True story
The Real Reason Project Cars Take Forever
- Thread starter Fish Fry
- Start date
I have a friend that is working on an old Jeep Wagoneer and it's been a nightmare. Problem after problem.
The best advice I ever got was:
- Is this the car you really want?
- Start with the best car you possibly can.
Ask yourself; do you want the car or the project? While the project should lead to the car, they are two different wants.
Searching for correct parts must be one of the top three reasons projects stall. If you have an orphan vehicle or one that did not sell well when new, you simply are not likely to find parts at swap meets or salvage yards.
When I regularly went to the big meets at Carlisle and Hershey, I noticed in the late 1990s that for pre–WWII vehicles you were likely to find parts vendors only for Model A and early V-8 Fords and a few late–1930s Chevrolets. Everything else was scarce. The parts dried up by the 1970s. Even 1940s–1960s cars could be problems, unless they were something in big demand like '55–'57 Chevrolets or 1960s Corvettes.
If you're working on (say) a prewar Marmon, you're going to have big problems finding spares. Don't get me started on imports. Any Japanese car made before 1980 is going to be a pain to restore.
When I regularly went to the big meets at Carlisle and Hershey, I noticed in the late 1990s that for pre–WWII vehicles you were likely to find parts vendors only for Model A and early V-8 Fords and a few late–1930s Chevrolets. Everything else was scarce. The parts dried up by the 1970s. Even 1940s–1960s cars could be problems, unless they were something in big demand like '55–'57 Chevrolets or 1960s Corvettes.
If you're working on (say) a prewar Marmon, you're going to have big problems finding spares. Don't get me started on imports. Any Japanese car made before 1980 is going to be a pain to restore.
Mission creep and "While I'm in there" syndrome will be the death of me and my projects
^^Some kind of perfectionism and absence of definitive planning, perhaps?
(completely not judging)
(completely not judging)
I love certain late-'60s/early-'70s Japanese cars, but have accepted that I'm in the wrong part of the world to buy one as a project.
Japanese cars caught on later here than in B.C. and Alberta, and our salted winter roads took care of them quickly.
Project cars, the past time of those with plentiful disposable income and many spare hours. I think my project cars will consist of manual transmission camry’s.
Pick 2 for the classic project car:
1: affordable
2: popular model
3: good condition
And if it ain’t a popular model, parts availability will be agony.
That’s a good name for a project car.
This here’s my ‘65 Agony.
Pick 2 for the classic project car:
1: affordable
2: popular model
3: good condition
And if it ain’t a popular model, parts availability will be agony.
That’s a good name for a project car.
This here’s my ‘65 Agony.
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I bought an old farm truck that had an older restoration and it's a great 20 footer. At first I thought it wasn't perfect enough and planned to fix the blemishes but after thinking about it I decided that it runs good and I like tooling around the countryside in the summer so I'm just going to maintain and enjoy.
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I’m selling my YJ only because I know it will ending up costing more than the value of its enjoyment to me. I’ll pick up another one needing less work when that happens to someone else. Old cars are fun, until they aren’t, and it’s either spend money on it or do other fun things.
That one seems a bit of a pointlessly complex mishmash of what should be a space frame car(long travel suspension off road vehicle), and keeping most of the Viper chassis?
Probably would've been better to figure out the key Viper drivetrain and body mounting points, figure out what kind of suspension you want and its mounting points, and just connect the dots with the space frame? I assume its going to have a roll cage anyways, so just build that as part of the space frame and keep the Viper interior.
An off road Viper will make good click bait, but in the real world, just restoring an abused Viper to factory specs is a project enough for most people. And if you want to go off road and build some parts, then get a decent side by side with a dead motor, and put an old triple snowmobile drivetrain in or a street bike motor and have a blast in that.
Ok. I'm pretty sure a 1966 Mustang project is going to be easier than a Viper. In fact my 68 Mustang, 65 F100, and 73 Polara were a lot easier than a Viper with all work done by me at low dollar cost to me. There are projects and there are projects. This one is in the second category where the car and why are you doing it are the project with no simple answers.
That's a great looking truck, I always wanted exactly that shortbed/stepside model with the spare at the side.
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