How to get you spark back?

What happens when you lose that spark for cars? For the last few years my goal has been to get into racing. First I wasted a lot of timee and money on a 944. Then I got this Miata, and I was so sure this was the car that I would start my racing in. And its been a mess. Its made me want to find a few hobby. I don't even want to take care of the miata any more. Its over do for an oil change (that I'm going to do Tuesday) and I just haven't found time to care.

But then I drive it, and do a little spirited driving and I want it again. How dod I keep that motivation up? How do I power on and fix this berkeleying car??

Make a list of stuff to do to it, and make sure you just... drive it for no reason at all at least once a week.

Work on the list. ONE thing at a time. Fix one thing a week, or modify one thing a month, whatever. The longer it stays in an unchanging state, the less likely you are to stay in love with it.

I'm fighting this in a bad way with the Celica. Hasn't moved in 13 months and counting. I also haven't worked on it in 13 months. It's like really expensive parking lot art at the moment, and nothing that really moves me. It IS pretty, though.

If racing is your goal - sell off your fleet of cars that are not racing cars. Bypass this whole "build a car slowly" phase and buy a used race car with a log book. You can find them to fit just about any budget... from a spec E30 to a Formula Ford. Focus on getting yourself licensed and making sure the car is up to snuff. Go race it.

For motivation during the cold winter... go race at an indoor karting facility.

I have made the "build a race car, then race it" mistake many times and I am finally at the point where the "latest" car is ready. I still have all of the administration tasks to take care of like hauling it across the state to get teched, get a dyno sheet, etc... if I just bought a used car all I'd be doing is making sure it was safe and just doing basic stuff to make it clean and reliable.

I should have taken the advice I'm dispensing now.

Have you tried going back to where you first met? Perhaps a night night out on the town? For some people, a little role playing often ignites a spark.

Possibly dressing up as farm animals?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: If racing is your goal - sell off your fleet of cars that are not racing cars. Bypass this whole "build a car slowly" phase and buy a used race car with a log book. You can find them to fit just about any budget... from a spec E30 to a Formula Ford. Focus on getting yourself licensed and making sure the car is up to snuff. Go race it. For motivation during the cold winter... go race at an indoor karting facility. I have made the "build a race car, then race it" mistake many times and I am finally at the point where the "latest" car is ready. I still have all of the administration tasks to take care of like hauling it across the state to get teched, get a dyno sheet, etc... if I just bought a used car all I'd be doing is making sure it was safe and just doing basic stuff to make it clean and reliable. I should have taken the advice I'm dispensing now.

We only have two cars right now, both of which are required. We sometimes work overlapping shifts. I want to use the Miata to get my license. I think it's the perfect car, because I want to try Spec Miata first. I'm just so disheartened with this car. But I can't even sell it for what I owe. Due to my bad luck (or judgement as the case may be) with cars I haven't done any HDPE events, just some AutoX.

Per Schroeder wrote: Possibly dressing up as farm animals?

You keep furries out of this.

Move on to a different one.
One that is a little younger, a little lighter, a little more experienced and very eager to share.
They are out there, all it takes is money!

We're still talking cars, right? Just checkin'.

Per Schroeder wrote: Possibly dressing up as farm animals?

I tried painting it to look like a cow, didn't help

jrw1621 said: Move on to a different one. One that is a little younger, a little lighter, a little more experienced and very eager to share. They are out there, all it takes is money!

Like I said, I've tried selling this car. I can't sell it for what I owe as it is. And I'm not to keen on taking more of a loss on it.

a free td kit car helps , just got this today no shizzle free

http://s1008.photobucket.com/albums/af210/jarrodburrito/?action=view&current=IMG_1970.jpg&newest=1#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs1008.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf210%2Fjarrodburrito%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMG_1970.jpg%26newest%3D1

^Truth. Don't deviate from the list. I'm REALLY bad about that.

I had/have a leak in the turbo manifold flange adapter on the MX6. Everything forward of the head is off the car at the moment, the valve cover is off, bumper is gone, and i've got the dash ripped apart for wiring fun. I've also gone through 3 bottles of Purple Power doing general "cleaning."

The car has also sprouted rear mudflaps, an MX3 shifter, an FC RX7 steering wheel, and Harbor Freight foglights.

Do you think the flange leak has been fixed yet? Nope. Go figure.

93celicaGT2 wrote: Do you think the flange leak has been fixed yet? Nope. Go figure.

I just lopped the tops off of my strut towers to correct a caster issue with the front suspesnion geometry. Guess what I was doing in the garage in the first place. Go on... guess.... EXACTLY. I was beginning the work to replace the head gasket.

DOH.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: Do you think the flange leak has been fixed yet? Nope. Go figure.

I just lopped the tops off of my strut towers to correct a caster issue with the front suspesnion geometry. Guess what I was doing in the garage in the first place. Go on... guess.... EXACTLY. I was beginning the work to replace the head gasket. DOH.

Nicely done!

Ready for the kicker? In order to fix my leak, i just have to replace 4 bolts.

Karl La Follette wrote: a free td kit car helps , just got this today no shizzle free http://s1008.photobucket.com/albums/af210/jarrodburrito/?action=view&current=IMG_1970.jpg&newest=1#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs1008.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf210%2Fjarrodburrito%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMG_1970.jpg%26newest%3D1

i am pretty sure you are a hoarder.

lopping strut towers as part of a head gasket job is childs play, my 4x4 conversion to my 2 wheel drive astro started out as a knock in the bottom end of the 4.3.

patgizz wrote: lopping strut towers as part of a head gasket job is childs play, my 4x4 conversion to my 2 wheel drive astro started out as a knock in the bottom end of the 4.3.

Well, in order to properly repair the head gasket I'll also need to remove the trailing arm/subframe setup and make my own unequal length double wishbones for the rear end so it isn't really as much child's play as it initially sounds.

Oh, and the reason the HG went is because the fuel system was not up to the job of satisfying the larger displacement... so I'll need to incorporate a fuel cell, LV pump, regulator and plumbing as a "while you are in there" - afterall - what better time to remove the original fuel tank than while you have the rear subframe out to replace the head gasket?.

My current project started out as just removing the exhaust manifold so a friend could test fit his self made turbo manifold from his 318i on my 2002 to see if it would fit. Then I decided since the exhaust manifold was off (a simple matter of 11 bolts and about 15 minutes of time) that I might as well jump into my megasquirt EFI conversion and get rid of my weber. That turned into getting my head rebuilt and designing and building a custom gauge panel for my center console.

Hopefully, I can resist the urge to cut off the top of the shock towers to relocate my strut tops.

Oh, to answer the OPs question - I sometimes can get the spark back by taking a nice drive on some curvy roads. Sometimes I just have to take a couple weekends off, staying out the garage.

TJ wrote: My current project started out as just removing the exhaust manifold so a friend could test fit his self made turbo manifold from his 318i on my 2002 to see if it would fit. Then I decided since the exhaust manifold was off (a simple matter of 11 bolts and about 15 minutes of time) that I might as well jump into my megasquirt EFI conversion and get rid of my weber. That turned into getting my head rebuilt and designing and building a custom gauge panel for my center console. Hopefully, I can resist the urge to cut off the top of the shock towers to relocate my strut tops.

:) awesome.

oh yeah - i usually can get my spark back by changing the ignition module. 9 times out of 10, that fixes it.

I have waxed and waned in the hobby. I got really bogged down in a 66 Bonneville project about 6 years ago when I bit off more than I could financially chew. My goals took me down a path where my next step is body work, and as you know its tough to do that one step at a time. Once its stripped you kinda have to go all the way. Kinda like sex with a prostitute - once she's stripped...

My dream car (hands down, bar none, no questions) is a 67 GTO. I resisted buying one because A) they're f'n expensive for what boils down to an option package, and B) I never leave things alone. I don't invest in a valuable classic car, I buy a toy. I didn't want to hack up a valuable GTO, I want the car because I want to make it mine.

... so, I remained patient and finally found a 67 LeMans project for which I traded an old boat. Its already half-cloned and it literally has me laying awake at night dreaming about making it my own.

My advice is this... if your spark is weak, don't try to rekindle it by half-heartedly getting some cheap projects, just take a break and keep your eyes peeled for THE car. I relaxed for about 6 years driving an F150 and a Tercel. I tried filling in with little cheap mods to my other cars to make them more exciting, but it just turned into a bunch of cheap CL parts sitting on the shelf for 6 years. The boredom of those two utilitarian vehicles plus the discovery of an affordable dream car came together and I'm back to being white hot.

... the downside? I've already spent 25,000 imaginary dollars on dreaming up this LeMans build

I thought about selling my project car and automotive tools a few weeks ago. I haven't pulled the trigger, but not having driven the project car in 5+ years makes it hard to stay motivated. How would you guys deal w/ a stalled project, little motivation and less time?? Young kids and family issues aren't easy on projects. I've already packed up my bowling balls. I almost feel like my automotive hobby/dreams/interest isn't far behind.

I've discovered that I enjoy driving/riding a lot more than fiddling. With the SV650, I really haven't had the desire to modify it in any way. It's just so much fun as it is.

I know what you mean. Crushing work schedules, a 20 month old, and a -2 month old(January 26th)... Have basically killed my desires...

I'm interested in turn key options now, no time to wrench, little time to enjoy... So when I have time, It better work.

i thought you meant get revenge on spark, like spark had played a mean joke on you. my first suggestion would've been to slap a "Ground Me" note on it's back.

I have an M5 I bought a few months back, and an E30 that's been untouched for almost a year while I kept our DD's up to snuff and had a fling with a C4 Corvette. Other than clean the M5 (which was THE most disgusting car I've had the displeasure of cleaning: 2 Dysons FUL of dog hair) I hadn't touched or looked at it until 2 weeks ago. It was a simple, 1hr job of changing steering wheels and fixing the gauge cluster. Suddenly, I WANT to work on it again. I think the key is: don't let the project go cold AND don't bite off more than you can chew. If your heart isn't in it, pick something simple to gain momentum. The other side is: do it because you want to. We do this for fun, remember?

Finally: In May I bought a TDI golf appliance, and it was probably one of my best automotive decisions. It's cheap to run, hasn't needed ANYTHING, and I'm not inclined to touch it as long as I stay away from TDIforums. Then, when I work on a car, it's much less likely to be at midnight because I need to use it to get to work the next day...