Well... er... let me see how I can answer this.
Everything car related I have is for sale or about to be. If I'm not cured... maybe I'm in remission. I spent two days at the Glen last weekend at a club race and never turned a wheel. I "could" have but the drive to race wasn't there enough to buy a set of tires. When everything is gone I'll hear the call of what I'm really looking for. Or, well, maybe I did already.
Right now, that thing has 2 wheels, goes everywhere and isn't a project at all.
I've had some revaluations since my break from cars. I haven't owned a car for two years.
It's in my DNA, I still dream of builds/watch Craigslist, Every. Single. Day. It's not something I can just turn off.
The longer I'm away from it the less desire I have for dealing with rusty junk. Life is way too short to spend all of my time chasing rust away from a project. My next one will be a much better starting point than they were in the past.
I like driving more than wrenching.
I've never finished a project. Some have been closer than others but I've never gotten one to the vision I had in my head for it. Specific and realistic goals for the next project.
There will be a next project.
Nick- all I can say is.... yep- that's where I'm at. I love the "mind-build". This one has my interest at this time (alongside the never ending internal debate about my next Midget- hot 1275 with crossflow and 600rr carbs/injection, or another swap with independent rear and high strung NA engine). Oh- the car:
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/5067075230.html
That just has yummy potential, although a little pricey.
Yeah. I'm burned out. Cars can suck up a lot of time and money. I value my free time too much to spend it tinkering with cars all the time. I found that in the average morning or afternoon of car tinkering I can get in 30-50 miles of mountain biking instead, and I feel a whole lot better about myself afterward. Autocross is a whole different game from a time commitment standpoint.
I'm still interested in cars, but currently have no projects. The DD needs a few things, but nothing pressing. And if I have to take it to a shop and have them do the work... no big deal. A lot easier than trying to find the time to do it myself, and a lot cheaper than dealing with a new or relatively new car.
SlickDizzy... please buy my 2015 Mazda3. It's in the classifieds. GRM discount negotiable.
Wow. Lot of reading in this thread. I'll throw my $0.02 in as well.
It's not that I am burnt out, but I can certainly identify with the feeling of being overwhelmed. When you have a job that goes beyond a 9-5, add to that a family and kid(s), and then spending time to keep in shape... all the sudden then 10 minute express oil change seems like a good idea.
I'd +1 all the advice to get a reliable DD (or at least have someone else work on it if something goes wrong), and then have a fun car.
I can totally commiserate with you. Worked for the last few years getting my rabbit racer / weekend toy in fighting shape. Towed it down to a snazzy show after many hours and dollars only to have some significant failures in the first 75miles it had traveled in a bit. Hilariously had three separate people offer blank checks to buy it from me and I refused to even offer a number to them? Hilarious! On each occasion I could hear my wife an buddies talk amongst themselves "will he sell it?" "What do you think he would take for it?".
So I spent the other night doing yet more repairs to things I had previously touched and asked myself some of your same questions. I sit in a hotel in Winona MN on GRM thinking of a Cars N Coffee Cruise in Sat morning in Cincinnati. I managed to get the car sorted before I left town and let Wifee know that I WOULD be rolling the car down to the show Sat morning.
I feel your pain on frustration but have to enjoy the good moments.
It happens to everyone, and it sucks. Fortunately for me my fun cars are not my problem; its the DD's that are killing me ATM.
In reply to 84FSP:
So how much do you want for it?
BradLTL wrote: Wow. Lot of reading in this thread. I'll throw my $0.02 in as well. It's not that I am burnt out, but I can certainly identify with the feeling of being overwhelmed. When you have a job that goes beyond a 9-5, add to that a family and kid(s), and then spending time to keep in shape... all the sudden then 10 minute express oil change seems like a good idea.
my problem with the 10 min oil change, is ...A) all the horror stories of the oil change berkeley-ups and even more ...B) it's nearly 20 min to the nearest one, and then the wait for my "appointment", then, after saying nope a dozen times to all their up sales, it's 20 min home …
I can stop by the parts store anytime I'm out (I drive by 3 every time I go to town) … drive up on the ramps, open the valve, walk away … come back whenever I feel like it, close the valve, take off/replace the filter, fill the crankcase … done …
yes it actually takes longer, but I work it in around other things I'm doing … not "waisting" an hour or more just to get the oil changed 
Man, you guys have made me do some reflection on my own project. It appears to be going so far, so bad. 
In reply to G_Body_Man:
You're 10 years younger than I am, and I'm one of the younger guys on here. Now's the time in your life to bust your knuckles, learn as much as possible, and have fun. You don't have full-time career obligations, rent, SWMBO, etc to deal with yet. Enjoy it while you can!
I really did enjoy wrenching at one point, but I've reached a place where I've done almost every job in the book at least once, so my mechanical aptitude is reaching a plateau of sorts. It's still challenging but the satisfaction of a job well done just isn't what it used to be, because I've seen most of it before and it just feels like a chore.
I appreciate all of the advice. I really do think it's about time to sign up for a payment on something enjoyable to daily drive for sanity's sake; I'll worry about another project when life isn't throwing so much at me.
I am pretty burnt out now on working on cars. I still love autocrossing and other car events.
If I had a cooled garage, I would probably enjoy it more but it is so damn hot.
Plus I have picked up another hands on hobby that can be done inside mostly so that has kinda sucked away from the time I would spend wrenching.
racerdave600 wrote: I've been there too. I now have a new BRZ and...nothing. Seems strange really. I sold the 370, sold the Cooper S, sold the 240Z. I just got tired of the non-stop needs.
When did you get a BRZ?
SlickDizzy wrote: In reply to G_Body_Man: You're 10 years younger than I am, and I'm one of the younger guys on here. Now's the time in your life to bust your knuckles, learn as much as possible, and have fun. You don't have full-time career obligations, rent, SWMBO, etc to deal with yet. Enjoy it while you can!
I guess the problem is that I want a car, not a money pit. If I have to dump another $1500 into the car, then I'm probably just going to sell it. It's a G-body sedan, so nobody other than Brougham aficionados and weirdos like me see the value in it.
I had a much more time to play with cars when I was younger, and single. Being married with 4 kids, wrenching is now pretty much limited to maintenance/repair work. I've found that I enjoy driving fun cars more than wrenching on them, so I've tried to keep one fun car in the fleet. My Mustang is my 3 season daily driver, and I love driving it.
I keep working on cars to save money, and still do my own oil changes so I know it's done right. I've also learned to be comfortable sending a vehicle to a shop/dealer if I don't have the time/tools/ability to get something done myself.
SlickDizzy wrote: In reply to G_Body_Man: You're 10 years younger than I am, and I'm one of the younger guys on here. Now's the time in your life to bust your knuckles, learn as much as possible, and have fun. You don't have full-time career obligations, rent, SWMBO, etc to deal with yet. Enjoy it while you can! I really did enjoy wrenching at one point, but I've reached a place where I've done almost every job in the book at least once, so my mechanical aptitude is reaching a plateau of sorts. It's still challenging but the satisfaction of a job well done just isn't what it used to be, because I've seen most of it before and it just feels like a chore. I appreciate all of the advice. I really do think it's about time to sign up for a payment on something enjoyable to daily drive for sanity's sake; I'll worry about another project when life isn't throwing so much at me.
OR this is a good time to see if this hobby is for you. Be it part or whole.
Not everyone likes to work on cars, and not everyone likes to drive. Some like a little of one and a lot of the other, and some like equal parts of both.
I thought I liked working on cars, and I did it pretty well. But it got old after a while, and it's no longer for me. I enjoyed driving a lot more. But even for that, the work that I had to do to drive got really old. I got tired of being one of the very few volunteers who ran events. More tired of other clubs trying to make me work when I had to spend 8-10 hours outside for my events.
Anyway, figure out what you like about cars, and go with that. Nothing wrong with driving cars that someone else works on.
ProDarwin wrote: Yeah. I'm burned out. Cars can suck up a lot of time and money. I value my free time too much to spend it tinkering with cars all the time. I found that in the average morning or afternoon of car tinkering I can get in 30-50 miles of mountain biking instead, and I feel a whole lot better about myself afterward. Autocross is a whole different game from a time commitment standpoint. I'm still interested in cars, but currently have no projects. The DD needs a few things, but nothing pressing. And if I have to take it to a shop and have them do the work... no big deal. A lot easier than trying to find the time to do it myself, and a lot cheaper than dealing with a new or relatively new car.
Mountain biking.
That's something i'm about to get back into. I just hope i can keep the "Scope Creep" in control better than i used to. I don't want to get into spending thousands and thousands on a Kona again.
Plus, it's healthier than wrenching!
In reply to Swank Force One:
I, too have recently entered the world of cycling as an alternate (and healthier) hobby. I'm hoping my Cannondale hybrid setup will keep my appetite whetted for some time yet...
SlickDizzy wrote: In reply to Swank Force One: I, too have recently entered the world of cycling as an alternate (and healthier) hobby. I'm hoping my Cannondale hybrid setup will keep my appetite whetted for some time yet...
I'm trying to sell stuff to get one of these: http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gravity/650b-27.5-bikes-g275-g2.htm
I feel your pain. I love working on cars, but my problem is time. The best time for me to work on my cars would be after 9 PM, when the kids are getting ready for bed and there aren't many demands on my time. However, I've gotten a bit older and I'm less inclined to wrench until 1 AM these days. So, I have to squeeze in my projects when there is literally nothing else happening.
It makes for very slow going, and I have a pretty big backlog of stuff. I think the best thing for me to do will be to get my garage clean to the point where I can work on a car in there and just accept that the RX-7 Hillclimb car is going to be a 3-4 year project.
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