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Lost interest

hammermachine

hammermachine

1/2 ton status
 Premium
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
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Location
The East Coast Texas
Let me just say I love my K5. But that said, I have two repair projects, (replacing rotted rocker panel ,and replacing roof gasket) which I have been putting off since spring. I don't know what it is, but I really don't want to work on her anymore. I drove her today into NYC to pick up some stuff for a friend. She handled great, no problems other than alittle smoke at traffic stops. But I don't feel like fixing her or wheeling her anymore. Has anyone been like that?
 
yep. few years now.

my problem has been lack of ambition after 8-9 hrs of working on rust buckets at work all day. :doah:
 
Been there too... Just feel like getting to drive it again here lately though. I love to be behind the wheel of it.
 
I go thru phases as well. Right now I'm in the, "fix every little tiny thing" on my K5. Hence all my posts in the garage, lol.

There for awhile I didnt touch my truck for months on end. Sometimes youve just got to step away from them, but not too long or you wont get back in there and git er done.
 
i can relate to that too. life is cyclical....up down up down. i just finished a ground up Harley Shovel and had some ignition issues right before i needed to have my shoulder rebuilt. now i can't even ride my other bike and was a bit on the depressed side for a few weeks. needless to say i put everything on hold for a bit till it passed. i've just learned not to make drastic decisions while not in my "right" frame of mind,,,,,all will be fine soon and i'll have my '90 K5 in a few weeks too. you'll get over the hump when you're supposed to. don't loose the faith, it'll all come back around for you, trust me..........Bill
 
hammermachine said:
Let me just say I love my K5. But that said, I have two repair projects, (replacing rotted rocker panel ,and replacing roof gasket) which I have been putting off since spring. I don't know what it is, but I really don't want to work on her anymore. I drove her today into NYC to pick up some stuff for a friend. She handled great, no problems other than alittle smoke at traffic stops. But I don't feel like fixing her or wheeling her anymore. Has anyone been like that?
Click to expand...

I am 45 years old come this next week. I have been turning wrenches since I was 15 and I cannot count how many times I have wanted to walk away. But thats where you find out if its a fad or a hobbie. To me I must love it. The only thing over all these years that has bothered me is I wish I had the money to buy a parts and finish things as I wanted.
My only wish right now is to finally have a garage to do my work in. Next year will be my year
 
I definitely agree it happens to the majority of us...some of us while knee deep in a project that got way bigger than we expected. For me it came after owning my Jimmy for almost a dozen years, countless thousands into it, had just completed the last phase of mods...drove it and absolutely hated it.

I ended up putting it into storage away from the house so I wouldn't even have to look at it. After a year I brought it home and went over everything wit a critical eye and decided parting it and starting over was the answer. So, that's what i did.

I learned the most important thing with that though...you really have to be honest with how you plan to use the truck the majority of the time. Mine was not built for it's 'majority' use. My current build is, and will be as things get upgrades. I don't wheel hard enough, often enough to build an uber hard core rig...but I do drive it on the street a lot and like to wheel easy to moderate stuff.

It's no surprise to me i enjoy working on my 90, and do so regularly now. I have regained my focus, and have a much more solid plan. It's also a much less messed up starting point than the Jimmy ever was.

Rene
 
guilty here too....I went at it pretty good from the onset of winter til spring had sprung....hardly done anything since. Life just got real busy, and summer was here. I like being outdoors, riding my m/c, camping, etc. and the IronMaiden just hardly got touched. My Vette still isn't on the road, and that was a for sure thing by June....um yeah right. I'm hoping with the cooler weather, and summer gone, time will allow more to get into the shop and get back at it. I'm also making a to do list for the project, and need to cronologically put them in order and start hitting em.
 
ive definitely slowd way down since summer hit.i wanted to be out before summer happened because i knew once it was hot i wouldnt drag my lazy ass into the garage.i have been in there a lot the last couple days since it dropped to low 90s though.there is hope for us man.it helps to finally have a garage to work in also.i was doing all my mods from the street for years.i got a lot of slow drive bys from the fuzz lookin at what was goin on since i lived downtown also.haha.but i got it runnin every time i did a mod in a weekend.gettin older sux.too many obligations and kids to pay attention too,(which i love by the way).we cant all stay 20 though.
 
i sure hope my big life changing move to nc will get me going again.

lots more to do down there than prision state new york.

and lot less rust to work on. that alone will be less stress in my life.
 
well SweetK....i don't wanna sound like a know it all, but i've had similar experiences with the geographical swaps. i moved upstate for 8 years with the new bride, dogs, house and all that happy crap...it worked for a while, but i forgot that i brought myself with me. tooks lots of trials and tribulations to work out my demons......not many people get to start their life over with a clean slate at 40....i'm 45 now and i consider myself very lucky and blessed. i hope you work it out too and don't have to deal with bad choices that some of us have made........i got some good friends down NC way, i'll be ridin down that way pretty soon myself, wanna ride the Dragon once more while i'm still vertical and suckin air........be well
 
ya i am 32 and no major bagage to carry along with me.

i live simple and try to keep it that way.

so my change should be easy as easy can be. :eek1:
 
I understand where everyone is coming from...... I just took a 3 week break.... I can understand why I hear so many "burnt out or lost interest" post....

it can be daunting, especially a big project.... there where times a yr aor 2 ago, when just beginning the fab work, sandblasting, etc when I could have just said "fock me".... the hrs of labor ahead of me where countless.... every single project gets, let's say, extensive... :rolleyes::o:haha:

i AVERAGE 20 to 25 hrs a WEEK on my truck I'd guess... guess it's the masochistic skater or stubborn arse in me, I have a pic in my head, and damn it all if I'm not gonna build that.... :deal: :grind::weld::saweet::woot:

but i also spent nearly 10 yrs prior to doing this build just driving DD's and not building hotrods for myself, not since my Chevelle build...

just hang in there dude and don't sweat it... it'll come back around at some point... no guilt, just live life...
 
ya i have taken a 3 month break from everything .

no work / no play / no life in general. just a good old clean out of the body/mind/soul.

and boy do i fell better now. :waytogo:
 
Before I did the build that is now my Blazer, it sat for a year untouched...

My bro-in-law grenaded the gears in the rear of his Jimmy and needed it fixed being his DD... He didn't have the money for new gears, so I pulled the 12b out of my Blazer and stuffed it under his...

The Blazer had been a wheeling only rig for a few years, so I figured having him up and running to keep his job was more of a priority...

It sat on jack stands for a little over a year... It was actually a really good thing in the long run... It gave me a break from wrenching on my junk and spending money on it... I just rode and pulled cable for all my buddies and learned a lot about K5s by just watching how all the rigs worked on the trail... Somethings worked great and other things didn't...

When I was chomping at the bit again to work on my rig, I had a way better understanding of what I wanted to build... I also had a fresh re-energized desire to get in and get it done...

Sometimes you just have to put the tools down and regroup...
 
So as you can see youre not the only one. I talk about my attitude in my build thread a bit. My truck sat for a year with a blown motor.
 
A wise man once said:

"The Blazer is a patient mistress.....she'll always wait until you've got time."




:usaflag:
 
Sometimes what gets me is the list of repairs or projects that need to be done gets overwhelming. As I keep putting things off the list grows and it gets worse. I get to the point of saying f-it and parking or even selling "x" vehicle. It's usually a project like bodywork that will put me on hold because I have limited experience with it. Then I get in there, get it done and realize how much of a difference it made. Most of the time tackling one repair will put me back on a roll again. And before I know it I'm happy as a clam driving around in my old car/truck/whatever.

So, my advice would be to tackle a small project, this may get you fired up again.
 
Nothing saps my ambition to fix up anything worse than rust....it seems a futile waste of time and effort,repairing a vehicle thats rotting away,not to mention pouring money into a vehicle that isn't worth it (to anyone but yourself maybe!.)...it seems one thing after another crumbles after replacing another,and you realize YOUR aging too,and as you do, your strength and ability to DO the amount of physical labor wanes,and you tend to put things off,and to save money,jerry rigging "temporary" fixes that end up being permanent,and the next thing you know you have a vehicle with a "laundry list" so long ,that you feel like peuking when you look at it ---..
And if you do throw in the towel,few if any people will be interested in buying a antique truck thats rusted and been worked all its life..

Thats about where I am on my trucks,and winter is fast approaching and if I want to have it to plow with,its got to be fixed up--inspection sticker is due next month..:(..the amount of money you must throw away just to keep a hardly driven vehicle registered & insured,inspected and RUNNING is very discouraging too...I paid 400 bucks for my 85 K-10 Suburban,but the title alone will be 75 bucks,plates are 50,and a years worth of insurance is 500 roughly...pretty sad when you can buy a decent vehicle for less than it costs to get it on the road legally..
 
496truck said:
Sometimes what gets me is the list of repairs or projects that need to be done gets overwhelming. As I keep putting things off the list grows and it gets worse. I get to the point of saying f-it and parking or even selling "x" vehicle. It's usually a project like bodywork that will put me on hold because I have limited experience with it. Then I get in there, get it done and realize how much of a difference it made. Most of the time tackling one repair will put me back on a roll again. And before I know it I'm happy as a clam driving around in my old car/truck/whatever.

So, my advice would be to tackle a small project, this may get you fired up again.
Click to expand...
Good points. Here is the problem with building our trucks. Most of us are non professional novices. Yet most of us at one point or another seem to think we can preform a complete ground up rebuild in the driveway with little more than a set of home owner hand tools. We take on too much at one time. It makes no sense to try and do an engine swap, suspension make over and paint job all at once, yet many of us try to just that. I tried to do it all at once a few years ago and went through the money fast, and could not focus. I finally had to step back from it and let it sit. Now I have a plan and a focus. Step one is to get it painted, and that is all I am doing at this point. After that I plan on doing the interior. Next step will probably be some suspension mods. I know I am not a pro nor am I rich, so I can't do it all and I can't do it all at once. Over the last few months I have spent probably around $500 on it doing the body work. That includes the cost of paint as well. Right now things are getting done and the cost is not killing my bank account. I also have a focus I can handle with out overwhelming myself in a project I can't handle. One step at a time is the way to go.
 
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