The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Ever Feel Like Throwing in the Towel?

... it does work though. I have a 68 automatic steering column I've had in a zillion pieces and even with pics I took it still intimidated me. I have kept it on the work bench and spent many of the 5 min days looking at it and trying to figure it out....
Well, my five minutes today turned into about 3 hours. The steering column is back together,(I can do it blindfolded now) and SEVERAL small things got done. Tomorrow my five minutes is putting the window channel guides in and whatever else I can do once I "get started"....

Way to go Brian. Give it a try Dale, even if its just going over the manual for five minutes.

I love all the advice. As my name suggests, my biggest problem is looking at the entire truck (and many pieces) and wondering how its all going to get done! I think I'm gonna make a list, what to have done when I have money and what to work on myself when I dont. Maybe then I'll try out your "5 min" rule and see if things don't pick up (by the way, I'm going to get the 235 to replace my 216 this weekend - I'm pretty stoked about that!)

I never looked at the whole mess because if I did I just looked at how much was left instead of how much was accomplished. I tried to work on one component at a time, finished it and then moved on. Even on the cab I worked on one side floor, one side cab corner, then one rocker etc.

Still have quite a few hours left on the 66 before its "finished" but now I'm looking at my 36 (that I've had in pieces since 1981) and wondering if I have the time, money, and energy to start all over.The 66 was for my son so I won't even get to drive it much. The 36 will be MINE!

Taking a break now and insulating & sheeting the inside of the garage- then on to some house repairs I've put off for the last couple of years...........

inovermyhead:
Dave64 is right on about working on one thing at a time if possible. One other thing I try to do but failed to mention is that I do not just jump in on a project and dis-mantle it.
As I take stuff off, I try to work on it. For example, when I pulled the head light buckets out I blasted, primed/painted them, ordered new headlights, pigtail, retaining rings and any little sping or screw needed to put them back in. When that was done I put them in a box, and slid it under a bench. DONE...now on to the next project.
I do this so that when I get the last piece done I know that the grunt work is done and the reassembly is going to go smooth and all the cleaning, grinding, ect ect is done.
This works for me but perhaps not for everyone. I just hate to have a MESS hanging around that is nasty, crusty and needing hours of work. IF you go ahead and "finish" some pieces as you go then it appears and makes you feel like your making progress.

Just thought I'd throw this in here

When I bought my first TF ( I had had a 55.1 before that) it came home on a flatbed, cab on frame only, driver's door off, no other sheetmetal, drivetrain in place, unknown condition. That was after work on a friday evening. By Sunday afternoon, I had everything assembled, engine running and went for my first drive in it. Nothing was pretty, but it proved itself a good workhorse for a few years.

I have another car that I've had for many years. At one point, when my son was 3 months old, it dropped a valve. Not abig deal, fairly fresh engine, just my stupidity buying cheap roller rockers. Replaced the valve, knurled the guide, good to go. But wait a minute. I just found a deal on better heads! Sell this set to buy them, ok. Need to change cam to match heads, ok, yank the engine. Might as well fix the hole in the firewall properly, that I had just covered with aluminum sheet when I was in high school. Carpet's shot, too. One thing led to another and soon I had it down to a bare shell on the frame. 2 years went by, no money to be had, another child on the way, it continued to sit. Never could let it go however. The drive to get it all back together was always there. Time and money weren't. Not too long after my daughter was born, she left, and now I only had 1 income to work with, 3 kids and the same bills. I made it through, finally got ahead a little and got back to work. That boy that was 3 months old in the beginning is now 10. I finally got it done enough to go for a drive when he was 7. It's still not done completely. There's still lots I want to do. Sometimes life doesn't permit that. My kids and family have always come first. Take a break if you need to. The truck will be there waiting patiently wne you're done.

Devin

Typical case of ShipFitters Deisease(spelling)..
While I'm doing this, I might as well do that....and this as well...next thing ya know, it's in pieces on da floor....

One thing I've learned with an '89 I've been trying to get back to original shape -- Sit, look, sit some more, think, ... Go after it. Just get the tool out of the case, and go after it. Thinking forever ain't gonna' help a bit. And moping "I dunno how this works" has stopped me a few times, but I'm learning the way 'round that. The '59 is a different story, that goes whenever the heck I can find a transport.

VERY good point. I have been preaching in the autobody forums for years to not strip the paint off the complete car, do one panel at a time getting that one panel back into primer before moving to the next. Looking at a bare metal car in the garage is SEROUS overwhelming!

I have to tell you guys, this 5 minutes a day is working like a charm! Because I have this dedication, of at least the five minutes and I WILL let myself off the hook with JUST the five minutes if I really feel like it, I am looking forward to getting out there every day! I will get up off the couch dead tired and go out there knowing that I can bolt on an emblem or some other small task and be HAPPY that I fulfilled my "obligation". I am doing it every day, haven't missed a single one. This darn car is going to be done some day!

Brian

If you are "thinking" about making a list, you will never get that thing done! Dear God, a "LIST" isn't going to get a darn thing done on that truck! Get out there and work five minutes on the thing, the "LIST" will come to you, believe me.

The only difference between restoring a truck and washing it is the amount of time it takes to do it. Restoring one takes many more small steps, that is the only difference. Each one of those steps is EASILY attainable by most anyone. Yesterday I had my son here and had to pull the hood off my Gran Sport so I could restore the hinges. He and I grabbed the hood and his cute little girlfriend unscrewed the last bolt holding the hood. There she was in a sun dress, tiny little quarter inch thick "flip flop" looking things on her feet, perfectly painted finger nails working a ratchet for the first time in her life removing that bolt. It was just ONE step, and she did just fine carefully setting the ratchet down and unscrewing the bolt with her hand and setting it on the valve cover where she saw me set mine. Just one step, she had never done anything like that before but pulled it off without a hitch.

I KNOW that her and my wife could finish this car, I KNOW they could. Just one step at a time, I KNOW they could do each one of those steps.

And if it came to something more complicated like doing the body filler work or something like that, if you break it down into small enough steps, they could do that too!

All it takes is looking at each one of these steps ONE AT A TIME. Can you imagine building a 747, it's just a million pieces, that is all it is. Each one of those million pieces you could hold in your hands! Just put on one at a time until you have a plane.

Brian

oh heck, i only have SIX vehicles in some form of; getting rid of it, getting it ready to get rid of it, getting it back together to get it on the road, on the road but needs a glitch out of it, 2 with all the parts including motors in pieces, and then there's lucky #7 - the only one i really care about - the '50 3100 that has a few plans for me, and that'll replace glitch. and of course there's the unfinished house. thank god i'm a bachelor man! too many toys and not enough lifetimes! throw in the towel? you bet, and right about now, after spending 4 hrs looking for an electrical glitch, not finding it, and then finding another one, right after finding a fuel line leak. a moment of silence please, and then a gun shot