I was discussing the progress of the Beetle project with my wife the other day, I was telling her that I needed to finish this up, add that part, rebuild these pieces, take all the little parts to the paint shop, order the hundreds of new parts I will need, and . . . Anyone who has ever done a complete body off pan strip and cut up, complete project like this, knows exactly what I am feeling right now. It's thousands of little things to keep your head around. I quickly discovered I was going to need something other than my tiny little brain to keep track of all the details and finances that are required to do a project like this. I have done seven project cars of my own over the years, from various stages of work required. I have worked on hundreds of cars that were not my own, but I can tell you for certain that this is the most involved I have gotten into a restoration project, ever.
I let my head spin for a couple of days and I realized I was in a funk about the whole thing. There were no quick fixes here, just lots of effort and time. It will literally be at least two years before I can be rolling down the road in my hot new Beetle. In that flash of uneasiness, I could see just how so many projects got to a similar stage and just stopped. The project manager just simply hit the "Project Overwhelm" point and locked up. I have never hit that point in a project before. As project cost go, this isn't a huge project, as far as complexity however, it's a pretty big deal.
My solution was to start making lists. I made a budget that projects the costs of completion with several options of restoration thoroughness. You know, the wish list (full blown hot rod, all the way to doin' it on the cheap.) This took a couple of days and really helped me get my head around the tasks at hand. Next I started making lists of things that needed to get done. I broke the project down into four major sections, Pan (rolling chassis), Engine, Interior, and Body. I listed all the things I needed to do to finish each of these sections and then worked out the order I will be tackling these four sections. Again, more clarity. Next I worked up parts lists and rough estimates of when I needed to order parts for each section.
I stopped short of putting the project into a time-line. That would have helped, but I really want to enjoy this project, not feel like I am always behind on some artificial time-line, imposed by some knuckle head that really has no idea about how much effort is required here (that would be me!). I get enough of that crap at work. Then a shocking revelation hit me, this was as bad as it gets! The car is as stripped down, taken apart, and spread out as it ever will be for this project. The very next thing I do will be putting things back together. That was huge. I have turned the corner. Things are on the uphill side now.
The moral to this story? Shake it off man! Get your crap together and think it through, don't let yourself get down about all the work left to do, that’s why you started restoring cars in the first place, you enjoy the work, just think of all the fun left ahead of you. Lots of evenings in the garage sipping on a cold (or hot this time of year) beverage tinkering with the project. Make a list, build a budget, start a blog about your car, (We all like to read those, they keep us motivated and it gives us new ideas.) But most of all, work on the project a bit every day, even if it's cleaning a few parts, or organizing nuts and bolts, get to it. Progress will start to happen. That’s when it gets fun.
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