This car has been sitting like this for 2 months and I’ve had zero itch to work on it. Between being fat, lazy,out of shape, getting a concussion June 23 in a car wreck, allergies, lack of interest, and Racing my bracket car, I hardly every walk into the shop. On almost finished powerglide transmission has been on my stand for 6 weeks untouched with about an hours work left to do. I haven’t done any porting work since some grinding last winter. A set of .350 offset rockersmall block Edelbrock heads haven’t been touch in 1.5 years is sitting bolted on my flowbench. I gotta snap out of it as I have at least 4 engines I want to build this winter aft r race season finishes the end of October

Don't make it perfect, just get it running.

Stop dreaming, and start doing.

This^^^^^^^^^^^^ Jesus! I am half dead and manage to work on mine once in a while! Maybe you should ask Porky Pig what he would do....

I about choked on that one laughing - I think we have a winner for best "Motivational Speech"

This is the plan .

Tex

At least wait for a lung full of below sea level air before deciding. less than 30 days away.....

Hear, Hear!

i must of missed a lot on the way. I remember years ago you went with us when we rented the track. them you built a new engine and dynoed it I thought. So what do you have to still do to it. to get it running and driving.

There's my problem is I'm "that guy" I can do transmissions,engines and rear ends with some tuning and electrical work thrown in so I spend time working on friends cars while mine is about 12 hours from being ready to race.
Now the good news is I got motivated from this thread and spent 4 hours out in the shop tonight and now the engine is ready to run again
Thanks Brad

Gus

I have certain tasks that I wanted to complete as part of putting the car back on the road & track. One of the things I have to consider is how many I'm willing to short-cut or ignore completely, neither option which I like, since there were specific reasons for wanting to complete them now, rather than after the car's back together.

Also, there have been some "one step forward, two step back" experiences which have put me off track, such as some krap I determined last night unexpectedly. As straight forward as the process "should" be, it hasn't been. Some of it is self-inflicted and some of it "is what it is" due to time constraints, etc.

I'll post updates if I make some key milestones, but not much else to say at this point. And in retrospect, I shouldn't have bothered starting this thread in the first place and should just go about my business.

When I need motivation , all I need to do is think back to the advice that the family gave Navin R. Johnson as he was leaving home for the first time.......................The Lord Loves a Working Man , Don't Trust Whitey and See a Doctor to Get Rid of It.
I hope it helps.
I already has this , and that lesson has also served me well.

For me getting my car running & street legal really helped me stay motivated to go back & fix , finish or redo areas of the car, getting to drive the car even with the worn out junk 383 made me smile, then it got the A518 & 512 low deck ect,ect, more smiles. it will never be done

The biggest source of motivation: Progress!


motivation science

These pictures are 5 years apart. I've spent every chance I can in the garage. I don't have cable T.V. So instead of getting home from work, and kicking back, I crank up the radio, and try to do something on the car. Some days it's 10 minutes, some times it 5-6 hours.

Don't sweat the small stuff and just get it done. It's to the point that all of the analyzing you do as far as what works, what doesn't work, who is right, who is wrong, this is the popular opinion on this or that has consumed your ability to complete a project. Do yourself a favor and log off Moparts for 2 months and just put your car together and drive it.. At the end of the day nobody really cares if your pushrods are .003 too long or if the BLP main body has no definitive data on it's flow numbers vs Proform... Life is short.......... Get er done!!!!!!!!!!

I've been saying for years i need too do the body and paint on mine ... it "might" actually get done in the next year.

Do what you can’t do once the engine is installed. Then install the engine and get it running. It will all fall into place after that. Do as I say not as I do. :-)

Brad I had to have the engine in CokeBottleKids old Charger eat a piston before I concentrated on my Demon that hadn't ran in at least 10 years..... It runs now and runs damn good, suck it up and buckle down.

No speech from me....Get off your butt and finish it! And after that, if you feel the same way, put it out to market....

I'm getting close to finishing up the Duster. This is one of those projects that I thought I'd knock out in a few months then it turned into a year and now it is right at 2 years since I started working on it. I changed my mind on a bunch of things, changed direction on engine, changed direction on race car vs. street car, etc. But I learned a lot in the process and maybe even had some fun. It was a lot more work than I expected but it does feel good to be getting close to the end. I wouldn't be close to finishing the project without help. I got stuck hard a couple of times where I just didn't have the tools or talent to fix the problems. I had to drag the car twice to a chassis shop so they could fix the core support, add the cage, fix the floor, fix the rear suspension mounting points, fix the frame issues, etc. I just didn't have the capability of doing that stuff. I also had it towed to the paint shop and had it towed out for a custom exhaust system. I've had people over several times to help me with stuff like the front end alignment and window glass. I've learned the hard way that if I need help I need help. If I try something myself and bust stuff then that puts me further behind. I have more tools, time and experience than most home shop guys but there are a lot of things I don't know how to do so I learned to ask for help.

To be fair, the Duster sat in my shop untouched for 5 years while I was working full time. I didn't actually have any time to work on it until I quit my day job. So I understand if people who have a family and are working 40+ hours a week can't also squeeze in the time to work on a car project. I didn't have time for this project when I was working full time.