Managing Scope Creep

After uncovering my 2002 from it's wintery slumber, I decided it was time to tackle one of the more glaring issues the car had when I bought it. The brake fluid reservoir had failed at some point, and the PO did a quick fix that looked like this.

It stemmed the bleeding, but not before brake fluid had it's chance to eat through a significant amount of the paint on that side of the engine bay. I've got a new reservoir coming, so I decided to start cleaning up the area before it arrives. 

This leads me to a bigger problem. I am a long time sufferer of the dreaded "while your in there" syndrome, and I already see it rearing it's ugly head at the outset of this project. Obviously, I should address the rust/paint issue on this side of the engine bay. No reason to let a little problem turn into a big one. But to do it even half right means moving the wiring harness and a handful of other small things out of the way. 

The harness could absolutely use a clean up and retaping at the least, but pulling the harness seems like a major leap in the scope of the initial project. I can already see that if I'm not careful I'll convince myself that I might as well pull the engine to redo the entire engine bay. So how does the hive keep a lid on their scope creep? 

I can see how it would be difficult to confine your work to just one part of the engine bay.

You'll probably only be happy with the work if you do the entire thing.

And while the engine's out, a ported head, cam swap, forged pistons, and some steel rods.

You know, "while you're in there."

Edit: sorry for my failure to honestly reply to your question. I think blending the paint doesn't have to be as critical for an underhood repair. I'm sure you can make it work.

As for scope creep, what works for me is the lack of time, talent, skill, and money. Fear of scope creep is the reason I have a street class autocross car.

In reply to Floating Doc :

NOT HELPING. This is the big challenge. The car is not a show car by any means, but my own standards are getting in the way of me just splashing a little primer on the affected area. I really don't want this project to keep the car off the road for the best driving season of the year. 

In reply to MTechnically :

Sorry, see my edit. I felt guilty as soon as I posted.

How long do you plan on keeping this? That tends to be my deciding factor on scope creep.

Do you really wanna spend all this time and effort on something you possibly won't keep for long?

In reply to Floating Doc :

No worries. I took it as a light hearted remark. I think we are very much in the same boat. I worry about having the time to do all the work involved in doing it right, and in the past I allowed that fear to get in the way of really doing much of anything. I'm trying to find the balance of getting things fixed without ending up with a 10 year restoration project on my hands.

The harness is pretty simple. I pulled mine apart last year to clean it, and it's really not that big a deal. That said, I also cheated years ago and painted the engine bay black simply because I didn't want to deal with this sort of thing.

If it were me, I'd pull the harness out of the way, power wash everything, fix the paint to whatever standard you're comfortable with, and move along to more important things. Like replacing those strut top bearings.

Easiest and fastest, just use some rust inhibitor on the area to prevent further damage.  Otherwise, I think you are looking at a full engine bay repaint to be happy with the results.  I hate things like this too.  I was just adding a battery hold down to a car yesterday and it was all I could do to keep myself from pulling the battery and vacuuming and cleaning the battery tray area just because of a little dirt and some leaves. 

In reply to FuzzWuzzy :

I tend to look at my cars as if I were going to keep them very long term. The reality doesn't always reflect that point of view, but I do tend to want to do what's right for the long term life of the car. Cosmetics are a real challenge for me in that regard. I've never bought cream puff cars, and that tends to mean that my cars only get worse over time, because I can't commit to big projects like a full respray.

Yeah, I wouldnt be the one to ask.  

My bugeye sprite was driving last fall, but leaning to the left.  Front spring likely fatigued. Order new ones, might as well up the springrate.  Might as well add a swaybar (get the good one). Ah, the bushings are old.  Might as well get the offset ones. Upon disassembly, the shocks are dead and a bolt sheared off in one (lever shocks, dont ask). Time for a rebuild on those.  Look at new rims to fit the tires I got. Get Cosworth Vega wheels. Oh, they wont fit over the front drum brake hubs and I need bigger studs anyways, time to pull the trigger on the disc brake upgrade...  new lower control arms, new kingpins(cant rebuild what I have there, they never come apart), get a reamer, get new calipers/etc for the junkyard parts I have. At least I made the call to keep it single circuit, lest I have to replumb all the brakes...

While I am ordering parts, I might as well add a panhard bar...  I mean, I dont want the tires to rub...

yeah...  

the good news, when I finally get the car back together in a year or so its gonna be a fun ride!

Be careful my friend, lest you become addicted to fixing. Interest may wane for lack of driving enjoyment.

02Pilot said:

The harness is pretty simple. I pulled mine apart last year to clean it, and it's really not that big a deal. That said, I also cheated years ago and painted the engine bay black simply because I didn't want to deal with this sort of thing.

If it were me, I'd pull the harness out of the way, power wash everything, fix the paint to whatever standard you're comfortable with, and move along to more important things. Like replacing those strut top bearings.

Don't worry I've got the strut bearings ready to go as well. I think I will end up doing a bit of a half measure for now, because as I pointed out before, the scope creep of doing it "right" is a little too daunting. I've got tessa tape, so I will probably try to clean up the harness in that area a little bit and move it out of the way while I paint. I won't be totally happy with the job, but at least it's going to be under the hood, where I won't be reminded of it too often.

Let me know if you need any advice on building the rotisserie!

On a more serious note. You would be surprised how close you can match rust oleum if you buy a few colors and blend your own. I have used that trick several times when fixing paint chips or damage done when re-assembling restorations that have just been painted.

In reply to Apexcarver :

That's exactly what happened when I rebuilt the rear subframe on my E34 touring. It started out as a simple rear subframe bushing replacement, but while I was in there, it only made sense to replace the differential bushings as well. And since I was already doing the other bushings, it only made sense to do the RTAB’s as well. At this point it was clear that the whole subframe would be pulled from the car, so I might as well have the assembly powder coated. And if you are going through all of that effort, it really only makes sense if you have camber and toe adjusters welded in too, right? I found myself justifying a set of Racing Dynamics sway bars and even decided it would be easiest to just go ahead and do a 540i rear brake conversion while I was at it.

I'm trying to avoid something similar with this car, because the list of things that could be fixed it much longer and the slope is just that bit more slippery.

NOHOME said:

Let me know if you need any advice on building the rotisserie!

 

 

On a more serious note. You would be surprised how close you can match rust oleum if you buy a few colors and blend your own. I have used that trick several times when fixing paint chips or damage done when re-assembling restorations that have just been painted.

Don't worry that time will come when I eventually decide to install my door cards. Because I'll need to install new seals to make sure rain doesn't get in to ruin them, and while I'm replacing the seals I might as well do the carpet. If I redo the carpet, I should probably fix the dodgy floor pan repair, and if I do that....

On the repaint, the car is a bit of a mess when it comes to overall status of the paint. The engine bay is the original polaris silver, the exterior of the car is mostly wrapped in a generic white vinyl and the front fascia was painted Chamoix white by me. I probably need to except that the car is going to be a bit of a hodge podge for some time to come. 

Put it back together and run it as is - iterate to dominate. 

That doesn't even look bad yet. 

Neutralize the rust first .... 

In reply to 914Driver :

My high school chemistry teacher had that on a bumper sticker on his El Camino.

In reply to 914Driver :

I unironically need to do this when it comes to this car especially. It's a decent driver but it's not the prettiest '02. I want to do right by the car, but I want to make sure I can keep it on the road as well. I also have two little ones so that really limits the car time to occasional week nights. It's a balancing act that I am still trying to figure out.

In reply to accordionfolder :

I struggle with this, too. Here is the best I have come up with:

1. Tell your brain you are open to a full resto/upgrade/swap. Nothing is off the table.

2. Tell your brain you need good data. How can you know what really needs to change without good data?

3. Fix the car only as much is needed to prevent further decay and to have a good baseline for data. Match paint as close is easy, but no more, etc.

4. Drive the snot out of the car (testing!).

Wait for one of three outcomes:

O1. This is gonna be so awesome. Time to start gathering parts. In the meantime, drive the snot out of the car (more testing!).

O2. The car/shell/model is just not good enough for this plan, or it's too good or whatever. Time to look for a more suitable specimen. In the meantime, drive the snot out of the car. Why not?

O3. Ooh! Shiny! Drive the snot out of something else.

Brain: Gooey wiring harness tape!

You: Maybe an engine swap.

Brain: The fenders look sad.

You: Maybe box flares.

Why fix what is just going to be replaced? While your brain is distracted with grand dreams, keep driving the snot out of the car.

The only solution is to tell yourself you'll do it right later, and make plans for the bigger project to keep you happy now.

Wait until a bigger project allows for the smaller "while you are in there's" to occur. Pulling the engine to fix the paint so it is consistent is not a "while you are in there" WHATSOEVER". Fix the brake issue, retape whatever section of harness is readily available, then touch up the engine bay with something easy to cover later (light shade of tan or something). 

Once you are ready to pull the motor for a DIFFERENT project that actually needs the motor pulled, then address the "while you are in there" of cleaning and refinishing the engine bay to a more satisfactory condition.

Your conundrum is like saying you have to pull the seats out for reapulstory since you are replacing the mats and they will look new.

Struggle is real.  Unfortunately, her web blog is dead so I can't grab pics of the process, but "scope creep" is how my ex- and I ended up turning a relatively simple automatic to manual conversion in her 1800ES into a complete engine bay and front suspension restoration.  The final results were worth it, but man it was a lot of work.  My ex- is a good task-master so we managed to get everything done in about 6 months.

In reply to matthewmcl :

I can only give you what I did - I built and got to racing my Exocet before most people get it to the roller stage. I still have a bent tie rod, I still have a 1.6 rear subframe, etc, etc, etc. I got the car driving with only the minimum done and made sure to note the things on other builds I absolutely DID NOT want to do again - everything else was "good enough", but I've got a road-legal race car that I've iterated on according to experience while driving it rather than trying to design and build the perfect car having never driven it. Might not be apples to apples, but it's what I do. Make it run, drive, and stop - everything else can be fixed from there.

In reply to 914Driver :

I like to keep the bar high enough that I can walk under it.

Pete