Labors of Love Can Test Your Feelings

Taking on the task of rebuilding an older model vehicle to return it to its former glory can be one of the most rewarding and exciting tasks you ever encounter.  Many of us who grew up first building model cars amidst the fumes of airplane glue and Testors paint have chosen to turn our garages into places of fantastic work and filled these spaces with tools so we could rebuild the car that was our dream when we were younger.  The challenge, the actual work, the sights and smells, and finally the end result all make a custom rebuild and renovation well worth the effort.

While you are busy rebuilding your labor of love many times there are challenges along the way.  It’s nearly as if you have a new marriage on your hands, there are good times where you feel you are sailing along beautifully and then there are rocky times that test the strength of your resolve and make you decide whether to keep moving forward or to go back and revisit the idea you once had.  One of the biggest challenges is the fact that if you have already started your project you most likely have a lot already invested in this process and in the tools throughout your shop.  Besides that you really want to see what this amazing recreation can turn out to be so it makes sense to keep moving forward regardless of how stuck or frustrated you become.

Of course, since this is a project you can put down and leave for a while, you do have that option as well.  This can happen when you feel like the project have you beaten for the day and it’s time to step aside and let it rest for the night.  This feeling comes when you either have done a great deal of work such as an engine rebuild only to realize you forgot to put one of the part on that is needed and will require you to take the entire engine apart again.  Another time you might feel this way about your labor of love is when you run across a problem with the function of a specific feature but it doesn’t actually work the way it’s supposed to and you aren’t sure why.  Rebuilding or restoring a vehicle is a lot of work and certainly takes a great deal of skill to get it right, but the results can be amazing.

While there are a variety of obstacles to creating a show car or restoring a car to be a beautiful cruiser that you know everyone will admire while it drives down the road you can certainly overcome these.  Building a car in your garage is not an overnight project; it’s a long time investment that means work and time on your behalf.  It can be frustrating to realize you are a bolt short in one area or you didn’t send everything to be chromed that you needed to, these issues cause delays, but nothing will feel or sound as sweet to you as when you finally get to drive your newly restored classic car out of your garage and take it for its first real test drive.  With that in mind soldier on my friend; in the end all your work will be well worth it when you can finally take your car out for a spin.