Someone come and give me a kick

Right chaps. Need some help / focus.

Basically with a young son, more building work on the house, I need someone to come and give me a kick/hand to get me re-motivated on the build. As most of the UK chaps will know, I could have become a vet by now with the length of time for the build.

Help!!!!
 
Brett,

Not sure if this is help or not but I started my build 5 years ago when I bought my engine with at a minimum a couple of years to go. My little boy will be 24 next year so rest assured your son will be yonger than mine when you finish.

Hope you get some help to kickstart things again, all good things come to those who wait, you will get there in the end. :)
 

Malcolm

Supporter
Don't worry Brett you are certainly not alone in this suffering. I need to get on with my current car build but one job after another just keeps getting in the way. I find if I set targets and make them not too big then I start to hit them and that motivates me to the next target. Also do what Keith is doing with his Southern GT, set a regular time aside be it one evening a week or whatever works for you. Job lists is another rmind focusing tool. Always good to cross items off a list as done.

Good luck
 
Brett

I found a good method was to list jobs that could be done into time that the job needs, this gives say jobs that can be done in an hour, or in 2-3 hours, half a day etc. I found that a job can be fitted to the time available and maintains a sense of progress and aviods the feeling that it's not worth starting if it can't be completed.

Regards

Steve
 
Although I have now passed the baton to someone else to finish my car, for the 18months I worked on it, I set every Tuesday and Thursday evening to the car and stuck to it. For me that worked. But I had to treat it as a commitment or something else would come along and prevent me getting to the car.

If you weren't so far away, I'd happily come round and kisk your arse. ;)
 
Although I have now passed the baton to someone else to finish my car, for the 18months I worked on it, I set every Tuesday and Thursday evening to the car and stuck to it. For me that worked. But I had to treat it as a commitment or something else would come along and prevent me getting to the car.

If you weren't so far away, I'd happily come round and* kisk * your arse. ;)

I suppose its best we all remain unaware as to whether you intended to kiss or kick his arse....
 
Hi Brett,

Don't despair.

I've been in exactly the same situation.

At the beginning of October last year, I decided to take the car off the road for the winter, and fit air-con, replace the instruments, a respray, etc, etc.

I also allowed Tuesday and Thursday nights with the odd Saturday thrown in.

I kept setting target dates - Beginning of April, Donnington AGM, local car show, etc. Not making them and getting very cheesed off.

I reached a point that I just wanted to not work on the car, but wanted to get it finished, polish it and put it under a dust sheet ready for next spring.

I liken the build/re-build to the TV programme Grand Designs. At some stage it all gets too much, but you've got to finish it.

But when it's finished.........WOW!

I think I must be over the hump, as now I DO want to work on it, do the job right, and don't expect to have it running now until December. Put it on the road for a month, sort all the little(?) problems, and have it ready for next year.

I have made numerous job lists, getting smaller all the time, and now have a 2 page list of all the small things to do. (I've split them up into very small items e.g Fit front number plate / Fit rear number plate / Tidy LH front wiring / Tidy RH front wiring, etc).

In this way I can cross off two or three items per evening, and I DO seem to be getting there.

Last winter must have been the coldest known to man - The kettle froze solid in the garage, followed by me!

I DON'T expect to go through that again this year!!!

Chin up........and don't let the car grind you down.

Take care,

Geoff.

PS: I've headed this with a smiley face, 'cos you WILL smile again!
 
I suppose its best we all remain unaware as to whether you intended to kiss or kick his arse....

Hmmmmmm. If ever there was a time NOT to make a typo, it was then. Too late now though. I'll just leave it to the reader to interpret the true meaning.
 
Just setup a cron job to check your build diary and if its been over x number of days since you've updated start emailing reminders and updating your calendar with reminders to do some work. :)

I'll offer to send some essex mates round but that would probably end up in a tangential discussion about something obscure or admiring their projects and you'd get even less done.

More seriously I just try and do some every day, even if its 30 min spent searching ebay for bits or 5 hours in the garage.
 
Brett,
As you well know or should, these cars are rarely finished. There is always something to change or add to.That being said, I think I hold the record, or at least a record for lenght of build. Most people following my build have given up following me. I guess because it has taken so long?? I too have been negligent in keeping up a decent build thread. But then, I remind myself that this is being done for me, not for agrandizment.
You also have to remember that life goes on whether we dedicate outselves to the build, or our family. So integrate them and they will enjoy this as much as you do, or did. Get them to join you in the garage and help out, even if it's just to help you cleanup the shop area. In ten years I have seen my son graduate from highschool and college(took him about 10 years), and is expecting his first child in January. A daughter finish college, graduate school, and get married. Add a hugh deck on the rear of the house. Landscape the entire yard(1+ acres). Repaint the inside and outside of my house, put a new roof on it, add hardwood floors, and finish off a basement 2 times. And I am still working on it(house and car). I do it when I can and have stopped making deadlines or finish dates for projects on the car or for anything else. They will be done when they are done. Now that I am close to the finish, or rather getting it on the road, my friends at work have started asking me when it will be done, or drive it to work, because they want to see it. I tell them "Soon" and leave it at that. A lot of things influence the time line that you have no control over. Case in point. Took the car out to the engine builder's shop for the final tune and a session on the dyno. Should have taken two hours at most. That was two and a half weeks ago. Probably won't get it back til next Monday at best. Stuff happens(some psople would use another word). It doesn't do any good to get upset, so go with the flow. Thought I would have the car on the street for the show season back in May. Now I will be lucky if I get it to the last show of the season and It still needs a repaint from the grafted on fenders done quite some time ago. The year is almost over and now that our house is paid for you would think I would have money to burn (so to speak), but now taxes on the house, insurance on the house and insurance on the three cars and taxes on them also are all due at the end of the year. We have plenty of money set aside for everything but these things. You don't want to pull from the other things, so you do what you can when you can. You know it will get finished, just not when. When you do, you will be glad you stuck with it and finished something you wanted for a long time. In this immediate gratification world we live in, many don't know the wonder of putting off a pleasure til its paid for and enjoying the fruits of your labor, even if you have the money to finish it now. Life is full of priorities. Enjoy as many of them as you can.

Bill
 
Just setup a cron job to check your build diary and if its been over x number of days since you've updated start emailing reminders and updating your calendar with reminders to do some work. :)

I'll offer to send some essex mates round but that would probably end up in a tangential discussion about something obscure or admiring their projects and you'd get even less done.

More seriously I just try and do some every day, even if its 30 min spent searching ebay for bits or 5 hours in the garage.

Damn - that's where I have gone wrong... no build diary HA HA

The builders have nearly finished on the loft conversion, so maybe, just maybe I may get more time... Wiring Loom is the thing that needs to happen next
 
Now stop fooling around before we all
slaping.gif
followed by
kick%20ass.gif
. Come on already!!!! On a serious note PLEASE get back at it so that we could have a few more build updates.
 
Well chaps, on top of rebuilding the house (our decision though), looks like the build will definately have to speed up or have to wait - see attached
 

Attachments

  • Document.pdf
    438.1 KB · Views: 269
Congratulations!

FWIW I'm in the same boat, only its our second. I had the most time on the car in the first trimester as my wife would be asleep by 10 at latest.

Expecting similar as get into the third trimester and then once over the initial new baby pain should be like that for a year or so.

Good luck!
 

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Congratulations Brett

Now pull your finget out and get it finished for LMC this year

After that you'll be too tired / broke to make it to LMC for a while

Ian
 

Dave Bilyk

Dave Bilyk
Supporter
Ron, it's another wake up McCall:)

Congratulations Brett, and Dave too. Now that you have both done the business, get out of your beds and into your garages!:laugh:

Dave
 
Back
Top