Have you ever had a"How did I get here/What am I doing" moment?

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DrEamer

I suffer from cars on the brain!
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I know you have had to of said this to yourself at sometime during a build. I think it is part of the beast when working on older cars. When you have 40 or 50 years of different owners, weather,neglect, strange things happen that you end up uncovering. My moment came a couple of days ago when I was stripping off the paint on my air cleaner AGAIN. I was not happy with the way it turned out. So, now I am doing body work by filling a couple of dents on a fricking air cleaner. Twenty year old me would have probably thrown it in the garbage and had a new chrome Moroso on there by now. Mid fifties me is trying to make the best stock looking 1970-71 340 unsilenced air cleaner I can. I'm not sure how I got here, but I hope you can see the humor/irony in the situation.
 
I know you have had to of said this to yourself at sometime during a build. I think it is part of the beast when working on older cars. When you have 40 or 50 years of different owners, weather,neglect, strange things happen that you end up uncovering. My moment came a couple of days ago when I was stripping off the paint on my air cleaner AGAIN. I was not happy with the way it turned out. So, now I am doing body work by filling a couple of dents on a fricking air cleaner. Twenty year old me would have probably thrown it in the garbage and had a new chrome Moroso on there by now. Mid fifties me is trying to make the best stock looking 1970-71 340 unsilenced air cleaner I can. I'm not sure how I got here, but I hope you can see the humor/irony in the situation.
Good idea for a thread.
I have some moments and have had them over the years of asking myself ''why the hell am I even doing this?'' and then walk away for awhile and think about it.
The answer always is that it is just in my blood, and I might as well just go with it and continue on.
I have a sort of love/hate thing going on with these old cars that will not go away.
The solution is to try not to over think things and be too hard on yourself, then work your way through the issue.
Personally, it's the little things that bother me and if there are 10 of them then it condenses to be one big thing total that bugs me to no end.
And stressing yourself out about it doesn't make it better, it makes it worse actually.
I find that if I work on one small issue at a time, you get the car where you want it to be after awhile (or at least a lot better than it was).
And forget deadlines..........they stress you out even further!
It's called patience with the car and mostly with yourself.
And some things just don't need to be perfect any more to make me happy.........
 
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Dartnut, thank you for that insight. That is me! I start out thinking I’m going to fix this short list of issues and then wham! I’m overwhelmed. I have 3 overwhelmers, the latest 71 Duster, a 65 Mustang (43 years of upkeep) and a 71 Chevy Shortbed C10(34 years of upkeep). I’m to the point of drive the crap out of them and let somebody else fix when I’m done!
 
Yeah, me too! I made this mistake once already and learned from it - don't work on everything at once. It's so easy to need to figure out the electrical while pulling the gas tank as the brakes get rebuilt and the headliner needs fixing from falling down and on it goes. Pretty soon I forget how things came apart or where the parts/fasteners/rebuild kits are. This time around, it's one section at a time.
 
I think I was worse about being a perfectionist when I was younger. As I get older I realize that in the bigger picture it doesn't really matter. It has actually helped me enjoy my car a lot more. That said, my new project is definitely not going to be as pretty as my Cuda. I find the keeping it beautiful factor is tedious and a lot of work. 65'
 
Every day I remind myself what a waste of time and money these projects are (I have three). But then again, my best friend friend spends cash on baseball cards and the other half hangs in the casinos. After groceries and gasoline, everyone seems to find their own manner of wasting money on pet projects or if you will, "addictions" of some sort. And I'm (we are) no exception.
 
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Since I've owned the same car since 1987: it's more of a "what the hell was I thinking!" moment, as I am fixing my own shoddy work from 30 years ago...
 
Every day I remind myself what a waste of time and money these projects are (I have three). But then again, my best friend friend spends cash on baseball cards and the other half hangs in the casinos. After groceries and gasoline, everyone seems to find their own manner of wasting money on pet projects or if you will, "addictions" of some sort.
That's another way I justify it.
A lot of people have booze, alcohol, and drug problems and spend thousands a year to support it, and they will never have anything to show for it except a ''temporary'' good time.
At least my cars will always be worth something, even if it is scrap price........
 
These seem to be the most expensive words with anything I do...
"While I'm at it".
 
I feel your pain. And let's not talk about repop parts. Or setting something down and spending a half hour to find it.lol
 
Since I am lucky to have had a long number years with these old Mopars, I have had the experience with the nut/bolt # everything perfection multi $$$$$ deal..to the cutout the rust an get it running own the road types, I have found what gives me the most pleasure. Me and me only. Maybe some people are like me, many maybe not!!!??? Don't really care.
The high end car costs way more than I want in a piece of steel and plastic. I hesitate to drive and enjoy it, because IT will get a gravel peck scratch, and I know it will get sold, if not today, another day. They have always come and gone, some just stayed for a few years others not.
I love the hunt. I love the satisfaction of fixing even the smallest detail. I like parts. I lke cleaning parts Making them look like new, sorta. I am NO perfection by nature. I want to see results, and not take a decade to build an engine or 3 months to do the brakes! Results. May not be alive tomorrow!
 
Oh...I have had many of these moments usually followed by me saying.." this is what I wanted to do!!! This is supposed to be enjoyable!!! Oh ya real cool....I pick this for a f@#$ing hobby!!!" Those are the real bad moments. Then I hunker down and, gut through whatever it was that caused this and marvel at the finished part. I have also said this when I sell a car I really should be keeping....but....there always seems to another one on the way.
 
Great Post. A few weeks ago I had purchases four new tires and figured I would clean the wheels up before mounting them. After spending four hours per wheel with a grinder and then painting and touching up and sanding and touching up some more they were finally all done. I was in a parking lot at that same time frame and saw a newer Challenger, nice car and wondered to myself. Why do I deal with 50 year old parts when I could have new and not need to do a thing. Two days ago I took my steering wheel apart to restore the silver paint trim area and when I see these things done in the light and how the car looks. I then see why I am fixing and working on a 50 year old car.
 
There was a request for pictures, so you can see what I started with this morning with the base and lid both down to bare metal. The second is the lid, which actually turned out nice enough that I am going to run it as is. The base on the other hand is another matter. The bottom where you can not see looks great, the sides are okay, but could be better. The plus is I kind of figured out how to fix the wrinkle finish better, and may be able to just redo the sides. I'm not a perfectionist, but I want it percentable. On another note, in the end, I know why we do this. As mentioned , there is something about taking a car that doesn't run, or look the best, and breath new life into it. Also, I could have bought a new Challenger for what I am going to have in this one, but in no way is it a sexy to me as the original body style. I feel that way no matter if it is a A,B,C or E body, the new stuff just does not have the style of our old cars.

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Also, I could have bought a new Challenger for what I am going to have in this one, but in no way is it a sexy to me as the original body style.

I'm right there with you brother. I bought the Valiant for $2000, and I'm now into it for $17000. That would buy a lot of much newer car but I don't care. This thing will be all new and updated from stem to stern, but all out of sight. Externally, it will still look like your gramma's grocery getter.
 
I'm right there with you brother. I bought the Valiant for $2000, and I'm now into it for $17000. That would buy a lot of much newer car but I don't care. This thing will be all new and updated from stem to stern, but all out of sight. Externally, it will still look like your gramma's grocery getter.

We are on the same page, mine will not look so much as a grocery getter, but will have a lot of original "looking" styling with a lot of hidden, second glance upgrades.
 
There was a request for pictures, so you can see what I started with this morning with the base and lid both down to bare metal. The second is the lid, which actually turned out nice enough that I am going to run it as is. The base on the other hand is another matter. The bottom where you can not see looks great, the sides are okay, but could be better. The plus is I kind of figured out how to fix the wrinkle finish better, and may be able to just redo the sides. I'm not a perfectionist, but I want it percentable. On another note, in the end, I know why we do this. As mentioned , there is something about taking a car that doesn't run, or look the best, and breath new life into it. Also, I could have bought a new Challenger for what I am going to have in this one, but in no way is it a sexy to me as the original body style. I feel that way no matter if it is a A,B,C or E body, the new stuff just does not have the style of our old cars.

View attachment 1715530270

View attachment 1715530271

Who made the 408 Magnum decal ? I could use one like that, that says 5.9L Magnum
 
Who made the 408 Magnum decal ? I could use one like that, that says 5.9L Magnum

I had a local vinyl wrap shop make it up for me. I did a photoshop rendering and took the tin to them, and they did the final adjustments and install for me.
 
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