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Need Motivation


Arkansawer

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As some of you may remember i have a 52 plymouth 2 door sedan. I havent done much to it yet, 1. being cause i dont have a shop and working out in the heat isnt my cup of tea. But im also losing motivation, the car isnt exactly what i want but its what i can afford at the moment. Got the car for 100 dollars with the floors being the only thing rusted out.

Now i want to chop the top and make it pretty much into a led sled but i need motivation. Can anyone find me some pics of a 51 or 52 plymouth 2 door sedan thats been chopped and rat rodded or hot rodded out. All the pics that i have seen are restored and stock. Im on the edge of selling this one and finding something else.

I found a 53 dodge town panel truck, but it needs alot more work than the plymouth that i have now. Id like to have an A sedan, but everyone that i find is way out of my price range. So need motivation pics or just motivation words to get me going or to "lead" me in the right direction.

Torrey

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Sounds like you have or had a lot of plans for the sedan. Nothing wrong with that. The problem comes in when you look at all the work ahead of you and then think, it'll take forever to do all that. Where's the time and money coming from. So...........

First of all, forget about the big picture for now. Just get the floors fixed and the car running, if it's not running now. Set aside an hour or two per day, or every other day, or say two or three times a week. Then don't waiver (unless it's just too hot to work, fall is coming soon) from those times you sat aside to work on your car. Before you know it, you'll have the floors done and the car running so you can at least drive it around. Once that's done, then pick one more item you want to do and start on that. Just take one baby step at a time. Before you know it that giant step has also been taken.

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You'll have to get over the slowness if you want to be in this hobby. Takes time to bring a car back to life. You'll have to have patience or you won't build any old car. If not, the answer is buy one already built.

As for the shop, we have several people on the board who don't have a shop. Just work in the driveway or backyard. Even had one guy on the old forum that put the car in his screened in back porch a few years ago. Don't know what ever happened to him.

If you have the space just build a cheap carport around the car for a shop area. Thats where Normspeed works on his car. Or, you could buy a portable garage for between $300 to $600 depending on size. They are like a tent. Just run some extension cords from the house for power. Use some 3/4" plywood for the floor.

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I have done all the work on my 48 in a gravel driveway on three sheets of 3/4" exterior plywood. I also stripped my 55 chevy pick up in the same place and tarped every night to prevent rust until the entire truck was stripped and primed with epoxie primer. A big shop would be nice. I have several friends with large shops but takes them longer to do their projects because they end up working for the public once people find out they have a shop and see the type of work they can do. All three of them stay busy, two paint cars and one does electrical and mechinical work, installing power windows, rewiring cars, disc brake kit installations and such.

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if you doing the nine to fiver, got a family, house etc. etc..work on the old cars does not progress at lightening speed..we all come to terms with this realization in our own way..however..factor that into the equation and

every little bit of progress you get done today..no matter if it seems small and insignificant..it is one less thing that has to be done tomorrow...Do find a way to protect that car from the elements when you get started..for if something comes up that takes too much time from the car..you will not want your earlier work shot to pieces...if you know you will be a long time before any paint goes on..I would recommed a good sealing primer instead of a normal lacquer primer surfacer..these have better hold out properties...

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Were it me, I would get it in a driveable condition, get it running and steering and stopping, and drive it while you gather parts, ideas and money for you custom work. having a car that runs and drives is a lot more motivation than having one that just site there. You are going to be doing the mechanical work any way so why not enjoy driving the car while you get the gumption to do the other things. You can alway do stuff like removing the trim and doing door poppers, you could french the head loght and tail lights, and do other customization stuff, saving the drastic metal surgury for the winter. Who knows while driving it around some one might offer you enough for it to get something you might like better. Seems like with a fairly low investmnet you could et the floors repaired, get it mechanically viable and then either sell it or start to modify it. A running driving car is gonna be a lot more sellable than a non running hulk sitting on flat tires with a flintstone brakes.

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if you doing the nine to fiver, got a family, house etc. etc..work on the old cars does not progress at lightening speed..we all come to terms with this realization in our own way..however..factor that into the equation and

every little bit of progress you get done today..no matter if it seems small and insignificant..it is one less thing that has to be done tomorrow...Do find a way to protect that car from the elements when you get started..for if something comes up that takes too much time from the car..you will not want your earlier work shot to pieces...if you know you will be a long time before any paint goes on..I would recommed a good sealing primer instead of a normal lacquer primer surfacer..these have better hold out properties...

Amen Brother, I was thinking about this last night, I have the fulltime job, kids, home, 2.5 acre yard, and all that comes with that.

I have a decent size insulated heated garage 24 X 36, but I was feeling sorry for my self last night, wondering, how am I going to ever get all the bodywork done on my 47, then theres the interior after that.

I spent 20 hours on the trunk lid recently, it is ready for the final blocking, and then it could be painted, but still have the rest of the car to go.

Tim, I did sand out my trunk lid with Norton 120 and 150 sandpaper, shot on 2 more coats of urethane primer/surfacer, it got rid of the scratches.

But there is plenty of panel alignment, which I have no experience with, fixing dents with filler, and hammmer and dolly okay, primering okay, but I am as green as June grass.

I still complain a lot about living on a gravel road 3 miles from the highway, I do this openly, and I also let it bug me, I hate the fact I go for a ride, with a clean car, and come back with it all dusted. But thems the brakes,I have to accept it or move.

I also have to come to terms with slow but steady progress on my 47, it is time consuming and pocket book draining too, my car is street legal, insured and I drive it, so at least 95 % of the mechanical items are fine, body and paint in progress, then interior, chrome etc...then the upkeep and maintenance.

I am the type of guy that needs to practice patience, and keep things in perspective...........Fred

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Fred thats the idea. Drive it and work on it when you can. I drove my car with missing pieces and primer 1900 miles to the POC meet. No one can argue with those kinda results. One of my friends wants either a 67-69 camaro or a chevelle but has neither. Whenever he cracks something about my car being ugly or unfinished I just ask him how his camaro is coming!

As far as the gravel road I understand that a little too. I live completely in the city-first ring suburb of Minneapolis. However on monday they decided to "fix" the street which intales laying down some tar and then dumping rock on it. They leave the loose rock for a few weeks and let cars drive on it to press it into the road. Eventually they come back and sweep up the excess rocks. Its annoying in the meantime though!

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Thanks for the responses. Yeah that chopped 51 looks sweet. Didnt think it would look that sweet, but it looks pretty mean like that. The slowness of it and the no shop is what has really been getting me down and stuff.

If you want to see slow...........go to this link. http://www.indfloorcoating-repair.com/48plymouthrestoration.html Then take the links off that page to view other pages regarding fixing the car. Takes you from the beginning when I bought the car up to just about where I am today. I still have some outside body work to do on it, although I have repaired the right rear fender and replaced the left fender (which isn't shown on the site). The car has been drivable to anywhere you'd want to take it since about early 1999. Since then, I did the interior so it's all fresh and new inside.

Since the car has become drivable I've slowed way down on working on it. That's really not a bad thing because I've also changed my mind several times about doing certain things I initially wanted to do to the outside body, and some mechanical things that would be extra. By being slow and not rushing it, it gives you more time to think things out before you chop and dice it up. I've even bought new custom accessory parts for it that I'm not so sure I want to add now, like a new set of full length drag pipes that's been hanging in the basement since about 2000 or 2001 and a new pair of dummy spotlights I bought 2 or 3 years ago that are still in the box. Some days I'm even at the point where I say the car looks good enough as a driver/survivor and I may not do the remaining body work at all.

So.........like Tim and I said (and others), if you do just a little at a time, it will get done. It's just a hobby, not a car you have to rely on. So, it's good to take your time.

Now, if you really want slow going. The car below belongs to my brother in law. He bought that car from a junk yard in the late 60's when it was just a shell. He didn't get it running and looking like this until sometime in the early 90's.

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I bought my 51 in 1995. Never drove it untill 2004. Many nights after supper went out to the shop to work on it,just looked at it and said to myself,what the hell is wrong with your head? But I finally got it done and enjoy the fruits of my labour. By the way I am a mechanic so the fact that I worked on cars all day did have somthing to do with the lack of interest in working on a car at night.

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I bought my '38 Chrysler in 1981 but didn't start work on it until 1986. Finally got it done for my daughter's wedding in 2004 but still did some detailing the next year so it was completely done in 2005. A 19 year project but I did have other old cars to drive while working on it. Many times I lost interest but persevered and am glad I did. I believe Norm's Coupe said it - Never think of the whole project or it won't get done. Choose one area or thing to work on and that is the job at hand. Eventually all those little jobs end up being a finished car.

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I think one of the reasons I like this forum is because sometimes when I feel down because I must be the only one that has an old car and doesn't spend all my free time working on it - then there is a thread where other people express my feelings.

I get a lot of joy just walking in the garage and seeing an old car that I had wanted since I was in high school (and could probably have picked up for $75).

When I got it it didn't run and that was my goal - it took a year. But if you add up the actual time spend probably a week - now it runs. It's been rewired. Like it's been said already just the joy of driving is worth it.

(did I mention I blew out a freeze plug?) It's still worth it.

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Sell it and buy something that motivates you on it's own. If you aren't interested enough now to find a way to work on it, what will happen when you run into a dozen other problems you haven't anticipated ? I got sunburned to the soles of my feet this past weekend stripping paint off the bedsides of my truck. I do have a nice little shop to work in, but I also paint in there, so I don't want the dust and mess in there to begin with, thus had to be outside, and the best place happened to be in full sun. If you want it bad enough you do what it takes to get it done.

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It's been over eight years since I started my '50 Plymouth project. I too have a full time job, wife, two kids, etc, etc. As others have already mentioned, I took the project one area at a time.

I divided the car into many small projects, focusing on one until it was finished. Attempting the shotgun approach to fixing this and that here and there is overwhelming, and non-productive.

There were months where the only time I had was a few minutes walking through the garage on my way to and from work. I would torque a bolt or two on my engine, and leave it till the next walk through. I put most of my car together in 10 minute increments....

Over time though, the results are worth it, and the

is immense.

Pete

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Let me offer you another point of view.... mine.... because I see myself in all the posts above.

Sometimes what you want to do, and getting there are completely different animals. When I got mine, it was in decent shape, but needed to be completely redone. It looked good from the outside, but some "major" problems in my case were around.

If I had to do it over again, I'd probably do what Rockwood is doing... a bit at a time, but keep it together.... see the picture as you go along....but the way I'm doing it, I'm armed with patience. I discoved a few "problems" as I mentioned, one being aluminum house panel rocker panels..... which led me to believe that there was a botch job that was done... also, square stock in the place of a bolted body bracket on the frame.... removal of the head showed 2 scratched cylinders, so an engine rebuild was in order...... so I went a different route.... possibly the longer route, but I told myself it would take 4-10 years to do, planning for money, family, time, and space.... I'm 3 years in, and the teardown is complete, the motor is rebuilt, and I'm working on the front suspension now, with a disk upgrade in the near future. I don't have a garage, I will probably will be changing jobs in the near future.... cannot work on it in winter, but I"m gettin her done..... I see the advancements over time.... and with only a couple of buddies for moral support and the help here, I'm doing just fine.... when I get down, I try and get a small thing completed, or talk with some of the gurus here, or try and help someone else here.... one way or another, it will be done.... It may take longer, but I'll get there.... its my passion.... my second wife (and my wife prefers I'm with her rather than another mistress, so she's not worried....). I've got 2 small kids.... 8 and 5, so time and money is another factor. Plan things out as much as you can, and arm yourself with patience, and do a little at a time. Leave the big jobs like a chop for later. Get her running, and who knows, you may enjoy her as she is.... once she is done.... you can do other mods as you go along.....one of my buddies has been modifying his 31 for 12 years.... and its been running all along.... does his mods in winter, and drives it all summer..... patience and time are your best friends....

Allan

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When I bought my car it wasn't exactly what I was looking for but I must admit that it was the best decision I could have made. It is the most reliable vehicle I have. It's usually the only '51-'52 at most shows or events. I love it's homely look. It's different than all the others. Almost all the replacement parts are available. Best of all it was the cheapest car I found. I knew what I wanted to do with the car as soon as I saw it.

It has taken me a long time to get it where it is today but I'm happy with it. I have plenty more to do but I just keep poking at it.

Get the car running well and make it safe for everyone. Repair the rust and enjoy it for a while. As you are enjoying it you will get all the motivation you'll need!

BloodyKnuckles

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Yeah im gonna go the little at a time route and get some car patience.

BloodyKnuckles, the chopped 52 that you showed me turned it all around for me. Thanks for that picture. On another site i was shown that exact same car, but unchopped all the way to chopped. Now i see my car in a totally different light, and now shes talking to me. Thanks again.

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Hi, glad you made the decision to stick it out, my 47 Coupe was a real $hit Box, it's progressed to a box, but will be a gift box someday.

Today I repaired the trunk striker plate, removed it, had to cut off 2 screw heads, then rmove the little #10 machine srew square nuts in the car body. I then cleaned up the striker plate in my blasting cabinet, removed the broken machine screw pieces from the nuts uisng heat from a torch, then re-tapped them.

I then welded in a 2 "X 2" piece of sheet metal into the area where the striker plate goes over and attaches, there was a quarter size hole in there.

After the weld was done, then mixed a batch of fibreglass, and coated the welded piece of tin, all nice and sealed up, will need to sand it a bit, then prime and paint, re-attached the striker plate nuts, in the little slots under the car, attached stiker plate, it all fits like a glove. About 2 hours work, everything takes time.............Fred

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This is what it looked like the day I bought it;

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This picture was right before he signed the title over to me;

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What an exciting day!

Where it is now;

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It's taken alot for me to get it where it is now but it has been well worth it.

BTW...I'm heading to Atlanta tomorrow for a show called the Dixie Fried. It will be about 600 mile round trip. Fun, fun, fun!!

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