Little do they know that, "almost and getting" IS my perfection. My favorite saying, "Good enough for who it's for."

 

I respect perfectionists but personally I have found that, for me, perfectionism is a big obstacle to doing things or getting things finished.
My cars are far from perfect (due to my procastination, limited skills and budget) but I bet I have had more fun with them than have lots of guys with perfect cars sitting in their garages.

 

Was going to have the Op the day before Christmas but it got canceled. Will be done when the surgeon comes back from wherever rich surgeons Holiday.

As for me......SORE! Since about mid day yesterday my shoulder has been out 4 times, what a way to be woken up.

You know, I sure hope this surgeon is a 100% kind of guy!

Doc.

 

There's a couple local guys that are so picky, when the car is finally done it goes directly into storage. Seriously....ZERO miles. He said, it came out too nice to drive. He's got 3 or 4 like that. One of those guys built a 57 T-Bird for his wife, and will absolutely not let her drive it.

 

Not even on a nice quiet Sunday morning?? That's crazy!

 

I tell you what buddy , this is one of the slickest semi- gloss black paint jobs you will ever see . there is not rust dripping off of it and you do not see asphalt through the floor boards. Drove it almost 20,000 miles in two and a half years . did everything my self except for the powder coating . and no it ain,t perfect but it ain,t 80% done either. at least I dont call my self rat rod dude , dude. If it was gloss black , all I would hear is street rod. Take a look at the album in my profile .

 

I am not a perfectionest in my opinion but others say I am. I am, I guess, A perfectionest when it comes to form-fit-and function. My projects have to be mechanically sound. Excellent brakes, Safe steering, Good tires etc. I am not a perfectionest in the paint and polish department. I do have 2 units that are beautifully painted and detailed but my favorite ride is my Flat black roadster!

 

I think "perfection" is subjective.
I've seen some primered cars that some would call rat rods, others call drivers and I would say perfect.
As for me and mine, I do the best I can with what I got.
I'm a machinist by trade for an orthopedic implant company.
My job is about perfection and it spills over into my personal life and home projects.
I'm with Mike Holmes when he says "If you gonna do it, do it right the first time".
That don't always happen though.

 

No need to get you panties in a wad , I like your car , it is just that everyone on here thinks that flat black paint , red wheels , etc stands for rat rod , if you look at the avatar , you'll see the same thing , plus the wide whites , no need to gget so defensive...unless it aint the first time you heard someone say that about your car ......

 

Well, I strive for 200% but only achieve about half that. Is that okay?

 

Not a HAMB friendly car, but I drove this car while working on it. I built it in phases; the end product was you could eat off the bottom of the car. I guess I was never satisfied until everything was gone through and then, still not satisfied. I guess its how you roll, some people just can't help themselves of wanting something close to their personal perfection.

 

Good luck Doc, I hope he is too and not some 80% guy like "39 Chevy Kustom" was talking about, or your shoulder will end up protruding from your forehead and Australia will break off and float to Argentina.

 

Man, no disrespect intended, and I'm certainly not trying to start a fight here, but there's plenty of cars out there that pull off a gloss paint job without ever having to worry about people calling them Street rods. If you're worried about your car being classed as Street Rod just because it's shiny, then I'd be looking for problems elsewhere as well.
Paul