Projects I'm getting old!

Exercise, eat well, get good sleep and pray....

 

That's what I need to do.... Kill the cable box!.....

 

I enjoy TV and don't think there's nothing wrong with it, unless you live in front of the t.v. I watch about an hour or two every day.. I started getting pulled into political shows, until I noticed I was getting excited and saddened watching different programs.. They are very hard to put away..

 

I'm always glued to the science channel... Unless a "good" movie comes on.... I don't do any of the reality garbage that we're being bombarded with....

 

A lot of my buddy's all went down on one thing, smoking cigarettes.....

I don't know what they are putting in those damn things but they are stone cold killers.. In the 50s and 60s, they smelled so good but today they smell like old socks being burned..

 

Funny, I thought growing old would take longer!..

 

I was 64 when I put traction bars on my Ford, it took me a few hours. Hindsight being 20-20, I would have had 1/2 the battle if I were to remove the back tires. I was toast after that, mainly due to my back injury. Last year I had to swap shifters out of it... I had to call in the troops. My back went into spasm as I was under the car hooking up the shift levers.

 

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^^^ I subscribe to this big time! I turn (only)61 this week but have made stretching a part of my daily routine since about 30 when physical work caused a few nagging injuries. Stretch first thing in the AM while having coffee and watching the news (multi task). Take a walk, go off to work. I stretch periodically throughout the day and at the end of the day and it seems to help. Many times I can do it while I'm stuck on the phone with someone, waiting in line at a store or gassing up the car, etc., so it doesn't really 'cost' me anytime. Hydration is important too.

Terrible Tom: are you using impact tools? I found that really helps when you're doing suspension work as you can usually blow stuff apart and back together relatively easy.

 

At some point we will all have to stop driving a car. I saw how devastating that was for my dad. I decided to stop working and start driving while I can. The most important thing we have is time.

 

75 here, we have a lot of the same issues, feel a little better knowing I'm not the only one.

 

I am at the stage of trying to figure out what I want to do on my Car & Than
doing it & I am bad I started it but have not taken it out for a Run.!
By this time Last year I was way ahead of everything.!
But Life got in the way this Time.

Just my 3.5 cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

To me (I'll be 70 in a month and a half) I have to have a running and driving project. I love working on an old car, but also want to be able to go for a drive if I'm not up to working on it...

 

I'm turning 71 soon, and just finished the most extensive car build in my life. I have built numerous cars since I retired 11 years ago, but it's definitely not as easy these days as it was just a decade ago. And I can't work those 8-10 hour days on the cars I did a decade ago either!
I've found that laying under a car on the concrete leaves me pretty sore the next day now. So I got s set of those HF 2'x2' standing pads, and I toss them under the car whenever I have to work off my back. I also have a couple mechanic's kneeling pads, as I've got bad knees, and can't even think about kneeling down very long.
I wont stop, but I sure work shorter hours, and use everything I have to make it more comfortable, so I can keep going!

 

I have come o the realization that when I was building my new garage 14 years ago I thought I didn't need to install a lift, after spending a few hours on the hard concrete floor working on the Ranch Wagon I ain't as young as I once was.

Those simple hour jobs have turned into 2 and 3 hour jobs but I still manage to get them done.

I remember my dad had a small framed needlepoint someone gave him that quoted Bette Davis -

"Old age ain't for sissies" . HRP

 

I have started to work on things at a craw speed & someday they
will be Done, My Car Run's & Drives with No Problems, Passes inspection
every year, I had a first Cousin that in AZ. that Drove his car to Tuscon
every couple of Days A 30 mile Run from his house & he was 96
So I have a long way to Go.!

Just my 3.5 Cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

I'm 71 and moving slower in the shop, especially during the summer when my comfort zone for the Florida heat grows ever narrower. Even being a surly senior is more difficult as in "I'll drop you like a bad transmission, if I can get my walker pointed in your direction!"

 

Kinda in the same boat....73 here and takes longer to do things...Had to remove the 4 gear trans awhile back and use to just lift them out or use a floor jack.... A friend of mine convinced me to use his tranny jack and man I should have used one from day one....Screw the golden years....

 

I'm a young whipper snapper at 67, but the projects might be killing me now... the back I had fixed last January is hurting again, but it is a different hurt. Switching the gear in the 9 inch in the land speed roadster was real slow and it went well at only four hours. The wreck of a 54 Country Squire got its first short run to donuts on Saturday, only a five year project. The ute keeps plugging along but it needs a tune-up, the 69 chevy truck with camper almost got a roadtrip this weekend, the motorhome generator needs a new fuel pump, my 1940 Ford pick-em-up needs a new cam,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but I am this side of dirt!!

 

They gonna miss us graybeards when we are gone! HRP

 

here you folks are gripping about not moving to fast, I just turned 80 and had my left knee replaced, best move I ever made next will be my right in the spring. I am still out in the garage most every day if it isn`t to hot, still able to get up and down, it just take longer than it used to.
Will be going to speed week in august with my two boys, I just plan on going until the end then off to fort logan for a long nap.
you all keep well and going Mike

 

I am 76 so I am already older than most of the responders to the thread. I built, still maintain, and race a vintage race car. Currently I am building another vintage race car that I started when the pandemic occurred. I will have that car ready to race by the last race of this season. Some of my most productive days are the ones where I don't feel like working in the shop. The key is to go to the shop and do something EVERY DAY. It doesn't have to be a huge project but it can't be "make work". When I retired I was building an airplane and I bought an aircraft hanger that was going to be built in a couple of months. Big mistake as it provided the perfect excuse. Until that happened I spent every night and most weekends working on that airplane. But with the prospect of having a hanger in a couple of months I rationalized "why go out and work in the cold garage every night when I will have a hanger in a couple of months". Of course the hanger wasn't completed on time and I got out of the "habit" and routine of working every day on my project. It took me a long time to reestablish a productive routine. So, keep busy on your projects. They really are like eating an elephant... one bite at a time.

 

65 here and am amazed how long it takes to do what was once so easy to do on my cars. I did have a spinal injury back a few years which left me with the loss of feeling on a large part of my right side, but everything still works. For me exercise is the key so far, I swim 3 miles a day for several reasons, it's easy on my back, I like doing it and it helps me to keep the weight off.
The one thing I don't think anyone mentioned with their aches and pains is how thin skin gets! Constantly cutting my arms and hands on, well on almost anything.

 

I'm past 75, for the most part, the Stude and 38 Chevy are done (or at least done enough) my wife asked what my next project was.......I didn't really have one Well, my father in law sort of helped me out, he purchased his dad's car in 1997, a 64 Fairlane from dad's estate. Could not stand to see someone else use the car. It was seldom started, virtually never driven since then but kept in dry storage all that time. A few weeks ago we drug it out of storage (really TIGHT storage) and loaded it on my trailer and brought it to my shop. My goal is to ready it for sale so that my mother in law has one less issue to care for as time goes on. That said, it's given me "something to do" as well as relearning old skills as well as some new ones. The brakes were over tight, power steering leaked and the transmission doesn't work. I forgot I weak I have gotten, the wife had to help me on clipping the emergency brake brackets to the cable This is a good a way to keep physically active as well as mentally alert, and thank goodness for YouTube videos on how to fix leaky power steering pieces

 

78 here-a bit harder to do things on the cars and takes a bit longer as well. May be good for one more 40!

 

I have the mind that thinks I am still 40 and the body that is 77. Been out in the shop sanding and welding this morning.

 

I had not slowed down all that much until the last year. Now 82 and things kinda hit all at onnce.
A couple of weeks back I put a spreader bar on my thirty four and have paid for it in spades with a really bad back. Drilling up the eight 9/16 mounting holes through my boxed frame has left me hurting through out my shoulders, middle back and at times the lower back. Doc says your spine is the anchor point for all that working doing that and I guess he is right on. Guess my time is getting closer.

 

At 80, I consider doing an oil change to be a good day's progress.

 

<<<<<< 2 packs a days since 14.....
Don't ever start!!!...

 

I got a blockage in my leg two years ago but still work full time in a new car dealerships parts department. I'll be 69 in a few months and I quit racing to build a hot rod. Yes it's hard to do that was easy years ago but we still get it done.

 

84 and just finished, a week ago, putting the 263+ back together. Hope for the last time. Beer and cheeseburger for lunch.

Ben