I ripped this off from a woodworking magazine my brother-in-law subscribes to, but I bet everyone who reads this may be guilty of at least one of these sins: 1. Envy: Allowing envy of another builder to ruin your own building. ("I can never build a car that nice - I'm giving up!") Never forget that determination is the most important thing of all. Envy kills determination. 2. Pride: Being so damn proud of something that you've done that you alienate everyone around you. ("I'm better than you - and I know it!") Arrogance is never a good thing. The best are usually also the most humble. The most arrogant are usually not the best. You don't have to be ashamed of anything you've done (especially if you've learned from it), but you don't have to put anyone else down, either. 3. Gluttony: Always trying too much of a good thing. ("If enough is good, too much is way better!") If a 4-inch chop looks good, then 8 inches will be even cooler. Looking low is cool, so I'll s****e the ground. The directions say to spray two medium coats, so I'll lay on 4 heavy coats. Moderation is the key to just about everything, and that's doubly true for customizing. 4. Lust: You always want a car you don't have, a tool they just came out with, a part you can't find. ("This is great, but what I'd REALLY like to have is...") Learn to love what you have, instead of always craving that which you do not have. 5. Anger: If you get pissed off every time you work on your car, you're doing it wrong. We all get frustrated and annoyed sometimes, and no one likes to s****e their knuckles (again!), but keep it in perspective. Would you rather be working on your car, or doing something else? If the answer is "something else," then don't work on your car. 6. Greed: If you own more cars than you can ever build, more tools than you will ever use, and constantly crave more, you suffer from greed. ("He who dies with the most stuff wins!") Gotta have it all, gotta keep it all. The only cure is to occ***ionally go through your stuff and weed it out. Do you really need all those rear ends? All those manifolds? All those widgets? No, you don't. No one does. Get a grip. 7. Sloth: Everything in the shop is a mess, and none of your projects ever get done. You don't remember the last time you cleaned up. Or, worse, you're always taking shortcuts when it comes to measuring, cutting, welding, and finishing. ("Good enough!") Only "right" is "good enough" - anything else is just "not quite right." I myself was guilty of envy and sloth until I read the article, and it made a real difference in how I work so I thought maybe someone else could see themselves here and vow to change. Or not.
makes perfect sence to me....can't afford the Greed one ...so I'm just happy to build what I can when I can.....and as far as anger goes ....well just drink another beer and it just goes away.....
I suffer from all of those....Ha Ha Ha 1- envy - After seeing some amazing cars that you know that you could NEVER build you realize that they usually have 30 people and a team of engineers that worked on each little part. That makes me feel better about little ol me and my band of miscreants that help me out on stuff. 2 - pride - I have people ask my opinion on things and I tell them how I would do it and then they get mad. I can't help it that my suggestions are better! ha ha ha I think everyone needs a bunch of friends to come over and make fun of them to keep them in their place. I definitely have that one covered and have a good time with it as well....all you really have to do is think about number 1 to put you in your place. There is always someone better than you. Accoring to his T-shirt, I think it is Skratch. Ha Ha Ha 3 - gluttony - come on you can't be serious? I am a glutton for punishment. All I seem to do these days is cut and weld. Ha Ha Ha So far this sin has been working in my favor. Someone shoot me when I turn into George Barris and turn my bathroom into a car though. 4 - Lust- I have several cars on my wish list that I will probably never own. It is usually parts that I want that I can not get that irritate me. I usually tend to make do with what I have though and be happy about it. 5 - Anger - that is what the beer is for, to keep you brain lubricated to slip on over to the next thought instead of getting hung up on what is not working at the moment. I don't think I ever really get pissed off in the garage......or about anything come to think of it..... 6 - Greed - I don't think I really fall into this because I am constantly giving away stuff to all of my buddies that need stuff, only to find out about a year later that I should have kept it because I then find myself needing whatever it was that I let go of. Ha Ha Ha You can go and look at every car being build within 15 miles of my house and find parts on it that came out of my shed either for free or for only what I had in them. I do have certain parts that I have been hoarding though so I am guilty at some level. I also tend to hold out for some cabbage when I go to sell a car. ha ha ha 7 - Sloth - Big Time, most people never see how messy my garage is. Ha Ha Ha When you only have about 3 hours a night to work, I'll be damned if I am going to spend one hour of that cleaning. ha Ha ha I usually wait until I can't do anything anymore because my garage is such a pig sty before I will clean it. I don't ever take shortcuts on the car though because that is always my main focus. These are all good points to keep in mind though. This is a good post to learn from much like SamIyam's build a hot rod with your mind Post.
Thanks: I am suffering from slight burn out(cant see the light at the endof the tunnel)That at least refreashed me. What about worry ?(my god my shopis an f- ing mess)Now I,ve done it ! (ha ha)
Ha ha! That's me exactly. When there's so much junk on the ground that I can't move anymore and can't find anything because it's buried too deep, that's when I might finally do some cleaning. All of my workbenches are covered three feet deep with junk, so the only work space I have is on the floor or in the driveway, so that's where everything winds up. Making something for the car feels like progress. Picking up junk off the floor just feels like a boring chore and like I'm wasting precious time. It is kind of satisfying when you have a clean floor I guess, but it sure doesn't last very long.
someone should make a wall poster suitable for hanging in the garage with those sins in big, bold lettering.
good post atomic. as i start another project for this winter i also had to put things into perspective..
Funny you should say that. I just printed it for posting out in the shop tomorrow... Its funny how I can see myself in some of those areas, and my friends guilty in other areas. Uhh, time to sell some parts.
Me too hey!!! LOL The only place I force myself to keep fairly open is in front of the lathe. For the rest....yah...I don't think I'll ellaborate...LOL
-quote- 6. Greed: If you own more cars than you can ever build, more tools than you will ever use, and constantly crave more, you suffer from greed. ("He who dies with the most stuff wins!") Gotta have it all, gotta keep it all. The only cure is to occ***ionally go through your stuff and weed it out. Do you really need all those rear ends? All those manifolds? All those widgets? No, you don't. No one does. Get a grip. -end quote - are you saying its possible to have too many parts? My world is collapsing..
haha i dont think u can ever have too many parts..... but i hate it when old men have old tin just rustin away in there back yard, and dont wanna sell it..... come on, he aint gonna do nothin with it, so why not sell it to someone who will?
This is good, true! I am goign to format it in some old style writing and frame it and hang it up above the tool box!
inspiring.I'm pretty much guilty of all of these sins from time to time. These guidelines help put things into perspective and are aplicable in everything one does.
Printing and posting in my freshly cleaned garage. It took all summer but I now have room to work. I am so excited. Now, if I could only get the wife to stop posting the honey-do-list in front of the hot rod to-do list.
Why did you stop at 7 ? You've got to have more. At least keep them coming until you post one I'm not guilty of. PLEASE!!!! Frank
Thank you for all the kind words, but please remember that I "adapted" the whole thing from a woodworking article. The ***le caught my eye, and let's just say I saw myself a lot as I read it. Print it, distribute it, etc., but don't give me much credit for it. Now if you'll excuse me, there seems to be a large weeks-old pile of plywood s****s in the middle of my shop floor that I really should get around to moving or stacking or something...but I've gotten used to walking around it...and you never know when a chunk of particle board might come in handy, right?
The Jalopy Journal
