Ken,
Been there, did that, been discouraged as H**l. Sometimes left the
project for as much as a year at a time because I needed some time in my
life without that level of discouragement.
It took me 10 years but I'm driving my TR3 again. She now brings a smile
to my lips whenever I glance her way. During the final assembly I was
wondering if I had forgotten something important or put something on
wrong and the car would not work or fall apart on the road. The car had
a slow start up period while I looked for and corrected numerous little
things and went through and retightened things. But now that the work is
99% done I remember why I put myself through the torture of a complete
rebuild on dirt without a garage. If you have not guessed, I do not like
spending my time doing mechanic work. I'm just too cheap to pay someone
else to do something I think I can do.
There seem to be two kinds of rebuilders. Those who do it because they
enjoy spending their time making a vintage car like new and those who
just want their car to become like new but could think of many other
things they would rather do for their time.
I fall into the second group and I guess that you do too. We are not
experts at rebuilding. We learn as we go and we make our share of
mistakes while learning. This means lots of doubts, lots of removing
installed parts because you didn't get it right the first time. This is
a normal part of learning how to rebuild a car.
I noticed that you are giving yourself a deadline to raise your level of
anxiety and get you focused on getting the job done within a given time.
It is even more normal to feel discouraged when you give yourself a
deadline. A timeline is a two edged sword.
Those of us focused on getting the project finished with the rebuild and
not just going out to relax by spending time on the rebuild project, will
feel a tension at how slow the project is going and frequently get
discouraged at our apparent lack of progress. It is normal. It is also
where many projects come to a halt and many vintage cars die. I think I
read somewhere that four out of five cars disassembled for a home rebuild
never get reassembled again.
The soul of a classic car slowly dissipates when it is disassembled and
the parts are sitting scattered about a rebuild area. It dissipates to
the point where it exists only within the person doing the rebuild.
When that person looses it, the car becomes a collection of parts and
nothing more.
There were times I thought my TR3 would become one of these casualties.
That it entered into a sleep that would go deeper and deeper that would
slowly dissipate into nothing. But luckily for my car my personality
also has a strong tenacity component that kept me going through lots and
lots of discouragement and times of just being overwhelmed by the scope
of the project. Through this I desperately hung onto the memories of
driving my 3 through the mountains. I remembered the feisty little beast
that was ready to take on the new cars, the smile that she brought so
readily to my lips, the exhilaration of being out on the windy country
roads going through the gears. Sometimes dimly, sometimes the level of
discouragement was so high I almost lost it. But after 10 years of
working through this project I was finally able to restore that soul back
into it's proper body to flourish once again. Beware new sports cars,
there is once again a feisty roaring Triumph TR3A stalking you. The
flame burns brightly once again.
Never doubt that the end results will be worth the work you put in today.
>
>Listers:
>
>After what was one of those one or two days per year when central Illinois
>is pure heaven (low 70's, no humidity, blue skies, light breeze) I spent 7
>hours in the garage with the TR3 from hell.
>
>Five items I thought were on taken apart again, three previous screw ups
>fixed and replaced, one figured out but not yet replaced and one more new
>broken this time around. I guess you can call it progress. Any bets on
>whether I live long enough to see this project through?
>
>Last years goal (Oakwood) is beginning to look unattainable, maybe Champaign
>next spring.
>
>Ken Gano
>"don't torque that down just yet"
>
>
>
TeriAnn
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