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Have you ever called it quits on a project? Given up? Dumped it?

Tiha

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
711
Messages
1,067
Loc
Central Iowa
Then what happened? Did you regret it?

I don't give up often. Even when I should have, This will be one of the very few.

The thing that bothers me the most is knowing I am basically throwing away money.

But on the other hand I know I am at least $1k away and unknown man hours away from getting anything close to my money back.

Don't think there is money to be made in fixing corvettes.

I have this corvette project, I got it from a "friend" in 10,000 pieces. I thought it could be a fun project, more about the accomplishment of putting it back together and on the road more than owning and driving it.
I do like my white ball caps, jean shorts, and New Balance shoes as much as the next guy. But I am not committed. Not sure my heart was ever really in this project.

It has been torn apart but stored inside for 30+ years before I got it. Has good bones, good frame, good bird cage, body mounts. So I thought why not.

It has been over 5 years and I still haven't driven it. It was running and driving in and out of the trailer until earlier this week the transmission just stopped. park works but no forward or reverse. Which is the second time. My brand new convertor was bad out of box.
It has been cursed, one thing after another.

It was close, ready to test drive, just needed the driver's carpet and driver's seat thrown in, but now it needs the trans pulled again.

I would imagine I have over $7k invested in this thing. I can get what? $2k? $3k? Ready to take the loss. If it drove that would be one thing, if I painted it that would be another that would increase value, but I just don't want too anymore. Just want it gone.

If you have ever worked on a corvette any part you buy is hundreds of dollars. Even the used parts market is over priced.

I store it in an enclosed trailer. Earlier this year when I was moving it around I had the urge to list it and figured I would change my mind, but I sure haven't. Think that means it time to let it go.

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I had a yj I was doing a 1ton swap on in 2005 that I abandoned in favor of building my Tacoma. What did it was I was peer pressured into wheeling my Tacoma stock, realized it was awesome, and wheeling in AC was nice. I sold the yj in parts to a friend of a friend, and started building the Tacoma. I still have and wheel that Tacoma regularly 19yrs later, it was a good decision to dump that yj project.
 
Let a reasonably clean P71 go for a few hundred back when nobody wanted em because I didn't want to throw a windshield, power steering pump, heater core in it 🤷‍♂️

An XJ with 300k miles, PO got his moneys worth outta it as the trans died a week after I started driving it :laughing: I threw a questionable one in and suprise suprise that one promptly failed aswell :laughing: Icouldn't find the motivation to do it again for a clapped out xj :laughing:
 
Uh yeah, all of them. :laughing:

ADD as hell, I'll dump everything into something that holds my interest and at a certain point will just completely lose interest and walk away. A few I've regretted, most I took longer than I should have to walk away from. The K5 I sold in 2017 is one of my biggest regrets.
 
Is the trans fluid full with it running in park? (Neutral if it was a Chrysler product) I've had cars that leak atf out the shift shaft seal when sitting as the converter bleeds back and overfills the case. Then when started it pumps the converter full and there's nothing left in the pan to pressurize the hydraulics.

I wouldn't bother with paint, but having it move under its own power makes it a lot easier to sell.
 
I have sold a few I have given up on. Did not take a loss on any of them as they were acquired cheap enough that the parts were worth more than what I had in them.

Regretted a couple at the time sold, but quickly got over it as the money was better than the unfinished project.
 
Yes.. though the financial + or- usually works out in my favor.. not always tho.

Regrets? Maybe a little. Some stuff would be hard or expensive to buy again.. I’ve let some good stuff go over the years.

Usually just want the space for something else :homer:
 
yes.

Sold my wheeling discovery2 when we had our first kid. Miss it but also don’t. It was sitting and the car seat didn’t fit.

About to prob lose on a few Land Rover projects I’ve had. Big issue is still not enough seats in them. Really need 6 seats and none of mine have 6 seats.
 
Slander said:
I had a yj I was doing a 1ton swap on in 2005 that I abandoned in favor of building my Tacoma. What did it was I was peer pressured into wheeling my Tacoma stock, realized it was awesome, and wheeling in AC was nice. I sold the yj in parts to a friend of a friend, and started building the Tacoma. I still have and wheel that Tacoma regularly 19yrs later, it was a good decision to dump that yj project.
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I did something somewhat similar with my flat fender. I was building it to be a mild trail street legal rig for day trips and cruising. I wanted it to look fairly stock but have easy to source parts and good drivability, think restomod. Built a custom frame to run YJ springs and waggy 44's at 90" ish wheelbase and installed a 4.3l with 4l60e and 300. Around this time I'd been driving a couple buddies TJ's and realized that as much as I liked the idea of driving a 75 year old jeep around there was no way it was ever going to be a nice or as capable as even a stock TJ. Sold it off and replaced it with a 05 TJ, swapped a set of 44's into the TJ and never looked back. A/C and cruise are nice, especially in a rig that is meant more for exploring than stupidity. The Tj has got way more seat time this year than my buggy too mostly because I can just hop in it on a whim and drive an hour to the woods without a bunch of fucking around with a trailer and planning. I'm not sure that would have happened as much with the flatty, it's really easy to just jump in the TJ.

I'm still looking for another flatty but now I'll be more focused on something super stock to just drive around in and take to things like the big Rod Run out on the coast.
 
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Slander said:
I had a yj I was doing a 1ton swap on in 2005 that I abandoned in favor of building my Tacoma. What did it was I was peer pressured into wheeling my Tacoma stock, realized it was awesome, and wheeling in AC was nice. I sold the yj in parts to a friend of a friend, and started building the Tacoma. I still have and wheel that Tacoma regularly 19yrs later, it was a good decision to dump that yj project.
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Bought a beautiful 04 DC Tacoma drove it for 1.5yrs when the engine overheated. At that point it was go time. 1 tons, LQ4, NV4500, Atlas, Arbs, chromos, coilovers..... had about 30 into total when I pulled the plug to start funding a tow rig situation. Bought a nice dodge for 16, sold that for 14... paid off some debts and bought my current basically stock 99 Tacoma and am taking the philosophy as Slander, enjoy the damn thing. Wasted half my life on jackstands.


MONSTERMUDDER said:
An XJ with 300k miles
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I don't that qualifies my guy. :flipoff2:
 
Ranchtruck said:
Is the trans fluid full with it running in park? (Neutral if it was a Chrysler product) I've had cars that leak atf out the shift shaft seal when sitting as the converter bleeds back and overfills the case. Then when started it pumps the converter full and there's nothing left in the pan to pressurize the hydraulics.

I wouldn't bother with paint, but having it move under its own power makes it a lot easier to sell.
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Yeah fluid level was perfect.

Either I have a second failed convertor or something inside the "new" trans gave up.

This was a completely different brand stall convertor.
 
This one haunts me daily.

Took apart a running driving car to restore it when I was young and dumb. Had it in High School in a surf town.

Got pregnant, sold it to a buddy who had wanted it for years, he finished it and sold it to Hollywood to be used in commercials.


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Tiha said:
Yeah fluid level was perfect.

Either I have a second failed convertor or something inside the "new" trans gave up.

This was a completely different brand stall converter
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How did the first one fail? Spines stripped? How big of a gap was there between TC & flexplate with it seated in the trans before the converter bolts went in?
 
Tiha said:
How did you decide when it was time?

Or how big of a loss where you willing to take?
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Niether were very exspencive.

I was trying to do things i really didnt understand and every step i tried to take was wrong in multiple ways, and the effoet and money requiered to make it work just made me madder everytime i thought about it.

That being said, ive got $12k in my c60 sitting in my front yard and i havent touched it in 7 years. $4k in a 12v rebuild and another $2.5k in a nv4500 setup that i should have yanked and stuffed in my crew cab when i had its motor out.
$1500 in tires and wheels that will be completely rotten by the time i do anything with it. But i sure as shit aint gona dump it..........

My crew been broke down and mid rebuild for 3y now, and im real fucking scared that im gona give up on it. It was a cheap truck and most everything ive gotten for it have been extremely cheap or i already had it, but it hasnt past its critical point yet. Still a bunch of work left and a major wiring hurdel i need to cross and thats what has me scared.
 
Yes and yes. I wished I'd just push it out, covered it and came back to it later. At the time it was 80 to 90% done....but I was 100%.
 
Yup... Two... and I regret selling both of them. Older/wiser now.... which is probably why I hoard things now.
 
Ranchtruck said:
How did the first one fail? Spines stripped? How big of a gap was there between TC & flexplate with it seated in the trans before the converter bolts went in?
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First one brand new from Summit racing. Nothing, never moved the car. just dead.
tried to get warranty but nope expired because it sat too long before I ever fired the car to test it.

bought this one, brand name, street fighter I think. So I don't know what happened. Was driving up into the trailer and nothing, neutral. After I had been driving it around the yard some.

That is why I am just done, just another reason.
 
I'm super stubborn. Only gave up on 2 projects. I wanted a 4 wheeler so bad but couldn't afford it, so I tried building one from scratch. Kept accumulating parts I would find that I think would work and had something going on the table in the shop but Dad eventually talked me out of it. I was 4 years old.

2nd one was a snowmobile engine honda odyssey. Had the engine all mounted up which ran when it was in the snowmobile but once I got it all ready to run in the oddyssey it wouldn't spark. Parts were unobtanium for the late 70's engine so I pushed it out back.

My 49 IH I almost gave up on. Had spent a couple years trying different combinations to get what I wanted but it was always 1 step forward two steps back. Pushed through and finished it.

What always gets me through on projects when it gets tough is I think that everything I've done so far, all the money I've spent will be for nothing if I quit now. Works every time.
 
Is there money in vettes? Sure,
that era? Id say hell no.

Never eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevver build a car based on what you think you can sell it for. You will burn money and piss effort just to hear some twat stand there and give you a list of why its still a pos.

You build a car because its a fun car and its what you want. You do it for you not someone else.
 
Fix it, sell it in the summer months. You will be $7k-$8k ahead of the game. Selling a none driving mid-late 70's C3 is worth about $3k, because there are a lot of them. In the summer a driving C3 is worth $10k minimum.

That trans is generic TH350 or TH400, a dime a dozen.


Throw on your NB's and get to it :flipoff2: or take it in the ass for $7k :eek:
 
I'm batting right about .500 so I think I'm doing pretty good.

Usually when alcohol/drugs wore off and I sobered up I realized it was a bad project then let it sit in the driveway until it was close to start snowing. Not wanting to shovel around it, it'd get parted out/sold/scrapped.

I know me well enough that if I don't work on it in a year's time, I never will.
 
Tiha said:
First one brand new from Summit racing. Nothing, never moved the car. just dead.
tried to get warranty but nope expired because it sat too long before I ever fired the car to test it.

bought this one, brand name, street fighter I think. So I don't know what happened. Was driving up into the trailer and nothing, neutral. After I had been driving it around the yard some.

That is why I am just done, just another reason.
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Sounds more like a pump or clutch problem rather than a torque converter problem
 
1972 Chevy Balzer 4x4

Every time I thought it was good to go another $500 needed to be spent. Finally gave up and sold it to a friend who gave up on it after a year and put it on ebay.

I wanted that rig so bad and still do but it was one thing after another.

Have drug home at least 10 rigs for free or next to nothing to send them top scrap after 6 months when I realize its not worth it.
 
Never given up, but I have a couple that have been shelved for a decade or more. They are all under cover, so they aren't just rotting in the back yard.

I took a beating on a WRX but it was fully functional when I sold it for a loss.
 
I wouldn’t say giving up on projects but gave up some hobbies <- if that’s what they’re called.

Sold my last buggy I built and all parts and special tools related <- not all tool just some like shock gas filler stuff

Boating which was for water skiing and scuba diving

Scuba diving

Dirt bike riding and racing hare scrambles.

Gave up on some women but not all of them.
 
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