How do you guys keep your spirits up when you are in the midst of a larger project?

I have been disassembling my car's interior and front end to gain access to the areas where there is rust so I can kill it. Now, I am staring at my car and wondering if it will ever really get back together. I'm also trying to be careful of the "might-as-well" syndrome so that I dont end up stripping it down to a totally bare shell because I keep noticing little problems here and there that bother me.

I haven't taken on a project this large for about 10 years, back when I had all kinds of time and no other expenses.

Any insights into your coping strategies while your car is apart, your wallet is thin, and your heart desires to be IN the car cruising are appreciated.

break it down into smaller sub projects ... it gives you more of a sense of completion as you get each one done

look at other peoples cars, on the forum, or in person, and think "wow, I wish I had that", "oh wait, I do, I just gotta go over and do..."

or talk to people, brag about your car... Then when they hear it's partway finished, you'll well up with the urge to work on it.

Make a timeline and checklist, do *this* by *this date*, so that you can start on bla... Then try as hard as you can to stick to it. Don't set it too vague, or too hard to accomplish, or too easy, then otherwise you'll just keep putting it off until it's too late, and you push it off again...

i feel ya i lose motication all the time... it's hard especially with me personally because I can't afford everything I want to do to the car. But breaking it up in to sections and making a date for completion for that will help some. I aslo find it helps to compete with other people you know, and are within the same budget hahaha.

Just visualize the end product.

i have a photoshopped pic on my desktop so i see it every day...it makes me say i think i can, i think i can, i think i can, choo! choo!!....ha ha

Man, I can seriously relate. I had surgery on my neck, so I was out of commision for 2 months. Then I got married and had my son, so I didn't have any money. Then I was deployed to the Gulf for six months. My car sat like a year and a half and is still sitting. I've been home for about a month and a half and have been working on it every day. That's what motivates me. I vowed that I would do at least one thing every day, no matter how small. Sadly, I can't say that I've completed any one thing, but I have completed parts of a lot of jobs. For example, I've got my battery mounted in my hatch, but haven't finished routing the cable because I'm waiting on a welder to arrive that I ordered a couple weeks ago. The first welder that showed up was damaged all to Hell. I need the welder because I decided to weld tabs under my car to hold the battery cable clamps in place. I guess what it comes down to for me is that I had to learn to enjoy working on my car as much I like driving it. It's cool, though, because I've taught myself how to solder, make battery cables, paint using urethane, rebuild stuff like my distributor and master cylinder, and soon I'll teach myself to weld. Ideally, I think it'd be best to have two cars: one to drive and one to work on. As it is, my truck isn't the most exciting ride in the world, but I make do. I hope you stick with it. Good luck!

I look at old pics and video of my car to get me motivated. My car's been sitting without an engine in it for 8 months, I haven't driven it in over a year and I want to have it running so badly I can't see straight. I'm swapping over from an L98/700R4 to an LS1/M6 with a few other things off a donor car I have.

Looking back at all the fun times I had with my car urges me on to keep with my project and not sell it just to do something easier. Cause I know once I finish this project it will be something to be proud of. And that's what makes it worth all the hassle.

Just remember why you are doing it. Working on our cars is a hobby. Hobbies are fun. Therefore by the communitive property of multiplication working on cars is fun. (maybe that wasnt the right property? im not outta college yet!)

Anyway, enjoy the time you have working on your car. Its fun, you are creating something. You are an artist with steel and iron.


Or you could just sell your kidneys and pay someone else to do it for you....

What motivated me was seeing the car all torn in pieces. I had to get it back togther couldn not stand looking at it. Then i would get some primer on and it looked better. Every little step it looked better and kept me going for the next thing. Paint, then buffing, then putting it all back togther.

It will be worth it just keep pushing your self you will get it done. Then you can sit back and enjoy it.

Every little scratch....every little door ding.......

I know exactly how your feelin, i bought my car in late january, and the most i've drivin it was just 2 weeks ago when i took it for a quick spin around the block..

the key for me all this time is to just visualize the end product, and take your time, because i found that if i worked on the car day in day out after i finished my real job, i would get burned out..

then once you get close to being done, just set an attainable date to get it back on the road.

for me its sept 1st... and believe me, my heart has been desiring to be IN the car since i bought the car...

sometimes its very hard. great web sites like this realy help. seeing progress on other peoples cars tends to get me moving. this link did too. i have been hard at mine now for a few days after reading this post

funny how sometimes i go like mad. then might take a month off. then something will spark my intrest in it and away i go.

maybe this will help you out

http://www.ccfbg.com/projectcar/DSC01711.JPG
http://www.ccfbg.com/projectcar/100_0061%20(2).jpg
http://www.ccfbg.com/projectcar/DSC01856.JPG
http://www.ccfbg.com/projectcar/EPSN0328.JPG

I get a bunch of crappy friends talk crap about how much better their imports are. Then, full of rage, I go back to work on it.

Competition is an awesome driving force

I just go visit my nephews with the mustangs, listen to their crap, then go home and start working.

my car has so many issues that if i tried to tackle them all at once i'd go nuts, i try and break it all down to sub projects so i don't get overwelmed.

Well, partly because of your help, I've been pecking away at my project and keeping my chin up.

Being a New England car, mine has rust in a lot of places. As for actual rot, I only have one on or two small spots, but there is lots of scale and surface rust thanks to the harsh climate.

Currently, I am tackling the rust in the core support/battery tray area. It sucks. I was able to hit some of it with the angle grinder, but most of it is just taking hours of hand sanding and work with a small screwdriver, trying to knock of loose rust and scale and scuff any paint so that when I spray it the new paint will adhere. It is amazing how much surface area this part of the car has, with all the nooks and crannies and folds.

I look forward to when the rust is dead and all is coated in a few layers of Master Series silver and some rattle can black and gloss.

Easy. I walk away from it and allow a different hobby to consume my time until I'm good and ready to go back to the car. I usually go in streaks. For a while I'm all into the car, then after a while I get pissed/bored/frustrated to the point where I just walk away from it and go build speakers until I find myself once again wishing that I was working on the car instead.

wow this is funny and i sure can relate i just did the motor on my car so drive wise its done. and it did not take long to sit end that the body work needs to be done an the interior freshened up. all i can say is this project i have takein in stepps so i can still enjoy the car an relize the gains that i make after each mod or project. what ever you do do not let the car sit to long. good luck

Ugh, my morale just took a big shot to the face. I removed my DS fender and inner fender today, only to discover some hidden nastiness:




The first two pics show the scariest part, down where a ton of sand and crap had collected behind the fender and caused everything to rot out. How the heck are you supposed to repair such a complicated area, with all the angles and curves there? Any advice is appreciated. I guess I had better learn how to use my Mig setup, or make friends with someone in the area who wants to help save a Bird.

Hope I don't find a similar situation when I remove the PS fender...but I'm not feeling too lucky

you definately have some problem areas but to be truethfull it doesnt really look all that bad jjust start on one area work it till its done keeping it running is key

I'd probably find a junk yard car and cut that whole area out of it, and weld it into yours. If you cut carefully and oversized, you should be able to do it without much fuss.

i do the same thing.
in one long streak my car went from 400sbc to a LS1 manual with tubular everything, ect......

and then i just drove it for awhile.. then in another streak, cam, suspension, ect... then... well i lost intrest again.

i mean, fun car, im driving it several times a week, but i havent felt like working on it for a couple months... so i havent.

i found about the same thing the other day on my passenger side, my morale definately took a shot. Haven't touched it since. The whole car had zero rust on it now there went that.

While sorry to hear that you have the same problem, I do take some comfort from the fact that I am not alone. Have you decided what you are going to do yet, or are you still in denial?

For the love of humanity, will it never end? I just couldn't wait to see what was behind the PS fender, so I just took that off, too. Here's what I found:



Not as bad as the DS, but still, bad enough. New England sucks.

If anyone who is good at making patches would like to take the time to explain for me how to repair this kind of damage, I'd appreciate it. Or, if anyone knows of any videos or books or online articles that show how to do it, I'd appreciate that info, too. I have a couple books on bodywork and painting, but their examples of patches tend to be of the most simple kind, on flat surfaces.

I think I am going to head to NAPA this week and get some argon gas and start figuring out how to weld. I don't think I have the money to pay a body shop to do all of this.

I hate rust...a lot

This is probably the best advice.

I use a dry erase board and make a list that can be crossed off as each small project is completed.

I also try to get to the garage every night and get something done. It could be cleaning up the garage or reinstalling a small part. As long as you get something done and cross it off the list you can actually see progress being made.

kyle

I can sympathize Bull. Like you, I too have recently started a restoration project. It seems that as I cross one thing off the list, I add several more. I just discovered some major rust in an area where I didn’t realize I had a problem. This after I was just finishing up what I thought was the last major “rust” hurdle

This is the first major cosmetic or engine work I have done for fun since I ran brackets in the mid to late seventies. During that time, my Dad, being a mechanic, was beside me, and passed on a lot of valuable info and tools, which I am now falling back on. The biggest lesson he taught me was patience, although I still struggle with that from time to time. Now, I have my son beside me, restoring the Iroc, and life has come full circle. That alone is worth the price of admission.

The way I figure it, regardless of the money and hours spent, the thrill of cruising down the road with the T-tops off, motor purring, some tunes cranking, and the knowledge that you made it happen has got to be oh so sweeeeetttt!

What I did is stored the car for 3 years, gathered money, then start the resto. I can do everything on my car exept bodywork, so thats where most of my money will end up.

I was quoted 7K for complete bodywork and paint w/the shaving everything driver floor replacement, fixing rust everywhere etc... and I stripped the car before.

In body alone, Ive invested (Yeah invested, hopefully Ill be able to get more then a part of my money when I sell it) about 10k (canadian dollars) atm. Including sfc, roll bar, soda blasting, bodywork, paint and all other mods.

Its all worth it to me cause Im not into half assed jobs. When I put time, money and energy in something, I want it to be perfect.

My inspiration is definatly seeing other finish cars...and ricers with 8 foot wings and a fart cannon that are painted 18 different colors because they had to have that body kit and lambo quarters.

man bull i know just how your feeling.. after failing to reassemble my first project (74vw beetle) Im determined to finish mine. I know exactly what your saying about going to far. Its a body up on blocks, no front end, no tranny rear or tank with just the interior left in it i even took all the brake and fuel lines off. I have no rust but i keep finding stuff that i want to fix so i take it off.. i walked out and looked at it yesterday and was like damn... i ripped that thing slam to pieces HAHaHA i sit there and stare at my rubber seals and keep thinking about ripping them off before i paint it.. but there so expensive i havent yet. but yea i can definatly relate to what your saying. Luckly its scheduled for paint in october provided i get all the paint by then. Its been sitting almost 2 years now..

i just came in from the garage to take a last peek at my project before i call it a night. i jumped on here and saw this post thinking to myself; man he hit it on the head.
i bought my formula three years ago. drove it 2 miles home and started gutting it. since my 67 camaro project took 6 years to complete and i drove it for two years before financial probs arose and forced it's sale, i have been wanting to do it all over again. this time with the thought, i'll never sell this one, i embarked on a mission to complete a pro street project in one year and take it to the local show to cruise once again.
now it's three years later and the car still shows one mile on the autometer speedo. i worked on it every night the first year, twice a week the second, and rarely the third.
having a family of 5, full time job, many bills, and burnout all contributed to my status. my family stated doubting me and soon i did too.
i have found a renewed interest in my project however after watching the message boards here and going to several car shows this summer. my new motivation comes from (as others have stated) breaking down the project. i have broken the car down into parts. cooling system, fuel system, body work,suspension, electrical, drivetrain, and reassembly.
i have not completed any of these stages by the way, but i am close on several. i have been purchasing parts one by one as the money allows. (thank god jegs is only a couple miles away!)
i hope others can relate to my rambling and it helps some. great topic and good luck.

Like others have said, break it up into smaller projects. I've spent 11 actual work days on painting my car so far at maybe 2 to 8 hours a day. Tonight I set a goal of just getting the rear bumper off the car and stripped. Finished that a little while ago. Still have to do the driver's fender, door, around the windsheild, side mirrors, side ground fx, the rear quarter fx and front bumper cover. I'll probably group the mirrors and ground fx into one day, fender, door and around the windsheild into another day then the bumper cover.

Been doing mine for 3 years. I am a solid beiever of the little projects idea. I do it all the time. I am done with the fuel and now I move onto the elctical and so on. Thing that sucks the most if having to go back and add new stuff to a system you thought was done. But what I have moved onto now is allways carrying a small notepad. I write all the steps I need to do to finish the car. And as I go I scratch them out. There are about 25 steps. I hae yet to get a chance to fully scratch any out, hehe. But I just made the list 3 days ago. I also have a lost of stuff to buy... Same idea.


I am happy to say that I actually got her to run, hadn't happened in 3 years.... Man, now hearing a new 385 with a nice BIG cam, THATS motivation.

looks like a great car you have going there would love to see more pics and thanks for the inspiration guys i to have been trying to devote a few hours to my car a day motivation dont come easy these days but the roar of a warmed over motor is all it takes for me and for the light at the end of the tunnel maybe one day but i dont even no if ill know when it gets hear at this point thanks again an keep um commin

oh yeah you guys have alot to be proud of i started my project in 2000 and am just now tweakin the drive train tearing her all back down to start the paint process gets me alittle nervous but ive done the whole car myself with some help from my brother an alot of support from my 4 little ones so when i head down to night school at the local highschool im sure they will behind me i hope it dont take another 6 years

I was blessed to start with a clean rust free car, but I've done all sorts of welding and such on it. Grab yourself some MS sheet of stock thickness and cut out that rusty area. Take some paper and cut an angle piece(s) that'll fit in there nice and tight. I can't remember what that area looks like, and what is behind it, so I couldn't tell you how to brace it and do a different design, or if you need to bend it the same way as the stock setup. But that should help for starters.

Just do one thing at a time, and sooner or later you'll be done.

super-kev, what is the "MS sheet of stock thickness" referring to? Some kind of paper?

I can see one pain here will be making sure I have a place for te fender to mount to down low, since the original bolt hole is going to have to get cut out with the rusty metal.

Just to warn ya Bull, you may not want to look under the rear bumper cover.That support is notorius for rusting out. Ask me how I know.
Luckily, I have another one sittin around that's in good shape. Just take it one step at a time & hang lots of pics in the garage for motivation.

I just work on mine when i get time although it can be frustrating,when you dont seem to find the time.Luckily,it's not my daily driver,so it sits in the garage until i get out there.Currently putting on a stainless exhaust,and a new instrument panel,so it's been up on the stands for a month or so.As others said just do it in seperate jobs,and sections,and try and keep it running.

My guess is MS = Mild Steel, pick up some sheet metal the same gauge as stock and cut/bend/shape/weld a patch panel in.

Yes, sorry. MS = mild steel.

Thanks for the definition, guys. Guess I'm a little dense about some metalworking terms lol

yes my bumper was almost non existant when i removed the rear cover, it came apart it multiple pieces. But the rest of the car had no rust on it. Snag one from a firebird they are usually in alot better shape. Or you can buy new ones for a believe around $60

I'm having the same issue right now. Right now I have no interior cause I took it all out and I have the bumpers and hood off. I'm saving up money to get it painted pretty good but I long to start driving it. It's in driveable condition too.

I'm tempted to throw my new interior into the car, put everything back together, and drive it even though it's in like 4 colors. I've contemplated just getting a cheap Maaco job, knowing I will have to redo the paint in a few months. But in those few months I would have enough saved to get a good paintjob. I dunno, I'm really torn right now and need advice.