NEW THREAD-Why we don't finish........

oh captain my captain, What a great thread. This forces me to relive some of the worst moments of my resto, but if it can help the beginners then it's all worth it. I am by no means an accomplished automobile restoration specialist, but I have learned alot over the past 2 yrs, it took 18 months to get it from daily driver to daily driver....keep in mind I alloted 6 months when starting the project. Here are some things that I ran into and some thoughts on how to make it through.

Money: I'll just talk about how to deal with money issues as the other money topics have been covered.
Plan little projects that cost TIME not money, this will help with keeping the project moving when the money runs out.
The little things like cleaning parts or reconditioning a small part to reuse (also helps because you don't have to buy it new)
Buy things in the order you need them.....VERY important...don't go out and buy a high dollar part, or rims, or something when you wont be able to install it until X gets done...chances are you will need that money to finish X and you wont be able to use all of those shiny new parts that are sitting in the shop until you get X done (problems beget problems) Many of us here have nice new parts sitting around and "never" get to install them because something that they depend on isn't done yet....keep what little funds there are fluid so they can be used for what you are currently working on


Scope creep:
Some scope creep is inevitable (rust that you didn't know you had... etc) but this helped me out (kept things in perspective).
Draw up a project plan......order things by priority and dependency...AND revisit your plan to keep on task and review time lines ( they always change ). obviously paint is dependent on body work but there are other gotchas. For example - if you plan on taking the dash frame out...do it while the windshield is out. and there are tons more examples.
IT IS NEVER what you expect..sometimes better sometimes worse....as someone mentioned some things take less time than you think, some things take more. As you revisit your time line you will see where you can make up some time..

Demoralization:
This can be caused by both of the afore mentioned problems among other things, and keep in mind that problems beget problems. The things mentioned above helped but I still fell into the "what did I get myself into" quagmire. The place you get when you get that "solid" car home to realize it's more solid rust than solid metal...or when it takes you X yrs/months longer than you expected.....If some of the senior members remember one of my early posts:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=17689
I was about 4 "real" months into the project...
THIS SITE.....everyone here WANTS you to succeed! Also, don't forget to relish the victories.......Also, don't forget to relish the victories.......don't get so caught up in the "next" thing on the list that you forget the accomplishment you just achieved..(revisit your project plan and SEE how far you've come).
CLEAN your shop/garage, get organized... I know this is hard but you have to have room to work and you have to be able to find the tool you need to get something done. On top of that, there wont be any tools or parts or etc that get damaged by "kicking" around who knows where..I had to do stuff to make it "look" different, it gave the appearance that something was getting done.

Well enough of rumbling down memory lane.. hope this helps.