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So one day you walk out to the garage to see your latest project covered in dust and the boxes your wife moved out of the basement. You walk back in the house and ask your wife what she was thinking and she responds they've been there since last Christmas.
Uh oh... You're in project car hell!
Chances are, if you've taken on a big project you've ended up here. You might be thinking about parting it out for pennies on the dollar. You have hopes that someone would want to trade a finished project for your pile of parts. You've already mastered the avoidance trick. You've got tons of excuses to tell your friends, and they are all old and stale.
So how do you get out?
1. Find your happy place. Some of my favorite car memories are the day a project pays off. The day I drove my Wagoneer around the block after rebuilding the engine. A trip to Paragon after swapping in 60s. And my latest, driving across the lake bed in Johnson Valley after completing tearing down the TJ and rebuilding it. You need one. Working on your rig in 90* summer heat sucks, and so does walking out there when it's 0* and snowing. Everybody has their own pay-off, whether it's hitting 2-tracks up north with family and friends or making that 200' dune jump for the record.
2. Make a long term plan & stick to it. Chances are you got here because you changed your plans at some point in your build.
Sure, nothing ever goes strictly to plan; but you need to have a idea of what you want it to do. Everybody wants their rig to everything well, but there's compromises. Ever lived off a futon for more than a weekend? Do you want to do that again?
I have had many friends fall into Project Car Hell because one week they plan to make a super light crawler, then they go to a mud bog and decide that's what they want, then they hit an offroad race and that's the new plan. Then they drive to Dairy Queen in their wife's minivan and miss their jeep, so it has to be street legal.
So figure out what the mix is, and what compromises you plan to make. If you are going to do it in steps, figure that out, too. Except for a small group that do it as a hobby, buying and sell parts likely won't make you money, it'll just burn up the funds you've been setting aside.
3. Work on it. Here's how you stop the excuses. Start small, pick a time once a week that you can dedicate 3-4 hours to working on it and do it. Guard the timeslot like you would poker night, golf league, whatever. If you have a family, you may need to trade a different social night for it.
But here's the deal.. you need to actually work on it. Don't be lazy and sit on the couch after you've explained to your wife how important it is. Don't turn it into the beer drinking league. Turn off the computer and stop the random browsing. Turn off the shop TV. Move the boxes from the rig onto all the chair and stools in the shop so you can't sit down.
I can't tell you when to plan the time. 10 years ago, I could block off an entire Saturday or Sunday. Now with kids it's a week night. Figure it out. If you don't work on it, it won't get done. Unless of course you've got a money tree and you can drop it off a shop.. but then you wouldn't be in Project Car Hell.
4. Baby steps. Part of Project Car Hell is what we call at work "analysis paralysis". You don't know where to start, so you stand there, grinder in hand, trying to figure out what needs cutting.
Since you know what the long term plan is, you need to figure out what the best way to start. My friends and I have figured out that building suspension is best done at full bump. We generally work from the bottom up. Other guys build them a different way. But the thing to do is break the project down into pieces that you can see progress on. Don't think of it as "build jeep"; do it in pieces: build front suspension, install motor, build exhaust, etc.
This helps you from becoming overwhelmed.
5. Don't compare yourself with others. Some guys can buy a pile of junk and have it rebuilt and on the trail in a week. Who cares? Likely they've got a different skill set, different life priorites, whatever. Just focus on your project.
6. Invite friends.. but don't be a leech. Once you've got your standard time slot for working on it, you can speed the progress by getting friends to help out. It becomes easier to get them over once they know they can plan a certain evening when they have free time to come help. And if they know you'll be around to return the favor, then they may actually come and help.
With the big project broken into smaller projects, you'll be able to hand off jobs to them that they can complete, and everything moves forward. Also recognize when you need them and when you don't. If you've got a job that you need to get done on your own before you get started on the next part, tell them. That way they aren't standing around all night, drinking beer, watching TV, and getting you off track.
All of this seems so simple.. but how many folks live in Project Car Hell and can't get out of it? So, what's your advice? How did you break out of the Project from Hell?
Uh oh... You're in project car hell!
Chances are, if you've taken on a big project you've ended up here. You might be thinking about parting it out for pennies on the dollar. You have hopes that someone would want to trade a finished project for your pile of parts. You've already mastered the avoidance trick. You've got tons of excuses to tell your friends, and they are all old and stale.
So how do you get out?
1. Find your happy place. Some of my favorite car memories are the day a project pays off. The day I drove my Wagoneer around the block after rebuilding the engine. A trip to Paragon after swapping in 60s. And my latest, driving across the lake bed in Johnson Valley after completing tearing down the TJ and rebuilding it. You need one. Working on your rig in 90* summer heat sucks, and so does walking out there when it's 0* and snowing. Everybody has their own pay-off, whether it's hitting 2-tracks up north with family and friends or making that 200' dune jump for the record.
2. Make a long term plan & stick to it. Chances are you got here because you changed your plans at some point in your build.
Sure, nothing ever goes strictly to plan; but you need to have a idea of what you want it to do. Everybody wants their rig to everything well, but there's compromises. Ever lived off a futon for more than a weekend? Do you want to do that again?
I have had many friends fall into Project Car Hell because one week they plan to make a super light crawler, then they go to a mud bog and decide that's what they want, then they hit an offroad race and that's the new plan. Then they drive to Dairy Queen in their wife's minivan and miss their jeep, so it has to be street legal.
So figure out what the mix is, and what compromises you plan to make. If you are going to do it in steps, figure that out, too. Except for a small group that do it as a hobby, buying and sell parts likely won't make you money, it'll just burn up the funds you've been setting aside.
3. Work on it. Here's how you stop the excuses. Start small, pick a time once a week that you can dedicate 3-4 hours to working on it and do it. Guard the timeslot like you would poker night, golf league, whatever. If you have a family, you may need to trade a different social night for it.
But here's the deal.. you need to actually work on it. Don't be lazy and sit on the couch after you've explained to your wife how important it is. Don't turn it into the beer drinking league. Turn off the computer and stop the random browsing. Turn off the shop TV. Move the boxes from the rig onto all the chair and stools in the shop so you can't sit down.
I can't tell you when to plan the time. 10 years ago, I could block off an entire Saturday or Sunday. Now with kids it's a week night. Figure it out. If you don't work on it, it won't get done. Unless of course you've got a money tree and you can drop it off a shop.. but then you wouldn't be in Project Car Hell.
4. Baby steps. Part of Project Car Hell is what we call at work "analysis paralysis". You don't know where to start, so you stand there, grinder in hand, trying to figure out what needs cutting.
Since you know what the long term plan is, you need to figure out what the best way to start. My friends and I have figured out that building suspension is best done at full bump. We generally work from the bottom up. Other guys build them a different way. But the thing to do is break the project down into pieces that you can see progress on. Don't think of it as "build jeep"; do it in pieces: build front suspension, install motor, build exhaust, etc.
This helps you from becoming overwhelmed.
5. Don't compare yourself with others. Some guys can buy a pile of junk and have it rebuilt and on the trail in a week. Who cares? Likely they've got a different skill set, different life priorites, whatever. Just focus on your project.
6. Invite friends.. but don't be a leech. Once you've got your standard time slot for working on it, you can speed the progress by getting friends to help out. It becomes easier to get them over once they know they can plan a certain evening when they have free time to come help. And if they know you'll be around to return the favor, then they may actually come and help.
With the big project broken into smaller projects, you'll be able to hand off jobs to them that they can complete, and everything moves forward. Also recognize when you need them and when you don't. If you've got a job that you need to get done on your own before you get started on the next part, tell them. That way they aren't standing around all night, drinking beer, watching TV, and getting you off track.
All of this seems so simple.. but how many folks live in Project Car Hell and can't get out of it? So, what's your advice? How did you break out of the Project from Hell?
