How to make progress on a stalled project car

How to Plan (and Finish?) a Project Car

We’ve seen, discussed and purchased many unfinished project cars over the years, and there are some common themes that emerge as these projects evolve from an ambitious idea to an embarrassment under a pile of parts. A wise person once offered this advice: Anything can be accomplished with time, money and resolve. Pick two.

We’ll discuss time, money and resolve soon, but in the meantime, we’ll offer our addendum to the sage advice. The best project outcomes usually happen when you name your goals and then map your plan to the goals. 

Before going too far down the path of a hotel seminar about time management, we’ll admit that most of us aren’t very good at naming our goals. Many projects start on a whim or an impulse purchase, and goals had little to do with the decision, just raw enthusiasm. But many times, as the enthusiasm fades, the project fades, too. (And isn’t enthusiasm a synonym for resolve? More later.)

Okay, many projects start on a whim and without goals, but we’re here to tell you that even though you aren’t thinking of goals, you have goals buried in your subconscious. That impulse was sparked by something: Maybe you wanted to do something radical, maybe nostalgia kicked in, maybe you wanted to make some quick cash. Spending a few minutes to map the whim to some goals will lead to a much higher probability of success.

Which of these goals might apply to your project?

• You want to win something: If you’re a racer, it’s races. If you’re a show and shine person, it’s car shows. If you’re insecure, it’s other people’s approval (more soon). If you want to win something, name it as a goal.
• You want to learn something: You might have picked your project because you want to sharpen your skills. Want to learn to weld? Start with a rusty car. Want to learn wrenching? Start with a tired car. Want to learn tuning? Start with an EFI project. And so on. If you want to learn something, name it specifically and stay focused.
• You want to do something: Some people don’t care if they ever finish their project, they just want to work on something because that’s healthier than alternatives like the internet and/or alcohol. That could be you, and you could name this, too.
• You want to make some cash: Flipping isn’t always easy, but it’s fun when it works. Name it.
• You’re filling an emotional hole: It’s tricky getting touchy-feely with car people, but we do have emotions whether or not we’re willing to admit it. Maybe that hole is nostalgia for something you couldn’t have when you were younger. Maybe it’s to distract or heal you from some drama affecting you. Maybe you’re trying to impress someone (be careful with this one). Or maybe it just makes you happy to have grease under your fingernails. Admit you have feelings, and name which ones are part of your goals.
• There are myriad goals available that may range from cleaning up a mess to spending time with a family member or friends. The important thing is that you give some thought to the goals that strengthen your resolve.

Notice that we’ve been using “goals” as a plural. We think the best projects have a set of goals: not too few, not too many, and balanced in a way that keeps you motivated. (Again, isn’t motivation a synonym for resolve?) 

And by the way, the best goals are ones that you have memorized and think about every day. You can do that if they’re clear and balanced.

Time, Money and Resolve: Pick Two

This assumption is a bit flawed as it usually takes all three. The spirit of the statement is that one area can be minimized if the other two are emphasized. 

In our experience, resolve is the most important of these. Time and money are resources that may get you through, but the motivation and inspiration behind resolve will help you minimize waste of those resources.

Let’s define resolve first: (noun) a firm determination to do something. If you run out of time or money, you can find more. If you run out of resolve, you probably won’t spend the time or money even if you have it. The better you understand the goals, the more strength you’ll gain from your resolve. And you’ll probably waste less time and money along the way.

Money: Almost all projects take some money, and these days six-figure project cars abound. But the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge shows that money isn’t everything. In fact, those $2000 Challenge cars are proof that time combined with resolve produces impressive results.

Time

Photography Credit: David S. Wallens

Time gets its own heading. We think most projects stall first with lack of resolve, creating the secondary reaction of less time on task. 

Most projects are done with spare time, which is a scarce resource. And as stated earlier, most project goals are unconsidered or out of balance. Without goals and strong resolve, our inner time management clocks skew away from working on the project and more toward instant-gratification activities that take precious spare time away from our project.

So let’s map time to goals with an analogy, then think about setting milestones: Some people spend 30-60 minutes a day exercising, even though they hate exercising, because they have some health goals that range from losing a few pounds to not dying young. Let’s keep this pretty simple. You have a goal to lose 20 pounds. To get to that goal, you spend 30 minutes a day exercising. Sooner or later, if you stick to your 30 minutes a day, you lose 5, 10, 15, and finally 20 pounds.

Milestones

Photography Credit: David S. Wallens

If a project car person were setting milestones on the weight loss plan, they’d say that they want to lose 5 pounds this month, another 5 by summer, etc. 

These are outcome-based milestones, and they usually require previous experience. If they’ve never tried to lose weight, how would they know if those milestones are achievable in the time frames they’ve named? 

Sounds like a formula for disappointment. But that’s not how the exercise milestones are set. The milestones are simple and achievable: 30 minutes per day and the results follow. (By the way, I don’t exercise, but I do try to work on my projects at least 30 minutes a day.)

So the lesson is, don’t use outcome-based milestones, such as disassembled, welding done, painted, reassembled, first start and first drive, unless you’re highly experienced like project managers and engineers who estimate time needs on a daily basis. 

For us average people, we don’t have enough experience to use outcome-based milestones. We need time-based milestones, and we’ll finish our projects sooner or later (if we stick to the time milestones) just like we’ll lose that weight sooner or later (when we stick to the time milestones). Think about 30-90 minutes per day, 10 hours per week or 30 hours per month.

Plan your Work and Work Your Plan

Photography Credit: David S. Wallens

We’re about 1200 words into a story about planning a project and we haven’t mentioned planning yet. Planning is easier if you understand and balance your goals, use them to strengthen your resolve, and then allocate your time and money. See how we did that?

Depending on your personality and work habits, you may be a person who lives by spreadsheets and Gantt charts or you may be a person who tracks everything in your head. Either extreme works as long as you plan your work and work your plan. Keep in mind that “work your plan” doesn’t mean the plan is static. 

This brings us to scope creep, the bane of many projects. If you have a plan and change it without considering the downstream effects, you’ve created a recipe for failure. 

Usually, a change in plans is an increase in scope, and there are usually multiple increases along the way. If each time you change the plan you also consider the likely increased time, money and/or resolve, you’ll do okay. If you don’t, each increase in scope lends itself to a frog-in-hot-water syndrome. After a while, the frog and your project boil and die.

It’s okay to change your plan. What’s important is that you adjust all of your assumptions as well. And then you work the new plan, using the new assumptions.

We’re running out of space to say more about planning. It’s also very hard to say too much about planning with a topic as broad as “project cars.” A plan to convert a street car to a mild autocross car is much simpler than a plan to build a ground-up, radical engine-swapped beast. But the principles we’ve outlined will help you make your plan, and the sidebar about planning pitfalls should help a bit, too. Please use all of this to make that plan with firm resolve to finish it. Then, get out there and spend some time on your project. Success will follow.