Do you have a car or truck that has been sitting for way too long? HRP If so what's keeping you from making progress? is it money? finding time to work on it? your health? HRP
I've got two - 29 Ford coupe and a 38 Ford coupe. I've had the 38 since 1980 and the 29 since around 1986. I did a lot of work on the 38 with marriage kids, moving, etc until I got side tracked in 2010 with my 51 pickup build. The 29 hasn't been touched and is sitting in the barn still waiting... but hey, I'm young at 63 so I've got time. lol
I've had my 57 Cadillac project for over 25 years and I chip away at it every now and then. Lots of things get in the way. Mostly my other car projects and working on customer cars. Lately, my health has slowed me down even more. I get a new knee next week so, hopefully that'll get me back up to speed soon.
I have one that sat for way too long. My ride from high school, 1956 Chevy Bel Air 2 door post. Put together quite a few other rides and a couple of drag cars while this one sat neglected and blown apart for decades. Working on it now. Moving forward. If I don’t finish it someone else will.
I decided in 2013 that I wasn't going to do that any more, so I sold and finished a few that had been sitting around. But still there ended up being two more sitting around that never got done, that I sold in 2020. Then I moved to where I don't want to leave anything sitting around, and finally sold the last one that wasn't making any further progress in 2022. Now they all get on the road within a month or two of me getting them. My problem was always motivation. I finally learned that if I have an activity to use the car for, then I will get it done. If not, it can languish forever, and I'm better off just selling it now.
easy, as listed above, to have progress stop or really slow down. some people think things will go faster having a shop do the work. know guys that have had rides in shops for multiple years. then to watch a buddy build one in a few months.
Priorities and just a lack of urgency on my part. I can easily be talked into doing just about anything else these days other then spending the day in the garage. I enjoy just having a few projects that are there when I feel the urge to work on them. I did and still do have a few health issues but nothing preventing more progress than has been made lately. My son and grandson constantly joke that I'm going to miss the SEMA deadline.- again. I didn't make any New Years resolutions but maybe should have. The main problem is that I have always done every aspect of a build (which there have been many over the years) totally in house, by myself. I could easily farm out some of the work but that would defeat the whole self satisfaction factor. My youngest grandson has taken a real interest in this hobby and is always offering to help finish a few projects just so he gets the learning experience.
I chopped my 51 Chevy and swapped in a newer 235 back in 2008. Do to a couple of moves, two new children, a few other project cars, and just young adult life in general. It's been sitting in storage ever since. I really hope to make time for it in the next couple of years and get it back on the road.
If this is a contest for the longest project to be running, ***led, licensed and on the street, I'm shoving my chips all in. I started by buying a '29 Model AA in 1974, then realized it was geared too slow to drive on the highway so decided to hotrod it. Throughout the '70s I stripped it to the frame, had that sandblasted, bought a 351W with an FMX, decided I needed an AOD instead because I bought a '60 F-350 tow truck and stripped the spindles, brakes, wheels, 5.14/1 rear axle, etc. all without a garage, just a barnyard to work in. Divorce. Loss of job. long pause on project. New job, career, paycheck 1/3 of what I had been earning. Set up rear suspension to accommodate four-bar with stock cantilever springs. Had body, wheels, everything chemically rust dipped. Frame to Pete and Jakes to set up four-bar front suspension, mustang steering, boxed frame, trans mount. Lack of money throughout the '80s had me almost giving up. Better job by '86 and more cash, fixed dents, welded breaks, still working in the barnyard or under a tarp. Got married to a woman who encouraged me to resume the project. Remodeled the house and added a two-car garage, but the hotrod stayed outside, or body parts up in the attic or garage rafters. Bought bits, pieces, patch panels and did what I could. Adopted a newborn son in '94. Lots of body work in the '90s, and even better jobs. By 2000 I had most of the body in primer, the frame a roller, but the engine and transmission were more than a decade away from rebuilds. Built a new, larger house with a three-car garage by 2004 and dedicated one bay to the hotrod. Focused on fatherhood and career, sent the boy to college in 2013, retired two years later and took apart the engine. Got weaker, learned by mid-2020 that I had esophageal cancer, so 5-1/2 hours on the operating table, removal of a g****fruit-sized m***, six months with a J-tube to provide nutrition while I recuperated with a month of chemo and radiation while everyone else was doing Covid, removal of two 20 cm kidney stones by election day, foley catheter for a month, and all tubes out by New Year's Eve. I took a year off because I was too weak (lost 70 pounds) to do much but survive. But then I realized I was going to live! So I decided to resume working on the hotrod by 2022, took the block and crank to a great machinist nearby, resumed working part time as a subs***ute teacher to earn the money I needed to try to finish the hotrod. Got the engine back around Christmas 2022, ***embled it by spring and by early 2024 had rebuilt the transmission. Since then my health has been fine but two summers of dog operations, wife getting two knees replaced, a wind storm blowing a tree onto our house resulting in cleanup and repairs plus costs and all the farm maintenance that eats up time and money has slowed me down. By 2025, I had the engine and transmission in place, wired it up, fought ignition problems for months until tossing the Duraspark II for a 1970 points distributor. Through one damned thing after another, got the engine going by late summer (runs like a top!) but have a ****** fluid leak at the pump seal around the shaft. Too cold in the unheated garage right now to finish the seal replacement until probably March. I figure I can finish that task during spring break, put the trans back in place, get some gl*** in it and maybe seat belts and the exhaust before I run out of money by June. Then it's on to inspection, running the DMV/DOR gauntlet and probably seeking a court order to get a ***le (bill of sale back in 1974), license and I'm across the finish line by late this summer - 52 years later, but cancer free. And that baby boy we adopted? Dr. Tom, pediatrician headed to the Chicago suburbs to begin a two-year fellowship. If I'm successful getting this thing on the road, maybe I'll make the 8+ hour trip to visit him there. On the way I'll be sure to stop in Hartsburg, Mo. to personally thank a HAMB all-star and friend who has helped me get this far on my hotrod journey. It's gonna happen, brothers!!!
This one: Apparently, I don't love it enough. I'm ashamed to say I've owned this for over 35 years. Bought it as somebody else's stalled project. Every time I start making good headway, something either goes wrong and I banish it to a corner of the shop, or something else seems more important. I've built other cars during that time. I've had to re-do almost everything that the PO did to it. Pulled out his front suspension and updated it. That was also a kick in the nuts, as I was sent the wrong parts, that I welded in, and had to cut out and install the correct ones. The chop has good proportions, but I've had to re-do a bunch of the welds/metalwork. It looks like he put the rear suspension too far fwd as well. It's always 1 step fwd & 2 back with this one. Maybe someday...
Those days are gone. You reach an age where you have to be pragmatic about stuff. No point dreaming. I only do rolling projects now. Drive it in the summer build it in the winter. Leave the 5-10 year builds to the younger folks.
The Jalopy Journal
