Projects that broke your heart...

My first project - 81 BMW E21. Found on eBay, "ran when parked", high bidder at $700. Turns out I knew 2 of the most recent owners, both were/are BMW techs. I figured it was just a clogged filter from sitting too long, so I replaced it but still no gas to the injectors. After fooling with it for a year or so, without major progress, I lucked upon an "ITB prepped" Golf. Not having room for 2 projects, I parted and scrapped the E21. I never got to drive the BMW but I still miss it. I'd have another one in a heart beat but prices have exploded in the past 7 years.

My heart is still OK, but removing the undercoating from my TR6 project is killing my hands/wrists. It may yet injure my heart.

I have owned many projects over the years, and I've never finished a single one. Each and every one of them has been like a cruel joke in their own unique ways. Why do I still do this?

Toyman01 wrote: One was a 1991 Dodge Cummins 4x4. Bought for $1000 to play with and turn into my tow rig. The day before I took possession, a dump truck ran a stop sign, blasted through two parked boats and rolled. It landed exactly on top of the truck about 100 yards from the intersection and burst into flames. There wasn't enough left for a decent burial.

Well E36 M3. I can't top that, but mine was also Cummins related.

Moved to Texas, found a killer deal on a low mileage 12v Cummins. I thought, "when in Rome..."

Visions of turning it into a biodiesel truck danced in my head as I saved money. Started with bolt ons, then injectors, fixed the killer-dowl-pin, upgraded the fuel pump, added a larger capacity trans pan.

Things were going dandy. I would throw the dog in the cab and we would cruise around doing truck things. It was great.

Then I got a Miata. And the truck sat. And sat. And sat. All six tires dry rotted. The dash caved in. The heater core blew out the next time I tried to drive it. There was a constant trans leak that I could never track down. Eventually both batteries died.

Our faux-HOA began complaining that it was an eyesore, and I found it hard to disagree with them. Loved that engine, but hated pretty much everything around it. Eventually sold it to an oil field worker, problems and all. Every now and then I'm still sad.

My RX-8, for reasons well documented on the internet.

I've picked up another FC RX-7 to use as my rotary toy and will be doing everything I can to get rid of the RX-8 by the end of the month.

My dad had an 81 (I think) convertible Rabbit while I was growing up. Manual everything, light, fun, etc. I drove it a handful of times shortly after I got my license. It failed emissions (90% sure it just needed a cat) and my dad decided to sell it, IIRC for under a grand. Went quick, he replaced it with a PT Cruiser convertible (don't get me started), and I still miss it to this day.

My father in law had a third gen Dodge D-Series that had been in the family for longer than anyone could remember. It was in his yard, hadn't run in a couple years, but not in bad shape, northwest car so no rust. He asked me to help him sell it, I really wanted it but at the time the wife and I were moving to Iowa and didn't have any space to spare. I think he let it go for $400. Had a turbo Thunderbird coupe as well, though I don't really miss that one.

My first "build" was a 97 TJ Wrangler, worked on it over the winter in Iowa. Bought it and swapped everything under the frame (axles, suspension, etc.) to lift it up on 35's. Far more than I'd done before on any cars I've owned. Never quite finished it to what I wanted but it was still a blast, even though it was under-geared for the tires. Sold it and bought a basket case FJ60 that I couldn't wait to see leave.

Most recently I got a phenomenal deal on an 05 92x Aero (WRX). Shipping was literally almost as much as the car. It needed some things, all of which I took care of, but it drew the short straw and had to go to finance my Exocet build. Would have been an awesome EJ207 swap candidate.

Swank Force One wrote: I spent over $20k building a Ford Escort. A berkeleying Escort. It ran for 5 minutes. Then ate E36 M3 as soon as Yamaha showed up.

I got to hear it just long enough to say that it actually sounded good....of course you couldn't hear the camshafts grinding themselves to oblivion due to the open headers.

Mine is most likely the '98 s-10 I owned from '03-'06. Searched for over a year to find a 4.3/5sp combo in that body style. I ended up finding it wrecked at a rebuilder's yard and almost exactly how I would have ordered it. 4.3/5sp, 3.42 lsd, zq8(already had been dropped via full quality kit -4/5), pewter metallic, standard cab/fleetside, no other options(Only things I would have changed would be flareside and buckets/console) Handed over a small pittance for it($1500) and set to work rebuilding it. Everything damaged was a bolt on part I worked 2 nights after school and had it entirely back together and running/driving. That truck seemed to be cursed however.

Less than 6 months later, the intake gaskets started leaking. I took it to a shop due to lack of time and they "fixed" it. I didn't even make it home before I had stacked main bearings Upon tearing the engine down, I discovered the lazy asses had just scraped the old gaskets into the valley and they clogged the oil pickup. Anyways, after threatening them with legal action, I had money in hand for a reman engine....which oddly started a project of insane proportions.

Over on the s10 forums, I had heard rumors of bastard 4.3's and decided to build one. Snagged an "X" vin block from a 4wd s10 and rebuilt it using interesting bits, sent my "W" vin heads off for valves/port/polish/shaving, ordered a cam that was formerly only considered for some type of circle track work(2500-7500rpm range), headers, tuning stuff, zex wet kit with an inline fuel pump, etc.

Put it all together and ended up shredding the 7.625" rear end on the first trip to the drag strip. So, I tracked down what I was told a 3.73 rear(turned out to be a 4.10 unit) so I added 275/50 drag radials on the back. Even with that, it was basically "Traction? LOL" at the strip. N/A it would knock down 14's @ 100ish with no grip in 3rd, huffing some whippits, it was traction limited to mid 13's usually with 110-115 trap speeds.

We knew it made power, but never knew until I ended up trading work for dyno time in Evansville. With a little tuning work, it was making 250ish rwhp n/a and 325ish@6500rpm on just an 80hp pill of laughing gas. I lost the driveshaft out on the Evansville powerplant's coal road while attempting a top speed run with an 8k limiter and the 4.10 gears to prove a misguided point, the driveshaft unbalanced and bowed before vacating itself cleanly(I still have the yokes that were ripped apart). Shortly thereafter I shredded another rear end down at the Bowling Green dragstrip and did an 8.5" swap...after that, my parents bought me a sane "commuter car" that I shouldn't be able to modify and demanded I sell the s-10. I sold that truck for around $3000 to a guy who drove non-stop from Council Bluffs, IA to Muncie, IN for it. Last I knew it had a worked over ls6/t56 combo in it. Sadly, I doubt I'll ever find another dime like that one.

It's still in my garage. a 73 911T. Full suspension rebuild, been through the motor once. Needs pistons and cylinders. Life's gotten in the way. I've had 3 false starts with it in the last 5 years. Each time I start it, something major would break on the house. Electrical boxes, HVAC, roof, etc. Still kills me each time I look at it. Too stuborn to sell, too frugal to drop the $5k it needs to be a driver.

tpwalsh wrote: It's still in my garage. a 73 911T. Full suspension rebuild, been through the motor once. Needs pistons and cylinders. Life's gotten in the way. I've had 3 false starts with it in the last 5 years. Each time I start it, something major would break on the house. Electrical boxes, HVAC, roof, etc. Still kills me each time I look at it. Too stuborn to sell, too frugal to drop the $5k it needs to be a driver.

Console yourself by pondering how much it has appreciated in the last five years while you haven't even worked on it. :-)

David

In reply to mazdeuce:

Finish it and it'll still be worth over $1k.....damn learner bikes

Ok. I've got three heartbreaks....

1) 1973 Chevy C10: Belonged to my father before he passed, and was the first car I ever drove(started at 12yrs). Drove it to college by freshman year, but wound up bringing it home over the Christmas. A carb issue forced me to not take it back to school. My mom needed money for bills and sold it to a neighbor that had been eyeing it for years. He wound up parking it in his backyard and piling junk in it. He never got it running correctly.

2) 1967 Impala( 2dr, "fastback model"). Used to belong to my grandfather, and MaMa(my grandmother) sold it to me for $1 after my grandfather passed. I drove it for a few months, started gathering parts and doing repairs to it because it had been parked for several years. I had an accident in the car after rebuilding the brake cylinders, and then had the car stolen from where it was parked. Turns out, a friend of my landlord at the time had been eyeing the car since I moved in and used the accident as a chance to remove an "abandonded car". Nevermind the fact that I was doing something to it almost everyday to get it back on the road.

3) 1981 Datsun 210 wagon. Bought as a daily while I worked on the impala. Somewhere in the process( after the impala accident ) I lost my job and wasnt able to replace a tie rod and clutch that I had been putting off. I arranged to sell it to a guy the day before a "storm" was due in the area. Well, that storm turned into Hurricane Fran and put my part of town w/o power for a week. Sometime in that week, the car got picked up and I never got paid.

I miss all three on a regular basis.