How to live to old age in the Mopar hobby
No one has ever said to me "Why did you spend so much money on your car ?"
My old man was the only person who ever said that to me, and after hearing it one too many times I finally made a comparison to the car he had recently bought, what he paid for it, what he got for trade in value on his last one, what he paid for that car, then I told him how much I actually had spent on my car, and showed him what the appraisal report valued it at. I asked him what he felt his "new" car would be worth when it was a few years old, and what my "old" car would be worth. He finally saw the light and never brought it up again.
I never expected to make a career out of working on cars, old or new, I do it because I enjoy seeing the results of my efforts, and being able to feel the rush of getting behind the wheel of something I built, knowing what it can do, and that it's safe and reliable because I did it right and did not take shortcuts. I don't do it for awards or trophies, I've only entered one professionally judged show in my life, taking a first place in class win, never showed that car again, just drove it and enjoyed it. My motivation is the money I save on my daily drivers, and the peace of mind of knowing I can fix most problems on my own. I've always been able to do most of my own mechanical repairs, have done some metalwork in the past, but on my latest project have learned how to replace a 1/4 panel skin. It was a challenge for me, but I want to keep this a low budget car, so the idea of paying someone to do that was not part of the plan, so I took my time, made a thousand measurements, double checked them, watched some how to videos, took my time, and got it done. I would not say that it is a professional result by any means, but in the end I learned something new by challenging myself. I made a few mistakes, and figured out how to correct them, which is pretty much how I've learned everything else.
