Mike Burger's recent post brought up a point that I have been thinking about for a while.
Restoring a car, whether an e9 or any other, very quickly becomes a financial and logistical quicksand. Egged on by the excitement of the building project, by the encouragement of other board members and by the admiration we feel for a beautifully finished automobile, we tend to get sucked in deeper and deeper into a financial black hole. But we tend to rationalize it all by the sheer satisfaction of building something physical that will (hopefully) provide immense satisfaction, much driving pleasure and perhaps the admiration of our peers. At least for a while.
But, unless you are financially well off and money is no object, there comes a time when you step back and realize that you now have 50, 70, 100 or whatever thousand dollars or euros tied into what is essentially a totally disposable luxury. And if you have a family, inevitably at some point, you can't help but think: "A new house would probably serve the whole family much better", or "Those kids' college tuitions are not going to miraculously disappear unless I start paying them off". I remember reading with great sadness about fellow member eludwigs abrupt decision to have to sell the coupe he had worked so incredibly hard to build to very high standards about a year ago. He only mentioned something about "A sudden change in personal situation" or something to that effect.
Even my own car which was bought 95% rust free will have eaten about $60k once all the mechanicals will be done. I originally had planned on putting $30k in it maximum... And that does not even include a repaint. That is a LOT of money sitting in the garage being used mostly only on sunny Sundays.
This makes me appreciate people like Mike Goble. When I decided to go a for a B35 motor, I fell into the trap of "Since I'm going to do the transplant, lets do a full rebuild, the Motronic conversion and the whole nine yards". It will undoubtedly be spectacular and reliable and all that. But Mike had posted a while back that he also wanted a B35, so went to a salvage yard, picked a decent looking motor, plunked it into his car, put some Webers on it and was driving it within a few weeks for a minimal cost. (Paraphrasing here but that was the idea). Now he's got a real fun car with a modern motor that does not feel like a financial boat anchor. Props to him for providing a very valid other option.
Anyway, the point of all this is that anyone wanting to get into this hobby better first sit down and determine a real Dollar or Euro limit on what he/she can afford to spend without looking in the garage and lamenting "I enjoyed almost every minute of this project but, the reality is that I can't really afford to keep it." Most of us have probably reached the point of no return by now but it would be very helpful to mention this to anyone who is wanting to get into the hobby.
A classic car can be a tremendous source of enjoyment and stress relief. But only if you are very diligent about keeping it within what you are financially comfortable with.
Restoring a car, whether an e9 or any other, very quickly becomes a financial and logistical quicksand. Egged on by the excitement of the building project, by the encouragement of other board members and by the admiration we feel for a beautifully finished automobile, we tend to get sucked in deeper and deeper into a financial black hole. But we tend to rationalize it all by the sheer satisfaction of building something physical that will (hopefully) provide immense satisfaction, much driving pleasure and perhaps the admiration of our peers. At least for a while.
But, unless you are financially well off and money is no object, there comes a time when you step back and realize that you now have 50, 70, 100 or whatever thousand dollars or euros tied into what is essentially a totally disposable luxury. And if you have a family, inevitably at some point, you can't help but think: "A new house would probably serve the whole family much better", or "Those kids' college tuitions are not going to miraculously disappear unless I start paying them off". I remember reading with great sadness about fellow member eludwigs abrupt decision to have to sell the coupe he had worked so incredibly hard to build to very high standards about a year ago. He only mentioned something about "A sudden change in personal situation" or something to that effect.
Even my own car which was bought 95% rust free will have eaten about $60k once all the mechanicals will be done. I originally had planned on putting $30k in it maximum... And that does not even include a repaint. That is a LOT of money sitting in the garage being used mostly only on sunny Sundays.
This makes me appreciate people like Mike Goble. When I decided to go a for a B35 motor, I fell into the trap of "Since I'm going to do the transplant, lets do a full rebuild, the Motronic conversion and the whole nine yards". It will undoubtedly be spectacular and reliable and all that. But Mike had posted a while back that he also wanted a B35, so went to a salvage yard, picked a decent looking motor, plunked it into his car, put some Webers on it and was driving it within a few weeks for a minimal cost. (Paraphrasing here but that was the idea). Now he's got a real fun car with a modern motor that does not feel like a financial boat anchor. Props to him for providing a very valid other option.
Anyway, the point of all this is that anyone wanting to get into this hobby better first sit down and determine a real Dollar or Euro limit on what he/she can afford to spend without looking in the garage and lamenting "I enjoyed almost every minute of this project but, the reality is that I can't really afford to keep it." Most of us have probably reached the point of no return by now but it would be very helpful to mention this to anyone who is wanting to get into the hobby.
A classic car can be a tremendous source of enjoyment and stress relief. But only if you are very diligent about keeping it within what you are financially comfortable with.
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