So in my late teens - early twenties I lived to fabricate stuff, build hot rods, and race. The nicest cars I ever had was back then. As I made a career of wrenching, fabbing and machining, I found my desire to do this stuff after work dwindling. In my thirties I did the stock car racing thing for a few years, then not much, and I built an old Harley in my forties but had to force myself to go out and work on it after killing myself all day to make a buck . More and more I've been missing that part of my life. Now at 51, I finally made the decision (with the encouragement of my wife, who is awesome by the way) to quit my job, and explore different ways of earning a living. After a month, I've found myself in the garage more every day, and we are already discussing a new project, and I feel my excitement coming back . Have any of you ever experienced anything like this?
Welcome to the H.A.M.B.! I have been a gear head since birth...and was of course ecouraged by my parents to pursue my passions in school which I did. All of my friends that went through school with me have ALL lost interest in there projects and have not touched them in years. My best friend just sold his '64 Galaxie 500 because he had not even touched it in 3 years! For this very reason, I vowed I would NEVER pursue my passion as a source of income....ONLY as a hobby, a release from work. That is why I have worked in the marine electronics field for close to a decade now....I don't care for boats, so I don't care if ever see a boat outside of work
I can sure relate to the problem of working all day and then not being motivated to go out in the garage and work when you get home.
Me either. Only the old guys will remember the cartoon with the turtle that would get his wishes granted and then get himself in trouble . Help me mr. wizard! I don't wanna be a mechanic anymore!
i've worked in the restoration business for almost 25 years, despite the fact that there is always something different everyday, welding, bodywork, upholstery, mechanical etc. my hobbies have always been non related to keep me sane.
In the 80's I got a job in an auto shop to follow my passion, I quickly realized I loved working on my car(s) but hated fixing other people's junk, folks who had no appreciation of the automobile. Glad I changed career paths before it ruined my love of the hobby. Now my garage is a stress reliever from the office; Welcome!
I hear you, I manage a collision repair shop, and I normally don't even want to mess with my car when I get home. My daily has been washed a total of maybe 3 times all year.
Same story but diiferant.For the first twenty some years of my job i worked on the shop floor doing work with my hands and machinery.Always looked forward to going to work everyday because of all the diiferant things i was able to do.The last ten years have been spent in management and ownership.Its turned into something i almost dread to face every day because of all of the challenges.My little shop at home were i can go and just make stuff and putz around is about the only thing that keeps me sane.Just wish i had more time to myself.
Thats why I try to keep my cars a hobby so the builds stay fun. When you throw money into the picture it screws the fun factor up. Although if I had it all to do over again I would be a lottery winner instead. I knew I should have listened to my teachers who told me that would be my best career choice!
I had that same feeling about doing your hobby as a living (which is what im doing now). So ive done almost everything else, drive truck, work wharehouse, do mechanical work etc. I had an opportunity about a year ago to go inot business with my father building cars and as many of you know its tough to work with your pops but i tell you there is nothing i would rather do than build cars and spend time with my old man. I still work on my own cars as well but i just spread it out alot more now. Just my .02 cents. Oh and wlecome im new too, this is my first post lol. Matt
I think I can 'relate.' I did the car thing for a living and 'mixed ' my hobby with my profession pretty successfully until I was about 38, then went back to work for the Feds for the next twenty five plus years. An accident forced me to retire, but now that I have the time I'm so 'busted up' that all the things I used to do take me twice as long and require some 'killer' pain pills! Still having fun but have that feeling I waited too long before retiring. I think you did the right thing, and it sounds like you have a great wife and partner like I do to help you along. Good luck!
Ironheadtom....I'm right there with you bud.....I turn 50 in a month...I too did the; get a house, raise a family, keep a budget, and mixed in a few small projects here and there. I got into restoring and racing vintage snowmobiles a few years back, and slowly restored a '64 Caddy coupe in the late '90s. As i got into my late 40's my son was turning 16-17 and he got bit by the car bug...not tuners (thank god) but american muscle....we found a nice '90 mustang LX and that started the ball rolling.....We re-built it, then built it, and have made it into a pretty quick good looking ride...I was bitten so hard that I bought an old '69 Mustang out of a buddies shed and totally went through it (removed all the "rust" from the "stang") built a stout motor, hooked up a toploader, and for the last (2) summers have driven the snot out of it.... Last winter I built a hard-tail bobber from a XS-650 that turned out sweet....It is hell on my back but worth the effort..It was built as a ratbike (I hate the term "rat" anything)..gets more attention than my HD roadking... (2) months ago I found a nice chassis for my '38 Chev pickup and am now building the gasser that I have always wanted to do...I've owned the '38 since I was 19....LOL I've had more fun in the last 5-10 years building stuff that I did when younger, and have found that it seems to come easy to me...I love the problem solving, and to drive or ride something that I built/painted/etc. is priceless...My only down-fall is I'm anal about details, if I'm a little "off" here or there, or if something looks "wrong", it seem to get the cutoff wheel treatment more often than not.....LOL Good Luck with your project!!! Tom
Thanks for the input... The '70 Chevelle was from when I was a kid, the '69 I did in my 30's, this Harley was the last thing I did. My background is mostly late 60's early 70's big block Chevy's. Our next project is what you guys might refer to as a "yuppie rat rod" type of thing. (hope I don't get too much grief over this) but I don't know much about the older stuff so I'm looking forward to getting lots of help from this board. Tom
Every once in a while I go through a stage of being burnt out and have to find something else to do besides work on cars. After 10 years of doing it either full time or part time in some form I have completely gotten away from them as a money earner this year and managed to build and install an engine for my truck and am getting ready to do a cam and intake swap and a few other small things to it. I find myself wanting to tinker more here lately and have finally decided to put a wood stove in the garage for the winter so I have some escape from the house. I think we all go through getting burnt out at some point, some of us younger than others, I still truly love the hobby just needed a break from it all and now I am finally able to pick up a wrench again without hating the idea.
Ok well then a custom probably primered cruiser made up of an assortment of vintage parts with hopefully a way excessive amount of horsepower
Was raised in the world of drag racing, gymkhana, road racing and of course, street racing. In my teens, way back in the 70s, I worked my way into the auto-body trade. Loved it but soon learned that I was loosing interest in working on my own cars. Got out of the trade, thankful for the skills learned but no longer wanted to work on other peoples cars for a living. Haven't looked back since. A man much wiser than me once said, don't ruin your hobby by doing it for a living. I am glad that I got out of auto body work and even more thankful that I did not choose Gynecology as a profession. All the best, Dale Cleveland OH
Welcome! I'm a software geek during the week, then I head off to my shop in town on weekends to do some wrenching and wrelaxing. Couldn't imagine having to do it for a living, seems that would take all the fun out of it, for me at least. Course I never really grew up anyway.
I'm 58 and lost my job 2 years ago because of the economy. I was a contract worker building drag bikes. but luckily I still had an equipped home shop. Now I work 6 1/2 days a week building cars and bikes busy as hell. I don't regret a minute of it. I've been doing this for almost 40 years, this is my retirement plan. Personally I think if you stop and retire and do nothing your a dead man walking. How's the saying go. "If you enjoy what you do you never really work a day in your life"! I'm living my dream!!!
I really enjoy reading these comments. I am 68 and it only took 18 years to build my hotrod. Just proves to never give up on your dream. So far I can still get in and out of my channeled Model A. I love this place.
These responses definately remind me of how differently made we all are. I had a buddy that was crew chief on a class 8 (I believe) Baja team full time. I once said to him how cool that job must be. He got a little miffed and said that eveyone thinks that but anything becomes just a job eventually. Then you have Choke who posted above how much he loves it. For me, I found myself working on cranes much of the time outside in our California sun . I was getting more and more miserable and one day I was under a crane welding with grease dripping in my face. I bumped my head and saw stars as I was crawling out and told myself this is the last time I do this. The demeanor of your customer base probably makes a big difference, too.
I'm finally working on my 31 tudor, I go out to the shop every day. I retired May 31 2011. I worked as a Heavy Equipment mechanic/ welder for 35 yrs. Then I went to work for the state of Colorado for 12 yrs. I collected parts for 30 years so now I'm building. Good luck on your project. Lee
I've built hot rods and show cars all my life as a profession. Wish I had a doller for every time someone said "man, your living a dream, building hot rods all day". All I can say is I took a damn good hobby and turned it into a job. Lost a lot of passion, quit going to rod runs, wouldn't go to a show unless I was paid, never felt like building anything for myself and the few times I did I'd sell it right away. 3 years ago I retired and all of sudden the passion came back. Turned the shop into a "hobby" shop for me and a couple buddys and started having fun again. Sure makes a difference when you work without "having" to work for some reason.
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