What do you when you're burned out on a project?!?

I did a search and let me tell you, there's a lot of threads on here that come up when you search for something with 'burnout' in it!

Anyway, if there's already a topic on this I haven't seen it, i'd appreciate it if someone would post a link

I was just telling a guy on shoebox ford that I'm getting back to work on my car after taking a month or so off. I've been working on it pretty good for at least 8 months or so, but about end of June I just couldn't stand to look at the thing anymore. Now about a month later I did some work on it last weekend and really felt a sense of accomplishment and just felt really good when I was done!

So I'm back at it and trying to not push myself too hard and get sick of it again.

My question is...what do you do when you're burned out on a project? Or prevent it? How long does it take you to get over it?

Now I realize why project cars so often take years to finish!

 

Talk to my car cronies or hit up a show at Famoso for me. I am fortunate to live in hot rod mecca aka so-cal. I like seeing what everyone else has been up to with their cars, whats been working what hasn't. I also hit up the hamb and Jalopy Journal to give me inspiration so your here already thats a step in the right direction in my book.



"The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.-Milton Friedman, vote wisely!"

 

Work on my other projects.......or just take time off and go to car shows.....

 

This is what I do as well; going to car shows kind of inspires you too.

 

i like to have half a dozen projects on the go at once.do a little bit on each one through the week , and there not all automotive , but you have to have the head space for this.

 

i think of how awesome it´s gonna be to have it finally on the road then...

 

Many times I take time to help someone else with there stuff. Not with hands on as much a help with a design or parts problem. This not only gets a friends project along but helps me gain direction on my own projects.

Or I make a bowl of popcorn and read 'The Collected Adventures of Trashman'

Take your pick

OK No more PMs..... this is 'Trashman' for those too young or just TOO to know/remember........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trashman_(comic)

 

Sometimes I put it away for a while. Sometimes I sell it and get another. I never seem to finish anything, though. I just figure it's my nature.

 

I find I get this for about 1-3 months of the year, the last couple of years its been due to blowing up motors and then having to go through the costly exercise of rebuilding a blown flathead.

I usually find other things to do but not hotrod related. I still keep up with hotrod stuff and go to runs or gatherings etc, I just don't touch my car or who evers I'm working on. I guess I sort of look at it like work, its my annual vacation time.

I also find that a short break can find you back in the shed with new insight and enthusiasm. Allot of time I think you get burned out as your focusing on one aspect and you cant get over that hurdle stepping back helps give you the bigger picture.

 

I have a hard enough time getting to my own stuff. I make my living doing cars. The acess to better pricing and resourcing services is an advantage...unless you're too busy or worn out to get to your own. If I could get the shop back on "auto pilot" I could zoom through a project.

 

Spend way too much time on the laptop at odd hours.


I find that the older I get the less important it is to have it done "right now". I'm not up to putting in several hours a night on the car like I could when I was 30. If working on the rod becomes work instead of fun I go do something else because that is usually when I end up having to do something over again.

I've been in an all thrash on my Sailboat to be able to leave for Puget sound on vacation today and it has become work instead of fun the last couple of days.
For Port Townsend Wa Hambers follow the cannon fire this weekend and I should be in slip 10 A or B at Point Hudson Marina on Sea Dragon a 21 ft sloop my other cruising toy.

 

Take a break...do things with the family. Goof off on other interests.
Look for insperation at shows or on here.

 

X2. Really enjoy helping friends thru my own grapevine, and usually learn something along the way.

I also do small complete projects. Like restoring an old decrepit trailer for the lawn tractor, or some other physically small & simple mechanical item that can be ground-up rebuilt in a couple weeks, minibikes, wood chippers, etc. As long as you're willing to invest hours, almost any piece of small equipment can be bought & restored for a couple hundy. Use em for a few years and barter em off when you restore something better.

 

I use the one bolt rule. Everytime i go to the garage i work on removing or replacing one bot that need tobe done or one ltttle thig. Sometimes iget carriedaway and do more, someties I dont but eventually i get the project done. It seems the closer to finished a project gets the harder t sees to wrk on it. I am in the final stages with my Sr dragster ad i have to force myself to work on it now so it will be ready this weekend. Why i dont know. but i do. I hope this helps. Sometimes the amount to be done overwhelms us but little by little it can be done.

 

I like to trick myself... When things look bleak with so much work ahead, I'll take one smallish item and get it finished. I need something pretty to look at when I walk into the garage. It brings a smile to my face and makes the nasty work more palatable.

I like to get the steering wheel, dashboard and the firewall pretty. With those looking good it's easier to visualize the completed project.

More than once in my life, I've been known to sit on a milk crate holding a loose steering wheel behind a dash held up with tie wire going vroom vroom. Then i get on the creeper and start wire brushing the floor boards. Such fun.

 

all the above

I have a few projects going, so if one doesn't grab me than another one probably will.

if it doesn't, one thing I like to do is improve my workspace
sweep, paint, put up shelves, whatever.

it's a lot easier to get going if the space is clean and comfortable

 

I've got a regular day job and open the shop in the afternoons and evenings and all weekend. Some days it's hard and I've hit a snag on a project, but it just has to be pushed through.

I have six projects (well five now) inside the shop and six outside. If I get teed off on one, I move to another but try and keep three in focus all the time.

Motivation is looking at finished cars, either in person or photos I keep, here, listening to some great music and DO SOMETHING TOWARD COMPLETION. It would be easy to veg out in many different ways...progress and self discipline.

 

Go to a Hamb meeting. I had lost interest in my project until I went to one of the Houston Hamb meetings. Now I can't wait to get the car finished. I have done more work on the car in the last three months then a whole year before.

 

A lot of guys have said it. It's variety. I made a concious decision when I started my 28 to have several things going on at once, motor, chassis, body, so I would never get stuck for something to do or never be held up waiting for a part.

It's not the most efficient way to build I'm sure, but you gotta keep it interesting.

You need to finish little things too. That always feels good.

Pete

 

Shove it in a corner and start working on something else. Eliminates the burned out feeling, but tends to increase the number of things torn apart and half-finished.

 

look at the hamb

 

This may be a record, but I found my 1930 Ford roadster body in 1962, sold it, guy did NOTHING to it in the 25 years he owned it, I bought it back and hope to make some progress this month. Good projects, the ones you have a true bond with can take a lifetime. Others can be gone in a day if, I fall out of love with them. One wife for 30+ years..........untold project cars.

 

Call it strange but I get burned out ( bored) when the project is done and on the road. I dont own a car very long before its up for sale.
I found i nthe past that when I start a project, I have to do a little something every couple days at least, if not, its easier to let it sit for a couple weeks and a couple weeks turn to a couple months. Then its a struggle to go back to work on it.

 

I keep at least 2 projects going all the time. That way when I'm burned out on one, I can work on another one till it get burned out on it. Its a visious cycle!

 

There was an editorial in either StreetTrucks or Classic Trucks a few years back about this.

I think it was written by Courtney Hallowell

Anyway, he said that when he smashed his finger one too many times, he got super discouraged about working on his truck so he cleaned up the garage, stored all of his tools, parts and equipment and totally forgot about working in the garage for a month. He went to Disneyland, the movies, on a vacation, etc.

After a month, he said that he wanted to get back in the garage so bad that the day before the month was over he went to a movie to make sure that he didn't go to his garage.

The next day was a Saturday, he went out in the garage and said that it felt like he got more done that day then he had for quite a while.

Just something to think about. If you want me to, I will see if I still have the column and I can scan it and send it to you.

 

My idea is about the same! Set your TV on a channel that is all sitcoms with laugh tracks OR one that is all "Reality" shows; remove channel changer knob, feed it and the remote to the garbage disposall. Sit down and watch. Watch relentlessly. Get more popcorn.
When you start to twitch and laugh in time with the laughtrack, you are cured. Or, in 17% of cases, utterly ruined for the rest of your life...but then everything has its risks.

 

Actually, the question should be WHY have you burned out...once you figure that out, then you can take steps to keep the burn away.

For me, it is a complete turnoff to work on a very dirty/grimy car in a garage with a very dirty floor in 100 degree heat. I'll find almost ANYTHING else to do than to go out into that garage. So, solve the problems: buy a window unit for the garage; clean and paint the floor with epoxy floor paint; and steam clean the darn car where needed. In other words, improve the working environment.

Take a little time to fix up the walls with hotrod artwork, install a nice-sounding stereo system, even add a flatscreen to watch races. Once these "excuses" are out of the way, you'll find yourself thinking more about the next chore to do on the car. Looking back, there has never been any job to do that was harder than I initially made it out to be.

Last but not least, get plenty of sleep....nothing worse than trying to make yourself work on a car when you're tired. And lay off the beer until AFTER you've finished!

My 2 cents.

 

Read some magazines, check out some cool pics on the HAMB, or hop on my Harley and go for a a six hour ride. The last usually works best and sometimes I run across some rods on the road for inspiration.

 

I do all those little jobs I been putting off. Yard work etc.
Look for parts, car shows.
I been working all summer on mine and IM starting to get burned out. I havent been to one car show this season, its all been in the garage. I keep saying next year but it drags on...

 

watch TV shows about cars, it makes you want to work on it, or just by spare parts for a while, so when you get to work, you will have the fun stuff to do

or get a nagging wife/girlfriend that will only let you work on it once a week or so