I'm starting to feel convinced to keep the car and I haven't even gotten the a/c fixed yet!
I think some of the root of the problem is the shear amount of cars I've bought and sold in the last year. TONS of work put into just about all of them including the Audi and Expedition.
Just a quick list:
March of last year the first FRS goes under the knife with the cam bearing issues that popped up. After all that happened I parted the car out and brought back to stock to sell.
While parting out the FRS I bought a widebody turbo Miata with the intentions of being a track/autocross toy. I spent about double what I paid for the car on reliability mods. I didn't replace everything on the car but I did fly to Colorado Springs to pick up a rollbar from a fellow GRM member and drive back with rental 14 hours straight home. Never fell in love with the car. Sold it to fund this new FRS.
To haul the Miata around I traded our Santa Fe in for an Expedition. The Miata deal came with a 20ft trailer and I needed something capable.
Around this time I finally put the almost fully restored 14 ft Starcraft Falcon in the water. The outboard needed love and instead of sending it to a shop to work on it, I sold it like a dunce.
July I sell the first FRS, two days later this thread is started with this one.
Miata sells a short minute later. Drag home FRS donor. Sell TSX shell shortly after.
September I notice a stupid cheap aluminum Arkansas Traveler boat. I felt like I needed redemption on the Falcon. I was wrong. Sold this a few months back since it was just another project distraction. Also got the worse case of poison ivy ever retrieving this from the weeds.
September of last year I was cruising through GRM classifieds and saw an 01 Legacy Wagon that I just had to have. I flew out to Clearwater Florida and then drove it 16 hours straight back home. Thought I wanted a wagon. It was exactly as advertised but I was a bit underwhelmed by the car. It just wasn't for me so I sold it. Next owner said the clutch was slipping so I replaced the clutch for him, cause that was the right thing to do.
In October while mulling over what I wanted to do with the wagon I saw an 03 Bugeye WRX in world rally blue. It was a dream car back in the day for me. This one had a seized engine so I bought a known ej20 from a buddy and got it all running again. I actually really liked this car and wish I had kept it.
It cleaned up really nice too.
Around the same time I got the WRX I bought the crusty 69 Toyota Corona for way too much. Sold it to GRM alumni which I believe then sold it again. Fairly certain it's got a thread around here somewhere.
While selling the Corona I managed to acquire the SVT Fiesta. I drove the Corona to Paducah Kentucky and came back with the Fiesta in tow.
Of course right before the Fiesta was acquired the WRX kept calling back to me. A buddy had a SUPER low mile blobeye 05 with a low mile JDM ej205 already in the bay. It just needed finishing touches mechanically and some paint work. Of course there were setbacks. Cheap ebay clutch was terrible so engine out to replace that. Horrible noise from the rear diff so had to swap that out. I collected a lot of parts to do a/c work but with the FRS project it's been just sitting. Almost sold it a few months ago but decided to finish the car and then decide.
Around this time I got overwhelmed. I had the Fiesta and the WRX blobeye that needed work. The Kpower kit had shipped and I realized there just wasn't any time for the Fiesta. It was then sold to another GRM member, and thankfully cleared out a ton of room again.
Once the k swapped FRS was up and running it didn't require a crazy amount of tinkering, so I messed with the WRX and Arkansas Traveler boat a little in between. Around March the dual mass flywheel on my Audi was making a racket. So out with the trans and a new one installed. Not without drama either but it got finished and was back on the road. Shortly after that it needed a full brake job. Which around the same time the Expedition started leaking coolant by the thermostat neck. Thankfully that was a $15 part and a 30 minute fix.
Then the idea of a more powerful k24 to swap into the FRS came along. I decided to sell a bunch of stuff I didn't really need to fund the project. Focusing on the FRS instead of 5-6 other projects seemed like a good move.
Trailer sold. Boat sold. Extra parts sold.
Selling the blobeye didn't work out as planned as I still have it. Still on the fence, it may be the oldest kiddo's first car. Maybe. I painted the front bumper black with some cheap rattle can. Polished the headlights and am looking into adapter harnesses for the JDM HID lights that came with the car. Need to paint all wheels a matching color but it's been excruciatingly hot. Still waiting on an a/c switch, and once it's installed will go to the shop to charge and deal with. Not going that route again.
So after typing all this up I'm pretty sure I know why I'm burnt out. It's all self inflicted. What's really sad is I know there's a ton of stuff I've done that isn't listed as it's all in this thread for the FRS or just random stuff. Like the 4-5 bicycles I've bought, rehabbed, sold, kept to stare at, you name it.
Time to pause on buying more projects. Finish what I have. Reevaluate what makes me happy.