Projects Ever feel like you are running out of time?

I am not giving up, just reality setting in. I need a clone. Good input guys.

 

At 75 I'm still building. I know the end is near, but the obsession keeps me active. I wish I was mid 50's again. I built a new garage myself, worked 12 hr. days and came home and still went to the garage. Everybody gets discouraged but the desire keeps the flame burning.

 

"Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone." -James 4:14

 

Enjoy the wonderful people you are living your life with. Some people like golf, some people like cars, do what you like

 

I was 53 once 23 years ago.

 

See my signature line below......

 

I've almost never had two projects going at the same time. I have had other projects in the wings waiting, but I can't get anything done if I try to jump back and forth on two projects. I have had my own builds going while I was building a car for a friend. But I did their build at their garage, and dedicated a day or two a week to their cars so mine wasn't taking a backseat.
I'm probably done with another extensive frame off major build now. At almost 71 I'll likely only do smaller builds that wont last for years.

 

I'm 74 and I don't know how that happened. Time fly's faster and faster the older you get. So enjoy every day as if it was your last, because it may be!

 

I’m younger than a lot of guys here at 54 but i work too much overtime at the steel mill and have some minor health issues that really out a damper on my wrenching. I recently found some talented energetic guys who are willing to do some work on my projects for me. I am now driving a nice car that would have never been finished if it was up to me to do all the work. It feels weird to have someone else working on my cars but it sure feels nice to be driving! So until they get tired of me or i run out of car money they will be finishing my existing projects. Hell there is one more i’ve been wanting for years maybe i’ll find one of those when these are done!

 

The thing is, none of us really know how much time we have.

 

That’s a fact.

 

It’s not the destination it’s the ride that counts. At 75 have less days ahead of me then behind me. I try to give purpose to each day. I try not to worry about things I can’t control. I try to take care of my health. I try to be thankful for everyday.

 

Yes, we all keep getting reminders of how short life is. The other day we found out LM14 had passed away, many of our hot rod heros are passing away, and I just got back from a funeral in Florida - my 72-year-old brother-in-law got COVID and died in about one week flat. I'm trying harder to enjoy & appreciate every day; each day truly IS a gift. I try not to stress about all my old cars that need lots of work, but have fun daily doing what I love in retirement.

 

Back in 2005. Wow almost 20 years! Almost. When I got home from my first Iraq deployment, 2003-2005. I had banked enough to start building my garage. Vision, 32'X30' two story with entrances on both floors. I had never laid a block in my life and started with 12" Ibony block with an expectation of 12' over head clearance. Footers poured deployed for Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Long story short it took me 2 years to complete enough so I could put cars and tools inside. It is 12" block 12' high downstairs and 8" block 4' high with 2X6 frame 8' high for another 12' clearance upstairs. All done by myself and some help with the tin roofing and vinyl siding except the concrete floors. I made the grade and laid the mesh downstairs welded down the tin, tied the steel re bar mats for the upstairs and hired a contractor to pour the upper and lower floors. Now retired, I have my vision and working on my cars inside with heat in the winter. Will it end? Yes. When?

 

Everyone feels a little harried at age 53.

It's having nothing to do at age 70 that you should worry about.

 

Finished mine before I retired because don't have the finances now to start something else...Now I drive it some....

 

The last two cars I built were both the last one, I have quit saying never but if there is a next one it will probably be my last one also. HRP

 

I eased my mind starting about 15 years ago. Looking out back at future projects and adding up how long if I were to just get them on the road, I’d have to live to be about 160 years old.
Things sold fast and cheap. I still have too much to do, but in my mind they are do-able.
I think the biggest and best decision I made was to not buy anything else, regardless of what a good deal it was.
Now I don’t even look at cars for sale.
Clint said it best “a mans got to know his limitations “.

 

I'm 40 and I've "done the math" a couple of times. It can be a scary thought.

In my line of work, dealing in old car parts, I've met a lot of old timers. Some guys were still building up until their last day, and had finished cars that they wore out from use (including BobK, Gene Winfield and a local guy who are kind of personal heroes) and I've also met or emptied the estates of guys who had 200 years of projects spread out all over the place, nothing finished, nothing even close, most poorly stored and getting rougher by the year.

I don't know how long I'll live or how many builds I'll finish but I do know whose example I want to follow and who I don't want to end up like.

 

I'm about 5 weeks from 75 and share your thoughts everyday,Roothawg. I quit work at 62, so I could do what I've wanted since I was 17 and so far ,so good. I get about 4-5 hours in a day, but I have to do things differently. I always had a great memory, however, I don't anymore and I have to work on one small task at a time from start to finish. Planning is a major part of the work, and lots of notes. If I didn't have these projects, what would I do?
One of the best reasons to have the car. Gotta get seat belts so I can take him along.

 

This thread reminds me of Deuce Roadster (Randy) when a elderly man stopped by his house just after the first of the year to see how his roadster was coming along, and Randy said, "SLOW", the elderly man ask why and Randy said, "MONEY", Looking around he then ask Randy, which one of these cars is the most important to you ? and Randy replied, "The roadster"

The guy the said, you have a Chevelle, a 1956 Ford truck, a Chevy II and a VW camper plus several BB chevy engines and lots of of heads and other parts, he then ask Randy why don't you liquidate all this other stuff and you will have the money to finish your roadster.

Randy told me about the guy and said he dismissed it because he was a old man and Randy was still in his 30's, but a few weeks later he got to thinking about what the man said and decided to start selling his cars and parts.

Randy, sold most of the stuff in a couple of months and before the end of the year he had the money to finish building the roadster and was driving his finished roadster. HRP

 

Try living with a terminal disease and I guarantee you wouldn't be whining about your age being a stumbling block, anytime you want to trade places I'm your huckleberry, plus I'd gain 3 yrs back.

 

Hang in there. Think of the old fella at 90 years old who drank coffee everyday saying it was a slow poison
Wishing you the best.

 

Sorry to hear that swade41. Best of luck to you and enjoy life and this hobby as long as you can.

 

A friend of mine only a few years older than me (43 or 44) has some kind of terminal cancer, found out last year. He had been working on a restoration project (off topic) for about 10 years and he really wanted to get that car finished and drive it. I took a month off last year to put it together for him (it was already painted) and it got shuffled around for exhaust and trans work and whatnot but we got to drive it last year just before winter and again this summer. He's still with us which is great, and he got another one of his projects on the road as well this summer but he doesn't feel well enough to drive most days. I really hope he's up for some more drive time once it cools off this fall.

That has really put things into perspective for me. When he found out, a lot of bullshit suddenly wasn't important anymore and a lot of projects got done by any means necessary.

One of my favorite old movies is "When Worlds Collide" about a planet crashing into Earth and people frantically trying to finish a spaceship before the Earth is destroyed. This calendar is on the wall in the background. Good advice.

 

... actually we're all running out of time no matter your age....just heard one of our former club members just passed away after having a brain tumor removed....here today, gone tomoro, you never know.

 

I am inherently a list maker. It's a sickness that only other list makers understand.

We write things on the board, even if we have already done them to feel that satisfaction of wiping it off.
Am I wrong list makers? That'll preach right there....

 

I took my dad on his last motorcycle ride on his 80th birthday. I strapped his oxygen bottle to the bitch bar and off we went into the Redwoods. When we were stopped at a place he used to ride me too when I was little he was telling me that he wanted to put a V-6 in his Neon (daily driver) and exactly what parts it would take to do it. He ran out of time.

This is not woah as me, just that you are never out of time as long as you can keep going and not taking a dirt nap. None of us will probably build every thing we wanted to, gawd knows that aside from money there is not enough time for me to do it all. But I suppose that we are never really out of time until we aren't.

Keep dreaming, dreams are what life is made of.

 

I can relate to the feeling. Your problem may be that you have too many irons in the fire. Right after I retired, I had about 20 project cars stashed away. I was going to build one every year or two and sell it to finance another. After it took about 10 years for me to finish the first one, I realized my plan wasn't working so I started selling off my junk collection. Now I have only 5 old cars/trucks. But I have slowed down so much that I still don't think I will have time to finish them. So maybe I won't. Who cares other than me? I will work on them when I feel like it and go fishing or something else when I don't want to work on them .Don't sweat your self made deadlines but keep in mind that you will never be this young again...