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.

[1970 cuda Joe]

I wouldn't abandon the project. Your life is going through some tough times & this might be the thing that will keep your spirits after it all settles down. When I 1st purchased the 70 'cuda I have, I almost thought I was going to have to give it up also. I'm retired & almost 70. I didn't want a complete project to do as I just completed a nut & bolt, high end restoration on a 1969 Camaro ss396. I bought this car as a running driving car,....or so I thought. After a year of fixing problems, I finally got to drive it for the 1st time. Not impressed so, back to the drawing board. A few mounts later I was actually able to enjoy it. I told Sheri that I had no idea what I was getting into & that I had no plans of going all through this car but with the help of many of the people here, I continued on, day after day, to make this a good car. Today I can enjoy it. It was a lot but the end results were worth it. Mine isn't a numbers car either but I just had to rethink NOS or even original parts for a non-original car....Joe 

[torredcuda]

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

Sure you could buy a done car and enjoy it now but what story will you have about it - " Ya, I just bought it and won a cheap plastic trophy, isn`t that so cool!" or you can finish yours and talk to people for hours about everything involved in the restoration of it and be proud of what you accomplished. I think you know what my choice would be.

[HP2]

I've abandoned a couple. One was running and I started taking it apart, not as far as you did, got part way into it and acquired other stuff that required the attention and money, so I sold it. Another one had to remain running during the process as it was my tow vehicle. Of course, it was not nearly as bad of shape as yours so it didn't require the extensive teardown that rendered it inoperable. Never finished it before trading it off for something else.

I've also picked up several along the way that never got started that I eventually sold.

My current Challenger hasn't been abandoned, but it has been back-burnered a few of times for multiple years at a time. I'm around year 20 on it and finally getting into the difficult body work. Not as bad as yours has shown, but it is getting quarters, trunk extensions and outer wheel housings along with a A LOT of hammer and dolly work. Because of this I've always insisted it remain a roller so any suspension work was usually done to completion for any particular upgrade.

I've also done all my own work except for machining on the engine and transmissions work. That doesn't cost me as much but takes much longer as I read, watch, and practice things as I apply them to the effort.

If its stressing you out, throttle back a bit on it. Of course, that's easy to say since I haven't had to work with a body guy. But perhaps you can work out a finite point of work with him and the family that you can achieve and then maybe back off some.  You also can revise the goal. IIRC, you are going for a pretty correct resto job.  You could cut this short a bit to get to certain steps of functionality and replace some things in the future when things are a bit less strained.  Thinking things like 8.75 vs Dana, selected engine vs the one you pulled out, etc. Getting things to a point where you can see a goal acheived goes a long way towards sanity than constantly looking at a work in process.

[Katfish]

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

Sure you could buy a done car and enjoy it now but what story will you have about it - " Ya, I just bought it and won a cheap plastic trophy, isn`t that so cool!" or you can finish yours and talk to people for hours about everything involved in the restoration of it and be proud of what you accomplished. I think you know what my choice would be.

Interesting comment, whenever I go to car shows and see something interesting, I usually ask if they did the work. They almost always respond, "Yep, me and my son/friend"
I then proceed to ask a simple question, and 9 times out of 10, they have no clue.  "Billybob did that"
Whenever I see a nice paint job, I ask who did it.
Not ONCE has anyone EVER known the answer. I find that amazing.
The most interesting conversation I ever had was with a guy in his 30s who put a 2JZ into a Dart.
Car wasn't a show car, it was a track car and the work was beautiful.
I think he was the only guy that actually worked on his car.
I believe the guys working on their cars don't end up in the show.
My car is a POS, but whenever I pull in, they always try to direct me to the show area, just because its old.
I would never dream of entering the show, but it's surprising that the cars in the show, the owners know nothing about the build of cars they "show"