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I like to think of myself as a guy with a hobby, one where I like finding cheap, older cars and fixing them up to drive on the street and maybe put …
I must be perfectly fine then, I've never had more than 7 cars and 13 motorcycles at any one time. I will add though, that all the motorcycles were kept completely out of sight.............
Tim, I can safely say that I don't share in this "plight" due to a likely abnormal level of self control. I limit the cars to what can be parked in the garage. If they won't fit, I can't bring myself to buy it. We have two Miatas, I've barely modified either of them, despite the relative affordability and driving rewards of doing so, all because of a seemingly never-ending Supra project.
Oh yeah... that Supra project. Right... about that...
I'd only been collecting parts for it for about 4 years before having a house build commissioned, so as to facilitate the building of said car in the garage. Figure that was cheaper than renting shop space somewhere and having a mortgage, right? Surely, it must be so? Isn't it normal to have a house built so you can build a car?
Ok, so I suppose I probably fit in with you lot well enough, it's good company at least. I can't say my pace on projects is anything beyond glacial, but hey, I don't have a magazine to run! =P
In reply to Tim Suddard :
Hello My name is Frenchy. I’m a gear head addict.
Its been 4 hours since I obsessed about a project and 10 hours since moving parts around to store some more parts.
Right now I have sufficient work lined up to keep me busy until my mid 80’s, but the MG TD was last painted in 1974 and in another 10-15 years might respond well to a light refreshing.
Plus there is that whole man cave idea to finish.
Ahh heck, one more project car will get me to a nice even 100
I can't tell you how many cars are currently taking up residence on our property. I just refused another one yesterday, actually.
But, my wife cannot say how many chickens she has. So that evens it out. Sort of.
I answered 'Yes' to every one of your questions.
I think that part of our "obsessiveness" is that for some of our cars, parts are scarce. When I was into british cars, we would strip those suckers for parts. Any old car is going to need parts, and you never know what part and where it will come from. I think we are the new people who have lived through the great depression. You end up with attitudes about things and storage that "normal" or unaffected people never had. Same things with cars. You might buy that great deal on the miata just because it's a great deal and might not come around again. Or it has a hard top, better seats, etc. You get my point.
Or it might be that we have never grown up, and we now think our cars are hot wheels or match box cars. Think about it. We still lie on concrete, tarmac, dirt or grass. We think nothing about grease all over us. We really are just big kids.
I don't think we are obsessive. I think we have a hobby that has turned into a life style. Thank God we don't drink...
It's not the new normal. Hate to tell ya.
In reply to thedoc :
Are you saying there are people around here who don't drink?? What's wrong with them?
In reply to docwyte :
It's not new, or it's not normal?? 
Well this has been quite a week of self-awareness. I raised my hand at every question. I have even used all the excuses you outlined earlier. Even the one where I claim the project could be an investment. I have been known to show my wife recently sold eBay listings of hot rod Model A's and old Datsuns with build qualities far exceeding my ability. See? This will all surely pay off! One day!...
Two nights ago I decided to purge the garage of parts I won't use or sell. I completely filled the truck bed soley with parts from the current project's donor car, a car which I don't even have anymore. Then I found another load of parts from the other, older project's donor car, another car I don't own anymore. Then it got scary. I started finding parts from a project I haven't owned in two years. Parts I will never use and are definitely not valuable, like a partial engine harness from a junkyard LT1. In the house and at work, I am a "neat-freak" and quick to throw things away in the pursuit of a tidy space. But in the garage, I realized this week that I am a horder, and addicted to cars and their parts.
Speaking of that garage, it has three cars taking up two car's worth of space. One of them runs, but I drive it maybe once a week. The cars we actually drive and spend time in sit outside in the driveway, getting covered in snow and beat by the sun. Yet I browse classifieds weekly for new projects.
6 weeks ago I set aside a ambitious project I had been working on over a year to start another, equally ambitious, over-the-top project. The bright side, or scary part, is I had generous support - the GRM community and like-minded friends came together for this massive undertaking. That weekend was inredible and will go down as a highlight of year 2018 for me. If this obsession ain't right, I don't want to be normal. Seems like I found the right place for me.
SVreX said:In reply to thedoc :
Are you saying there are people around here who don't drink?? What's wrong with them?
If you can't drink it or drive it, it ain't worth owning !
I am definitely guilty of accumulating more projects than I really have time for. Cars, guitars, bicycles, and so on... hell - just my massive stack of unread books and plastic model kits I've collected since I was in high school (more than 30 years ago).
Unfortunately, I have also reached a point where I have so many projects staring at me I get project-paralysis where I can't decide which one I need to work on next and then end up not working on any of them.
As long as you are driving ALL of them, it’s not overboard. Look at Jay Leno. The man possesses more cars than he can drive in a year, yet he still tries to drive them all. Granted, Jay has the time, money, and resources to do so.
So the amount of vehicles on hand isn’t important, it’s the time to use them as they were created to do so.
SVreX said:In reply to thedoc :
Are you saying there are people around here who don't drink?? What's wrong with them?
I say if your project doesn't drive you to wanting to drink at least once in a while, you either have the patience of a saint, or you never have to work on your car haha.
I'm so far off the chart it makes ya'll look normal.
Bruce
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