Ever just want to walk away from the old car thing?

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Went through this several times with my 66 Barracuda. I got kinda discouraged when I spent thousands of $$ and over 2 years on my big bolt pattern upgrade & front suspension rebuild, then the car still didn't handle like I wanted it to. I still liked the car and it was super cool and got a lot of attention, but for me, driving it wasn't a lot of fun.

Now I have my Valiant and I'm going through the same thing. The Valiant is fast, stops & handles great, but there are no creature comforts. Trying to decide what to do - spend time and money making my Valiant more dual-purpose by adding insulation & carpet and fixing the little things that will make it nicer to drive, or sell it and get into something newer.

Part of me is trying to hold onto my youth when all I cared about was going fast. Now that I'm getting older, it gets harder to justify that.
 
I I had the money I've have a whole BUNCH of old iron. I'd have at least one......a 70 Satellite RR with a modern drivetrain to DRIVE. I'd probably have one modern "rig" ---a good heavy pickup, and maybe not, either.
 
cosgig said:
When I stand back and look at my own life, the first thing I do in the morning is wake up to FABO!! Cars are bred into me, and there's no chance that will change! I don't strive to have the perfect car, I love the sounds, the smell, the whistles of air leaking through the vent windows, that coffee stain on the floor where the cup tipped over (alright, I do like cup holders), everything that makes these cars cool!! Take a break?? To me, that means not going out to the garage today!!! Not gonna happen!!! I got 4 days off, gonna be out there a lot this weekend!!!
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Geof, I need you here to motivate me.... Like you, I wake up to FABO! But somehow when it comes to actually going to work on the car I just don't get it done... Now if I start a project on it I can work on it a few nights in a row and by the second or third night I can't wait to get out to the shop! It's just gettin to that point!
 
take a break or a breath. don't look at the car as an investment, I don't !
these old Mopars are money pits, and money is meant to be burned in the pit, gone poof, ashes. my best friends wife won't let him put money in his 64 fury maxwedge, because she says it's a poor investment. his kids will end up with the car and bank account when they're gone. lol enjoy your car he can't.
 
bruceo2011 said:
Living in a snowbelt state, by the end of fall, I'm usually ready to put the cars away because they were a pain in the butt all summer. However, come spring and all is forgotten and I am always chomping at the bit to get them out and get at them.
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same here- then, in the spring, warm it up, put 'Welcome to the Jungle' on at full blast, and hit the road:D
 
I drive my old stuff every nice day I need to go somewhere and always will. It seems these days people are so damn spoiled. "it doesn't have air, power brakes, power steering, or a nice stereo." who cares? the only thing I have about my old cars is the leaks(oil, trans fluid)
 
I think about it all the time. I am back into the model railroad scene now too, so that may pretty much do it for me.
 
That's why I have a jeep, a work truck, a bass boat AND an old Dart project... Mixing it up, having fun, focusing elsewhere and then refocusing... My projects happen in spurts, improve the house, improve the boat, improve my health...
 
I've been there for a short while, but then the money came back around and I bought the parts I wanted/needed.

So in other words no.
 
Had my 69 dart since 1981 and every other year I think about selling it , but then I start driving it again and the feeling goes away
 
i think everyone thinks about it at one time or another.. no shame in it to tell you the truth.

i've put the cars on the back burner many times.. still they don't matter near as much now as they did when i was younger. i have many hobbies and cars are just one of them that i can do without for months/years at a time..

this is no cheap hobby these days thats for sure. maybe your expectations are to high. who knows.. maybe walk away for a while..

what is making the car a pain in the ***?
 
I would add that one should not feel bad about walking away, or feel they are abandoning their goal. Can always go back.

I think that as we age we tend to be more open to other interests, and thus what was once so important steadily becomes less so.

I say there is no shame in walking away from any hobby......as long as your walking towards something else that interests you. :coffee2::D

BTW............gardening season is just around the corner. :flower:

I gotta get some nitrogen down soon!
 
there are some "activites" that, for some will provide a "lifestyle" ,what it is called. for some people this hobby is somewhat a way of life. yes its a hobby. a hobby that can use up more $$ and time and energy than some. playing basketball, or golf, or etc... you do you thing and then put it away. these old cars tend to be more. more garage, more tools, more parts, more supplies, more cars, more work, more thought, more feeling, more beer!? lol

some will say, they have one old car they piddle with, a handful of tools, ... sorta like their fishing pole,.. occasionally comes to mind...

ya could somewhat could compare this car hobby way of life to "horses" .... for many they are a lifestyle. they define who we are. those horses are feed every night and every morning, 7 days a week. they eat before me. if I run low on $$, they eat first. they require hoof care, worming, vacinations, doctoring sometimes, training, use. activites with them become a lifestyle. nothing like maybe playing a little basketball, or golf or .....

now some, can own that horse, can turn him out in a pasture and forget him.... its not a lifestyle.......
 
75slant6 said:
Geof, I need you here to motivate me.... Like you, I wake up to FABO! But somehow when it comes to actually going to work on the car I just don't get it done... Now if I start a project on it I can work on it a few nights in a row and by the second or third night I can't wait to get out to the shop! It's just gettin to that point!
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My problem is not desire...Cars have been a passion of mine all my life. What fails me right now is the physical ability to do what I want.
 
Yep i sure do. It comes and goes. I have been doing other things these past few months and havent been a regular on fabo. Among other things, i have been working on my 94 chevy pickup, making it roadworthy again. As a consequence i been on the GMT400 website getting information for my truck and making new friends there. Also been working on painting my house. Got my one middle kid enrolled in Taekwondo and taking her there for classes 4 days a week, and all the other general non automotive things that life throws my way.

I get upset when project car money ends up getting spent on other things that are needed but unexpected, like buying a new weed eater since my old one just about made it to fall and died. Or **** that gets broken or needs fixing because of having other people in the house (kids) that tend to break things. So yeah i go out to my shop for a tool to do something that needs fixing around the house and my cuda sits in a million pieces and i dont have time to work on it. But then i look at the pix i took of all the metalwork i have done on it so far, and look at all the pieces i have bought for its restoration patiently waiting to be installed when the time comes. I know if i sell it i will never get out of it what i have into it. This is for 2 reasons. 1 its in pieces, and 2 its not a valuable version of this car. It was born as a slanty 6 notchback.

These projects are never done. They are constantly evolving. My advice to you. Take a break from it. Do something else that makes you happy for awhile.

I went to a 10 week class on sundays at my church called overwhelmed. It helped me a lot as it explained certain things , and ways i could fix them, and explained things i was doing and why. One sunday it was called plates of your life. The pastor had a huge stack of china dinner plates on a table. He started by saying the plates represent your life, your born and as a small child in grade school one plate represents your responsibilities. He picks up the plate and holds it. Says its not so bad he carries it around. as a teenager, you may get into band, or sports. Then he adds 2 plates to the one hes holding and says well thats not too heavy i can handle that.

Then he goes ok high school, college prep classes, college etc. Adds a few more plates to the stack hes carrying around. Then he says, buying a house, add in a child, a mortgage, maybe a car payment on a minivan, stress at your job. Now he is holding the whole stack of plates. He says its heavy but i can carry it. Cant let your neighbors know your carrying that load heaven forbid.

He then says all of a sudden theres that one last thing that gets added to the load of plates your carrying. Its just too heavy and you just cant hold on any longer. He then drops the whole stack of plates he is carrying and they smash on the floor.

What he meant by the plates, is its representing the load our each individual lives is carrying. The beauty is that we can shelve these things. And forget them for awhile. Lighten the load your carrying.

I bought a 2007 mustang GT right after i divorced from my first wife. I loved these when they came out in 2005. I ordered an 07 with all the goodies and in the color i wanted. To date it has under 9,000 miles and sits under a cover in the garage. It never brought me happiness. Not long term anyways. I was on the fence about keeping it, and selling it. Selling it, id probably get sellers remorse. I already had buyers remorse since i wasnt happy. Not with the car mind you, its a great car.

In this case i shelved this plate. It was something i removed from my stack of plates. I set the car up for a long term slumber, covered it up, and forgot about it in the corner of my garage. My current wife does not bug me about it, as she knows its a subject i dont want to talk about right now. Kids and other things are a priority. Its a shelved plate, and i will deal with it when i am good and ready to do so. My 67 cuda is a partially shelved plate. I pull that plate off the shelf periodically to work on minor things when i do get a little time.

Maybe you need to shelve a plate or a few plates for awhile. Do something else that interests you for awhile, then dust off that plate later when your ready to get back into it. We will always be here when you want to hang out.
 
I have had the same feeling as of late also.......... NOT very comfortable driving a 69 340 swinger ... 4 speed ... no power steering or brakes .... AND lets face it , it's like a drug , you always spend MONEY in the vehicle , because of new stuff on the market . When i get this feeling its time for me to change vehicles , something with power steering and power brakes perhaps , BUT must be a number matching car with documentation ... so you may see a documented 69 swinger forsale in the near future ...........
 
great analogy ( is that the word?) moparmat2000. worth re reading s everal times and give it all time to soak in.

rrvolare, your car needs to be comfortable for you to enjoy it. me, I love manual steering and 4 speeds. but I have had them off and on for decades. sometimes these old cars are not what people invision them to be.

way back bout '90 I had a pasture full of old mopars. some , my keepers, some, for sale of trade. guy calls me, he was my age. I had bought a new 69 runner, 1969...... then got promptly drafted. he only got to drive it a few months. someone gives him my phone number, he wants another one. this is now 21 years later than his "original" purchases of a new runner.

yep I have a complete runnin, drivin 69 B5 blue runner, 383, all original, 4 speed even. it is typical I tell him. old 21 yr old paint and somewhat woreout interior. needs qtr, floor patches, runs down the road, needs RESTORED! he comes and look, w e drive it 10 mi down the road and back, he buys it.

can I recommend a body shop that will give it what it needs, not too expensive, and etc etc. yep I have a guy I recommend. and so there the car goes. he starts calling me every week wanting to know when his car will be done, this starts after the first week! I tell him to call the bodyshop, he does not work for me. he is his own guy! 6 weeks later, it has perfect paint job. great. this guy will quit calling ME! LOL

he comes and picks it up, drives it 60 miles to Kansas City where he lives, just about there he gets stuck in road construction. that very afternoon, when he gets home, he tells me how it started running hot, the seats are uncomfortable, it smells, the manual steering is a pain, shifting is work......IT just isn't like he remembers his old runner being like!!!!!!!!!!!! wants to sell it.....says changing the spark plugs would be rocket science for him......

I told him, like I told him in the get go, it needs restored to be like new, its 21 years old. and NO it is not as MODERN car. fresh paint doesn.t affect how it drives???????? I told him run an ad and sell it if not happy!!!!!!! he s ells it....... some things are just not meant to be?????????
 
One thing that is for sure. What you have invested today,if you sell it,it will cost much more if and when you get the bug again.I sold my race Dart,and my 64 Belvedere beauty because I was bored.(That is what I thought)With in a few weeks I was like a junky looking for a fix I had to have something.So I bought the 64 Dart project.Then like a *** I sold that one too at a loss (long story never sell to family)only to go out and buy 2 more projects.Back to square one again.I keep telling myself this is the last one.My wife laughs and said "YEAH RIGHT".....
 
I have thought of getting out, selling the Dart. But then what do I do? Sit and watch tv. There are things I wish I could afford to do to my Dart. I have a good friend that keeps my feet on the ground and says just get it together, and cruise, which is what I do. I have thought of getting modern muscle(our cruise group and car club is very forgiving and anything goes)but you see them all over, I like having something that is not very common.
 
Yes it definitely is a drug, and i am a junkie. I had a nice 66 coronet 440 in 1985. i sold for a 68 charger 383. Then after fixing it up i sold it in1987. Bought a 70 barracuda fixed it and sold it. Bought a nice clean 1977 charger. Put a 440 in it, sold it since i missed my 68 charger, so i bought a 69 charger. Fixed that up had a 440 4 speed in it. Bought a 68 cuda fastback to run around in while fixing up my 69 charger. Stripped cuda and sold parts to fund project. Bought an 88 daytona shelby z new in 1988. Bought a 71 C/10 pickup in 1992 and sold the daytona shelby. Sold the C/10 in 1994, bought a 94 1500 silverado new, also bought a 1994 harley sportster. Got job in Texas in 1995, sold sportster, sold 69 charger, packed up my stuff in Uhaul trailer. Moved to Texas, got bored, and bought a 69 dart western sport special. Fixed it up sold it, bought a 1960 el camino. Fixed it up sold it. Bought 90 daytona ES. Fixed it up ex wife wrecked it. Bought another 90 daytona ES v6 5 speed. Fixed it up sold it. Bought an 87 lebaron turbo coupe as a daily driver. Parked it needing a headgasket. Sold it to local school as a teaching vehicle in the scho auto department. Bought 1988 daytona shelby z. Its partially restored and in corner of shop covered with boxes. Bought 2007 mustang gt, and current 67 cuda project car. Bought 69 cuda parts car probably will be future project car for my kid. Bought a 2008 chevy HHR as a daily driver, and 2012 dodge caravan for my wife

Current fleet
1994 chevy silverado
1967 cuda notch project
1988 daytona shelby z project
1969 cuda parts/project
2008 chevy HHR (daily driver)
2012 dodge grand caravan (wifes car)

Its a drug, and fortunately, or unfortunately for us we are junkies.
 
It took me 43 years to get another demon , same year same color. Been working/ fighting with it since. It does get tiring yes, but I love it. Maybe if I had been at it as long as some of you guys it would be different by now. Can not imagine getting rid of it until I am too old (getting there quicker than I would like) . Even then I can't think I would " want " to. Maybe just take a break for a while, the passion will probably never disappear.
Yote
 
moparmat2000 said:
Yep i sure do. It comes and goes. I have been doing other things these past few months and havent been a regular on fabo. Among other things, i have been working on my 94 chevy pickup, making it roadworthy again. As a consequence i been on the GMT400 website getting information for my truck and making new friends there. Also been working on painting my house. Got my one middle kid enrolled in Taekwondo and taking her there for classes 4 days a week, and all the other general non automotive things that life throws my way.

I get upset when project car money ends up getting spent on other things that are needed but unexpected, like buying a new weed eater since my old one just about made it to fall and died. Or **** that gets broken or needs fixing because of having other people in the house (kids) that tend to break things. So yeah i go out to my shop for a tool to do something that needs fixing around the house and my cuda sits in a million pieces and i dont have time to work on it. But then i look at the pix i took of all the metalwork i have done on it so far, and look at all the pieces i have bought for its restoration patiently waiting to be installed when the time comes. I know if i sell it i will never get out of it what i have into it. This is for 2 reasons. 1 its in pieces, and 2 its not a valuable version of this car. It was born as a slanty 6 notchback.

These projects are never done. They are constantly evolving. My advice to you. Take a break from it. Do something else that makes you happy for awhile.

I went to a 10 week class on sundays at my church called overwhelmed. It helped me a lot as it explained certain things , and ways i could fix them, and explained things i was doing and why. One sunday it was called plates of your life. The pastor had a huge stack of china dinner plates on a table. He started by saying the plates represent your life, your born and as a small child in grade school one plate represents your responsibilities. He picks up the plate and holds it. Says its not so bad he carries it around. as a teenager, you may get into band, or sports. Then he adds 2 plates to the one hes holding and says well thats not too heavy i can handle that.

Then he goes ok high school, college prep classes, college etc. Adds a few more plates to the stack hes carrying around. Then he says, buying a house, add in a child, a mortgage, maybe a car payment on a minivan, stress at your job. Now he is holding the whole stack of plates. He says its heavy but i can carry it. Cant let your neighbors know your carrying that load heaven forbid.

He then says all of a sudden theres that one last thing that gets added to the load of plates your carrying. Its just too heavy and you just cant hold on any longer. He then drops the whole stack of plates he is carrying and they smash on the floor.

What he meant by the plates, is its representing the load our each individual lives is carrying. The beauty is that we can shelve these things. And forget them for awhile. Lighten the load your carrying.

I bought a 2007 mustang GT right after i divorced from my first wife. I loved these when they came out in 2005. I ordered an 07 with all the goodies and in the color i wanted. To date it has under 9,000 miles and sits under a cover in the garage. It never brought me happiness. Not long term anyways. I was on the fence about keeping it, and selling it. Selling it, id probably get sellers remorse. I already had buyers remorse since i wasnt happy. Not with the car mind you, its a great car.

In this case i shelved this plate. It was something i removed from my stack of plates. I set the car up for a long term slumber, covered it up, and forgot about it in the corner of my garage. My current wife does not bug me about it, as she knows its a subject i dont want to talk about right now. Kids and other things are a priority. Its a shelved plate, and i will deal with it when i am good and ready to do so. My 67 cuda is a partially shelved plate. I pull that plate off the shelf periodically to work on minor things when i do get a little time.

Maybe you need to shelve a plate or a few plates for awhile. Do something else that interests you for awhile, then dust off that plate later when your ready to get back into it. We will always be here when you want to hang out.
Click to expand...

Vey Nice!
 
It comes and goes for me. I will be on it for days, weeks at a time doing little things to complete a larger goal.

But most times when I walk away, it's because the wife just yelled, dinner!
 
I can't count the number of times I wanted to walk away. Time and money is the name of
the game and they never seem to hit at the same time. What you have , a lot of people would like to have. What we want isn't always attainable , so we settle . your problem isn't uncommon . Remember your giving life to a vehicle that would have been crushed years ago, ya it squeaks and rattles.... so do I , I'm 66 . Take a breather. Set down and think about what you really want for the car instead of throwing parts at it . Hang in there , you'll figure it out. Good luck.
Zigs
 
I think about it all of the time, back and forth, and have so for years.
I even stepped away from them for a few years here and there and tried to quit altogether.
These stupid cars still will not get out of my blood, no matter how hard i try.........
Yeah, i'm hooked for life, and i have learned to just back away now and then when it gets frustrating, that's the only thing that works for me.
The main thing that i dislike about the hobby is people that feel it's their calling to put you or your car down, self professed know-it-alls, and clowns who only look at the money (what's it worth and how much will i make when i sell it?) as their primary focus.
We all can't afford a perfectly restored Hemi Cuda, so build something that you like and forget the competition and money game that so many people get hung up on.
A true enthusiast doesn't care about anything but the cars themselves and the hobby in general.
That's my 2 cents anyway.
Tom.
 
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