So how do you know when to give up?

crazypete

crazypete

All my crevices are greased.
Oct 22, 2004
930
4
18
Arlington, MA
#1
I feel like I've been doing nothing since february but fixing little problem after little problem and spending thousands of dollars (little things add up real quick!). In the end I still have an unreliable and rather rough looking and feeling car. I could easily have bought a new car on the money I've spent so far. It runs allright on a day to day basis but it will always let me down the moment I want to go somewhere. I'm really starting to hate this car.

I dont race (track is over 2 hours away) so I have little use for all this extra power. I'm getting tired of the noise (my ears hurt after a long drive...even with turbo II's), the smell of gas from the carb, the rough ride, the way it looks (I painted it myself...it looks allright but not great), the lack of AC...etc.

I've done nothing but turn wrenches for the past 7 years and while I have indeed built the exact car I've always wanted, now that its here.....I have to say the chase was better than the catch.

I'm sure we've all gone through these kinds of thoughts a few times during rough projects but I've gone through this thought process 3 times in the past year and a half alone.

Is this just a phase I'm going through or am I getting old? :D

How can you tell if something is a bump on or the end of the road?
 

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#3
From nov 1999 through april 2001, I owned a saab 9000 after I wrecked my first stang. I keep going back to the thought of how nice it was to walk out, turn the key and never worry about weather the car was going to run that day. And this was a 170k mile saab!

I'd get another one tommorrow as a "daily driver" but here is another problem:

I live at a small apartment complex with a cramped lot. My girlfriend and I use up 2 spaces out of our allotted 1 space. There is no way in hell they would let me park 3 cars there. The only other option is to leave the stang at my parent's house but that is unfair to them and quite frankly, they are sick of the car too.

I can only really have 1 car at a time right now.

It's a dilemna.
 
#7
i know what your going through. this year for me has been the worst for repairs on my car. Mostly from upping the power levels, pounding on it, and still trying to use it as my daily driver. My trans is currently busted, we just bought the wife a new Toyota Matrix, and my daughter having her 05 Scion TC on my insurance is killing me right now. So with very little money left over to fix the stang yet again Im forced to make the decision to take it off the road for a while till I find my happy place again. Dont get me wrong most of my repairs are from increasing the power and pounding on the car, but I dont think I would enjoy driving it if I had to take it easy on it. I say put it in a storage unit for a while and forget about it till the stang is all you think about again. My brother left his sit for almost a year once cause he was sick of it, then one day he shows up my house with a new top end on it and more boost.
 
#8
Yeah...thats my situation. I modded it and modded it and modded it and now all the mods are causing a lot of hiccups.

It never really bothered me before because I lived at home until this may (I know, I'm such a slacker! :D) when I moved out into a new apartment.

Suddenly, I'm not sleeping with a garage on one side and a workshop on the other. I have no covered work area and not even a place to plug in tools. It's suddenly damn inconvenient to do anything other than play with the carb jetting.

More importantly, $1000 a month is missing from my income to pay for rent and my savings suddenly nosedived buying furniture and plates and miscellenia. My rent took my car money and my car now takes my fun money. I need to literally hold my breath and try not to burn any gas and eat so I have enough bling to go on vacation in august before I rip whats left of my hair out.

Just feels like fixing cars is totally out of phase with my life right now.

BTW...thanks for letting me bitch a little, guys. I need to let some steam out.
 
#10
I know this probably sounds a little bit out of the question, and i don't know how old you and your wife are or what your financial situation is...but you might look at investing in a house =P

Also if your not driving your car right now, can you talk to your insurance and have them put it under "Storage", i did this to my car and i believe it was $20> a month.
 
#11
88Stang331 said:
I know this probably sounds a little bit out of the question, and i don't know how old you and your wife are or what your financial situation is...but you might look at investing in a house =P

Also if your not driving your car right now, can you talk to your insurance and have them put it under "Storage", i did this to my car and i believe it was $20> a month.
Click to expand...

WOW...... Im not really sure where I should start with that statement. First Im 35 and the wife is 34. My daughters are 18 and 12. We have owned our house for 8 years and only owe 12 yet. I make 55-60 grand a year and the wife makes 30. We put 10% of our salaries into a 401K plus all the stock I own from the investment group that im a memeber of. 1200 a month for mort. 500 month for all the life and health insurances for a family of 4, 230 a month for insurance on 4 cars, 600 a month in groceries, and now 330 month for a car payment not to mention the price of gas. So when your mustang is the last thing on the priority list everthing else comes first. My overtime goes for the stang.............. Thanks for pissin me off.
 
#13
I am not trying to be harsh but dont try to make your daily driver a hot rod. Especially if you get tired of working on stuff, you shoot yourself in the foot. 2nd y would you move into an apt complex like that. My father was in the same predicament back in the 70's except he had a Shelby gt350 and sold it because he had to many cars for the complex, 4 at the time. I would look into a house with your gf if ya'll are serious with a combined income why throw money away on rent.


Why get pissed Bob, 88gt didn't put you in your current situation, your choices and actions did.
 
#15
just4bob50 said:
WOW...... Im not really sure where I should start with that statement. First Im 35 and the wife is 34. My daughters are 18 and 12. We have owned our house for 8 years and only owe 12 yet. I make 55-60 grand a year and the wife makes 30. We put 10% of our salaries into a 401K plus all the stock I own from the investment group that im a memeber of. 1200 a month for mort. 500 month for all the life and health insurances for a family of 4, 230 a month for insurance on 4 cars, 600 a month in groceries, and now 330 month for a car payment not to mention the price of gas. So when your mustang is the last thing on the priority list everthing else comes first. My overtime goes for the stang.............. Thanks for pissin me off.
Click to expand...
So when did this become your thread? Pretty sure he was asking crazy pete.
 
#16
just4bob50 said:
WOW...... Im not really sure where I should start with that statement. First Im 35 and the wife is 34. My daughters are 18 and 12. We have owned our house for 8 years and only owe 12 yet. I make 55-60 grand a year and the wife makes 30. We put 10% of our salaries into a 401K plus all the stock I own from the investment group that im a memeber of. 1200 a month for mort. 500 month for all the life and health insurances for a family of 4, 230 a month for insurance on 4 cars, 600 a month in groceries, and now 330 month for a car payment not to mention the price of gas. So when your mustang is the last thing on the priority list everthing else comes first. My overtime goes for the stang.............. Thanks for pissin me off.
Click to expand...
Ok, so you're well on track to have your home paid for by the end of this year if you didn't put anything else into savings, not accounting for gas prices of course. What's the problem again?
Woodrow said:
Why get pissed Bob, 88gt didn't put you in your current situation, your choices and actions did.
Click to expand...
QFT
 
#18
Here's my bit of advice. Buy a cheap DD and put the Stang away for exactly 1 year. Start it up once a month or so, but don't drive it. At the end of a year, get it out of storage and see what you think. If you still have no interest in the car - sell it. I have a feeling you'll have a renewed interest in your car - grease and all ;)
 
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