Paging Mr Hoffa...Dig up those dead projects and post a pic!

My '73 240Z. Worked on it from it being dead to busting my ass and finally getting it going and ready for it's first autocross. Then I moved to Alaska two weeks after it starts running well and it's been stored at my mom's for almost a year now. I miss tinkering with it but absence makes the heart grow fonder I suppose. If all goes as planned, I will hopefully finish up a few more things and drive it to the Mitty in April when I go back to visit.

I had my Mercedes sitting around for over a year without a motor and no work getting done. Sometimes life just gets in the way and before you know what is going on it has been a year.

Personally, I had issues with space to work on the car and money going toward buying a house instead of into the car. I still don't have he influx of new parts fueled by an over abundance of money, but I love that I am working on the car again.

One thing I do to keep interest up and possibly just because it sounds make me tingly inside is listen to audio of race prepped M119 tearing down the track somewhere. A few mins of that on the way home from work and I am ready to go all out for 12 hours working on the car.

I got this awhile back, but parked it because the Zenith carbs needed to be rebuilt. Last fall, 15 years later, I finally rebuilt the carbs. Now I need to work on the brakes, hopefully that doesn't take another 15 years.

vwfreek wrote: I got this awhile back, but parked it because the Zenith carbs needed to be rebuilt. Last fall, 15 years later, I finally rebuilt the carbs. Now I need to work on the brakes, hopefully that doesn't take another 15 years.

That car is freeking awesome! I love Mercs from the era when they were built to be the last car you need to buy rather than the hothouse icecubes that they are today. Please get it going again! And dont even dream of painting it.

NOHOME wrote: That car is freeking awesome! I love Mercs from the era when they were built to be the last car you need to buy rather than the hothouse icecubes that they are today. Please get it going again! And dont even dream of painting it.

Painting? What is that? Never heard of it before.

I bought a turbo minivan with a blown turbo and probably bad rings... and a bum title.

I rebuilt the engine, converted the head to 16v, added a manual transmission, hacked the ECM, rebuilt a holset turbo etc.

Had it running and driving, got the engine broken in, was about to start fiddling with the tuning when I realized not having a title was a really big deal so the thing sat for 10 years.

I finally accepted reality and scrapped the van this fall.

The engine/trans/turbo goodies and van specific parts are still sitting on that wagon (with flat tires) in the garage in the way.

I have no use for fwd mopar turbo stuff, I will probably never build one up, I just don't know what to do with all that junk I invested so much time and $$. So it sits for eternity.

My $50 1963 MG Midget. In the garage on rollers now. Basically just a restorable body. Little rust on the rockers and a couple holes in the floor is all. Some PO did some weird things to it, chrome stripped and painted to look like an early 70's Midget to include fender tags that only came on 72 Midgets. And the bar grill was replaced with a 70's grill. Was used as a prop in some low budget movie that was never released. Engine removed (I have most of the engine), Hood removed for a fire in the engine compartment. Drivers door was cut at the hinges. Most if the interior is missing. Did come with the top bows and side curtains though. Steering wheel has an awful kit installed. Been collecting parts when I find a deal on them. So far a couple beat up grills that I can turn in to one decent grill, original seats and an extra bumper. Also have a 72 RWA parts car that I'm using the drivetrain from, 1275 better than original 1098. Have had it a few years now. Mostly been tinkering with the Opel GT and the autocross Miata. SWMBO has been bugging me to get rid of it but isn't costing me anything but garage space. She also let out that there are some finances available so I plan to start tinkering with it when it warms up. After all time & money (mainly $$) was the biggest reason for not touching it.

The steering wheel kit.

In reply to crankwalk:

If you decide that it's time to part with the 240z, let me know. My best friend is hunting for a rust free example to restore.

This deserves some kind of an award

Keep them coming, its nice to know where some of these projects I was following have gone.

Maybe we should create a sticky titled "The Morgue" where dead projects can be moved to once they hit a certain time lapse with no updates?

NOHOME wrote: Pictures Ian, we need pictures of the crime scene, especially this P1800ES that I keep hearing about? How bad could it be? By the way, you have a lift? I am jealous.

I actually have two lifts... A scissor lift I bought about 8 years ago and a second one I bought off this forum last year.

I'm jealous of you guys who seem to post pictures at will... but I'll see what I can do.

have I mentioned lately how frustrating Flikr is to use? Let s see if this works...

Looks like it does... the dusty TDI:

The Mini and GT6 wait:

and last but not least, my sad but infamous 1800ES:

See what I mean by "essence of rocker sills"? The driver's side is just as bad if not worse. Other than the suspension, the car is stripped so it doesn't really hold water and the rust hasn't gotten any worse...

Ian F wrote: have I mentioned lately how frustrating Flikr is to use? Let s see if this works... Looks like it does... the dusty TDI: The Mini and GT6 wait: and last but not least, my sad but infamous 1800ES: See what I mean by "essence of rocker sills"? The driver's side is just as bad if not worse. Other than the suspension, the car is stripped so it doesn't really hold water and the rust hasn't gotten any worse...

Ian:

Except for the Volvo, the rest looks good to go pretty much. Is it just time to thin the herd and focus the resources?

As the one that was trying to be pragmatic when I was standing on the ledge with my project, do you really ever see yourself fixing that Volvo? You KNOW that you could buy a nice ES for half of what it is going to take to fix that one; hell, my parts car was nicer than that. I feel bad for cutting it up now!

Not ES, but an idea of what it woud cost to be driving today rather than after 1500 hours of work and 20k worth of parts:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/291657952131?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rmvSB=true

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1963-Volvo-Other-/172053804679?viewitem=&forcerRptr=true&item=172053804679&nma=true&si=fI9gkvZvC80c%252ByKcK1k59Smi%252Fh4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&rmvSB=true

EDIT:

I know you put a lot of time into investigating the Miata chassis swap. I am here to tell you that the wheelbase difference makes this a bad idea.The chassis stretch alone is more effort than it would take to fix your sills.

NOHOME wrote:

vwfreek wrote: I got this awhile back, but parked it because the Zenith carbs needed to be rebuilt. Last fall, 15 years later, I finally rebuilt the carbs. Now I need to work on the brakes, hopefully that doesn't take another 15 years.

That car is freeking awesome! I love Mercs from the era when they were built to be the last car you need to buy rather than the hothouse icecubes that they are today. Please get it going again! And dont even dream of painting it.

^^^THIS!!!^^^

The "Atomic Hairball" turbo Miata, which has only needed a couple hours of work to fire, for about 5 years...

"Project Yellowcake", which was going to be my Challenge car, with a 2-liter twin-cam out of a Lancia Zagato. Realized it wasn't going to happen, so the Lancia is still sitting in my buddy's yard, while the x1/9 awaits it's new owner. The Spec-rx7 I dragged home from Virginia a couple years ago. Still doesn't have a name. Needs alot of TLC, which takes time. Which I lack. Which is why they are all pretry much dead in the water right now.

I'm working really hard NOT to add another project to this thread. Right now, my TR6 project looks like two cars exploded. Every time that I think I'm ready to start bolting stuff back on, I find something else that needs to get torn apart. I believe the trick to finishing a project is not getting stuck in what I call a local minima. That would be something that takes lots of time/effort, isn't very rewarding to do, and must be done before proceeding. Something like cleaning undercoating or drilling out spot welds.

In reply to NOHOME:

Why do you think I was giving you such a hard time about cutting it up back then?

If I thin the herd I'll just buy more. What I like about my ES is while it looks like hell, it's straight and I know what I have. I've seen too many that look nice in pictures but are crap when you start digging. Plus, I paid so little for that car and the values have increased so much that I could rebuild it and not really be much underwater with it.

The thing is, they don't cost much to keep and eventually I'll have more time (and space).

morning ninja edit since my phone was be annoying last night:

No worries about me attempting to duplicate the Molvo. Your build has basically confirmed every concern I had with that idea. Were I to do something like that, I'd do it in a more "Project Binky" style. That said, I really want more a comfortable GT and for that a healthy B20 will be sufficient. My main modifications and customizing will be done to the interior.

Oh boy, here we go... Somehow I always seem to have more Ideas and ambition than Money and skill, that means I've left a trail of unfinished projects.

First up is my 1988 Pontiac Fiero.

It received a 4.9 litre Cadillac V-8 but had title issues when I tried to register it, and then was stolen. I never saw it again.

Next, my 1978 Monza 3.8 coupe.

I spent a lot of time gathering parts for a high revving 302 V-8, and then a co-worker backed into it with a forklift. A big forklift. I was compensated with this:

1938 Packard Sedan

I planned on dropping the body over an s-10 frame and powering it with a BMW 5 series inline 6. I brought the body to a media blaster and it just sort of... went away. I was able to sell the frame and engine for a grand.

Next up (and many years later) I got myself this rarity. A rust free 1987 GMC Caballero

It was a 4.3 car so I intended on building a "syclone" 4.3, instead I lost the garage in the divorce and was forced to sell the car. The upside is I sold it to a 14 year old kid who was going to build it with his father, who showed up in an '86 olds 442 with t-tops.

Next up was the $2015 Aristocrat challenge car, a '98 Pontiac Bonneville

This one was paid for and on schedule. Finally I was going to finish one, outside circumstances meant I was moving across the country had to sell everything. The engine was sold and the car went on to be crushed.

yay! that was depressing. Can't wait to see what I don't finish next!

AClockworkGarage said: Can't wait to see what I don't finish next

That there is worthy of stealing for a signature.

Ian F wrote: In reply to NOHOME: Why do you think I was giving you such a hard time about cutting it up back then? If I thin the herd I'll just buy more. morning ninja edit since my phone was be annoying last night: ... I really want more a comfortable GT and for that a healthy B20 will be sufficient. My main modifications and customizing will be done to the interior.

Remember when you tried to DD the Triumph? Last summer was it? If I recall, you did not really have a great experience. Classics, like most good looking things, tend to look better than they perform, and when compared to the new car cocoons that we drive, they are more like hair-shirts than not.

No getting away from the fact that the P1800 goes back to the early 60's. That means it was designed by engineers in the mid to late 50's!

You have a Mini and a Triumph that seem to fall into the same category; finished non-driven classics designed in the 50's. What makes you think that the Volvo wont be just another beautiful garage filler when done?

Anyways, I derail my own thread! Keep digging for bodies guys.

Ian F wrote:

AClockworkGarage said: Can't wait to see what I don't finish next

That there is worthy of stealing for a signature.

Sure, it's all yours. No Charge.

In reply to NOHOME:

My main issue with old cars often seems to be few things. A - Carburetors. I really, REALLY dislike them. B - A/C. A lack of air-conditioning really seems to limit how often I drive my classic cars when temps warm. C - stereo. Yeah... I constantly hear, "the sound of the engine is all I need..." bull-sh1t. I tend to drive a lot, so I need tunes or something or I go batty.

B & C are simple enough to fix on some cars. A requires some doing. While the ES does have EFI, D-Jet is so primitive it's not much different than a carburetor. Fortunately, MegaSquirt seems to be a nice fix for this.

Plus, as I've mentioned in the past - I know the 1800ES in stock form very well and have driven one extensively. I know what they are like to live with.

Lastly, I like variety in my collections, even if there is a common theme. It's why I have 3 Les Paul guitars (all slightly different) and 4 Strat style guitars (all slightly different) along with a few others. Car-wise, I'm not done by any means. I still want a '69 Charger and a '71 Demon. Neither stock.

Ian F wrote: In reply to NOHOME: My main issue with old cars often seems to be few things. A - Carburetors. I really, REALLY dislike them. B - A/C. A lack of air-conditioning really seems to limit how often I drive my classic cars when temps warm. C - stereo. Yeah... I constantly hear, "the sound of the engine is all I need..." bull-sh1t. I tend to drive a lot, so I need tunes or something or I go batty.

You and I are reading from the same Choirbook! If I drive the MG to work I arrive with a sweaty back and smelling like I just fought a refinery fire. Drive the GT for a few hundred miles and the exhaust noise leaves you exhausted!

I have my fingers crossed that the new Holley Sniper EFI is all it is touted to be. It is significantly cheaper then the FAST EFI.

Dusterbd13 wrote: In reply to crankwalk: If you decide that it's time to part with the 240z, let me know. My best friend is hunting for a rust free example to restore.

I'll post it up here if it's ever time for sure.

nocones wrote: I like to think mine i s only 6 months away from done. It's been that way for 3 years. I actually did aquire more parts and have swapped it for Miata uprights so there is a chance. I know for me that my desires now are disconnected from the desires of 7 year ago me who started the project. It's hard sometimes to get motivated to finish when its not what I would start today.

Return of the Zombie Thread...

Quoted for the thrill of victory. Not far off that six month estimation, either.