Complete mojo failure

[luckyseven]

I dunno why I bother

Actually, I could leave it there, that single sentence sums it up perfectly. But, in more detail... my wife reversed into my RX-7 Yeah, it's kinda funny and it's not massive damage; just the bumper shattered, wing bent, headlight panel distorted, just a load of metalwork, fibreglass and a total repaint of the entire front end. And y'know what? I just don't care. It's sat outside the front door and I don't even see it when I walk outside now, it's just scenery.

The Beetle is in the garage, pretty much just used as a shelf. It's covered in crud and I couldn't even be to cover it when I was grinding the rear of the bus outside, so it's now also covered in filler dust and wire wheel shrapnel. I've got pretty much all the stuff for an epic engine build (including a brand new epic engine) and y'know what? I just can't be bothered. I can't even be bothered to take the stuff out of the packets and take a photo of it. What's the point? Maybe get a thumbs-up button pressed on the internet? Woot.

The bus is... well, it's just terrible. I suspect it could become like painting the Forth Bridge, except I don't believe the paint on the bridge reacted with the primer and bubbled up like it just did on the bus. So now I need to sand the entire thing back and start again hoping that whatever it was reacted won't do it again. And that's just curse word hours of work and y'know what? I just cannot be curse word bothered.



And here's the rub. Even if I did as good a job of paint as I could feasibly do it'd still just be a slow, rusty, fairly unpleasant to drive old pile of curse word. And because the paint reacted and I couldn't therefore get it finished in time to drive it on holiday like we'd planned we ended up going in the wife's 2009 Ford Focus. Which drove admirably, gave great fuel economy, held all of us in comfort, had a working heater and just generally did all the ordinary things that make a vehicle ...well, just a vehicle. And why bother seeking more, frankly? It's just so unpleasant an experience driving any distance nowadays due to rubbish roads, speed cameras, idiotic driving it just isn't fun any more. Even those early Sunday morning hoons are no longer feasible unless you want to get up really early. This was really rammed home by going from Sussex up to the peaks for our family holiday; it seems like most of Staffordshire is now a 50 limit with average speed cameras, and I'm not talking motorway roadworks, this is normal A-roads. Might as well drive a Ford Focus and save myself having to spend literally all my disposable income and all my free time trying to keep old cars running that are only ever going to be pretty poor examples even of their own breed, let alone as a functional vehicle.


What's the point? For the first time in since I got my driving licence I don't actually have a functioning vehicle. And y'know what? I couldn't care less. Modern life is rubbish.


or is it just me?

[Mercdan68]

Not going to preach, not looking for any sympathy
But I lost a great friend in my uncle to cancer just over a month ago , never did I believe that live for today thing
I bloody do now ! Life is here to enjoy we’re only here for a visit , life sometimes gets you down , but you have your loved ones and your friends , life is precious enjoy every second , good luck chap keep your chin up
Regards Danny

[andyborris]

As mercdan68 says, but you're also suffering from burn out, partly caused by too many vehicles, needing too much work, too much money and time and (even if you don't realise it) they're dragging you away from family and friends.

Sell the lot, replace with one decent hobby car you can share with your loved ones and they'll keep your sprits up, because they enjoy the time spent with you!


Learnt this the hard way.....

[Darkspeed]

Apr 15, 2019 17:35:08 GMT luckyseven said:

I dunno why I bother....

.....or is it just me?

Nope - Actually I could leave it just there as that single word sums it up perfectly for,

Cars
Bikes
Work
Marriage
Life
etc.
etc.
etc.

However, I choose the option of just putting one foot in front of the other - or my favourite "How do you eat an elephant"... "One bite at a time" approach. Every now and then I like to walk up a mountain just to remind myself that sometimes enduring pain and discomfort can result in a fantastic view and true sense of achievement. Occasionally you will just get curse word wet through and the view of the inside of a cloud, but the achievement of keeping going when that is all you are going to get at the top is the reward in itself.

It does not stop me having the same thoughts of "why do I bother" - but I just continue to eat the elephant.

[bmcnut]

I cant give any advice on what you should do, I think I get where your heads at, but we all deal with things slightly differently. All i can do is give my view from my experience and hope that it helps in some way.

I was born into classic cars, i grew up with it, almost every evening, weekend, and holiday was spent doing something car related to the point where it was my normality. I loved it, dad took me everywhere, showed me everything that made him tick and i loved it. When he became ill it was clear that I would take on his 2 cars and continue things, we talked about it alot, how i would put my stamp on the maxi he built, and continue running the other one that had ferried me everywhere so so long, it really was more than a car to me. When he passed away I had to take a break from them, it felt like the right thing to do.

When the time came to deal with them i had to make the choice to keep one and sell one. I sold the one that meant more to me than just a lump of metal because the one he had built was in much better shape. Once it was gone it was suprisingly easy, making the decision was the hard bit. the one i was left with continued to sit in the garage for a bit until I thought "whats the point?" even if I had the cars and went to shows the whole point of them was lost because my dad was no longer here, and if i did the work to it, "whats the point?" I wasnt a case of getting upset about it or anything like that, just realising that the forced break id taken from shows and cars-cars-cars-cars-cars-cars was quite refreshing, so I sold the car I never thought id sell and to this day I don't regret it. For afew years i bounced around in a Micra but couldnt tear myself away from being, for want of a better word, an enthusiast of old cars and stuff, but it gave me more time to do whatever i felt like without having the cars hanging over me. I now have a Nissan Cube which is modern enough for reliable daily motoring, but different enough for me to be enthusiastic about the car I own once again, and it gets a fair bit of attention which is nice, especially when people look at me like ive got my head on upside down lol

So i guess what I'm trying to say is, do what youve got to do, it would have been easy for me to say "i cant sell them because they were my dads" but when youve had enough, youve had enough. On the other hand, try and give it time for the mojo to come back if you can

[flutterfeatures]

Ive had the why do I bother feeling recently, about two years ago was the worst, it comes and goes now. Life is short and you just need to do what you can to make the best of it, having things to look forwards to is all that keeps me going sometimes- if you no longer look forward to driving a car you've saved then find something else that does give you satisfaction and a reason to exist.

Good luck.

[Deleted]

Apr 15, 2019 18:06:33 GMT andyborris said:

As mercdan68 says, but you're also suffering from burn out, partly caused by too many vehicles, needing too much work, too much money and time and (even if you don't realise it) they're dragging you away from family and friends.

Sell the lot, replace with one decent hobby car you can share with your loved ones and they'll keep your sprits up, because they enjoy the time spent with you!


Learnt this the hard way.....

Could not have put it better myself

[Deleted]

L7 - Having been there myself I can understand where you are at - it will be a sad day if every ounce of passion that you have for older / retro motors has gone for good and you only have to look at your excellent RR pic threads to see that you clearly have (had) passion - so has already stated by others - I would clear the decks - sell on what you have and go and purchase one reliable retro (that does not require any work) that both you and the family can enjoy

[johnthesparky]

I gave up on trying to make old curse word work for me without breaking down about 10 years ago, bought a brand new van, wife got a brand new car about 5 years ago... I even swapped the van after 6 years to maximise profit blah blah....

So we have a Skoda Octavia and a VW T6 transporter, they are great, get in and turn the key and they just start and go etc

But they are also boring, so after a while away we got back into it, The Fug is a bit of an anomaly, but I enjoy driving Ella’s Corsa as much as the van to be honest, it’s very simple and there is something I really like about that.

As said, the prospect of fixing 3 vehicles and spreading yourself thin is probably part of the problem. So either sack it or pick the most useful and just sort that. But if you do sack it and sell up I suspect you’ll be back again in a few years with some old car




And typical, just at the point where you were going to build an engine, and I could make comment rather than just liking your posts you throw it in... I could have sounded knowledgeable for a moment!

[turbotechnics]

I find the best approach with a busy life is to have one “project” car. Anymore and things get messy (in my head). As said, sell the lot and buy one car you can put your efforts into and enjoy it or sack it off all together and find a new hobby.

[adam73bgt]

Fully agree with what andyborris said as I had the same feeling lately, looking at all the various car parts for different projects dotted around the house/garage made me realise that things had got out of hand and I just wasn't making progress with anything. So now I've shifted on most of my BMW parts, the car will go, and I'll focus on my MGB as my one main project.

Even seeing some more space around where I once had a load of BMW Air Con parts and other random bits from breaker cars stored, has given me a bit of a lift

And totally get what you mean about driving in the UK most of the time these days, its mostly why I daily a big automatic at the moment as its a bit more relaxing in traffic and easy on the clutch leg

Edit to add:

What I will say though, is driving something older/a bit out of the ordinary is worth it for those random moments you wouldn't otherwise have from driving a more 'normal' car. Like this evening I walked out of Tesco and happened to get chatting to a guy in the car park who was taking a photo of my Legend, he had his LS400 parked up and we just got chatting about various cars we had. Random car enthusiast stuff like that is often forgotten I think when 'the scene' seems to be such an all encompassing thing these days

[mrbounce]

As others have said, it could be simply the number of vehicles and trying to spread yourself too thinly.

I only have the one project and I've been at it years. And on occasions it has made me consider burning the garage down or taking a hammer to it. I simply shut the garage door and walk away, often for weeks at a time. What do I do for motivation? I come on here and look at other people's projects. It shows me that it can be done and I slowly regain my mojo. I head back into the garage and reassess. That works for me.   

[Roach]

You should think yourself lucky.

I haven’t got any projects any more, can’t afford one, can’t see me affording one for many years.

Pop a couple of Prozac, chin up!!

[piguin]

Even a single project car can easily lead to loss of mojo, let alone when you have a ton of them and it becomes tedious work without a light in the end of the tunnel.

Projects, for me at least, are about escape. A way to charge my batteries, clear my head and work on creating/fixing something. Why does it work? Because in contrast to most things in life, you can actually see and feel the difference your blood, sweat and tears produced, taking you step by step closer to either the car of your dreams, or simply an actual working vehicle that started as a rusty heap.

Projects are also personal. Despite us all here sharing the same passion and being able to lean on threads and get inspiration and mojo back, our projects are... ours. They are for us and us alone despite sharing them with like minded petrolheads. We don't work on them because our boss said so, we don't work on them because we have to, we work on them because we want to, because it brings us pleasure to do so.

But, they are not magic. They won't fix everything in life. When the balance swings, either because we are genuinely tired of them or simply because our life circumstances changed , when the projects become a chore instead of an escape, then it is time to reassess. If you force yourself to wok on something you don't want to, you'll end up resenting it and every spec of joy will evaporate.

Take a step back. For me, the most important one is the mental step. The 'I'm not going to work on it till I feel like it, IF I feel like it'. Let the project fall to the background, go on with your life and your family, use the extra time to try and figure out what actually gives you that joy that you used to get from your projects. Sell or keep.... that is up to you, but if you are not in dire need of the extra cash, something that you don't have to decide now.

Give it time and see what works for you, because in the end that is all that matters.

[bmcnut]

^^exactly that^^

[qwerty]

This is a hobby that we're meant to ultimately enjoy, something that gives us a chance of escape and a few moments pleasure. If its not doing that anymore then get rid. Otherwise all that happens is these unfinished projects become a stick with which to beat ourselves.
"You should have worked on that this weekend."
"That should be finished by now."
"I can't believe you haven't even touched that."

We are our own worst critics and it can cause I downward spiral.

As the gambling slogan says, when the fun stops, STOP!

My concern would be that this goes deeper than mere mojo loss over project cars.

Tom

[grizz]

I have been in and out of this thread four times now, and still do not know how to reply.

I am a perfect example of all the above.

Ultimately, Life certainly is more good than bad.

However, only you can address it and make the changes suggested above, and also sometimes we know the answers.

As qwerty mentions, we do beat ourselves up about deadlines and the rest.

I have a load of projects, and to be honest, most of them are certainly not attached to me emotionally, so if people want them more than me, or if I can move them on, they are gone.

I do hope that you figure it all out, and do look a lot deeper and further than just a plastic bumper, overspray or some grinder shrapnel.

We do burn out, forget to have fun, or just walk away and rest a bit.

I have a load of stuff to do right now, because the last three years I walked away, ignored or did not keep my hand on stuff, but it feels good to be back.

Look after yourself and you family, those are the most important parts of this puzzle.

(And get a modern that you can just get in and drive, keep a Project to make you smile and lose knuckle skin on, when it suits you)

Good luck mate, we are all here fo you.

[Dr.AK]

I wouldn't be all that concerned - sometimes it's just time to take a break from things. I've been playing with cars for over a decade now and a lot of that time was spent getting my BMW as low to the ground as possible, scraping everywhere and just being a tool. It got tiring after a while, but I kept it up because after all, I had built it, my friends were expecting me to drive it to meets and such. But when it finally broke I parted it out and, while I miss the car, I don't really regret doing so.

I tried to get back into the modified stuff when I bought a Mk2 Golf just to build a car to drive to shows... but I quickly found that I have lost all interest in that. The past 2,5 years I've just been dayiling the cars I had, first my Audi A8, then my Ram and have just been doing maintenance to them.

I was often very, very close to jost selling all my stuff and quit renting my garage. But I stuck with it. Then I bought a Convertible a few weeks ago - originall just wanted a smaller car to drive to work because my Ram is bloody huge to park and kinda ended up with a convertible that apparently no one where I live has ever heard of.

And you know what? For the first time in years I've just gotten in the car to just aimlessly drive around. Cars are fun again. I'm actually starting to plan out some modifications to my Ram now that I don't have to drive it daily anymore. And I'm looking forward to doing it!

I guess what I'm trying to say is, just lean back and take a break. Maybe sell some stuff that you feel is holding you back. Take care of your family for the time being. You will find enjoyment again. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not exactly in the form you used to. But I personally doubt any gearhead ever loses his passion completely - it just takes the right situation to relight the fire.

[ToolsnTrack]

I've been there, let me throw in a topic for debate here...

Your projects are from a previous life.

I would diagnose that you are putting effort into trying to bring something to life NOW that you lost the love for years ago. As such it can never bring you the same level of joy, but because you cannot clear your feet of it because you are physically and emotionally invested in it, you don't know what would light your fire now. You cannot see the woods for the dead trees. If you sell off and start with a clean slate, you will be free of the burdens of it to properly think of what would bring you joy.

I'm talking about the cars here, by the way.

Sell the beetle off. Hell, sell the RX7 too if it no longer stirs a stauner in your soul. Do so on the justification that the funds CAN go into something that you want NOW. Something you could enjoy at this stage in your life. Maybe something 90s but more comfortable and reliable, but still rare and unique..

I've took that approach twice and in both occasions ended up with a car I never dreamed I could own, but the path led me there (TVR and TT Supra). Still got the TVR now.

You wont force your mojo back. You need that "old man walk in the mountains to find yourself" time. Walk away and go looking.

[ian65]

Your mojo will return Nik, you're a car guy and even if you sold the lot you'd still be looking at what's available and for sale in a few months time... I've been there and done it myself.
You probably need to clear the decks a bit and take a step back.
You're completely demoralised with your RX7 now after it's been bumped again but for what it's worth, it's certainly not a poor example of it's own breed, it's stunning when it's cleaned up and is one of the best in the country after all the work you've put into it... something to be proud of whether you keep it or sell it on.
Keep the faith man.