When do you know you are beyond a perfectionist

I take it way overboard at times. On my 52 chevy panel, it all started with a bad water pump. I got a pump from the local parts store and decided to paint it first just to keep the rust down. When I installed it it made the rest of the motor look like hammered s**t, so next thing you know I'm detailing a 216 babbit pounder for about a month. A 216 for god's sake! But, it did look good.

My obsession with detail stems from my profession. I work in adobe photoshop where you have complete control over an image down to one pixel. It spills over to my car obsession.

 

Sometimes so much thought is used in minute details, but the car build does not "flow". It has all perfection pieces, but looks all wrong?



at 58, I really need to get cars done before it's too late.

 

I'm lovin' this thread, I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet... If you get enjoyment and satisfaction from tinkering with the smallest detail, then GO FOR IT ! BUT!!!!!!!!! If you're making yourself nuts WORRYING about EVERYTHING, maybe it's time to back it off a notch !

 

You know you have OCD real bad when you call it CDO, because then it's in alphabetical order.

 

The only problem is Nothing is never good enough.We see the imperfections in our work.

 

Reading this post is great i,am so bad with it when my wife and i go to the local deli and i,am waiting for the cold cuts i re align all the cans on the self so they are the right distance from the end of the self and all the labels are set wright. You should see what i just put the printer threw doing my Business cards.

 

Frenchy we all know you are super anal about your builds, and that is a great trait. Most (99.999%) guys can't build a car like you. That said, I think you need to build a beater and just drive the wheels off of it to see what it feels like. The only time a see a problem with being to much of a perfectionist is when you are killing your profits building something for a customer, and I would bet that is the demise of a lot of shops.

 

Perfect is the enemy of good --- Voltaire

I'd say that can be true, but bliss can be found in the exceptions.

 

My son told me the same thing for me to build a rat rod and not to worry how it looks as long as you have fun with it. I told my son you know me I'll start on a project like this and 1/2 way through I would start detailing it all over. All of you guys that are responding to my thread you are all down to earth on your saying.

Thanks
Frenchy ( Doc Detail )

 

The good news is people like us usually finish what we start.

 

i try to get the best possible results but sometimes it just doesn't come out that way for the lack of equipment, space, and/or time but it works so i use it.... we all drive our cars so its gonna get beat up anyway...

 

You can be concerned about important issues or whether your valve stem points to the tire brand

 

That's 30 40hr weeks (7 1/2 months)..................polishing an engine
Either you're the slowest polisher on the face of the earth or a lying SOB...............pick one.

Frank

 

During the ordeal (back in the 70s) I discovered that Lamborghini has the world's most porous and shitty castings. Almost every time I wanted to touch up a spot (using dental burrs and abrasives in a micro die grinder) a crater the size of Mount Etna opened up. I had the first thinwall Lambo engine. It actually took 2-1/2 years of my spare time.

 

Here's another one of my perfectionist fads - when I have shiny parts of different metals and therefore different colors (a mix of aluminum, stainless and chrome for example), I have them all chrome plated (and embrittlement relieved) so that the colors match.

Ed Roth got it so right with this T shirt...

 

Detail, and overall quality make a car. One thing I've picked up over time, is making a car's build flow together set a tone, style and level for the build and stick to it. An average built car or even a rat job with little details on it looks decorated and childish aswell as a finely crafted car that gets rushed at the end just ruins what it could have been by standing out like a sore thumb.

My own car with as many hours as I have in it making nearly every little part and I would have loved to detail it even further but I feel it is somehow more for not being overdone by matching what the car is suppose to be and its build level to the parts on it and the era it represents.

Its like this I'm not a Foose fan at all but I appreciate good detail even if its just not for me, or tasteless in my opinion, I still have say its nicely built. Between the grand master and the impression cars the only thing I personally like are the steering wheels on both cars but then after whatever nameless person crafted these wheels, or programed a machine to cut them out, it still looks like hooky hat pin emblems were glued on at the last minute. The Master being worse in the original press shots, but if the same type of thing was done on a lesser car next to no one would notice.

 

Listen to da preacher man!

 

One of the perfectionists posted a paragraph with 12 grammatical errors.

 

i find myself doing the same,,i like to say its because its the only thing i can control,,but latley i have just been saying "fuk it",,only i notice and i dont give a fuk what others say or think,,do what you gotta if others think its cool than awsome,,if they dont fuk um!

 

Ravenwood qualifies