[popinoz]

Come on guys! oops and gals!.

I cant be the only one thats has spent the last two days in the garage doing a job that i thought would take a few hours.Even though your working hard on your project you know your not 100% commited to it.You are not ready to sell and through in the towel , but know if someone turned up with some cash you would take it.Obviously this aint the way to get her on the road.You dont want to advertise yet another unfinished project for sale.Do we carry on because we want to or because we are to stubborn to give up i dunno?

My question and request for advice is to all that have completed a project .How do you keep yourself going when you cant see the light at the end of the tunnel.:sniff:

 

[pixie]

Get ya mates round ...have a night in the garage with a beer and have a discusion on where you are going with your project...........works for me every time:tup:

 

[popinoz]

Sounds good but the word billy and no mates comes too mind im in deepest essex . I havent got hot rod mates here only the ones i meet at the shows i suppose a hotrod project is a lonely hobby really.Dont get me wrong got the mates that go to the pub and get boozed up but have no interest in hotrods.cheers!

 

[gat 39]

i think we all go through that at one time or another! what i di is down tools for a couple of days, sit and imagine it finished whith a cup of tea, then look at rods n sods pictures for more inspiratrion!! sorry bout typing errors, only got one working hand at mo!:tup:

 

[Kustommike]

Get online and look at finished versions of your car or same style as your build dont do what i do and go off on another tangent and buy another project, or try going clothes shopping with the wife you'll be itching to get back into the garage then!!

 

[kapri]

You have to ask yourself " Do I really REALLY want this ? " . If you do get on with it, if you don't sell it and start what you REALLY want ( all within the reality of what you can actually afford ) . 3 or 4 years in a garage struggling to build anything , both emotionally and mentally is no fun. That's why 90% of projects never get finished.

It takes someone special to go through that and get to the end ..

So...are you special enough ? :incheek:

 

[Lee]

Don't worry, it comes to us all.
I had to force myself to go into the garage today. I couldn't really be arsed.
Spent the morning fabbing a new bulkhead but I couldn't get my welding together and was pretty pissed off with the results.
Ground it all back and it looked a bit better.
Then I had a massive tidy up and decided to put my engine and box in for a trial fit.
This cheered me up no end and everything's groovy again.

Stick at it it'll be worth it in the end.

Or give up and take up golf - either is good.

 

[Eastern raider]

Martin. Get your finger out. stop procastinating and get on with it. :shake:

 

[popinoz]

Cheers so far guys!I
I suppose what im building is so different to what hotrodding friends think i should be into ,being my last car was a blown pop and now im working on a bloody transit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.I must be mad but when i brought it half done i thought you know what that looks the bollox! and i got it for £1100 so if i broke it up id get me money back.I also feel guilty as the previous owner was an older guy who was probably the nicest bloke you could meet and i think there may have been some health issues.He looked me in the eye and said it had to be gone end of !and any offer would be taken seriously.He reckoned he spent 6 months underneath bloody welding it up.I think that was no lie as it looks like a battenburg cake underneath.

I must confess to a disslike of the good old rover v8 filling the engine bay but changing this isnt an option.A few people have commented that this really isnt me but i decided fuc* it i like it.My plan is to use it as an alternative to the tent at the shows and the drags as i really cant get any urge to tent anymore this was brought on when i went to le mans a few years ago when a couple of french bastar** got in the tent when me and a mate where a sleep fortunately gary my mate is an ex boxer and woke before me and promptly gave them a good kicking.Also i have had a few instances with idiots driving around the shows and pits at night and scareing the crap out of me thinking how easy it would be to get run over in your sleeping bag.

I think building this is very difficult being the standard of work you see on this and other bloody sites is so good that you feel you cant compete. There is a lot of talk about the vans coming back which is good but its difficult to decide whether to build 70,s style or more up to date. Must say i like the slotmags on it so that makes the decision harder coz i aint gonna sell them in favour or 20" rims.I may draw the line on the fir inside msl:!!

Oh well gonna try and elong gate the door hinges tomorrow so i can get the doors fitting flush with the front wings .Then play with probably the only pair of gullwing doors on a transit in the u.k cheers guys for advice so far.:tup:

 

[vince-305]

Sounds to me like youve stopped looking at it as a hobby and thats something im sure we all have done

When that time comes have a few days/weeks off totally away from the car, thats what i do

I mean on the way home from the essex swap meet i had a lil failure which i could of just welded up and been back on the road

Guess what ive now changed both the front and rear springs and have spent the last 2 weekends waiting for my mate to come around with the big welder to weld it but its rained :sniff:

Oh the joys of no garage :lol:

 

[sidspop]

Cheers so far guys!I

I think building this is very difficult being the standard of work you see on this and other bloody sites is so good that you feel you cant compete.

Compete with who?
FFS, you are building it. It is your van. You are doing the graft on it, You are putting the money and time into it.
Nobody is ever gonna see it and say "weldings not up to the standard of Joe Bloggs" or "furry dice aren't as good as Joe Bloggs"

Find some mates in Essex. Shout on here, or http://fordtransit.org/forum/ that you need some help, advice, inspiration, whatever, getting the kettle on, get the biccies out, and make new freinds who can come round, help, take the piss, offer advice, whatever.

Just get it done.

 

[kapri]

Nobody is ever gonna see it and say "weldings not up to the standard of Joe Bloggs" or "furry dice aren't as good as Joe Bloggs"

Regretably you're wrong there Andy , but those people are the ones who make this hobby a pain to be in at a times. :tdown: That's why a ratty car can often be a godsend ,you remove yourself from one area of peer criticism... but move into another.

Lots say they are building for themselves but few truly do .

By the way , haven't had chance to call back but will do :tup:

 

[POPS]

I've just done what you said, spent two days in the garage making a foot pedal, sad eh! yeah I could have bought a pedal box or bought a fully custom job but this is what we do.
You need an enthusiasm injection, I went through the same stage probably like a lot of rodders, get to the local cruise and talk to some one about his or her car (we can bore for England on this one)
Get to a show and check the cars out , the season has just started or check out the drag strips ( just got back from York that's done it for me for a couple of weeks) Ok you might have to travel to do this but once in a while will probably get you fired up, the other thing to do is to just totally complete one bit, then when you look at it you can pat yourself on the back and move on to the next bit ( that's where the foot pedal came in)msl:

 

[pottsy]

I bought an unfinished project and set myself a year to get it into a roadworthy condition. Like you I had times when I lacked any enthusiasm but I kept telling myself it will all be worth when I make it to my first show or local cruise. I was lucky enough to have a couple of pals who were always there to help me. It also helped having some good music on and my wife or one of my daughters bringing in a bacon sarnie and a hot cup of tea.:tup
I managed to get the car roadworthy within a year and have been adding finishing touches since.
Good luck with the project, you'll make it.
BTW, I see you're in Essex. If you're within spitting distance of Clacton on sea give me a shout.

 

[MikeS]

Down tools for a few days or a couple of weeks. Then every night go into the garage and plan what your'e going to do next, don't do anything just plan and imagine; this is what I did and the motivation always came back.

 

[Stroprock]

Try thinking what inspired you to get into rodding in the first place, perhaps a picture in a magazine or an event of some sort. If it got you into rodding, then it must be more than capable of keeping your rodding flame burning.

 

[Gtxjon]

Hi PopinOZ,

I'm new to this site and there are some real interesting reads!
As an 'outcast of society' a Mopar owner, its good to see others peoples view on classic car ownership.
Back to your specific problem!
It doesn't matter how much you spend on or car or how much time you spend?
YOU GOTTA LOVE IT:sniff:
Thats what gets you through the long cold nights and relationship breaking lows!!!
Why do it otherwise?
Its better to save the money, buy a done car and spend loads of time up the pub, laughing at other fools wasting their time and hard earned money on worthless JUNK! (that's irony in case you misssed it)
We all know what to do we just don't bite the bullet.

There are hundreds of projects that you would rather spill blood and guts on, I BET!
Sell the tranny and get your old POP back, what a COOOL CAR!!!:smoke:

Hope I haven't lost my lost my membership with my first POST!:lol:

Gtxjon, yes that is a Mopar, and yes I heard all the Jokes before, mostly from American Autoparts!!!:incheek:

 

[Eastern raider]

Down tools for a few days or a couple of weeks. Then every night go into the garage and plan what your'e going to do next, don't do anything just plan and imagine; this is what I did and the motivation always came back.

Do want to tell them about the month you spent in Oz? :roll::rofl:

 

[ROCKIN WOLEY]

Sounds good but the word billy and no mates comes too mind im in deepest essex . I havent got hot rod mates here only the ones i meet at the shows i suppose a hotrod project is a lonely hobby really.Dont get me wrong got the mates that go to the pub and get boozed up but have no interest in hotrods.cheers!

What do you meen Billy no mates, no rodding mates, lonely hobby, this is RODSNSODS my dear boy of corse you have mates and I'm sure some one dahn souf in your area will come round and help. (bribe them with beer works every time):tup:

 

[jez r]

I know exactly how you feel on this. I've had the odd moment whe I feel asif I'm loosing my mojo. Sometimes trying hard to work up enthusiasm for a project without success can just increase the frustration or general ennui that you were feeling in the first place.
As others have said, step away from the garage and do things totally un realted to it for a while, then try to remember what inspired you in the first place.
If you post some pics of the project so far in the "garage" section you'll probably get a bunch of ideas and advice off people.