I was wondering if anybody has ever felt overwhelmed with the amount of time hard work and money that is spent on having the hobby of building and modiing cars. I haven't posted much because I'm usually a lurker on the forums and through searching you can always find everything you need to know. The money part isn't even an issue. Have you ever felt that the time you spend and the hard work on you car can become too much?

Lately I have just been thinking getting out of the game lately for a little. My close cousin of mine and myself have two turbo miata's and it almost seems we have lost interest on them.

Years ago I took a break, and it didn't last long, as soon as it gets warm out and you see turbo cars rolling around you just miss it so damn much

I'm having a hard time to decide what to do

 

I took a break this past year and now that I'm back in the car I feel like I love it 10x what I did before. I've learned to stop dumping money into it and I try to only buy what it needs, not what I want.

Granted my break wasn't by choice, but it was necessary. I was buying and changing parts like I had money to burn and it wasn't too smart of an investment. Fortunately, the car is pretty much exactly how I want it now, so there's not much more for me to do to it. lol

 

I'm taking a break, it's called summer and it's way to ******* hot to do much of anything in a car with no AC. When I come back, hopefully I'll have a van.

 

I want to do stuff to my car. But I am at the point that any real upgrades will cost $$$. Getting married in a year also has my expenses being channeled else where. Not to mention grad school has, and is, depleting my funds and time. Hopefully about another year and half.

 

Family, job, hobbies... pretty much everything you do can fall into one of those 3 categories. There are 24 hours in a day, and if you're lucky, you'll live to be about 80... do the math.

If you're gonna have time-consuming hobbies, now is the time to do it... once you have kids, the toys disappear and you have to live vicariously through your online bro's. My hobbies now consist of fantasizing about getting with the 2 chicks on Fresh Beat Band and doing the borders of xtra-large Dora puzzles.

In a year or three, I'll pick up the car hobby again... in the meantime, spare change is all going into a fund to remodel the master bath in our VaBch home, and I get my driving fix in our MS6.

 

Thats something I need to work on, I'm going to have to give it some thought I think I'm going to take a break for a year or two. Plus one of my close friends keeps pushing me to start hitting the track days on the bike.

 

I often wish I had never developed in to a "car enthusiast" and often think about what I could do with all the money I've spent on cars and modifications over the years... how much more money I would have for other things like travel if I didn't "need" two cars, could be content driving a 4-cyl Accord, etc.

But once you are really bitten, the best thing you can hope for in my experience is to manage the disease. Hoping for a cure seems to be a waste.

 

Don't really care for working on cars, however, I live to drive them.

 

+1

 

I feel the same way, in the winter. In the summer I hate having my truck wasting insurance money sitting in the driveway unused for a week or two at a time. Unless I'm going seadooing or doing yard work / helping someone move or it's winter, I don't see the point of having the truck as well as my miata. Other vehicles are disappointing or tiring to drive.

 

 

Not by choice, but by lack of fundage... like most miata owners.

 

I've had the very thoughts you're having many times over.

I have one motorcycle that is where I want it. I have another tore apart in my garage with a built engine sitting next to it.

My miata runs well, but I have a full upgraded turbo and forged engine waiting to go in, as well as an MS3 to replace the link

I have a mk2 VW GTI with a vr6 swap. I've custom made a wiring harness for the ENTIRE car (let's see the crap VW electronics bite me now!), built an MS3 for it, now I'm trying to polish some bits and get it fired up after sitting for 18months.

I have an FB rx7 that was once a proud 300whp monster, I've since gutted the interior, am custom making a wiring harness for it as well, and replacing the old haltech with an MS. This is currently on the bottom of the list as it's strictly a fun car.

I have 5 vehicles, and they are basically everything I want/need. If I ever get them up, I am maintaining them and will be DONE. I don't know how long I'll go before jumping into another project. Hopefully long. I'll probably just start investing money and saving up for an old-ish Ferrari. Seriously.

 

I've finally got my LS6 Miata on the road. Just ironing out some details. During the downtime, I swapped the leaking uppipe out in my LegGT. Next weekend I have to pull my wife's 2001 Sebring 'vert in the garage. I swapped an Eclipse 3.0 into it (from the 2.5) last year but after 6 months I think the timing belt jumped a couple teeth or failed. Once I get that taken care of I'm done. I'm sick of working on cars.

It has become a job, along with my full time job, my father and husband job, and trying to be sane by relaxing on the rare occasion. I'm sure I'll appreciate it again next year when I buy my next project (either a 5 series or a Wrangler for another LSX swap).

 

I thought I was the only one. Menage a trois, bring it on.


Yep it is a hobby. When it feels like it is ruling your spare time and you are no longer enjoying it, take a break. Cars that is, not having three-ways with the Fresh Beat Band chicks.

 

I have learned that the car hobby can make you a misserable depressed ******** to be around if you are not careful. The best thing I ever did was buy a second car so that the miata is a when it works / when I feel up to it kind of thing. The second best thing I ever did is buy a STOCK fun car, so I can get my driving thrills without breaking **** or modding ****. My MINI S is great for that, just enough to keep me interested.

I LOVE my car and miss working on it during the winter, but for the most part I have stopped getting stressed over it.

unfortunately right now I am in the middle of a huge build with my paint project and I am getting stressed over that because its at my parents house and I am under some time constraints.

Take a break if you need to. I did for about 6 months after crashing a project car. Then I bought my miata

 

I know exactly what you mean. I used to want to put as much money as I could afford toward modding my car which usually isn't too much since I'm in college, but now it just seems like the list of things I could do or could buy never gets shorter so I've stopped doing anything to it other than what's needed. I enjoy working on it but it's so hot out. But mine's back N/A for now so at least that's a nice change of pace until I get the modding bug again.

Now all the monies is going to guns

Kristen

 

Hahaha! Thats a whole another disease. With what I was spending on guns/ammo/range time etc when I was shooting competitively is obscene. Getting back into the car hobby was cheaper

 

Hahah yeah, that's very true. I can be "done" with a gun though, and I don't really get that pleasure from my car. But hey, it's a different hobby at least... Lol

 

Kristen enjoys her pleasure. BYM.