I posted this on my build thread, but my son's words may be good for all of us who are "stressing" about our trucks, instead of enjoying them


......All black, lots of spots that need some "help" . I think I'll drop it on the truck (after clear-coating the front). to finish the body work. Nothin' like a little gloss to show off the "bad" (or incomplete) body work.

My son looked at it and said, "just a couple spots to fix. It looks good cause it "belongs" to the truck. It's not "perfect", but you fixed it. You didn't just spend money on a repopped and pay someone to assemble and paint it. I thought you always said that a true rod was the labor of love that the owner-builder put into it, not how much money was in his bank account and how many people they paid to build it."

His use of my words back at me, brought me back to the reality that this is not (or never will be, and never was intended to be) a Barrett-Jackson showpiece.

Sometimes I forget that it is the process that is supposed to be fun, and the getting behind the wheel is supposed to be fun. Stressing over how good a job we think we did in someone else's eyes takes all the fun out of it. I'm going back to having FUN !!

 

Nothing like a dose of reality to put things back into perspective.KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

 

I agree! We all need to keep perspectives in line. It feels good to do good work and good work is measured by each of us according to our eyes. And if you can't have fun doing it then you should be doing something else. Cheers!

 

Well said!

 

Words to live by!

"Can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself"

 

The young man speaks for a lot of us , the fun is in the fixing .

 

Now my 20/20 paint job is just fine! Well said.

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I said from the outset that my intent was to make "Edith" a 20 footer ... and that is what she is!

 

So, my wife and I are watching a rerun of "Home Improvements" with Tim working on his car. My wife turns to me a says, why doesn't your garage look like Tim's ?

After a few seconds of thought I said, besides being a TV show, Tim is an assembler, not a rebuilder. He buys new, pristine parts, has them prepped/painted/powder coated and then just bolts them together. I said, here's the tools that Tim doesn't have (or at least doesn't use) in his garage...

Grinders, Sanders, Welders, Paint Sprayers, and all things that make a mess before they make it pretty !

 

I got something out of the garage yesterday and my wife commented on everything being dirty because of my grinding and sanding. She then commented that she wanted us to get to a financial state that we can just send it off to get rebuilt. She then said, "why did you look at me like that."
I tried to explain that I would like to do this myself. Since I have never done anything like this and don't have the time I would like right now, it's hard for her to understand. I suggested that I even attempt to paint it myself and she didn't like that idea. It was her grandpa's truck, so she does have some say in this.

 

Hard to argue the point, but after seeing your y-block thread, You are the man! Just tell your wife that if she finds someone to redo the truck who cares about it as much as you and she do..... then....