Anyone Abandon Their Project?

[tparker]

Just to one more thing. Now that I am about "done" with the rebuild, are you ever really done, I'm kind of depressed that I have nothing too do. LOL. Sounds weird, but a lot of the fun was the building part. Of course driving is the goal, but there is some excitement on putting stuff together and learning. The chase for parts, etc.

[torredcuda]

Just to one more thing. Now that I am about "done" with the rebuild, are you ever really done, I'm kind of depressed that I have nothing too do. LOL. Sounds weird, but a lot of the fun was the building part. Of course driving is the goal, but there is some excitement on putting stuff together and learning. The chase for parts, etc.

When I was doing my Barracuda is was KILLING me not to be enjoying it running and driving to shows but I did enjoy doing the work myself and learning a lot as it was my first complete teardown and restoration. I now have the best of both as I am driving my Barracuda while I restore my road runner and I can enjoy the process more. As far as abandoning a project yes, I have done it a few times, mainly due to having multiple ones at once and realizing I couldn`t get to them all. I recently sold my `76 clubcab project that was 90% done with bodywork, frame and suspension but stil had everything else to go, I sold it because of my age and realizing I only have one more resto in my old bones and my road runner was the one I wanted most. I lost some money on it but not a too much seeing I did all the work myself.

[70_440-6Cuda]

@mtull - cheaper friends -that was FUNNY!  Thank you.

And thank you to everyone with some input, makes it a bit easier to swallow.  Truly I think I enjoy the "doing" rather than the "having", so even if it was done, the "most fun part" would be behind me.

The other hard part is this- I have 1 1940 Ford Tudor sedan my father bought when he was a senior in high school, and was my mom's daily driver with a 205 Chevy, 6 Stombergs and 4 on the floor.  It was parked for a long time, and about 12 years ago I ponied up for TCI complete chassis - tubular front suspension with coil overs, 9" with 4 link and coil overs in the rear, narrowed 3" on wither side for 12" tires, 12" Wilwood disc on all 4 corners.  I wanted something that would be a "faster" build so bought the 'Cuda to do with my son - figured strip down, quickie paint and then assembly with new parts - like my '65 Mustang fastback I built 30 years ago.

Well, now the 'Cuda has eaten up its budget, AND the budget for my '40 AND to top that off my Dad is starting to forget everything and will likely not see the car finished. Ugh

[70_440-6Cuda]

oh, and this is probably about the same cost by the time I am done!

'70 Hemi 'Cuda

Or this one...

'70 440-6 'Cuda

Anyonme know either of these cars out of curiosity?  I hate these cheezy ads

[RzeroB]

oh, and this is probably about the same cost by the time I am done!

'70 Hemi 'Cuda

Or this one...

'70 440-6 'Cuda

Anyonme know either of these cars out of curiosity?  I hate these cheezy ads

That HemiCuda was stashed away in Canada for a long time. Les Baer bought it sometime in the late 1990's or early 2000's. Les commissioned a complete nut and bolt resto on it turning it into the gleaming show queen it is. It's changed hands a couple of times since Les had it, but I doubt it has been driven more than a 100 miles since then. The asking price of $239K is a lot less than what it changed hands for back in 2017 where it sold for over $300K. Sure is pretty, but too expensive to drive and I would want to drive it. However, if you are into cleaning and presenting it at shows you could certainly do a lot worse.

[EV2RTSE]

A bit late with this since you've already got the car apart, but in regards to body & paint, as someone who also lives in a, ahem, coastal state, one piece of advice I could give is to look at other, inland states to save money. A guy I met on the forums also from here in NJ sent his car to Texas to get body & paint done, another collector in CT with a bunch of cars I spoke with has a guy in PA who paints the cars out of his garage. I did the same, came across a guy on FEBO about 3 hrs west of me in PA with a lot of body shop experience who operates out of his home garage, the total came in about 10k less than the estimates I was getting here in NJ, and my car already had the metal work done- so that was just the savings on a paint job alone. Guys like that are still out there, it just takes a little bit of work to find them, often they don't advertise as they are kept busy just by word of mouth.

[B5BlueGC]

I took a different path. I had the body work and paint done in 1990, then the project stalled and it sat in a rented garage under a cover. The roof leaked and I was never notified. The cover held the moisture and now there was bubbles on the roof and some other spots had surface rust and the paint lost adhesion. I decided to get the car together and running so I could enjoy it. It was never to be a show queen anyway. I had the bare metal spots "touched up" but the paint never really matched since it was so long ago.

Driving it is way more fun than working on it. I may fix the paint at some point (or not) and just enjoy it. I have another project (AAR) where the paint and body is much better but is not numbers matching, so I will put that together as close as I can and just enjoy the ride. I do not trailer my cars.

I know the feeling as my project was "abandoned" for 35 years. It was actually my wife who pushed me to finish it. God I love her!!!

[dodj]

Never abandoned a project but definitely got disappointed, bored, lacked motivation, worried about costs etc. I walked away for two or three months and then reassessed what I wanted to do. Decided to keep it and keep spending money. Work for you? Maybe. Maybe not.