Breaking the project car cycle?

In the last 25 years I've had dozens of projects ranging from pickup trucks to sports cars, but they've always run kind of similar well worn path through my life.

The 12 steps of MY project car cycle (Your cycle may be different, this is mine):

1: Impulse buy a random project that's interesting for one reason or another. (Looks cool, "always thought those were cool" etc... but mostly low entry price combined with varying amounts of one or more of the others)

2: Research enough to realize the impulse buy may have been stupid. Consider options.

3: Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead, The last project's already on it's way out, so even if this one's a bad idea, let's get into it anyways.

4: Drivetrain. I don't need more yard art, so the sucker's gotta run and drive under it's own power sooner rather than later. Besides, I'm already working on all the little fiddly stuff on the project that I'm about to sell, so doing the drivetrain stuff is more rewarding.

5: Getting secondary systems like suspension, brakes, etc. *sorted* (bodged, cobbled, duct taped, zip tied)

6: Possibly something cosmetic, but usually not much, not because it doesn't need it, but because to have real car guy cred, you just lacquer over the rust and act like people who don't get it are snobs.

7: Rolling debugging... hopefully not literally, but that happens too. Basically, drive for a while fixing the things that were bodged, cobbled etc. in earlier steps, but never fixing more things than the number of new things that've gone wrong... This process is ongoing and continues until step 11

8: Repeat steps 1-2 with new project.

9: Decide to sell to fund and make room for new project.

10: Fix all the stuff that should have been done before step 8 but didn't get done because doing the fiddly bits to sell the last project kinda burned me out from doing little fiddly bits.

11: Immediately regret having waited.

12: Sell car for too little after putting in too much work (and money), but by now we're past step 4 on the new project, so the old one's gotta go to make room.

There have been times when there have been 5 or 6 cars in that cycle at a time, and 3 or 4 has been pretty standard...

What does your project car cycle look like?

If you've broken the cycle, how did you do it?

Wife helped me break the cycle. A long, long time ago I bought a running '99 Z28 Camaro for under $1,000. 

Car was such a basketcase, the wife was embarrassed to have it in our driveway and forced me to store it/wrench on it at work. 

I pulled the LS1 with hand tools, in a parking lot, in the middle of July in TX. After that, I decided my projects either needed to 

1) Run at the time of purchase

2) Meet a minimum aesthetic standard so as not to offend Mrs. Calteg

Just putting those two in place has averted a lot of bad ideas before they ever started

All my project vehicles have to fit indoors, I hold my projects to the same standard as my client projects

1. set the goal, 2. set the requirements to meet that goal, 3. Have a plan for those requirements up front, no magic solutions (I will learn how to do body work/paint before I drive it by magic despite having no tools, budget, or time to do so). 

When I get the car in a driveable shape I make sure I am able to drive it and that I do drive it when I have the opportunity. If I won't drive it, why do I have it? For me this involves moving a car from my shop to my garage, having insurance and having a tag.

It wasn't necessarily "project cars," but a track car. I had already built an OBD-I S52 swapped E30, in a gravel driveway. There is a build thread somewhere on the basically dead R3Vlimited.com forum. Then the NA track rat. 

But for me? I just got tired of spending all my free time and money in the garage. It's that simple. 

With my new BRZ. I even paid our well known, local Subie specific tuning shop to do all the suspension work and throw on the catback. It was awesome to drop the car off and pick it back up a few days later with everything done, alignment, wheels/tires installed and balanced, everything. Was it a bit pricey? Yes, was it worth it? 10000000% 

My cycle for the past 15 years (since moving home and having kids) has been cheaper and slightly less fulfilling.

1- find random project that's interesting for one reason or another. (Looks cool, "always thought those were cool" etc... but mostly low entry price combined with varying amounts of one or more of the others)

2- Research enough to realize the impulse buy may have been stupid, but still not care. 

3- Consider found project, do more research, talk to my friends about it, pine over it, think about what I would do with it.

4- Not buy it, watch it go to someone else or loose interest.

5- Buy nothing, make no progress, add it to the list of cars I think are cool but I haven't actually done anything with.

6- Think well maybe next time. 

It isn't all bad, I do have toys like my picnic table and my recently sold Trackster I enjoy. I work on other people's cars, I have friends that have let me use their cars for HPDE days (which is beyond fortunate). I would really really like to get a fun car again but the time just hasn't seemed right for me.

I'm mired somewhere in steps 8-10 with three vehicles: the 75 Stingray, the 82 SBC Safari, and the 87 VW Scirocco w/ 2.0 16v. Two of three run. One is insured and registered. One is becoming my own personal barn find. Can you guess which is which? I had a ten hour round trip yesterday to rescue/adopt a dog so a lot of time to think. Get rid of two and focus on one? Get rid of them all, including my DD Mazda 2 and get a new car that does almost all the things? Is there a support group for this kind of stuff? Not the Hive. Your all just a bunch of enablers!

I'm trying to break the cycle right now. My wife made the really good point that  we aren't as poor as we once were and that the space set aside for a cool car with lots of potential that I hadn't turned a wrench on in 5 years could better be used for a runner. Whoda thunk?   But yeah, a "pile of potential" should have an expiration date on it. If it sits for a certain amount of time untouched it needs to go. I've passed on at least two wonderful cars because I didn't have space for them. Makes no sense.

My age is breaking the cycle.  At 68 I just don't enjoy laying on my back, bending over a bumper etc.  It sucks, finally have a great assortment of tools and equipment and no interest in using them.  But I still keep looking on FB and CL so the cycle isn't completely broken.

Take a moment to ask "Why?" you do project cars?

I do them because I am compelled  to problem solve and learn new skills along the way. Every task on the list that gets resolved gives me a positive feedback that encourages me to do even better next time. Eventually, a finished project of some sort is the result.

To be honest, given different circumstances I could get the same from home renovation, but cars serve the purpose. 

For some people the feedback loop ends at the hunt and purchase stage. That IS the thrill. Fair enough.

For others, its the fantasy of what might be some day. It offers hope of a better tomorrow just parked in the shop or under the tarp. Fair enough, serves a purpose, does not need to be anything more.

In reply to ToManyProjects 

My wife likes cars too, but she has two simple questions for me to answer before bringing home another car:

1. Where are you going to put it?

2. What are you going to do with it?

At one point I had 7 vehicles of which only two ran. I'm now down to one driver and one project car.

The first step is to break the impulse buying tendency. Since impulse buying tends to be a behavioral thing (and we live in a society where impulse buying is encouraged), you have to retrain your brain. Here's what I have done so far:

1) I killed looking at FB marketplace/craiglist/ebay etc as a past-time. If I feel the impulse to go look at vehicles for sale, I go out to the garage and start working on ANYTHING. I.e., It's a brain redirection tool.

2) I empowered Mrs. DocRob with control over the driveway and entry to the house. It's no longer "my" domain. Which means, I cannot bring a new vehicle in that she looks at, without her approval. This has a great filtering effect to narrowing things down to vehicles/things I actually want vs. kind of want. I.e., if I don't have unfettered access to space and storage, I can't fill it with stuff. 

3) I stopped carrying cash over 40 bucks and set ATM limits. So I can't see something, go draw out cash from the bank and then go buy it, without thinking about it all and having to go stand in line at the bank to withdraw money or get a cashier's check. Turns out that's a good way to force you to really consider something. I.e., making it harder to spend money decrease impulse buy tendencies.

4) I spend a lot of time focusing on non-car related things (like work and martial arts). Such that cars have to be relaxing. When I had a lot of projects, I had a lot of anxiety. Divesting myself of them and that anxiety has led to much more inner calm. My work is very intense and also requires a lot of project management. There was too much of both things. I need to eat and I need cash to pay for car parts. So, work took precedence over project cars. I.e., Making the connection between taking on too many things and anxiety was big for me.

5) Space, space, space, space. I, deliberately, keep my work spaces small. To deliberately keep me focused. I fill space. The way I've solved this to date isn't the way I would recommend. But it involved 3 cross-country moves in the last 8-years. You know where you have the least amount of space? The back of a Uhaul. What can you do to limit your space? Setup false walls? Not build 'up'? Nail shut attic and basement access? All of these things can help you. I.e., limited space = limited fill.

NOHOME said:

Take a moment to ask "Why?" you do project cars?

I do them because I am compelled  to problem solve and learn new skills along the way. Every task on the list that gets resolved gives me a positive feedback that encourages me to do even better next time. Eventually, a finished project of some sort is the result.

To be honest, given different circumstances I could get the same from home renovation, but cars serve the purpose. 

 

For some people the feedback loop ends at the hunt and purchase stage. That IS the thrill. Fair enough.

For others, its the fantasy of what might be some day. It offers hope of a better tomorrow just parked in the shop or under the tarp. Fair enough, serves a purpose, does not need to be anything more.

I think for me it started as the "I can get that/do that/be that too, but cheaper". Which is a dangerous attitude. You might be able do it cheaper. But at what time cost? and more importantly, who cares?

I'm trying to focus now on end results that I really want. I want a lot of things, but it is surprisingly hard for me to nail down what I really want.

DocRob said:

 Making the connection between taking on too many things and anxiety was big for me.

I agree with everything you posted, but this is the most important part. Everything has a "mental carrying cost", and while there may be ways to offset or reduce those costs they are still there. Make sure the stuff you buy is worth the mental cost.

Edit, BTW, my wife and I have 2 dailies, 2 fun cars that can be used as dailies that both run, and I have 4 project/race cars on top of that of which 2 run. My wife jokes that my mental car-carrying load is about 7 vehicles. Currently I am feeling the stress and I am going to spend the driving season this year searching for what I really want. Watch for some for sale ads this fall haha. 

I doubt I have completely broken my cycle, but it is definitely stalled at the moment.

A running racecar that I don't use often enough. A fun car that I can jump in whenever. Getting these off the project list felt really good. So good in fact that I want to keep them off, and actually sold off a couple others. Add in a couple driving age kids to supply time eating cars of their own(which I don't officially put in my own project count), and I came to a realization that although I enjoy the build as much or more than the end result, I also don't want to be constantly building without enjoyable results.

A new cycle is born. I have one long term build going on. When the "finished" projects or the household dailies don't need wrench time, I'm focusing on enjoying those results. When I feel like building, I work on the big one.
I still cruise marketplace, but I started asking myself, "What would I do with it after it's done?" and, "Does it do that better than what I already have, or what I already have with a few tweaks?" I'm finding it easier to appreciate the mental build without needing to build every one of them myself. In most cases, I already have something that performs a similar end result, and no time available to add another result that needs enjoyed.

I sold off all my parts and car specific tools  to keep me from buying yet another Mini, now I'm concentrating on finishing my last project car that I hope will be a fun driver. If not, off it goes......

I also have reached the age where if it's not fun anymore it's time to do something else either till it becomes fun again or not at all.

Although I am looking at a racecar to buy, it's complete, running, sorted and comes with a trailer.......no project there other than what it takes to keep it track worthy.

Thanks guys, I think I realized I had a problem when one day the thought of buying 5 MGB's as parts cars 'seemed like a good idea'. Also, I didn't own an MGB at the time.

I'm trying a new tact to help myself break the cycle. It's a work in progress, but so far it seems to be working... I decided on what car I wanted to build based on thought and research, rather than impulse. After deciding, I even passed on a number of options waiting for 'the right' one.

I'm just starting this new path, and it feels weird, things are happening in entirely different order than I'm used to, because I'm actually doing things in the order that makes sense for the project. It looks like bodywork might actually be pretty early in the process.

1. Buy car
2. Drop lots of time and money into car
3. Sell at loss

Is there any other way?

I'm trying to sell my DD turn project and buy a real appliance so I can focus on one project car and actually finish it.

I got rid of several projects after looking realistically about how much time I really have.

Subtract working hours and sleeping hours. Then think seriously about whether I want to work on the project Friday night or take Mrs. Snowdoggie out to dinner. Do I want to work on the project Saturday morning or do I want to take the dogs to the dog park. Do I want to work on the project Saturday afternoon-but the lawn needs mowing and the fence needs fixing and the DD needs an oil change. Do I want to sleep in Sunday and read the paper or do I want to get up early and work on the project. Or is there an autocross on Sunday. Or is it a nice day to take the boat out. Are there books I want to read.

The bottom line is, do I really want to spend my spare time working on a project? How much time? How much time for other things? I have walked away from projects I could afford because I couldn't imagine where I would find time to fit them in with my other projects, stuff that needs to be done on the house, and time I just want to relax and not do anything.

Then there is money. Yes. There is just enough on my credit card to get a cash advance to buy that project. But then you have that debt and need to spend more money on parts to fix it up, special tools, paint, bondo and so on. Bad idea. How much will it cost to finish it. Do you have that money in your budget or are you just wishing that someday you will get a bonus from work, a tax refund or maybe win the lottery. How many projects sit for years because you don't have the money to buy the parts for the project you also don't have time to put the parts you can't afford to buy on the car you can't afford to finish.

I still have a few projects I am working on but I sold a bunch, most at a loss. These things actually deteriorate if you  leave them for years. You lose parts. New parts get old. Sometimes I when I have more money than time, I actually pay somebody else to do work on a project so I can take some weekends off and still get some stuff done. Sometimes it's worth it.

I'm getting older. One day I will run out of time for good. What do I want to spend the time I have left on? Chasing after projects I can pile up in my backyard that I never have time to finish. Ever see the TV show Hoarders? A guy in his 60s with 20 cars in his backyard and an order from the city to dispose of them all in 30 days. A vintage Datsun roadster was crushed and thrown in a dumpster while he watched. You don't want to be that guy.

There is one simp!e rule:

You may only have one project car at a time. 99.9% of hobbyists lack the ability to successfully do more then one car at a time.

Stop deluding yourself that you can do multiple porjects......period.

I take it a step further; unless a car breaks you may not modify more then one car at a time.

 My Datsun is scheduled for several upgrades but the got shelved for 12 months while I finished the motor upgrade on the F500. Once the F500 has done a complete shakedown then I will turn my attention to the Datsun.

I can't advise on breaking the cycle.

My cycle looks a lot like the OP's except for anything about "getting rid" of or moving on from ownership, lol.  This got REAL bad when we purchased a place I can stash projects without bothering neighbors.

Like Robbie, I get a kick out of doing things on a low budget.  But a weird thing is that I'll get into projects as such a "good deal" that I feel like I can never part with them "because it was a once in a lifetime deal"  ...which is asinine and I should know that.

I've been working on NOT dragging home projects from platforms that "I've always wanted."  I'm trying to stick to stuff I already have and/or am familiar with.  But a few remain on a short list of "when a good deal comes along, I'll not be afraid to snag it."   I've decided I already have a lifetime worth of projects in my collection...more than I'll ever realistically get to.  But I can't look around my place and find anything I really want to be rid of.

There has been progress though.  This week I (think I successfully) talked myself out of dragging home a cheap Impala SS.

I'd be smart to get a couple of NICE cars and get rid of a bunch of junk I have.  But I have not broken the cycle to allow that yet.

Another thing is...I've started to realize over the past year or two that I might not have unlimited energy and enthusiasm to work on old cars for the net 25 years or so.  That's been an epiphany for sure.

Like Clem, I just keep adding projects and rarely getting rid of them... and at this point, I am pretty much at my limits of space. I surpassed my limits of time quite awhile ago... 

When some huge lottery builds up and there's the water cooler discussions about what you would buy first, my answer is "a conditioned warehouse...  so I can finally have enough space to play with the toys I already have."

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

The space thing for sure; I have a 3 car garage and I keep the two car bay clear. The Datsun, F500, motorcycles and bicycles are all stored on the single bay side. The F500 is on a dolly so it rolls up against the Datsun. The Datsun is only 12ft long so the motorcycles fit behind it. The bikes are on the wall. I have a spot on the wall for one more BMX bike and I may fill it.

My opinion naturally but once you have no space to work on what you have it's officially hoarding.

After I bought the corrado I realized that I have a hard time with stuff sitting around not being used.  The corrado and my 996 occupy the same use case basically, if I was driving one, the other sat and vice versa.  In the winter, both sat.  My garage was at 100% capacity, which also was a bit of a problem.  So I sold the corrado as between the two, I'd rather drive the 996.  I still look around at other cars, but when it comes down to it, I ask myself a few questions...

#1  What would I use the car for?

#2  Does it do the same thing as my 996?  (But probably worse, as the 996 is an animal)

#3  Would I be better off saving the money from that purchase and using it for the eventual engine out service on the 996?

Almost always the answers to those questions keeps me from buying another car.

My problem with my garage is it's narrow and really a 1.5 car garage.  I can fit two small cars nose-to-tail, but there isn't really enough room to work on either of them.   I have plans to make the garage more wrenching-friendly, but that requires time and space I don't have.  Yet... assuming I can get my backyard shop built which will hopefully allow me to empty the garage. 

I totally get where doc is coming from, yet I have 3 Triumphs... and a modern MINI.  My main reasoning is at any time, at least one of them will be non-op.  Such is life with LBCs...  No... I cannot really defend that logic.  The simple fact is I have them because I like them and unlike doc, sitting projects don't bother me too much. I can point to them when folks ask me what I would do if I could retire.  If I could retire tomorrow, I'd be lucky if I could do everything I want to do before I die or am physically unable. 

I don't really have a "project car cycle" as much as I have the "hope, despair, indecision" cycle

It goes something like this:

1. I come up with an idea and start to research the idea

2. I look into models, prices, common upgrade paths, etc.

3. i discuss the idea with my wife who approves, start to research selling one of my other cars to make room for the project

4. I continue researching and start discovering challenges, pitfalls, costs, etc. 

5. i start to compare the cost and complexity of the new potential project against my upgrading my current cars

6. i build a spreadsheet comparing the costs of buying a new car, selling the old one, upgrading the new car vs upgrading the current car

7. i decide i want to upgrade the current car, propose some modest upgrades to the current car

8. I get wife approval for the new upgrades start deciding which specific parts to conduct the upgrade

9. I get cold feet about the value of the upgrades compared to the cost and decide I'm better off keeping things stock

10. I start researching other models and the process starts over...  

it has been bad enough that my wife has basically just told me i can do what ever I want because she knows i'll do nothing