Too many projects?

[Jack Bennett]

Not a day passes that I don’t see a ad on Craigslist, eBay, Facebook or some other place selling old cars which states that sale of a antique or classic car is due to “Too many projects”.

Golly, if a project is began as a hobby, and when it was decided that the hobby was to refurbish old cars as a pass time, it seems as though some consideration would have been given to such things as space, cost, time, effort, skills, and tool requirements as well as a good evaluation of goals and expectations for long rides into a beautiful sunset.

My projects will never be finished, and I keep a fairly new car and a Winnebago motor home handy for rides into the sunset.

My old machines provides a source of physical exertion that I don’t need a gym to achieve. They provide me with a source of brain fodder which gives my old noodle something to think about, and present queries, about something other than my aching feet and the exploits of our elected officials.

They provide me with a well rounded diet of things I can (soundly) sleep on knowing that I have accomplished something other than fiddling with the TV remote, or smothering in my own broth of anger and self pity.

I will never sell any of my projects, and if any one of them ever looks “complete” I will donate it to a charity to auction off as a donation……and, never in my life, have I ever used a charitable donation as a tax deduction…..NEVER!

I do have a number of projects, all in a state of near completion, but each have things, such as mechanical, upholstery, electrical wiring, body and paint, and such, which will always provide me with something to do, and do it free of boredom and regardless of weather.

Some of my machinery projects, not including sewing upholstery and carpentry.

Oh, and I do have a shoulder replacement, half of a lung calcified, bad knees, fasciitis in my feet and a bad back……and I will turn 80 years old in a few months.

[Angelfish]

It's easy to underestimate what it takes to get some of these old machines going again.  Cost and time always run beyond what you planned, even when you think you have it worked out.  A certain Lincoln K, for example, even the most experienced can run into issues they never expected.   There are times when it's not fun.  If you're willing to grind through it pays off in the end, but it's not for everyone. 

 

With any luck I'll be able to say the same when I'm your age.  It's good to have a constructive way to spend the hours.  Now that I'm sort of retired, I don't even have time to sit through a movie, too many things need attention. 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Angelfish (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I wonder how many neophytes get sucked in by those idiotic television shows where the do a "restoration" in about 2 weeks. Even members of my family who know I've been grinding away at mine for years seem to think it's the sort of thing you can accomplish on a few weekends. Of course, the people who think that way nave never actually made anything in their lives more complicated than a ham sandwich.

[Jack Bennett]

4 hours ago, Angelfish said:

It's easy to underestimate what it takes to get some of these old machines going again.  Cost and time always run beyond what you planned, even when you think you have it worked out.  A certain Lincoln K, for example, even the most experienced can run into issues they never expected.   There are times when it's not fun.  If you're willing to grind through it pays off in the end, but it's not for everyone. 

 

With any luck I'll be able to say the same when I'm your age.  It's good to have a constructive way to spend the hours.  Now that I'm sort of retired, I don't even have time to sit through a movie, too many things need attention. 

 

 

In a world where everything is timed, and time is everything, these old machines have a way of stopping it. All my life I have answered to a bell of some sort. There was always something pressing that button which sounded the alarm………”Not enough time”…….”Overtime.  time and 1/2, Whoopeeee”…….”Holidays…..double time, SIGN ME UP”!

And nothing was ever finished. 
Twenty one years in the Army and wars are still being fought, and lost.

Twenty years in Corrections and there are still plenty of criminals to be jailed, and crimes are still being committed.

And then there are my old machines.

I keep my several projects because a ideal hobby will provide something to do for the remainder of my life.

And these old machines could never be “restored” any more than your $55,000.00 truck, which came from the factory with a bad transmission, and electrical problems which kept it in the shop for weeks at time.

Rather, it is a hobby, not a vocation, and my old machines are in no hurry to be reanimated, and certainly no desire to be recreated to be better than when they were new.

I do get pleasure from starting a engine which hasn’t breathed fresh air for fifty years, and I do enjoy watching a oil pressure gauge raise to 40 PSI and a ammeter, which has set silent for half a century, register a healthy charge.

There are expenses to the hobby, and sometime they are pretty hefty.

However, it is my choice when, and if, I incur them and whether or not I can afford them. Health care, utility bills, transportation costs and the cost of raising a family are a given.

But a $500.00 set of tires and a $300.00 transmission for a seventy four year old truck isn’t.

Unless, at some time in the past my hobby was allowed to merge with a vocation, and, rather than enjoying the release from stress they provide, I endure the pain they provoke.

Jack

[Jack Bennett]

On 10/26/2023 at 4:44 PM, JV Puleo said:

I wonder how many neophytes get sucked in by those idiotic television shows where the do a "restoration" in about 2 weeks. Even members of my family who know I've been grinding away at mine for years seem to think it's the sort of thing you can accomplish on a few weekends. Of course, the people who think that way nave never actually made anything in their lives more complicated than a ham sandwich.

As I reduce the 1929 Fargo Express panel to a pile of disconnected parts, I can appreciate the wisdom in what you are saying. 
I was aware the truck had no transmission of drive shaft installed, as well as clearly seeing that the truck had 3 shredded tires, and one tire missing completely.

However, there was a transmission in the back of the truck, and the seller said he had a drive shaft which would fit the truck.

My bad! The shop was dark, the transmission was for some other antique car, the tires were not only shredded, the wooden spokes on the wheels were rotted and had some serious cracks.

Now I discover that the engine is locked up and probably has at least three bad, non-repairable cylinder bores.

As I started to disassemble the body, I found it unnecessary to screw nuts free from their bolts since the metal was so rusty the part just fell off, leaving the bolt and nut intact.

There is not a single piece of wood on the truck which can be reused, either for its original purpose, or even as a pattern.

Even the steering wheel and gear box, provided to replace the frozen steering gear box, and totally destroyed steering wheel is from a car, and can’t be used on the truck.

I have some serious doubts that the engine will ever run again without, even if possible, a complete rebuild, and most certainly will not be capable of moving under its own power because of parts made of unobtainabium.

Oh……………….does it sound like I am complaining?

If it does I apologize because my purpose in posting this is the opposite.

Reanimating these old machines is basically the same sort of hobby as a leather craftsman or a furniture maker. Or, perhaps a person who invests many years labor, and a fortune in costs to build a massive Koi pond. 
At best they may wear a newly crafted belt, or wear some exotic boots once before they are retired to the closet. Or, they may sit in a newly constructed chair or use that exquisitely built dresser once before it is sold at a garage sale. And, if the Koi pond is a awesome success, the builder has acquired a lifetime of the feeding and maintenance of a gang of voracious, and remarkably dull, but extremely durable, and long lived fish.

The amount of time spent,  the effort and the innumerable, but collective, accomplishments in something interesting and, questionably, productive is the real goal of any hobby.

So goes a reanimation project such as the Fargo panel truck is. All of the aforementioned is really the project, and the truck is, in itself, no more than the mechanism used to attain it.

And, if it’s value is determined by the length of time, effort and expenditure of energy that can be spent on the Fargo…..it is, indeed, a treasure trove of hobby pleasures.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[marty14]

Holy Crap! Never would I attempt to resurrect such a mess. You have got bigger balls than all of the bowling balls in Chicago! 

 

When you get done post some before and after pictures please!

 

This part will keep me awake for the next 2 weeks:

 

Now I discover that the engine is locked up and probably has at least three bad, non-repairable cylinder bores.

As I started to disassemble the body, I found it unnecessary to screw nuts free from their bolts since the metal was so rusty the part just fell off, leaving the bolt and nut intact.

There is not a single piece of wood on the truck which can be reused, either for its original purpose, or even as a pattern.

Even the steering wheel and gear box, provided to replace the frozen steering gear box, and totally destroyed steering wheel is from a car, and can’t be used on the truck. 

 

I will pray for you although it will have no bearing on the outcome............

 

Capt. Jack "Pancake Putz" retired, 90% full of hot air and 10% lard

[Jack Bennett]

 

1 hour ago, marty14 said:

Holy Crap! Never would I attempt to resurrect such a mess. You have got bigger balls than all of the bowling balls in Chicago! 

 

When you get done post some before and after pictures please!

 

This part will keep me awake for the next 2 weeks:

 

I will pray for you although it will have no bearing on the outcome............

 

Capt. Jack "Pancake Putz" retired, 90% full of hot air and 10% lard

Considering that this is a forum which invites camaraderie, and my posts are about a 1929 Fargo Express, I’m not really sure how to take that last part. I am “retired, but I was a senior non-commissioned officer, and not a captain. I admit that any fool who would spend half a lifetime in a waste of time like the military could/should be considered a “putz”……but the pancake I” I will have to pass on. I”m not too sure about the “hot air” or “lard” part of the comment.

The truck was bought with honest money, and it is a HOBBY, and not a vocation.

I missed a huge part of being a civilian, considering that I spent all my teen, twenty, and most of 30 years of life overseas, and five years in a combat zone trying to keep your kids alive. So, I really don’t understand a whole lot about how brats think.

I do some stupid stuff, considering that I spend money on a hobby, and don’t make money off the idiots doing the hobby.

But, I take a bit of pride in that I have completed two careers, am able to be a putz retiree, and you are still spending money with “In GOD we trust” and not German Euros or Japanese Yen.

Putz Jack………and pretty damn proud of it.

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[Jack Bennett]

1 hour ago, marty14 said:

Holy Crap! Never would I attempt to resurrect such a mess. You have got bigger balls than all of the bowling balls in Chicago! 

 

When you get done post some before and after pictures please!

 

This part will keep me awake for the next 2 weeks:

 

Now I discover that the engine is locked up and probably has at least three bad, non-repairable cylinder bores.

As I started to disassemble the body, I found it unnecessary to screw nuts free from their bolts since the metal was so rusty the part just fell off, leaving the bolt and nut intact.

There is not a single piece of wood on the truck which can be reused, either for its original purpose, or even as a pattern.

Even the steering wheel and gear box, provided to replace the frozen steering gear box, and totally destroyed steering wheel is from a car, and can’t be used on the truck. 

 

I will pray for you although it will have no bearing on the outcome............

 

Capt. Jack "Pancake Putz" retired, 90% full of hot air and 10% lard

In retrospect, I do, sincerely, appreciate your honesty and frank post.

When I disembarked from that ship, upon my return to the Disconnected States, at Oakland MSTS terminal, after 13 months in hell, and was greeted with a shower of shit, blood, piss, puke and every foul word imaginable, I truly hated this country. 
Over the past 50 years I have made every attempt imaginable to stay away from the “freedom” I woefully, and mistakenly believed we were fighting, and in all too many instances, dying for.

I participate in these forums as a means of connecting with people whom, I believed shared the hobby, and you have reminded me of what a putz. I, and the other idiots who are buried in graves throughout the world.

https://stopsoldiersuicide.org/vet-stats

[marty14]

I am not a Captain of anything or ever have been

 

 

Capt. Jack "Pancake Putz" retired, 90% full of hot air and 10% lard...this was a joke nothing more

 

the lard and hot air should have tipped you off to that

[Rivguy]

If you recall the intro to the original Star Trek, it stated that Space was the final frontier. Well they were wrong Space is the first frontier. Or more accurately, the lack of it. I envy all of you that live out in the boonies that can roll a project under a pole barn and let it sit. In the City space is scarce and it is easy to fill it up with projects. So that is one reason that people have too many projects. I told myself a couple of years back that i would restrict myself to one. maybe two hobby cars, but now I'm back up to four!

[Hemi Joel]

I have a friend who constantly gives me a hard time about all my project cars where progress is either slow or halted. I just tell him its a hobby, not a prison sentence. If it ever feels like a ball and chain, I'll quit.

[Jack Bennett]

On 10/26/2023 at 2:04 PM, Angelfish said:

It's easy to underestimate what it takes to get some of these old machines going again.  Cost and time always run beyond what you planned, even when you think you have it worked out.  A certain Lincoln K, for example, even the most experienced can run into issues they never expected.   There are times when it's not fun.  If you're willing to grind through it pays off in the end, but it's not for everyone. 

 

With any luck I'll be able to say the same when I'm your age.  It's good to have a constructive way to spend the hours.  Now that I'm sort of retired, I don't even have time to sit through a movie, too many things need attention. 

 

 

Were I to rejoin the labor force, which I won’t, it would be an injustice to the generation coming into power, as well as those now at the top of their game.

Instead, I am happy to work at not working, and suckle at the teat of the huge, always hungry, sow I fed and nurtured over the first 62 years of my life. And, if I did decide that I wanted to  return to doing a “for pay” job, it would be unfair to those young people needing it to start a laudable life which includes finding a good wife/husband/either/neither/both/or a good dog, buying a nice home, providing a good education for their at least three kids (necessary to replenish a aging work force) and pay lots of taxes (necessary to pay my retirement pension).

That, alone, would be justification for me to do nothing more than playing my part in supporting the economy by continually spending sums of money, which would be impossible for a salaried person, to buy parts for a machine which has been sold, and taxed, countless times over the past 100 years.

No, in the sense of fair play, it goes even further than that.  Realistically, it would be unfair to me, considering my years of experience, and the fact that I have acquired so much ability as a professional employee, to hire into any job which paid less than at least three times what it would cost hire a number of apprentice workers, and my benefits package would have to be stupendous.

So, rather than send the economy into a tail spin by trying to afford the expense of a company gaining me as a employee, and the loss to the commercial community by supporting three antique cars, and a dog, I think I will continue perusing the antique vehicle web sites on the internet and rereading, and responding to posts such as this one.

Thanks to all who makes my retirement such a laudable vocation and affords me the opportunity to share their hobby.

Jack

 

[Jack Bennett]

On 11/18/2023 at 3:10 PM, Rivguy said:

If you recall the intro to the original Star Trek, it stated that Space was the final frontier. Well they were wrong Space is the first frontier. Or more accurately, the lack of it. I envy all of you that live out in the boonies that can roll a project under a pole barn and let it sit. In the City space is scarce and it is easy to fill it up with projects. So that is one reason that people have too many projects. I told myself a couple of years back that i would restrict myself to one. maybe two hobby cars, but now I'm back up to four!

It saddens me immensely that my only means of communicating with folks like you is through digital media, and old car web sites such as AACA.

I do have membership in a number of antique car clubs, but the strain is more on the thumbs, by typing yards of letters, hooked together into little shiny words, than actually drinking a cup of coffee, shooting the breeze with some similar thinking folks, and enjoying a Senior breakfast at Denny’s.

To make matters worse, I wonder how many folks, with centuries of knowledge, and countless old car stories, can no longer type on a virtual keyboard to share their experiences and enjoy (even digitally) the company of people who would rather watch the paint dry on a century old car than sink a “birdie” on a golf course.

I doubt that my desire to meet as many of these people as possible before either, or both of us, retire to that huge garage, not made by human hands, will be fulfilled.

But, so long as there are places like this forum which minimally substitutes for that pleasure………..thanks for your input.

Jack

 

[Jack Bennett]

On 11/16/2023 at 7:38 PM, Jack Bennett said:

 

Considering that this is a forum which invites camaraderie, and my posts are about a 1929 Fargo Express, I’m not really sure how to take that last part. I am “retired, but I was a senior non-commissioned officer, and not a captain. I admit that any fool who would spend half a lifetime in a waste of time like the military could/should be considered a “putz”……but the pancake I” I will have to pass on. I”m not too sure about the “hot air” or “lard” part of the comment.

The truck was bought with honest money, and it is a HOBBY, and not a vocation.

I missed a huge part of being a civilian, considering that I spent all my teen, twenty, and most of 30 years of life overseas, and five years in a combat zone trying to keep your kids alive. So, I really don’t understand a whole lot about how brats think.

I do some stupid stuff, considering that I spend money on a hobby, and don’t make money off the idiots doing the hobby.

But, I take a bit of pride in that I have completed two careers, am able to be a putz retiree, and you are still spending money with “In GOD we trust” and not German Euros or Japanese Yen.

Putz Jack………and pretty damn proud of it.

 

The other day we had some nice weather here for a change. I had considered visiting the local senior center for some mentally challenging, and physically demanding rounds of marathon bingo.

Instead I visited the local junk yard, had some serious discussion regarding his motor cycle collection, and scored a swap with the counter guy who took a nice Phillips screwdriver in trade for a neat radiator cap I’d found for my Fargo.

But, the plan behind the journey into the murky world of wrecked cars and millions of tiny treasures was to find some lower seat springs for the Fargo so that I could begin reupholstering the cab.

I found a donor, and the owner agreed with himself that $100.00 was a good price for the 100 year old pieces of badly rusted, and barely recognizable pieces of automotive history.

I argued with myself regarding the practical, vs the archeological value of this collection of wire debris and yellow jacket nests, and decided that $35.00 was a adequate amount to allow the junk yard a profit and me a bit of breathing room during the next self mental assessment I performed.

The price of $35.00 was agreed on, and the arduous task of recovering a set of springs, in a car which harbored every sort of disease, and some original dust from the Oklahoma dust bowl began.

I think the car to be a 1934 or 1935 Plymouth, and although it has the same sort of elongated, manual starter button (on the floor) and hinged gas pedal, attached to a Dodge 218 CI, flat head six cylinder engine, as the one I installed in the Fargo, I honestly can’t guess at the year of the car.

It has a three on the tree shift lever, and the emergency brake is a handle attached to the bottom of the dash rather than a floor mounted shift column.

Regardless, I now have a set of lower seat springs to rebuild for the Fargo, and my summer plans for it keep getting longer…….so I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Edited April 6 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[human-potato_hybrid]

On 10/26/2023 at 1:20 PM, Jack Bennett said:

My old machines provides a source of physical exertion that I don’t need a gym to achieve. They provide me with a source of brain fodder which gives my old noodle something to think about, and present queries, about something other than my aching feet and the exploits of our elected officials.

They provide me with a well rounded diet of things I can (soundly) sleep on knowing that I have accomplished something other than fiddling with the TV remote, or smothering in my own broth of anger and self pity.

Well said. I am well-acquainted with some people who literally have no discernable hobbies besides drinking, drinking at the bar, and watching a certain fairly biased news channel. Then they wonder why I'm not "in touch with current events" because I don't spend 20 hours a week watching programming specifically designed to get me mad and addicted to the drama that is politics at a national level. Obviously these people are neither happy nor healthy; though there are certainly worse vices to be addicted to (like gambling), it's unfortunately hard to get these people to change in the slightest towards healthier behaviors when this is what they have done for years.

 

What can be additionally frustrating is that these male Baby Boomers that I am referring to are, without a doubt, the generation and sex on average most interested in old cars of anyone around, yet my hobby of 50's Packards does not seem to hardly interest them in the slightest. And my stories are only slightly long and boring. 😉

 

Hope this isn't too personal or off topic but your comment (well, the reverse of it) rang as really on the nose for some of the people in my circle. ☹

[Jack Bennett]

19 hours ago, human-potato_hybrid said:

Well said. I am well-acquainted with some people who literally have no discernable hobbies besides drinking, drinking at the bar, and watching a certain fairly biased news channel. Then they wonder why I'm not "in touch with current events" because I don't spend 20 hours a week watching programming specifically designed to get me mad and addicted to the drama that is politics at a national level. Obviously these people are neither happy nor healthy; though there are certainly worse vices to be addicted to (like gambling), it's unfortunately hard to get these people to change in the slightest towards healthier behaviors when this is what they have done for years.

 

What can be additionally frustrating is that these male Baby Boomers that I am referring to are, without a doubt, the generation and sex on average most interested in old cars of anyone around, yet my hobby of 50's Packards does not seem to hardly interest them in the slightest. And my stories are only slightly long and boring. 😉

 

Hope this isn't too personal or off topic but your comment (well, the reverse of it) rang as really on the nose for some of the people in my circle. ☹

I could neither have said it better, nor added anything to make what you’ve said more poignant.

I have my old Fargo parked in a space near my downstairs patio, and the place is easily seem from my upstairs bedroom window.

It is property tax and income tax time again, the season change always brings on seasonal aches and pains, and the weeds and grass are going crazy.

I had envisioned a few more years of travel in the motor home and many more nights watching the sunset on a Washington costal beach.

But, those plans, as well as the urgency to do anything other than sleep and have an occasional drink, took over when the wife suddenly died and I was left without purpose.

Now I spend my days with my little mechanical family, and they return my attentions by staying relatively consistent by always needing something done to keep them alive and running.

The Fargo, being my current project is the last thing I see before I go to bed, and the first thing I see when I rise in the morning.

This routine gives me something to get my mind off the daily tasks associated with living, and gives me a capsule view of whatever it is I hope to accomplish that day.

It frequently crosses my mind in wonder what people who don’t have a hobby such as ours do with all the spare thoughts that can only be troubling.

Jack

Edited April 17 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[Jack Bennett]

On 10/26/2023 at 2:04 PM, Angelfish said:

It's easy to underestimate what it takes to get some of these old machines going again.  Cost and time always run beyond what you planned, even when you think you have it worked out.  A certain Lincoln K, for example, even the most experienced can run into issues they never expected.   There are times when it's not fun.  If you're willing to grind through it pays off in the end, but it's not for everyone. 

 

With any luck I'll be able to say the same when I'm your age.  It's good to have a constructive way to spend the hours.  Now that I'm sort of retired, I don't even have time to sit through a movie, too many things need attention. 

 

 

I am at the point with the 1929 Fargo Express Panel truck project that I am ordering the material needed to put a new top on him, and replace the non essentials like window channels for the door glasses.

In the past “sticker shock” was normally applied to endeavors like buying a new car or having to replace a major appliance.

Now I find that this term, which used to be manageable through budgeting and careful spending, has became a way of life, and is a expected part of buying daily essentials as well as parts for a ninety four year old truck.

I also find myself living in the earlier days where the same money was spent for job essentials, such as uniforms and costs related to driving to and from the work place. 
And, there was always the V-10 engine in the motor home, which drank a gallon of gas for every ten miles, travelled and then paying another several hundred dollars to have it serviced even when the traveling was done.

The real difference between then and now is that then I was thirty-forty-fifty years old, and now I am not. Then it was a respite from the daily grind of a job, during the years after I retired from the military, and the expense of travel was off set by the time spent with the wife, and not dependent on the number of fish caught or how awestruck we were left by seeing a monument or a mountain.

Yep, now, instead of dumping hundreds of gallons of burned gasoline into the atmosphere to see the Grand Canyon (for the third time) or Niagara Falls (awesome….but a non-event otherwise) I spend the same amount of money for a windshield and frame for my 1923 Dodge and a new fuel pump for my 1951 Plymouth Cambridge…….and at the end of the day it all equals out.

Probably, in a few more months I will have the Fargo completed to the state of………”Well, it runs”……and once again feel the anxiety to buy another project.
And the stimulus to do so will will be the ever present reminder that I am going to experience the effects of aging, regardless of how I spend money, and the  quantity of rewards given for leading a long life can be achieved in equal proportion to the miles travelled to see a canyon, or the ease of rolling up a recently replaced side window in my old panel truck.

Jack

 

 

[Jack Bennett]

A couple of days ago I began the arduous task of cleaning up the mess and debris accumulated as I stripped the Fargo down to the essence of being a panel truck.

About half way through the task I realized that I actually had more waste wood and scrap pieces of rusty metal than I had remaining of the original truck.

We have trash pickup once every two weeks, and my allowance of trash is governed by the amount of trash I can fit into a thirty five gallon waste material container.

At the rate I am now filling this container I would estimate, beyond the two fillings I have already made, I will need another three, or possibly four, more trash collection days to put the deceased pieces of the Fargo to rest.

I have acquired enough minutes and hours, as a aging human being, that I fully realize how very boring this must seem to a avid foosball player or addicted computer gamer, but, as I age I realize that the even the smell of newly cut, long rotted, flooring material from a nearly 100 year old truck has immeasurable value when mingled with the smell of the newly cut floorboards made of white oak.

Whether it is immense pleasure, with some pain, or some pleasure, with immense pain is left for the person who experiences it to determine and evaluate as the minute in time dictates.

Hopefully, the immense pain of disposing of 94 years of accumulated art, and history, is offset by the expectation of the equally intense pleasure those  who experience the opportunity to view a 1929 Fargo Express panel truck for decades to come will be.

Jack

[Dandy Dave]

If I was out there on the west coast, and in your neighborhood, I'd be right there with you Jack. It isn't any worse than some old rusty relics I've worked on and made run again. When I was in my early teens I pulled a few apart that never got back together as I was a kid with big dreams and little money to realize them. That still happens to young folks today. I suppose that is why there are unfinished projects on the market all the time. I, like you, will keep on pecking away at the projects until the end of this round on this earth. Afterall, it is not a race, but a hobby folks like you and I enjoy. If some are unfinished at the end it will be no big deal as we had fun doing it. Our heirs will either finish them or find someone that will. At that point it won't really matter. I suppose some will be listed as unfinished projects.

Edited April 18 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[Jack Bennett]

3 hours ago, Dandy Dave said:

If I was out there on the west coast, and in your neighborhood, I'd be right there with you Jack. It isn't any worse than some old rusty relics I've worked on and made run again. When I was in my early teens I pulled a few apart that never got back together as I was a kid with big dreams and little money to realize them. That still happens to young folks today. I suppose that is why there are unfinished projects on the market all the time. I, like you, will keep on pecking away at the projects until the end of this round on this earth. Afterall, it is not a race, but a hobby folks like you and I enjoy. If some are unfinished at the end it will be no big deal as we had fun doing it. Our heirs will either finish them or find someone that will. At that point it won't really matter. I suppose some will be listed as unfinished projects.

Throughout my life I have had numerous hobbies, and have acquired some skills which lends themselves to each.

However, I suppose the saying “Familiarity breeds contempt” bleeds over into our recreational lives as well as influencing what we do as a profession.

Personally, I take pleasure in doing things that presents a challenge, as well as providing the opportunity to learn new, and to me anyway, unimportant things.

The number, and diversity of my old machines will assure that I never run out of unnecessary, and unimportant things to do until the day I die. And there is no single thing that has to be done today, tomorrow, or ever, and there is never a rush to finish any particular thing, within a deadline, on a 100 year old car or a 76 year old tractor which was given up for dead 5 or 6 decades ago.

i have no hopes of ever “finishing” anything to do with my projects or, as a hobby, they have failed to do the job for which they were purchased…..and that is to keep me entertained, stimulated, and out of trouble.

The things these old machines allows us to do, without haste, competition, contention or unwelcome/unnecessary human input is, literally limitless.

For example, the Fargo panel I adopted will never be used as a primary means of transportation, I probably will never license it for Highway use, it will never be resold or showed as a “show car” or part of a testicular enhancing “collection”. Yet, it provides a great number of things I can do, regardless of weather, attitude or body aches.

I am trying to reproduce the graphics painted on the truck while it was actively being used in commerce.

I am trying to stabilize the body into a condition that it is protected a few more years from the rust and rot which have tried to destroy it for years.

I have re-engined the truck to keep it mobile, as well making the mechanics sustainable using more modern parts.

I have, am, and will continue to replace the rotting wood which makes u a large portion of the truck’s superstructure.

The upholstery is a major project, and it will continue to keep me occupied until the cows come home.

And that, Sir, is a good hobby project, which, along with my other old cars, my old tractor and old motor scooter, keeps me from smelling old and getting a fat butt😜.

Jack

 

 

[Jack Bennett]

On 11/25/2023 at 4:32 PM, Hemi Joel said:

I have a friend who constantly gives me a hard time about all my project cars where progress is either slow or halted. I just tell him its a hobby, not a prison sentence. If it ever feels like a ball and chain, I'll quit.

I wish I knew how to “quit”, but even that takes a lot of effort.

Before I was “humaned”, that is a became a viable entity with two eyes and one nose instead of two noses and one eye, my heart started beating and, although floating in a bubble of amniotic fluid, my lungs were being prepared for my first breath. And, miraculously, without a set of complicated plans, or even a minuscule amount of human intervention or instruction, I became me.

And I have spent nineteen years in prison, as a correctional custody official, and I assure you that people serving a prison sentence needs a productive outlet to keep their brains from calcifying and their hands from doing some pretty reprehensible things.

It is how we are made, and it is what separates us from a earthworm or a bat, both of which do some pretty remarkable things, but have yet to stop a Detroit Lubricator carburetor from leaking or remind a Skinner vacuum tank that it doesn’t need a electrical circuit to work perfectly.

As I work through these old machine projects the most rewarding part is that nothing other than forward motion can be realized. And, when it seems like I am slowing down or slacking on doing some particular thing, I pause and remember that last week the thing I am now fretting over “taking too much time” was long dead, and had I, among every other human ever born on earth chosen not  to rehabilitate it, it would still be dead.

Jack

Edited April 18 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)