Is it time to call it a day

[PSH]

Thanks for the input guy's, I know deep down inside that your right in what you say, it's the reason why I still have this car, I guess I'll have to give it some serious thought over the coming weeks. Either way I'll need to finish the engine block first, that alone to date has cost over £4k so you can see where I'm coming from, putting on hold the other planned mods, just to get her back on the road with the basics needed for her to run reliably is going to be at least another £5k, decisions, decisions...lol

Thanks again guy's

Pete

 

[zcacogp]

Pete,

That's a big and difficult question. Only you can answer it and you hinted in your post that you suspect you may not enjoy it for that much longer.

What I would say is that your car is clearly quite a project, and you are aiming at a LOT of modifications and a LOT of power. And, the more specialised and esoteric anything gets, the more effort is required to enjoy it. (I have a friend who is very into vintage fountain pens, and he confessed to me recently that he hates having to write anything; making a nice pen work is too much effort to scribble a shopping list, but grabbing a biro to write a note to the milkman is a hateful experience because he knows higher pleasures than biros ... ) Have you simply ended up in a position where your 944 is too much for your to appreciate, and you are lost in the grind of a project with no light at the end of the tunnel? Should you be considering something simpler and more accessible, that you can enjoy more readily and more often?

I hope you find a solution that you are comfortable with. You sound like you are in a bit of a fix.


Oli.

 

[Frenchy]

I second what Oli has said, you have probably got into the mod process too deep and it is now becoming a chore, i had my black car in bits in July for 4 weeks, it was at a friends place who has a large garage / workshop i felt as though i was imposing and was keen to give him his space back, it was glorious weather at the time and i was going straight from work to climb underneath the car thinking what the hell am i doing under here on a day like this, i should have been in the garden with the kids sitting in the sunshine.
To add to that some of the jobs were a right PITA, 45 Minutes to remove one bolt from the short downpipe from the turbo, i was totally pee'd off with the Porsche 944 thing, i put a good few 10 hour shifts in on the car, garage prices would have been horrific !
It is now back together looking lovely and driving great with loads of other little jobs done whilst i was in amongst it, all forgotten about now and a good learning curve on 944 stuff.
Do you really need to go this far with the rebuild cash wise, what about a freshly built motor using the mods you already had and shifting the other stuff on, get it ready for May 13 and come to Germany with a few boarders and enjoy it.
Jim.

 

[TTM]

The question you need to ask yourself first is if you can you leave the car in a corner safe in the knowledge it won't cost you anything standing still.

It seems to me you have been completely absorbed by your engine build in the last months and have now reached a point of saturation. Been there too, and I have found helpful to make pause and focus on other different things while the "tension" would drop.

My suggestion would be to allocate your focus/concentration on several different other points of interest, but avoid getting yourself drowned into either of them, thus avoid the apparent point of disgust you seem to have reached now. I know how it feels, it's almost like bad taste in the mouth.

Unlike others I don't think it's time to "move on". I would rather it's time to freshen up your mind with different points of focus. Science says men are generally not as good as women for multitasking, but I would rather say that is because we sometimes let ourselves get carried away so far into some projects that we don't realise we have got our heads too deep into our a*ses and don't see the light anymore and lose a bit of common good sense.

For instance, my father is 74, always had one or two "specialist" vintage sports cars in his garage since his late 20s, but it has never prevented him from feeding interests for things like painting, photography, journalist writing, model toy trains (steam engines too), airplanes, English & Scandinavian cultures, and more recently vintage guns and rifles.

Edited to add: you sound like you are going to get absorbed by building your 5" gauge steam machines just as much as you have been building your 951 engine, so moving from one demanding hobby to another hobby that is perhaps at least as much demanding won't solve the problem, instead of solving it for good.

If you are in sound physical health, don't let your mind turn you old earlier than imposed by your body. That would be my €0.02 worth.

 

[tref]

Pete,

I know your car... in fact, I recall that I have the wheels you rejected still capable of winning concour on mine... So I know you simply will not be able to replace it. I also know that for me, running a bog-stock 220 Turbo is too much for a daily drive (where as the S2 is a dream), never mind anything tuned, but you have proven you can do it... have done, and will be able to again. As for the practicality of pulling a live steam-engine around the country, get a towbar - 944s tow wonderfully, and my towbar came off a turbo that was used for towing a caravan around Norway (or somewhere with snow) don't ask me how, but the owner thought it was fine.

Mid-way through an engine rebuild is a very, very dark time. I almost thought of giving up, selling the car as is, and spending time on other things, or just buying another engine (I actually bought an entire car with that intention... and ended up putting sills on that instead). I know how worrying it is spending a large lump of your budget, and wondering if it is really going to come out right at the end... but... the satisfaction of it firing up after that build... unbeatable
In order to finish off other projects, mine sat for two years before it fired up, and after winding it over to get fluids circulating, it fired up first time Don't miss that experience Pete... but you might wish to look at another 944 run-around in the meantime;-)

Best wishes,

Tref.

 

[Bertroex]

Difficult one, but here is the thing. You are an engineer kind-of-character. You like tinkering. You don't like wasting money.

Lets look at the alternatives.... You sell the 952 and you'll get, I dunno, a nice 61 bmw 530D touring. With a towbar. Chipping it "Would you believe it, almost as much power as my 250 bhp porsche and still I get 55MPG!" different wheels, nearly new with a host of electronics and £21000. That car, 3 years down the line, still needs "diagnosing" and resetting by an obnoxiously pedantic, careless spotty yoof with a laptop and you'll end up removing and replacing the turbo, you'll do the darn gearbox oil exchange yourself because you don't believe a unit ought to be sealed for life, the electronics won't talk to your Iphone 6S anymore without removing 3 ECU's and again a team of grandchildren who show granddad how you reset the suspension setting via your phone remotely, warm the car up on a cold winter drive and order a cappucino with the costa caffee on the way where you're going via iMaps.

You get frustrated by the gimmekery, the dependability on electronics, you lack the energy to invest and study all these bloody ugrades, and then the HUD (the what? Ah Heads up display) develops a fault that requires removing the dashboard and spending £1850 + VAT and then the parts that are needed. You think "I wish I bought a £2100 2002 530D touring instead and kept my 952 for when I felt the need to enjoy myself driving) and you end up bitter, twisted, and wished you never sold the Porsche in the first place. Why? "Because, well, one has to be sensible once in a while."

Make the 952 less of a hobby horse and make it useful to you. Get a well maintained, comfortable car to warm your bones and pull the locomotive. But avoid the traps of new-is-better.

My two penneth!

Cheers,

Bert

 

[john lord]

What a sad fellow ! Too old at 52. Heaven help us !!!!

 

[PSH]

Thanks for the input guy's, believe me I hear what you are saying and know that your right, hell even my wife tells me not to sell lol... Listening to you guys I am a little more towards keeping her although not certain so time will tell.

Oli and Jim although this is a reasonably big project it's not 'that big' although granted things would be a lot easier and cheaper if the car was standard, but none of my cars have ever remained standard, I always have to improve on things, it's just who I am. It can be a real pain though as everything that I like doing then takes twice as long because I can never just build something straight out of the box so to speak.

Thom you make a good point regarding having somewhere to keep it safe and leave it for a while, however although the car is totally safe on my drive from theft or damage from hit and runs it's not safe from the weather, as I have recently found out in regards to an inner seal, so time becomes a bigger issue.

Tref.. good to hear from you mate, hope you are well?.. I can't see me fitting a towbar...... I wouldn't use the Porsche to move the loco around anyway, it will need to be safely secured in a van or estate and under lock and key, after all it will be worth around £35k ( so i'm told) so wouldn't risk it on a trailer. I do hear you when you say about not missing out on the experience of the first start of the engine, that would be a special day indeed.

Hi Bert

Funny you mention a BMW, it happens to be on my list of possible cars for transporting the loco around, as you say it's also very economical and to me looks nice too. I'm well aware of what they can do when chipped, you may not know but my eldest son owns a chipping company and could very easily chip any car that I choose for both more power and even better economy. He also owns all the toy's for servicing the latest cars and has the latest computer packages for servicing them so I wouldn't have any worries in looking after a new car. However I prefer the older versions, 90's in particular seems good for BMW in the looks department, I tend to buy with looks rather than performance, this approach has served me well so far..


John... hmmm 52 is just a figure, it means little without knowing about the individual concerned, I wish I was a young fit 52 year old, things may be a little different in my mind set. I'm not going to get into my health on this forum but I will say that it's not only the car who's time is running out and leave it at that.


Thanks Guy's

Pete

 

[bighead]

ORIGINAL: PSH


So guys what do you think, anyone else here in the same situation? I can't be the only one who's asked themselves such a question, maybe not the younger guys amongst us but us older gents who want to do other things in life before it's to late may have asked themselves this very question, perhaps more than once...

I'd be very interested to hear what you guys think, you may help me make my decision... or not...

Kind regards

Pete

I am also the same age as you pete, thought bout given up my 500bhp Impreza P1(still at the tuners ...4 years now !! ) as well as my E90 M3, and actually getting a new bmw 3 series diesel, but then the heart always rule when it comes the cars as i can't stand "normal" cars !, so my advice is if you can afford to do the mods do it and enjoy the car as you only have one life

all the best .....mike

 

[944 man]

Four years at 'the tuners'? Good Lord! That means that it was in there before the financial meltdown - are you sure that they still have it?

 

[robdimond]

Pete,

Obviously a decision you have to make yourself but I for one am already missing updates to the engine build thread! Also noticed I'm just down the road from you if you need help with donkey jobs getting that engine back in!

Rob

 

[944s2]

Just looked through this thread

Its a bit like a Titanic one[]

 

[Frenchy]

Dougie, about time you looked at getting another 944......................long time dead !

 

[bighead]

ORIGINAL: 944 man

Four years at 'the tuners'? Good Lord! That means that it was in there before the financial meltdown - are you sure that they still have it?

yes i know ..if you ring Prosport in stockport and ask if " P1 HKS" is still there they will tell you that it is , car went in THERE IN 2008 after a forged 2.5 conversion (not by Prosport) after poping down to Bob rawle (BR developement) to map the car ...on my way to bob's the newly built 2.5 developed a leaking headgasket ( which cannot be detected until its on full boost ). so drove carefully back to manchester and drop the car in Prosport to assess the damage ..after finding out what need doing ,decided to build an even stronger engine so went down the 2.35 route and the cars been there ever since !

partly my own fault ( I ran a very busy business) and I known Peter the owner for over 10 years so getting the car on the road is not top of my "to do" list.

upside is my don't pay for parking there , and no insurance/road tax and m.o.t to buy .

anyway the story is too long to tell on someone else thread (sorry Pete).

back on topic

 

[944s2]

ORIGINAL: Frenchy

Dougie, about time you looked at getting another 944......................long time dead !

Totally agree but small matter of financing two teenagers through Uni one of which is up at St Andrews today to see if he like it

ARGH! a 944 would be cheaper but one day.....

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: robdimond
Also noticed I'm just down the road from you if you need help with donkey jobs getting that engine back in!

I'm just on the other side of town as well, so if you wanted a workparty day then I'd happily come along and wave a spanner around.

(Rob, it looks like you could be close as well - whereabouts in 'London' are you? I'm in E3.)


Oli.

 

[timmyturtle]

I was all ready to sell my Mk1 Golf a few years ago,got bored with it,never used it ,spent a load of money over the years etc,needed time and money to finish. I kept it because a friend said " you cant sell,she's part of your family". I had the car sorn and not insured for 8 yrs,just sitting in the garage. Every time I now drive the car i think " how stupid was i even thinking to sell" . Ive had her 18 yrs this month. Ultimately its your decision,it would be a shame to let her go,but hobbies change as do peoples lives.

 

[robdimond]

(Rob, it looks like you could be close as well - whereabouts in 'London' are you? I'm in E3.)

W12 so only about 8 miles but a long 8 miles!

 

[david924s]

I understand your worry and issues I think it has been said before on this thread, it is only a car at the end of the day so if you can finish off the engine and just enjoy it then do it if not then either leave it covered up for later or sell it as is, I think sometimes we lose track of reality when it comes to these cars after all like I said they are only cars, bits of metal, plastic and rubber adn are not worth worrying yourself into an early grave or upsetting the family for.

 

[PSH]

Thanks Rob and Oli for the kind offers of help, I'm pretty well covered with my sons I hope... I wouldn't have started this build without them being close by as there are many things that I just can not do these days, climbing under cars to tackle problematic seized bolts for one..lol
However I do greatly appreciate the kind offer and since we are so close perhaps if I do get on with the engine and finish it we could then meet up,or maybe even before although my wife may have something to say about having strangers over with the house still looking like a bomb site, I'd better get the house renovation finished first or I'll be in big trouble.
It certainly would be good to have a tyre kicking session for hour or two...

Kind regards

Pete