Ever feel like you will never be able to stop working on your car?

[Ron 73]

Great looking Charger you have.. Its never ending, i agree with all here and it doesn't matter even when its done, or you think it is, you see something else you want to do to make it better in one way or another, i always have called my cars a project.

 

[FROSTBITE]

Thanks for the comments guys, kinda got a 2nd wind from reading this. Im gonna get back in the shop and back at her. I have learned lots of lessons, mainly no more impulse ebay buying. But its mine now and im gonna make it so everything in the car is right (within financial reason).

 

[Dennis H]

I just had to show that quote to my wife. She busted out laughing and said "That's you with the red car!" I restored a red '73 340 Roadrunner back in the late 1980s and she is right... that was exactly the attitude I had while doing it. That car was showroom new by the time I was done, and it cost me a frigging fortune in 1980s and 1990s dollars! And then I never drove the damn thing anywhere but to two car shows a year because I was so paranoid about everything that could happen to it. I was even paying $40 a month to keep it stored because I was afraid one of the kids would damage it if it were in the garage. All that time, money, and effort, and what did I get besides having to spend more time, money, and effort on it.

Then one day in 1994 I woke up, said WTF am I doing, and sold the car. I bought a beat up 318 73 Roadrunner for $900, dropped a built up 440 into it, got a $99 Earl Scheib paint job on it, and drove the crap out of it until the wheels almost literally fell off. I had a blast with that car. Now I have my 74 that I've spent less than $6k on and it runs good and looks good, and I do all my Friday through Sunday driving in it. I drive it to work on Fridays, to get groceries on Saturday, racing Saturday nights, and to Steelers games on Sunday, and wherever else I have to go. It's by no means a perfect restored classic, but I am one very happy owner... which I wasn't with the red Roadrunner.

Second paragraph sums it up. Well said. Lots of people at Shows who will never drive and enjoy their cars. Let alone the joy a a full throttle app. Go for a ride in one of their cars. Hesitate, bounce you name it. It's all about armorall on the tires for them.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Old cars will never be finished. Even if you replaced evey single part with NOS stuff, it's still a 40+ year old car & it will ALWAYs need something.


With the big pile of mess I just bought, I almost don't know where to begin, sand I really do look forward to being at the point you are at.

 

[Bruzilla]

Second paragraph sums it up. Well said. Lots of people at Shows who will never drive and enjoy their cars. Let alone the joy a a full throttle app. Go for a ride in one of their cars. Hesitate, bounce you name it. It's all about armorall on the tires for them.

I guess everyone has to get their epiphany in their own time. If anyone had told me having a less than perfect car was okay back then, I would have blown them off. We all learn we're not Jay Leno at some point.

 

[FROSTBITE]

Here is a picture of the charger's engine after it was rebuilt. Now if it was me who rebuilt and installed the engine would of spent the extra hundred bucks to use a new fuel pump and new belts instead of old stuff. I can handle an old alternator but if your gonna do it why not make everything new???