Is anybody else superstitious about finishing their restoration?

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BKCowGod

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When I was 16, I bought a 1970 BMW 2002 and spent the rest of high school restoring it. Driving to get my senior pictures taken, someone backed up an on-ramp into the front of me.
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Then I get a Porsche 951 with stupid levels of power. Rebuild most of the driveline and replace the head gasket (turns out they don't like 28psi of boost). Two weeks later I am T-boned by a drunk driver.
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A few cars later, I got a 1992 Audi S4 that was a BLAST to drive. I finally replace the brakes with the cool Porsche brakes and bump the horsepower up to stupid levels and a week later someone clips me and spins me into the center divide.
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So I decide to play with bigger stuff, and spend 5 years restoring an old Range Rover. This one is my fault - a fuel line split and shot gas onto the header.
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Anyway, my point with all of that is now I have several project cars and I really don't ever want to finish them. So the GMC will forever have a dent in the passenger door, the Land Rovers will forever have at least one oil leak each, the MG will forever have a cracked turn signal, the RX7 will retain the cigarette burn on the interior panel and the Triumph will always have the scrapes from where I dropped it, and so on... No matter how pretty the rest of the vehicle is, I purposefully keep something specific on each vehicle broken so it isn't finished. And I am starting to suspect the vice grip will be the Dodge's new thing. I thought I fixed it and removed the vice grip... Things got wonky. Today I put it back on and I swear the idle smoothed out immediately.
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Wow! I'd say you are blessed and fortunate to be here posting.....
 
Wow! I'd say you are blessed and fortunate to be here posting.....

Honestly I was an idiot when I was younger. I grew up racing on 2 lane mountain roads and by the time I finished college I had more than one friend die doing it. I never injured myself in any accidents (other than the dropped bike, that one left a nice scar) and now I rarely drive above the speed limit. I also didn't include any of the accidents that were my fault in the above list - if I bring it upon myself through stupid driving then that isn't superstition, that's a reward for stupidity.
 
Something tells me you are not much into defensive driving .

Too bad about the 2002. What a great car ! Was it a Tii ?
 
Are we ever really finished with a car? Just make sure you have "one more project" to do and you're home free!
 
If that vice grip works itself loose and falls into that running fan you'll have some more bad luck for sure
 
Something tells me you are not much into defensive driving .

Too bad about the 2002. What a great car ! Was it a Tii ?

I drive a lot. 20-50k miles per year. Incidents are bound to happen.

The 2002 was not a Tii, but it had a Metric Mechanic built 2.2l with a cam and a nice carb. Before I had it it had been a club racer for many years. We convinced my mom the racing harnesses made it safer :)
 
If that vice grip works itself loose and falls into that running fan you'll have some more bad luck for sure

I thought about that, didn't take the picture of the zip ties holding it to the hose. And eventually I will install a proper helicoil for the upper thermostat housing, but I will still use the vice grip to hold something else together.
 
The little BMW was a terrible loss......the others not so much. I agree, you're fortunate to still be here.
 
Maybe try buying a Mopar product ..... seems like something is trying to tell you that.
 
Maybe try buying a Mopar product ..... seems like something is trying to tell you that.

That's God telling you to buy American

All of the American/Mopar cars happened after the incidents pictured - proof that my superstition has worked for me! The pictures make things look bad, but I have had just under 60 vehicles from just over 20 different manufacturers. I have loved every single one of them. On my second Dodge and 5th Jeep. Of 9 BMWs, the 02 was the only one that got hurt. 3 Audis, super lucky. All 6 of my Land Rovers were perfectly reliable, and I still drive the $500 Discovery on 5,000 mile road trips.

The only unreliable car I have ever owned was an Alfa Romeo I bought when I was too poor to properly maintain it. I tried to daily drive a restoration project.

(and yes, I know you were both speaking tongue in cheek)
 
I’m not superstitious about finishing a project but I will say I’ll probably never own a completely painted and finished car ever again. The more energy (money and time) I put into the finish work, the more pissed off I am when something happens to it and the less likely I am to drive it. And driving them is what it’s about for me.
 
I’m not superstitious about finishing a project but I will say I’ll probably never own a completely painted and finished car ever again. The more energy (money and time) I put into the finish work, the more pissed off I am when something happens to it and the less likely I am to drive it. And driving them is what it’s about for me.
I hope that you don't drive around in a primered car, not only does that look terrible but a primer only car will rust pretty quick
 
I hope that you don't drive around in a primered car, not only does that look terrible but a primer only car will rust pretty quick
Agree. Although sometimes I see a car in primer at a show and I like it. Reminds me of my high school days when we all had primered hoopties. At this point I’m just not stripping paint off of anything. I’ll buy original paint cars and just rock em the way they are.
 
Agree. Although sometimes I see a car in primer at a show and I like it. Reminds me of my high school days when we all had primered hoopties. At this point I’m just not stripping paint off of anything. I’ll buy original paint cars and just rock em the way they are.
That sounds cool
 
I’m not superstitious about finishing a project but I will say I’ll probably never own a completely painted and finished car ever again. The more energy (money and time) I put into the finish work, the more pissed off I am when something happens to it and the less likely I am to drive it. And driving them is what it’s about for me.

A someone who has put 800 miles on my Dart in the last two weeks, 100% agree with this.
 
I have said for years that if I ever paint a car, I'm going to throw a rock at it and chip the paint before I ever drive it, just to get it over with.
 
I’m not superstitious about finishing a project but I will say I’ll probably never own a completely painted and finished car ever again. The more energy (money and time) I put into the finish work, the more pissed off I am when something happens to it and the less likely I am to drive it. And driving them is what it’s about for me.
A fellow told me many years ago, drive it, people don’t care if it’s perfect, they like it. A perfect car don’t drive any better than one that needs work.! I should have listened to him (like 25 years younger than me at the time)
 
A someone who has put 800 miles on my Dart in the last two weeks, 100% agree with this.
I'm glad you are enjoying your dart. My neighbor has a beautiful '67 Camaro that I've seen maybe 6 times in the 15 years that I've been his neighbor. He also has a iroc that has never been out and neither has his '99 Camaro, why have them if you don't enjoy them.
 
I'm glad you are enjoying your dart. My neighbor has a beautiful '67 Camaro that I've seen maybe 6 times in the 15 years that I've been his neighbor. He also has a iroc that has never been out and neither has his '99 Camaro, why have them if you don't enjoy them.
Trophy’s on the wall
 
I'm glad you are enjoying your dart. My neighbor has a beautiful '67 Camaro that I've seen maybe 6 times in the 15 years that I've been his neighbor. He also has a iroc that has never been out and neither has his '99 Camaro, why have them if you don't enjoy them.

Drives me crazy. I once had someone trade in a C6 ZR1 for a C7 ZR1. He was mad because the C7 had 9 miles on it (delivery miles, not a single test drive) and the C6 only had 8.

I have 12 cars and a motorcycle. With the exception of the '73 Land Rover they all get driven regularly and hard. The Rover is getting a relatively modern Diesel to replace the factory Diesel so it can go faster than 50mph so I can take it on road trips (55hp from the factory!).
 
I understand your sentiments. For the same reasons I will not get a high dollar paint job on my daily driver, to avoid a situation where some anus crunches my car, and has no insurance. This has happened to me twice
 
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