do you ever have a really hard time getting started?

grumpyvette

grumpyvette

Administrator
Staff member
One of my friends is a local guy who recently purchased a bunch of new upgrade components for a 1970 road runner hes rebuilding, I went over to his home yesterday and hes got stacks of un-opened boxes from several vendors like SUMMIT RACING,and NAPA , I asked him why he was not working on the car and his reply was all too familiar, "its a hell of a lot more fun to have a couple buddies over and have them both helping and keeping you interested and preventing you from making stupid mistakes and pointing out any parts you might have forgotten about or procedures you may need help with, so I.m simply waiting on a weekend when I can arrange to get a few friends over to help and B.S. about cars as it makes it far more enjoyable!"
you know I feel the same way, and I have to force my self at times to get off my dead ass and get started on many of my own projects, it always seems to go smoother with a couple at least semi skilled or at least enthusiastic guys willing to help out , even when they provide only 80% -90%enthusiasm and 10%-20% skill, so I guess that's a more common issue than many of us care to admit!
how many of you gentlemen find it rather difficult to get started on or continue projects without some local help or at least occasional encouragement as incentive!
how many guys have a few local friends who they regularly go over and help? or guys they can get to come over and help them?
yeah its unfortunately a fact that this hobby is a FINANCIAL, BOTTOMLESS pit ,
for parts and tools required, and every time without fail, if you even begin to think
that you have something working correctly , something either breaks ,
on your car or expensive tools, or you see some vastly better,
stronger or more tech advanced component advertised,
or you find out you could do some job far faster ,
and to much improved specs if you purchased some tools you don,t yet own.

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...hine-tools-like-a-mill-lathe.8340/#post-76623

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/think-thru-your-goals.10606/#post-69974

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/precision-measuring-tools.1390/#post-68861

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I have to agree Grumpy, if Rick(Indycars) lived here or I lived there, I would be working on my project all the time or over at his house helping him with his T bucket.
 

I believe everyone has that problem to some extent, just some more than others.

I know for myself, sometimes it just getting started that's the hardest part. Once I get my head into the problem, then I'm lost to my own little world, oblivious to anything thing else going by ..... well except for the good looking lady strolling by !!! :p YUMMY!!!

Now if Bob was in town, then we would get alot more beer drinking done! :D Not so sure about the hotrods???
 
yep same here... i dive right into anyone else's projects but my own... ive got so much crap to do and a crap ton of parts here waiting to be installed in the datsun... and ive just not got themotivation to even start.
 
BTW one fact I learned over many years is to be very careful about the "friends" you make when you join new car clubs, you generally don,t know who your dealing with and it pays to keep your eyes open and not be too trusting, theres ALWAYS been and there will always be, a small percentage of members in any car club that seem to use the contacts they make to get as much free, skilled labor as they can get while always having a long list of excuses as to why they can,t get free to work on your car, even if you spent several weekends getting their car sorted out, and unfortunately an even smaller number of members who look on club membership as a large free, ever changing menu of places to acquire parts and tools thru theft! so be rather careful about who you befriend and what you get involved with, its a good place to make friends with a similar interest and learn new skills from more experienced members and try out tools you don,t currently own in some cases, or teach a newer guy some skills and get some satisfaction helping out and seeing your skills put to good use and in probably 3/4 -to-7/8 of the cases the most you can lose is a few days labor, where your assured it will be returned in similar help on your car but that never happens, but thats not always true!
most guys don,t realize how many times it comes in very, VERY handy to have a few local friends, especially if they are rather experienced!
and it sure helps if they have a selection of tools and are willing to help, so in most cases its to your benefit to help as many of those local guys as you can, to gain both experience and access too tools you might not otherwise have.
None of us has even 10% of the skills to do everything thats required on a top quality car build, obviously skills and levels of experience from setting up a rear differential,setting up brakes, transmission rebuilds, differential shortening,metal panel replacement, paint and body work,engine builds,tuning, suspension set-up welding , etc.
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This is how I earn a living. I'm sort of a buddy for hire. There's a lot of guys out there who want to build a car and end up in the position of Grumps friend. Car sitting in garage (usually apart) with a pile of parts. Someone tells them "Hey, you should hire John to help you." I meet with them and go over their project. Explain that I work hourly and we can build their car or do a project on it in their garage with them helping or not depending on what they want to do.

Lets say the customer wants to swap an engine and has never done a swap. I show up when he wants with a crane and all the other tools I'll need even if he's got some tools unless I know it's a well equipped shop. We usually become friends throughout the swap and I get asked back or referred to others. There's a lot of advantages to going this route.

1. I show up when the customer wants not when he can beg his buds to finally show up. If he wants to do it Tuesday then Tuesday it is. Knowing I'll be there Tues he's likely to get things ready beforehand because I'm hourly so he doesn't want to waste time Tues. If he was having his buds help there probably wouldn't be any pre swap prep and a lot less gets done.
2. I don't drink and if the customer does I watch to be sure nothing that would affect safety gets done after a couple beers. No worries that a bud with 4-5 beers is supposed to tighten something and forgets.
3. Some things can come off the honey do list so the car actually gets worked on "Oh I'm sorry honey, I can't help at the church X-mas fair Sunday because John's coming over to help me wire the car" and wifey knows you can easily postpone the buds but not hired help.
4. There's a lot of things people are afraid to tackle on their own because of inexperience. Say installing a fabric headliner. But with someone helping thats teaching at the same time they're more than willing to do it and get to be proud they did it themselves.
5. No hassles renting/borrowing/transporting tools. If we need a engine crane and engine stand I bring them, likewise with compressor, sand blaster, soda blaster, welder, floor jacks, wheel cribs, etc.
6. Progress! Work gets done in a timely manner instead of waiting for friends to come and more is accomplished while working because I'm "on the clock".
 

Now that's a cool business model!!!

How many hours a week do you typically average in a year?

 
While it seems good in theory there's a lot of drawbacks.

Usually the customer orders parts. Lots of mistakes occur so it's not unusual to arrive to find out some parts weren't ordered, wrong parts ordered, wrong parts shipped, parts incompatibility etc. Always need a back up plan of things that need to be done if parts don't work out or you go home with little pay. Since customer buys parts there's no profit in them for me even though I end up doing research etc. that takes time while I'm not on the clock.

I typically do a lot of the tasks the owner doesn't want to do while they aren't there and about 20 % of the work days scheduled get cancelled. Emergencies of varying urgency, alarms set that weren't supposed to be on, key or garage door opener not left, parts not where they were supposed to be, family members that are supposed to let me in aren't there, and the list goes on. About 1/2 the time I get a call ahead cancelling otherwise I end up loading all my tools, driving to the job, floundering a few minutes there, then driving home and unloading. Not only do I loose a days work but also the time and travel expenses. I try to have parts of projects for people going on at my home shop so if I get cancelled I can be working on something else for pay.

Most of the jobs are at home garages. Sometimes I leave a roll away tool box and work bench at longer builds to save lugging tools daily ( I have doubles of common hand tools). However most are poorly lit and I end up with various portable lighting setups which can become a problem if there aren't many outlets to plug in grinders, welders, etc. and I start blowing circuit breakers.

Consumables add up. Brake clean, anti seize, grease, penetrants, and other things that get used in small quantities don't get billed for. I've got about $500.00 or more invested in hardware, electrical connectors, NPT fittings, etc. and while I do bill for them there's $500.00+ of my money tied up. Again if there's a small quantity used they don't get billed for so over time I'm loosing money on it.

Holidays and weekends. Since most folks have Sat/Sun. off thats when they want to work so I don't get weekends usually EXCEPT this time of year. Since a lot more of customers free time and money is consumed by the holidays I end up with a lot of days off. I try to schedule a build at a regular shop but sometimes it doesn't work out. I just finished up my part on the Econoline van build and have no shop build to do before X-mas so today like many others I'm off. I'm a single old guy with no family within 1000 miles so I can work a weird schedule throughout the year but a family guy trying to do it would hear the wife complaining about not being around on weekends/holidays and the lack of cash flow during the holiday season. It's not unusual to work holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day, Easter, etc.
 
that whole list of stuff your doing, and its potential related issues,sounds like a shorter, more time compacted version of what Ive been doing for decades , mostly for free!
I think we would have hundreds of similar experiences in our past... I should have been charging at least $20 an hour , in many cases as I.m sure doing that, would have forced some of the jerks Ive dealt with to pay attention and not have so little regard for my time and effort, when I've offered to help,even if I could seldom collect from deadbeats and scam artists I see all too frequently, who knows I might have occasionally broke even financially on a job in a few cases.
I don,t know why but most guys never seem to think those CONSUMABLES add up , you weld a guys broken aluminum accessory bracket, you use electricity, shield gas, tig rods and your time all of which cost you something and you seldom get asked if they owe you anything or offered even minimal cash, unless you make it plane from before you start that its going to cost X DOLLAR$ to do the job
 
Lots of similar things I'm sure Grumpy. Like yourself I did it for free for many years, very often at a loss for the reasons you mentioned. On top of the consumables for a job like welding the bracket we're wearing out things like light bulbs, garage door opener, welding gloves, welding helmet, vice grips, vice, cleaning brushes as well as the welder itself. If I was you Grump I wouldn't even consider opening up the shop and turning on the welder for less than 20 bucks, it's only fair that even friends cover the expenses of an operation.
 
Strictly Attitude said:
I agree but there still is one hand washes the other or barter system
Click to expand...

yes Ive always felt that way, but I find few guys care to reciprocate in kind and those that do rarely seem to have a similar values system in mind, Ive rarely found guys willing to help once the work once the work was done on their car ,AT ALL on my project cars despite what initially was promised , there always seems to be "emergency's, or PRESSING FAMILY RELATED ISSUES" preventing them from spending any time once their car work is completed! It was just not an issue I ran into when I was growing up, but now it seems all too common

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Strictly Attitude said:
I agree but there still is one hand washes the other or barter system
Click to expand...

I'm with Grump. Seems like he and I got stuck with dirty hands all too often.
 
do you ever have a really hard time getting started?
Click to expand...

Sure! Every morning when the alarm clock goes off :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Seriously, I have never had any problem getting started on any of my personal endeavours from weight training to the Ghia build or the TT. My inspiration forever remains this special forces, yet so very mild-mannered and humble, fellow... whenever it came time to get off our collective asses and no one wanted to, he would always say the same thing as he got up before the rest of us: "there's nothing to it, but to do it." Without another word, we always all quietly got up and followed.

...and every time that damn clock rings and it is time to get up: There's nothing to it...
 
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