Stages in a Restorers life

1. EUPHORIA bringing the barn find home, dismantling it and especially sorting through the boxes of bits.
2. DEPRESSION cleaning dirty, rusty parts with a wire brush in an unheated garage in the middle of winter.
3.DENIAL purposely not adding up the bills from Moss and Brown and Gammons.
4. FRIGHT being scared to death of the drill slipping and scratching the new paint job, having to take the shiny doors off to shim the hinges.
5. EXASPERATION why does the engine not tick over, why is the dynamo light still on, where is that rattle coming from.
6. SMUGNESS a wonderful drive out on a beautiful day, top down and that nice shiny bonnet in front of you.
7 WHAT NEXT open the garage door, there she is in pristine condition, all tools cleaned and stored away. What am I going to do for the rest of the day!

Thanks to Joe H. (who knows all about it) for passing this along.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to add...

1.5 HOPELESSNESS staring at a hulk that's more rust than good metal (literally) and having no idea where to start as you've never done anything like this before.

2.5 HOPELESSNESS-INSURMOUNTABLE-DISCOURAGED-DISPIRITED-DEPRESSED after a couple of years you really haven't made much progress.

3.5 DESPONDENT after even more years the car doesn't look a whole lot different and you can't remember where stuff goes anymore.

4.5 HOPELESSNESS the car has become the family joke and your kids (who were born about the time you started 'restoring' the car) refer to you as "The strange man who lives in the garage."

8. DISBELIEF after more than twenty years, she starts on the second try and purrs like a kitten.

9. DISBELIEF you stayed at it that long. Think of what you could have accomplished if you hadn't wasted twenty+ years on a stupid car. Gotten a degree maybe?, learned a musical instrument?, spent time with your kids?

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Joe Hine said...

Who every you are it can't be that bad....and I specialize in rescuing stalled projects....just sayin.

Joe

Anonymous said...

Joe, it's me...Bob. I forgot to add a signature. It honestly was that bad at times. I'd stand there with a cup of tea after supper and think to myself,
"What the ---- am I doing? This'll never be finished."
Anyway, got a package from SNJ yesterday (finally!) and started working on the head this aft.
Oh ya, we gotta go visit Ernst again. Soon.
Bob E.

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