how do you do it

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twayne24365

twayne24365

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well only being 19 and working with my dad doing home improvement on the days im not in school, still trying to figure out what i want to do to make a living, progress on building my car is always slow, and is for alot of people. but seeing peoples restorations and build and how they make so much progress and get them done always amazes me and makes me think "dam i wonder what he does for a living", so what do some of you guys to to earn your keep?
 
Careful what ya wish for there young man. I think I got a lot more accomplished on my cars when I was young, broke and full of energy then I do now having a few bucks but little spare time with long work hours and tons of adult responsibilities not to mention that with age comes less patience and lower energy levels.When I was 19 I'd work on the car on jackstands on a wet street in the cold till 2 in the morning. Now I have a two car garage and still complain to the Ol'lady I don't have enough room and we need a place where I can have a big outbuilding with more room. It also helped when I was younger that I had people around who were also into cars and could lend a hand and now it's just me by myself and that does make things a lot harder. Since you asked I'm just a machinist and always have been, I could net a 100k a year if I wanted to max out the OT but the older I get the less I want to work so I stay at around 80k.
I'm sure there's plenty on here that make a helluva lot more and plenty that make a helluva lot less. But its all relative cause the more ya make the more ya spend so were all in the same broke *** boat regardless of income. Cherish your youth more then the almighty dollar.

Yeah, I guess I wonder the same thing as you.Lol !!!
 
My dad owned a huge drywall construction company when I was growing up after he retired from racing for Grand Spaulding Dodge, and after going to college for mechanical engineering I decided to help dad with the company and did that for 28 years along with being a professional fighter in Martial arts until breaking my back in 1989 in Thailand both of these professions provided a great lifestyle and many toys have come and gone lol. I have been driving a truck in the oil fields for 4 years hauling oil,sand and water to the wells. I am also now in a place in my life I can again enjoy a toy or 6 lol!! I have 5 inventions being processed and one is actually going to be licensed and starting manufacturing this years end!! So you never know what some ones life is like but you my friend have a lot of great options so choose wisely and never back down. Goodluck and whats your project you are working on? I worked with my dad during weekends and summer break to buy and build my first car which was a lime green 1970 roadrunner 440+6 4spd, dana 4.10 with white interior and air grabber hood! Owned it for about 20 years along with many others I wish I still had lol!! Keep us posted and post pics of your project and maybe we can help!
 
twayne24365 said:
well only being 19 and working with my dad doing home improvement on the days im not in school, still trying to figure out what i want to do to make a living, progress on building my car is always slow, and is for alot of people. but seeing peoples restorations and build and how they make so much progress and get them done always amazes me and makes me think "dam i wonder what he does for a living", so what do some of you guys to to earn your keep?
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I'm with ya here!! Lol. Only I'm 20, married a year and three months, own a house (mortgage, utilities, etc.) will gross around $30k this year... Oh and the trans in my truck went out a month or so back. Lol. Yea, progress is little and far between here!! I'm currently working in a mini barn shop doing all the roofs, next spring/summer I'm gettin a different job! Idk what yet but I'm gettin outta construction!!
 
I work in the compressed gas/ welding supply business. Specifically, I manage an Airgas location in Georgia. Before that I drove an 18 wheeler for twenty years, ten of which I was also the operations manager for the company I drove for. Before that, I repaired/ rebuilt jet engines for Marine Corps fighters. Finding time is hard. I bought a 72 Swinger and it was 6 months before I could put it in the garage. It was another six months before I could put it back outside where I could work on it. That was a coulple months ago and I haven't had ten minutes to work on it since. Welding and logistics make my living, creation and re-creation is my passion. I do a lot of woodworking and I love making things simpler and workable. Engines and transmissions are my brain drain activities. I don't do this for a group. I do it for my sanity.
 
Im workig on a 72 swinger now, ive ha it for about a year and a half now, bought it running and driving then proceeded to take out allthe interior, motor, and trans. Got seat brackes made and seats mounted, shifter installed, and new floor pans welded in. And Hemioutlaw you are 100% right, even though most of my friends are in there 30s and 40s (most of the people i know my age are so immature and would stab ya right in the back) they would give me a hand on anythig no matter what, even my woman helps me lol, i guess its just nice o see how other people get it done ya kno
 
Ill get some pics together of what im working on maybe sometime tomorrow, and to
Dragondan64, i train mma as well, which takes up some of my money and alot of time lol
 
twayne24365 said:
well only being 19 and working with my dad doing home improvement on the days im not in school, still trying to figure out what i want to do to make a living, progress on building my car is always slow, and is for alot of people. but seeing peoples restorations and build and how they make so much progress and get them done always amazes me and makes me think "dam i wonder what he does for a living", so what do some of you guys to to earn your keep?
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There with ya too man. Im 23 although ive had my demon done for about 2 or 3 years. Im lucky that my dad has been in the auto body industry for about 35 years and me and him put in countless late nights and weekends working on the car. He actually had more motivation then me some nights and hes 55 and works all week. He always says "i dont care what it is that we do or how little we get done tonight as long as we are makin progress" lol and he help a ton with the car but i loved every minute of it. Ive seen him build and finish cars for so many other people. That i always wanted to rebuild a car with him, thats almost a once in a lifetime expirience. But keep moving on, best thing to do is have a game plan and stay organized, it really helps. Oh and it took us about 1.5 years to finish the car. So pretty much 1.5 years of 50hrs a week of work for me and basically not going out at all. But i did what i had to do to get her done. Hell just last october i finally paid the loan off i had to finish the engine.
Im single with no kids and people ask me if im married, i say yeah my wife is at home in the garage lol. Good luck man and keep on keepin on

\\:D/
 
get the education, first. Time for cars will always be there, but the desire to get an education should be first on your thoughts now. If you just set small goals on what you want to accomplish on the car you're into, then you won't hit disappointment after disappointment and slowly get the car where you want it.
 
After I got out of the service (age 23, married with two young kids) I took jobs here and there but had no idea what I wanted to do for a living. I had one job where I had to sweep the floors in a large (humungous) machine shop. Everyday I would sweep and watch the machinist turning metal on their lathes and cutting and shaping. It really looked like a lot of fun, creating things out of raw metal. I was so fascinated by the machinist and their skills I used the GI bill to go to machine shop school. Next door to the machine shop (at school) was the welding shop. During the machine shop school breaks I would go over to hang out with the welders and had them teach me how to weld. So by the time I graduated from machine shop school I had become a pretty good welder. After just 8 months in machine shop school (I'm a fast learner) I was hired by a machine shop. I worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and went to school from 6PM to midnight for 4 years. Once I graduated from machine shop school I worked 100 hours a week doing machine work and programming CNC machines. This was back in the late 70s and I was making 55K a year. That was a lot of money back then. If you can do machine work and if you can weld you can make almost anything. You can draw your own blueprints then make the part that you drew...THAT'S COOL!!! You can harden metal, you can anneal metal, you can heat it and change it's shape. You learn how to see the actual part inside the metal block before you make the first cut. I made a lot of money, especially after I learned how to program the CNC machines. It paid real good and was a lot of fun. I never got tired of taking a raw piece of metal and making something out of it...the more complicated the better!!! I'm retired now but I still make things out of metal all the time or help someone else modify their hot rod.
If it wasn't for these skills I wouldn't be able to build hot rods or modify them. I believe that I can do anything and build anything (it may not be true but I know that there's nothing I haven't been able to do)!!!
My point is.......when you see something that looks interesting (really interesting) GO FOR IT!!! The worst that will happen is that you'll learn something in the process and maybe, just maybe, it will pay you back for the rest of your life!!!


Treblig
 
It doesn't matter what you do for a living. Take care of those around you and keep your priorities straight and you'll be good to go. Live simple, DO NOT get into debt for a built 440! Been there done that at about your age.

I am much more impressed by peoples skills than the money they can throw at something. That's where I think; "how do they do it?"
 
To understand how it is that some guys make substantial progress I don't think it's beneficial to know what each person does for a living. That's not the key.

In addition to my own projects I've helped other guys finish theirs. The biggest obstacle standing in their way was themselves. A lot of guys have projects that may never get done because they haven't found the resolve to finish them. They always have an excuse.

Not enough money.

Not enough time.

Can't find parts.

Don't know how to do things.

If you spent cash on anything other than essentials - you had money.

If you slept last night, - you had time.

If you're on this website you have a computer. - Eventually you'll find your parts. - And the information on how to get things done is on sites like this one.

Some people will think that this is a harsh over-simplication of what it takes to get a car finished. But it's true.

Those guys that I had helped had been sitting on their unfinished projects for years. I berated them by telling them they "might as well give up." "You're never going to get it done because you aren't even trying to."

I told them that all it would take is 5 minutes a day. If they would dedicate themselves to working on it for 5 minutes each day, they'd get it done. If they did nothing more than remove a couple of trim pieces or strip off 6 square inches of paint each day, - they'd get there.

When they finally took my advice they saw progress getting done. Naturally, the 5 minutes eventually became 10 and then 30. Before you knew it they more became enthusiastic about their projects and could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If they couldn't afford certain parts, they'd either have to consider cheaper alternatives or shift focus onto another aspect of their project until they saved up enough.

They didn't have to ignore their families or other obligations.

I procrastinated far too long on my own work before I realized that I was my own worst obstacle.

As the saying goes"Every journey begins with a single step."
 
twayne, Like Henioutlaw I had much more time to work on vehicles when I was your age. To get women, I had to have a car, and to have a car I had to work!! At 13 years old I washed dishes in a restaurant, at 15 years old I worked at the restaurant and also pumped gas (yes, back then there were people who pumped gas into your car!) and helped the owner around the garage. My first car was a 1972 Duster. After graduating high school, I worked in a machine shop running a turret lathe. Then me and my buddies got into four wheel drives, and like Hemioutlaw, worked on it in a barn until the wee hours in the morning. After being laid off from the machines shop I joined the Air Force and, for too many years, didn't have a project vehicle. About 5 years ago I started my search for a 66 Barracuda and finally found one last June. I'm retired from the Air Force but that doesn't pay all the bills so I was a manager for a financial company marketing to the military...and was laid off a year ago, so now I'm self-employed as a Real Estate Agent. Since I work most nights and weekends, I end up getting up in the morning to work on my car.

Hang in there, it sounds like you have some vision. With your positive attitude, things will go your way. Enjoy life, have fun, and get greasy working on your Swinger any time you can!!
 
I'm just glad to see you young dudes into it like we old(er) guys were and still are!

Great hobby. Frustrating at times, expensive... but I'm going on a cruise tomorrow with some guys and it's a great feeling. A nice departure from the grind.
 
Yea ita super frustrating sometimes, and i guess working on dads car alot takes time away from my own progress, i recently build his motor (the second big block ive built) got it all together and running, and now painting it... Haha, dad supplies his parts and i assemble, but hey i love doing it so it doesnt matter, so maybe now that his is almost done ill get to give attention to mine... On the note of education and career, i currently go to community college, ive been there for 2.5 years, just getting all my general education stuff out of the way so i can atleast get an assosiates degree, since i still dont know what i want to do. Id love to het into building engines but here where i live there really isnt much to choose from in that field
 
I hear you, Twayne. One of the toughest things to do at 19 is figure out what you want to do with your life, on the basis of little to no experience. At 19, I worked in a cafeteria, took 6 hours of BS level econ and accounting, and crewed on what is today a Nationwide car. At the time I had a contentious relationship with my parents, no social life at all, and was surviving on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

An article I read says that the average person "re-invents" themselves 3 times during their working lives. I'm on track for that. I've retired twice (military & IT) and currently working as a valet to keep from going crazier. I got my Demon in 2005 (in-process) and my 73 came along in 2011. It became my DD seven months later. What I've learned is that everything has its own time to come along. I've run into trouble when I've forced the issue.

Life lessons I've learned that I hope will be helpful to you:

  1. There is a God and it is not me. Worship Him.
  2. Whether college or trade school choose a profession that I have a passion for and that will allow me to provide for my basic needs.
  3. Control is an illusion. Stuff happens
  4. Comparing myself to others is an exercise in frustration and futility. Their grass may be greener but their weeds are thicker, too.
  5. Guard my health. The fewer replacement parts I pick up along the way, the less to go wrong later. OEM stuff is the best.
  6. Do not go into debt for an amount that I can not walk away from free and clear. Also, do not go into debt unless there is an income stream that can see the debt paid off. The borrower becomes the lender's slave otherwise. One of the reason the Demon seems taking such a long time is that it is funded entirely by tip money and I keep making changes.
  7. Set out goals and milestones for yourself that are realistic and celebrate when you achieve them. Always try to make progress on them.
  8. Some days I'm the big dog, other days I'm the fire plug. Roll with the punches.
  9. Be responsible for my actions. There are things I can control and things I can't.
  10. Things happen for a reason, even if it isn't clear. e.g. I sold the 73 in June of 2013, it was abandoned and came back last month because the buyer had not changed the title or registration. All of the documents to change it were in the glove box untouched.
Good luck, Twayne, wherever the road of life and your Mopar take you.
 
Well it sounds like you are doing good...It's hard to know what you want to do at 19. I joined the Navy just because I had no clue either. Now I am a electronic engineer...honestly I can't say I love it. Computer chips, hooray.

But it feeds the family...pays the bills and keeps the mopars running. ;) So to God I am thankful... but try to get into what you like...like a small engine school or something.

You have your whole life before you !
 
2 Darts said:
I hear you, Twayne. One of the toughest things to do at 19 is figure out what you want to do with your life, on the basis of little to no experience. At 19, I worked in a cafeteria, took 6 hours of BS level econ and accounting, and crewed on what is today a Nationwide car. At the time I had a contentious relationship with my parents, no social life at all, and was surviving on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night. An article I read says that the average person "re-invents" themselves 3 times during their working lives. I'm on track for that. I've retired twice (military & IT) and currently working as a valet to keep from going crazier. I got my Demon in 2005 (in-process) and my 73 came along in 2011. It became my DD seven months later. What I've learned is that everything has its own time to come along. I've run into trouble when I've forced the issue. Life lessons I've learned that I hope will be helpful to you:
  1. There is a God and it is not me. Worship Him.
  2. Whether college or trade school choose a profession that I have a passion for and that will allow me to provide for my basic needs.
  3. Control is an illusion. Stuff happens
  4. Comparing myself to others is an exercise in frustration and futility. Their grass may be greener but their weeds are thicker, too.
  5. Guard my health. The fewer replacement parts I pick up along the way, the less to go wrong later. OEM stuff is the best.
  6. Do not go into debt for an amount that I can not walk away from free and clear. Also, do not go into debt unless there is an income stream that can see the debt paid off. The borrower becomes the lender's slave otherwise. One of the reason the Demon seems taking such a long time is that it is funded entirely by tip money and I keep making changes.
  7. Set out goals and milestones for yourself that are realistic and celebrate when you achieve them. Always try to make progress on them.
  8. Some days I'm the big dog, other days I'm the fire plug. Roll with the punches.
  9. Be responsible for my actions. There are things I can control and things I can't.
  10. Things happen for a reason, even if it isn't clear. e.g. I sold the 73 in June of 2013, it was abandoned and came back last month because the buyer had not changed the title or registration. All of the documents to change it were in the glove box untouched.
Good luck, Twayne, wherever the road of life and your Mopar take you.
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Good stuff..all of it ! ^^^^^
 
Dragondan64, I was in Thailand in 89! Small world...I fix your telephone (remember those?) and then Ill fix your DSL service, and if you ask, I usually fix your network because your IT guy bought the answers to the NET+ test online and plays more Xbox than Cisco. But I got a Boss that loves to have a late shift and this 9:30-6:30 shift kills all your after work time, get home by 7, eat dinner alone, Get on FABO for 30 minutes, tuck kids and tired wife into bed, sit and decompress for 30 minutes and then start the whole thing over again....I cant get anything done in the morning before work, its just unnatural for me. This started 2 years ago and between 2 kids sports and church on the weekends, Im lucky to get 30 minutes a week in the garage, hardly time to remember where I left off. My project is funded entirely by a bi-monthly $25 ebay transfer I give myself and me hustling parts. It keeps the wife out of the financial argument. If you enjoy wrenching, great, If you have to do it for a paycheck, the "thrill" is gone soon.

Wanna make some money? Move to North Dakota or Texas and get in with an oil support company. People are starting over and making a great living out there.
 
I am still young most the money I used to redo my car was from deployment. Now I make cardboard sheets for a living. That pays for my house and a few parts here and there to finish up.
 
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself.

Don't be afraid to take risks, as some pan out.

Everybody fails, but that builds character.

Live Baby, Live !!
 
69 Cuda 440 said:
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself.

Don't be afraid to take risks, as some pan out.

Everybody fails, but that builds character.

Live Baby, Live !!
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Think of it like Baseball. A player with a 300 batting average is a great hitter. But he only gets a hit 3 out of 10 times. No pain no gain. A man has to take some risk in life if he really wants to make it big. Young age is the time to do it.
 
The number one thing I try to instill on the young guns in my life is patience! Things will come along, you just have to be patient, and recognize the opprotunity and seize it when it does come! Do what you have to do now to get by, but always look for what you really want to do! Don't settle for a job because it makes a lot of money, find something that interests you enough to want to do it! Too many people get stuck in a job they hate, and no matter how much it pays, they will always hate to go there!! There are career opportunities out there in any field, you just gotta be patient and be THE one for the job! So how do you do that???.....

It has been my observation that school is there to teach you more than just what's in the book, its secretly trying to teach you how to develop your interests through research, tenacity and preserverance! Want to be a fly fisherman?? I can stuff a rod in your hand and point you to the water and you can be a fly fisherman! However, no research has gone into what you need to catch the fish...what color fly is correct for the conditions, the hatch, the water temp, the weather, the species...you get the point! Only patience, time and research will give you the information needed to fully understand and enjoy that hobby, and it can take a lifetime of learning! My point is, you have to be interested enough to really enjoy it for your entire life!! Don't enjoy it?? No sweat, just move on and find something you really enjoy! Eventually you will find those things in life you really put yourself into, and you will sit on the toilet for too long reading a tech article on how to rebuild a 904...for the third time!!!

Patience with your car project goes a long way also, finding the right part at the right price can take months or years, but it saves you money! Doing stuff for free to keep the ball rolling while you save up for the parts you need! I always say do the free stuff first, and pick the hardest job and tackle that first! One thing I hate in any job I do is when people do the easy stuff first and put off the hard jobs! I can't stand to stare down the biggest, hardest part of a job for the entire time I'm working! Its much easier on the mind to have the meat and potatoes behind you and be looking at the cake!!

Patience my friend, patience!! You're getting some great experience working on Dads car with him, and making great memories along the way! Don't waste that on being in a rush to get your project done!! Just turn on the AC/DC and take it one step at a time!! :) Geof
 
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