Show me the sickness! How many hours do you have in your car?!?

My pal mentioned to me that since I got my '51 I haven't gone on any long trips or whatever, since I'm always working on it. Unfortunately he's correct, that's about all I've been doing for the last 18 months or so, just working on it. I can't even guesss how many hours I have in it.

How about you, do you know how much time you have in your car? It seems like the more time you have in your car the less $$$ you have in it, and vice versa. My pal has a mega $$$ car he hardly had to fool with, I have a (relatively!) inexpensive car but 10 zillion hours in it. I'd have been much better off starting iwth a $700 so cal clunker, but that's another story

So is the time/money ratio accurate for you? Do you have a ton of hours in your ride? I'd love to hear the numbers! Thanks!

 

Damn! Ya know I never really thought about it but with that question I have around 10K in the car and roughly 1200-1400 hours over the 3 years I've had it. Jeez I almost wish I hadn't seen this post. just kiddin

 

let's see, sitting up front at barret jackson,ordering over priced drinks,falling out of my chair,sobering up, slobbering on the ring man, calling my banker because i screwed up,explaining this shit to my wife...oh about 4 hours.


just kidding...i've built every hotrod i've ever had..50 plus years about a gizillion hours..give or take a few.

 

The hours I have invested in my cars far outweighs the money I've spent on them. I've never kept track of the hours, but I can tell you I've spent months and months on end, 6-10 hours a day, on each of these cars. And when they are pulled apart, I'd much rather be at home working on them and making them better in some aspect than spending my time going to "shows".
However, I don't miss the good stuff, like the Pileup and stuff like that. I just figure I'm an abnormal detail freak of some kind. Beadblasting parts, painting each and every individual little bracket, piece, and deciding the best way to route a line and wiring, re-doing something better that I spent time on once already, etc.... As of now, they are all together again now and ready for a road trip, kind of a good feeling these days.

 

i caint tell you how many hours, ive never kept track but ive been working on my 54 ford for 13 years that ive owned it. so i guess if you do the math... alot

 

49 Ford since July 4, 2008. 4-6-8 hours a day working outside. You do the math cause I suck at math.

 

Hours? Shit! im a fricken slave to my toys, I work 10hrs days 4 days a week at my regular job, and the 3 days i have off im working on the rides, all day! figures why i cant keep a girlfriend, but thats another story. I say screw keeping track of hrs if your doing most if not all the work on your project. Now, if its at a shop well again thats a diffrent story...

 

Do you mean how many hours THIS YEAR or all 31 years?

 

The way I figure it if you build a car to sell it. Then the hours along with the money has to be figured into the sale price. And most people wont pay that much money for our cars. But if you build your car for your self, and to be a driver. Then you have the option to drive the hours or labor right out of the price, if you ever do sell. most of the cars we build (we hope) will go up in value as they get older. But being able to drive the labor price out of them is kinda like depreciation for hot rods. And then if we keep them in good condition.The money value that we put in the cars along apreciation value should take care of everything else, (MAYBE) So back to your question about the hours invested. ha ha. I'm going to have to drive the shit out of my car to break even. Just my thoughts ...ghost

 

My buddy and I had already put an S-10 clip on the 51 Fleetline when we moved into the garage on June 15, 2002. We do 3 to 4 hours every Wednesday night, same on Saturday, maybe a Sunday. So we are 7 years into the build and probably 4 to 5 years from driving it. We laugh because out total investment including the car is still less than $3500, including the car which we have sold to each other at least 4 times................have a look. Here is the link....
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=1403

 

owned my cutlass 9 years now. Worked on it every day after work and weekends on and off since up until last year when i finally painted it. Cant even guess. My 52 i just got. About 5 hrs so far. Put a starter on it, got it running by funnel feeding it. Dropped the gas tank, pulled out the seats and started fixing the floor boards.

 

I spent 3 days a week for 5 hours a day for about 8 months on mine. plus weekends sometimes. swap meets at friends houses working on stuff.

In other words ALOT of time

 

If I counted my time I probably got 40K in a 2K car.

 

The sickness is trying to figure it out.

Ignorance is bliss and I'm a happy bastard. I don't save receipts to know how much money or calculate how many hours.

 

I measure in Pizza and Beer. About 1000 large pie's and 2800 cases of Guinness! And now that I wrote that i realize i could have bought a done car by now probly twice. But who the hell wants somthing they didnt build on there own.

 

im a tight wad and i noticed that when i quit counting money and hours my prodject started coming along alot faster.with that being said this march will be 5 years.

 

I dont count the hours, for me its therapy!

 

Makes me depressed when i figure out how many hours i've spent doing things for the second or third time cos i didnt like how it looked.
So now i don't think about it
Bob

 

I like working in the garage - so I can't say I ever paid much attention to the hours - but definitely plenty!!!! Heck my digger projectg was 7 years in the making, but in that same time I also pretty much added a machine shop to my garage as well as having to build some tools to allow me to make the parts - it was all fun though.
Instant Gratification ain't always what it's cracked up to be!!!!

 

After 49 years probiably over 3000 hours give or take, man I'm tired!

 

i have a ton of hours in my stuff and also work on customer car during the day and mine on week ends one thing i can never get thru to people is that how long it takes to do jobs having a shop is not easy as soon as it becomes a job i,ll quit and work on my own.

 

I don't count hours...or money...

IF I had to, I'd prolly never build another car...it'd be scary...

I build a car for MY enjoyment...no one else's...and if it comes out half as good as I expect, then I've hit a home run and will thoroughly enjoy the many hiway runs to events across this US...

R-

 

too many, I lost count!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213839

 

The current 40 is the 1st one i kept track of, but probably missed quite a few hrs. Best I can tell I have about 650 hrs in it--this does not include uph. or final paint and body work--was painted by a friend in pieces which I put together-does include all of the grunt work like cleaning frame,building chassis,etc. Many things were done several times befroe they were right--lots of hrs and not very cost effective but it's fun and good therapy and now I drive it for my grocery getter in nice weather--my wife says it's my retirement ride--just picked up another one (40 std) and will no doubt take at least this long or longer. Any time I guesstimate how many hrs it will take be to do something on a car,, it turns out double or triple--example--wiring a 40 like this with air,etc. etc.--just did one for a friend and guessed at 40 hrs--it took me 60 but it was fun and I did it as a favor so he is happy--some shop wanted $3000-cost him about $500 for mat'l-same on a 66 Chevelle 10.50 car my friend is building--have 6 days in it doing wiring,gauges,etc and about 5 to go, but I'm kinda slow too.

 

Every weekend for 7 years just on the '50 Burb. That doesn't count any other cars. I do it for fun and aggravation

 

Thinking about it I have a rough guesstimate(or an outright lie I tell myself LOL) of how much money I have in my car, and no clue how many hours.

My friend with the high dollar car *HAD* a spreadsheet/quicken file so he knew to the penny how much was in his car(which caused him to resent it-'I have xxx dollars in this car, its worth y dollars and doesn't have z done yet even!'). He'll never admit it but I finally convinced him not to keep track.

Like 1950chevysuburban said, I do this to torture myself ( I mean 'challenge' myself!) and its just what I do.

If I got chicks or money out of the deal that would make it even better, but since neither seem to have been air dropped into the yard I'm not expecting that to happen. ;-)

 

If I figured a dollar per hour probably more dollars than they gave away to them fucking banks and shit.

 

3 weeks shy of 13 years yesterday... so 4724 days... divided that by 7 = 674.85 weeks x 40 hours = 26,994 at work... so subtract 26,994 from the 113,376 hours from that and you have 86,382 hours

Subtract sleeping (4724 x 8 hours) = 48,590 hours.

Take out the time I spent working on my degree (15 hours a week for 3.5 years = 1277.5 days divided by 7 = 182.5 weeks x 15 hours = 27,375 hours) = 21,215 hours

Lets take out 2 hours a day for meals (I spent at least that)... 9448 hours, so 11,767 hours left...

Ryan probably has the how much time I've spent on the HAMB since 2002, but I estimate that about 10,000 hours at least... That brings us to 1767.

Remove all the time I've spent at car shows, swap meets, and comparing prices and ordering on the internet, I figure about 1000 hours there... 767

I've watched some TV (mostly Mad Fabricators and Shakes the Clown)... Probably 750 hours... so...17 hours

13 years of sex = 1 hour total on my part, so we have 16 hours

So it took must have taken me 16 hours to build my car.

 

Well, to start off, besides my intro post, this is my first reply, so feel special. Anyways, I have about 1,500 hours into my '62 C10. It was my first car, still my favorite. I spent a couple hundred on the engine, close to a thousand on the interior the first time (there was a fire...ill explain later) and then another few hundred on the interior the second time. I am now 20 and hope I will never get rid of my baby.

 

Hours? I have to measure mine in years. 34 and counting. Its a work in progress.