The moment you realized you had too many project cars?

I have a rule that only one car can really be a project at a time.

It occasionally breaks down when a car that was not supposed to be a project becomes one.

When I was up to 11 old British cars and was restoring them at about the rate of one per year.  I expect the neighbours  would have said it was the day my 'collection' rose to two....

In reply to Tom1200 :

Yes, I think we all know someone like that.

When I see a field or yard full of cars, after the initial excitement of looking for something rare that you are into, I get kind of sad. Because as you said, it's a sign the owner has some issues, but also it's sad for the cars, because they're likely all going to rot away into nothing in that yard. If you can't store them right, pass them on to someone who can. Its one thing if you need to keep a project under a tarp for a season to get a project in the shop out of the way, it's another if you have an entire fleet out there.

Does it count if I put a couple parts cars outside til I can get them stripped?  Four Triumph Spitfires, two GT6s, three TR7s (one is a race car) and a Jensen Healey all inside.  I am looking at two more.  Maybe I have a problem.......

I think SWMBO would say I have too many Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars that count as one big project..

i just own manual transmissions instead of whole cars. you can pack ALOT into a small space. like eight right now 

and  five  V12's ... 

again, they all fit in small area... 

someday when the V12's run... i will find a chassis for them... 

I don't understand the question. 

The day I started parking cars on my empty lot up the street from the house. The skidsteer and trailer can park there but no project cars. 

When the letter from the city arrived last October giving me until November 1 to remove the excess vehicles from my yard.  So now, my old Showroom Stock car is taking up a prime spot in the driveway and a couple of cool pickup projects had to go away, along with my late mother's Lincoln that needed a transmission.

  I think I was in my late 20's.  I'm about to turn 78....still working on a couple.  Do project cars ever get 'finished'?

billstewartx said:

i just own manual transmissions instead of whole cars. you can pack ALOT into a small space. like eight right now 

and  five  V12's ... 

again, they all fit in small area... 

someday when the V12's run... i will find a chassis for them... 

 

5 ? V12's ?!?!? What brand? 

This year.

I have 3 "project" cars and a bicycle. Very thankful for that bicycle. One project has been driven 10 miles in 5 years. My ex-daily, now project, I gave up on and took to a mechanic to finish. My current daily is the least "project" but still imperfect with 325k miles and a laundry list of things to do.

I decided my list of priorities can only include one project. So it's now, sell one, finish one, plan to replace one.

When my dad died almost 3 yrs ago. I inherited all of his that were not in my plans to have to fix.

When I think about the projects I'm going to get from Dad (hopefully a long long time from now,) I start to get a bit overwhelmed. 
Am I going to get rid of Dad's VW van that he's had for literally as long as I can remember?  Dad's truck, which was Grandpop's truck he bought new from Toyota?  Dad's Porsche that I've heard stories about for decades, but needs a restoration?

I mean...
 

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I cleaned out my In-Laws stuff several years back and that motivated me to thin out my stuff.

I'm ignoring this thread.

In reply to Tom1200 :

I've been involved in two of those.  I need to get rid of old outboards I have no use for.

In the cycling world we have a formula for how many bikes is enough:  N+1, where "N" is the number you currently own... 

My driveway is full and I have a F100 at a friend's house that I haven't seen in awhile....I have a 1.5 car garage full of disassembled Europa...one Europa project seems to be plenty...a small car does not mean a small project! And I will finish it!

A LONG time ago, but it really hit home a year and a half ago when I had to move from one shop to another. Man I have a lot of "stuff". I tell people that even if I hit the lottery, I'd have the monies to finish all of my projects, but I won't live long enough to get them all done. 

I am real estate limited.

ghawbrey said:

Does it count if I put a couple parts cars outside til I can get them stripped?  Four Triumph Spitfires, two GT6s, three TR7s (one is a race car) and a Jensen Healey all inside.  I am looking at two more.  Maybe I have a problem.......

You never hear of the pathological car hoarder answering "Is it for sale?" with "Yeah, as soon as I strip the interior for parts."

I realized I had (have!) too many when I realized I didn't have room to actually work on them.  Cars piled up so I can't get access to one or another.  Parts piled up so that I don't have space to remove/repair parts on the cars. Everything all piled up in my head that I can't think straight about how to proceed. And perhaps that's the worst part: not being able to figure out how to proceed with either finishing a project, or at least knowing what to tackle next.

In reply to darkbuddha :

Figure out which projects matter to you. If authorities came and told you mother nature was going to engulf your property and you had to evacuate and could only take one which one would it be? That's you're keeper.

Next is triage; after your keeper, number the rest in order of importance. 

The least important one will need to be sold on so you can have room to work.

After that's done start on the smallest/easiest one to finish. After that work your way through the rest.

It will take an entire weekend just to plan everything out.

It will take another weekend just to organize everything before you can actually get started.

Unless you're Jay Leno owning more than 3 hobby cars quickly becomes a burden. 

preach (dudeist priest) said:

I am real estate limited.

 I'm really not, or originally wasn't.  Over time that filled up. Let's see, 38 years 1800 sq ft  So that's 47.xx sq feet a year. Well to be fair only some of that is all the way to the 10' ceiling.