Have you ever felt.....
 

That you just want to DUMP your car? Everytime I turn around it is something else. Example, my thread Friday regarding the alternator and linkage. Always seems to be so close, but yet too far.

And it always seems to be in the window when I want to be at Carlisle. Yes, I am as close as could be. As long as I get the alternator deliverd this week I will be gold. I had a family reunion today so no car work and yesterday went to help out a Bud with his '69 BB, so lost a weekend.

Sometimes I feel it isn't meant to be. Maybe just dump the damn thing and move on.....

But then again.... F it... third life might as well move on.... :leaving:

Sorry, feeling pain right now....

When I was having engine troubles with my Chevelle that's all I could think about was getting it running and sell it to and lick my wounds and move on. But being hard headed I stuck though it. Got all my issues fixed and now I am very glad I did not go though selling it The moment when you get it dialed in and go on your first long drive you will be glad you have it. Also running it though the gears and chirping the tires helps too

YUP>>>>I am going through those feeling right this moment....going 3rd engine in 5 years.....if this engine fails, which I am starting this Tuesday"...sell the SOB....and move on to other "less costly" things...:thumbs:

Mike,
You've got too much skin in the game to give up now. Success is just around the corner, hang in there.:thumbs:
Don

I went though two in less then two years it sucks

I'm trying Don. Sorry to say but sometimes I want to cry like a little girl. Other times, I want to just put it out in the yard, with a rag in
the gas tank, grab a Cohiba(don't do them anymore) a box of barn burners, and a 5th of Jack Daniels and have a wieny roast.

I have way too much into this car to do that I know. More than I EVER expected. But everytime I turn around, there is something else. The alternator I figured... It took a dive when I got 6 inches of water int he basement in 2011... Thought maybe, just maybe, it would have survived... NOT.

So, after I change my panties tomorrow when I get home from work, I will put her back up on the blocks and check out the shifter linkage. Ordered the alternator yesterday and it should be here by Wednesday.

If the linkage isn't the issue I will be having a field pass for sale agian this year at Carlisle.

And maybe two cars.....

The local auto parts store cant get you a alt in less then one day??

Probably, but I want to replace the chrome with a chrome. Bitch aren't I :D

I just would have bought a standard rebuilt one and swapped cases. Buts that's me:rock:

Why not have it rebuilt locally?

Cuz I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer

I also had more hair when i started restoring this beast...and fewer injuries, Thes just occured on this latest install...

FIRST DAY UNDER CAR

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ps971ead1f.jpg

SECOND DAY UNDER CAR

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psb3d0ae4f.jpg

I know how you feel......I walked away from my 63 vette for a while....I needed some space but I'm back now and ready to move forward...

I'm always told that tomorrow is a "new" day...:ack:

Dammit Jack! :cokespew:

Nope.

Back when I was dirt poor, I just persevered.

Now that I am not in such dire straits, I just do things right the first time. I learned how to build motors in high school shop class, i learned how to build them better as time went on.

I also learned that when one peripheral thing goes bad (starter, alternator, water pump etc.) Replace EVERYTHING right then and there. Not with cheap Chinese or mexican rebuilt crap, but real GM or rebuilt by local rebuild places. Not as cheap as Autozone, but it lasts.

Need a tie rod ends? Check your steering box and ball joints, just do the whole thing at once. Otherwise, you will be replacing something else 9 months later and having to get another alignment.

Doug

:iagree::cheers:

I know the feeling all too well.

Right now I am thinking about selling my 56 Corvette and using that money to finish my 56 BelAir 4 door sedan.

Does seem kind of backwards, but the goal is for the BelAir to become my daily driver. It will not be a show car, but will drive me to many shows.

Hold on take a chill pill the 56 is what you need to save they are the
bomb put a cover on it walk away till later .
dont do somthing now you know you will regret later. Just owning
the 56 would make some people happy just to have it and dream
of its completion .They are hard to find save it ,save it save it :yesnod:

Take a deep breath....
 

...and a few day's off. Have your Chiba and a beverage or two. Lick the wounds and get going again.

I've owned a '72 Cpe for ten years and every time I wanted to start working on it something else happened. I've never even driven the car.

Keep the faith and don't give up. You have already invested the price of admission and a little more. It will get better. :thumbs:

I always say it could get worse, like still being married to the first wife. She was the one the house dropped on in the Wizard of Oz. :ack:

Bob K.

Feel your pain and know the feeling. My weekend in the garage was 2 steps forward and 1 step back on almost everything I touched. Some days you just have to step back and go mow the yard.

This is my 3rd frame off so I have got use to the pit falls that come with dumping massive amounts of money into a car that some days just doesn't seem like the pay off will ever come. Add into that mix paying good money for crappy parts and the frustration level can get out of control sometimes.

At the end of the day it will all come together and the sweating and cussing will be worth it because you will have a cool ride to be proud of because it's your sweat equaty in the car not someone elses.

My biggest problem is getting time to work on my car as there seems to be an endless list of things that pull me from the garage. I told the wife last week that I'm about ready to take a weeks vacation and put crime scene tape around the garage with a do no enter sign on the door. Go completely off the grid, coffee pot in garage and bucket to pizz in. :lol:

Maybe just maybe I will get something done during that week. I'm at week 3 of getting my engine put together and fired off on the run stand with about another week if I'm luckly to finish this. Seems like a few years ago I would of had this done in 2 weeks easy. Oh and I just told this morning I have a family commitment next Sunday, yep another lost day in the garage.

Hang in there. :thumbs:

Patience is the Key to success. Driving a C-2 is fun and worth the aggravation. Al W.

Same sentiment, just a different reason. The red thing runs and drives perfectly, but after some minor (ok, well maybe not so minor) mods to my '03 Cobra convertible, an antique big block feels like a 6 cylinder Falcon in comparison. They're great to look at, but they're antiques. You really feel it when you compare it to driving a modern high performance car.

Just remember that for every ounce of pain, you'll have two pounds of gain - in this case pleasure.

There is nothing like enjoying a well running midyear, and the satisfaction of walking up to and driving something you rebuilt yourself is worth every second of cut, sacrifice, bump and bruise.

Keep'n GO!
:cheers:

hang in there...if it were easy, there would be no pride in the job. At the end of the day, as I remind my wife often, I am lucky and proud to be the keeper of the flame for one single icon of our country...:flag:

Aggravations are ALWAYS to be found when you choose to jump into one of these, but at the end of the day...nothing like it.

I was taking my 4yo son to his buddies this morning in the '64, and had a guy in a very fresh late model Ferrari rubberneck ME and my cracking laquer on the highway today. Guess what? For the joy of ownership, I wouldn't trade him.

Keep up the work, walk away when you need a break. Throw a wrench in a safe direction...

I have days like that. You just have to put the tools down and walk away before you hurt yourself or do more damage. My only problem is I walked away from mine two months ago and haven't touched it since. I'm finding it hard to get back in the garage. Mine is a ongoing project so I haven't even had it on the road yet. I keep saying next year I will be driving it, that was 4 years ago. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Next year I will be driving it.:D

Just think of how many guys on here wish they were down to only having to solve an alternator and linkage problem! ( Glass half full!)

Last summer I got my window moldings back from the polisher and attempted to install them. I got the rear ones on with no problem but the front ones were giving me fits I got the bottom ones on and started the sides. I got so aggravated that I thought I was going to scratch the paint or damage the moldings I had to stop. They still are just the way I left them. The whole outside of the car is done except for the front window moldings. I just moved on to other things. At some point I will either get back to them or when I get it on the road I will take it to a more experience professional old time glass installer.

Pretty normal with an old car, did a brake job last week that I bought at Spring Carlilse, brakes are great now, but Have a U-joint going.

Stay on task, you will get it done.

....and we will be waiting for you at Carlisle. :thumbs: Dennis

What year did you install in the rear also left my molding on front they were to hard to remove .get the old time installer i removed the rear one on the 63 I am dreading the install.

I think this forum is a form of group therapy. mine went in the garage in January of 2011 for a 6 week project - engine tranny swap. it came out of the garage this weekend with another yet another issue. the folks on this Forum are fantastic when it comes to support and information. hang in there. time heals all wounds

Who can't relate to that...:rofl:

Believe it or not, IF you persevere, there will come a day when you can walk out to the garage, slide into the seat of your C1/C2, turn the key, hear the motor roar to life and proceed down the road with complete confidence you'll arrive safely at your destination.

Took me about two years to get to that point in the '61 and now my conflict is NOT driving it all the time! (You'll melt about 1/4 mile from the house without A/C)

One day I got so PO'd with my '62 that I parked it at the edge of the lawn next to the road and put a For Sale sign on it. I stood in the garage just looking at it, saying to myself, "I really do hate you, I really do". Then 5 mins later I was still just watching and some guy pulled up and got out of his car and started to look at "MY" car. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I didn't really want to sell it so I ran out and told him it was NOT for sale and I put it away back in the garage.
That was 45 years ago, and it's still in my garage!

Verne:thumbs:

you shold start a new thread who had there corvette the longest
you got a good chance of winning :woohoo:

Yeah I know, and I am very fortunate that I have had the means to do what I am doing. I stop a lot of times and think of the number of folks who would like to do what I am doing but just can't swing it. I am blessed.

8/1 was 16 years since I bought the damn thing. First wife passed but know that I lived up to having it painted red. Dad was very excited when I got the car and would come down on a call when asked. He always used to go to C@C with me and he LOVED going thru the old parts bins. One of the last things he told my Mom before he died was that he guessed he wouldn't see the car finished.

Then I died a few times end of 2011/2012. Goal was to have the car done last year. But we all know THAT story.

This year is another year. It will be at Carlisle! Rough day at work today, but came home and put it up on my blocks. I don't have the stamina I used to have before my heart issue. Tomorrow I will be under the car checking the linkage. I hope to God that's all it is.

The new alternator should be here Wednesday. That is not a big issue to replace it. I just hope the battery isn't fried.

I know I bitch and moan but you guys ARE good therapy for me. :thumbs:

Thanks for the encouragement

Linkage is easy if its a hurst shifter put it in netual and put a nail thru the hole in center adjust linkage to trans .
if its stock shifter line up in netual and do same thing . check all springs on end of linkage and nylon bushings in the ends.

My 64 was "completed" Thanksgiving 2012 and I am still working out some minor gremlins to make it bullet proof. I too admit that it gets VERY frustrating to "fix" or replace items that were not done right the first time but I look forward to getting them done so that I can enjoy the ride.

Dan
www.vetterodder.com
www.facebook.com/vetterodder

I know
 

exactly how you feel. I wanted to start my car this weekend for the first time in over three years. Put in a gallon of gas in the tank and find a drip....this after taking the cross member down
http://i42.tinypic.com/9vecgn.jpg

So I had to get the tank out and never did get the engine started...maybe this week. Not sure what else could go wrong but Murphy's Law is still out there. Keep the faith....Jim

I had everything replaced professionally over the last 18 mos and I am stunned at the amount of parts that failed new from the suppliers. We went through multiple clocks, wiper motors, carbs, vacuum switches, fuel sender, speedo still not working after 30 years and a complete trans rebuild. Had it out twice now and still no workie workie. $600 for a radio? Hasn't worked properly yet. Two months on the road and lots of issues still. Going to tackle them in the winter.

Car still looks great. Runs more or less fine. Rides like new.

That's why guys build resto mods. Modern drivetrains and modern electronics are much more dependable. Electronic fuel injection, electronic gauges, modern transmissions with internal linkage, hydraulic clutches, electronic internal fuel pumps, quarts clocks, all these items make for a more dependable and enjoyable ride. No matter how many new parts you put into a restoration it's still old technology.

HOLY COW man:eek:.......you look like that guy Woggy in "There's Something About Mary." :D

JC.... THROW MORE ELECTRONICS INTO THE MIX???!!! Nope. That's why I want to dump my '93 ZR-1. The beyatch is smarter than I am.

Jack,
My problem would be I would still be bleeding from that. On coumadin since my mechanical valve job on 12/25/2011.... Merry F'ing Christmas to me.... :D

Oh, my new alternator was at my door from Summit when I got home tongiht at 7. I ordered it Sunday. SwEEt