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Project completion and no longer interested


Mojoe

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I find myself getting into projects and completing them, only to not have much interest in them. Maybe I do it to see if I can do it. Half of me justifies the disinterest as being ok with downsizing on things I don't need. The other half is that I don't have time to mess with the things I have.

 

For instance, I've driven the RX7 less than 2000 miles since 2012. I'm not as interested in it like I use to be, but there's nothing to work on, so that may be part of it.

 

Anyone else run into this?

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Yes, I did. It's old age, I think.

 

Regarding your loss in interest in the RX7. It's now the time to enjoy it; participating in a competitive event gives the car a purpose beyond installing parts and dyno numbers. In my case, it's a never-ending evolution of improving my driving skills and overcoming mental blocks. There's something about mastering a beast that can and will bite.

 

In this forum, there are people who compete in autocross, road-course events, drag racing, rally (dirt and tarmac), or, in rare instances, participate in obscure touring/trip to borderline extreme destinations. Reach out and see what you like.

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Yes, I did. It's old age, I think.

 

Regarding your loss in interest in the RX7. It's now the time to enjoy it; participating in a competitive event gives the car a purpose beyond installing parts and dyno numbers. In my case, it's a never-ending evolution of improving my driving skills and overcoming mental blocks. There's something about mastering a beast that can and will bite.

 

In this forum, there are people who compete in autocross, road-course events, drag racing, rally (dirt and tarmac), or, in rare instances, participate in obscure touring/trip to borderline extreme destinations. Reach out and see what you like.

 

The RX7 was built with road course and Auto Cross in mind. The key factor with not much interest with the car the last few years, has simply been lack of time to do events like that. Even cars and coffee has been something that I’ve only been able to get you once maybe twice a year.

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I have the same issues. Haven't picked up a camera for actually enjoyment and use for years. I've become a cell phone dad with thousands of camera dollars sitting idle. Lots of other things ebb and flow up and down based on the tasks at hand and my time available.

 

 

If you need someone to enjoy that car just let me know ;) Let's start by parking over hear for a clean up first.

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Drive it. We had a blast this Saturday with just a simple Hocking Hills drive. I thought about inviting you, but yi7 made it sound like you had some suspension gremlins to sort out.

 

I don’t know who yi7 is, But there are no gremlins at all with the card work out. It’s never had any suspension issues. I was training this weekend so that’s why I wouldn’t of been able to go. Drove the car to work last week but about 280 miles on it.

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I don’t know who yi7 is, But there are no gremlins at all with the card work out. It’s never had any suspension issues. I was training this weekend so that’s why I wouldn’t of been able to go. Drove the car to work last week but about 280 miles on it.

 

I wasnt talking about your card. I was talking about the RX-7, and i thought that based on your comments at Kindred.

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I ask myself is the hobby worth it as I get older, and admittedly energy for all-night wrenching sessions aren't as easy to recover from anymore.

 

I wrenched all weekend on the Silverado, dirty from rusty and greasy suspension parts that had to be ripped apart. I wondered, is it worth it? People just assume I'm the shadetree mechanic and I love working on this stuff. At 1:30am Sunday night when I'm calling it quits, it's tough to see. However, every time I talk about cars with people, hear about others' projects, or hit up CR/YouTube I'm reminded of the satisfaction I get from doing a lot of my own work and customization.

 

I agree with Howard: you gotta drive your cars. The CTS-V is nicely sorted (still a few things that need repair) and every time I drive it, no matter what's on my mind, part of me recognizes my love for driving it. When I cruise downtown with the Lincoln, it puts a smile on my face. Time is tough with kids and a career (let alone side hustles and extra-curricular activities!) so you gotta get a little car fun in as often as you can.

 

You might need a dose of that, Joe!

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I ask myself is the hobby worth it as I get older, and admittedly energy for all-night wrenching sessions aren't as easy to recover from anymore.

 

I wrenched all weekend on the Silverado, dirty from rusty and greasy suspension parts that had to be ripped apart. I wondered, is it worth it? People just assume I'm the shadetree mechanic and I love working on this stuff. At 1:30am Sunday night when I'm calling it quits, it's tough to see. However, every time I talk about cars with people, hear about others' projects, or hit up CR/YouTube I'm reminded of the satisfaction I get from doing a lot of my own work and customization.

 

I agree with Howard: you gotta drive your cars. The CTS-V is nicely sorted (still a few things that need repair) and every time I drive it, no matter what's on my mind, part of me recognizes my love for driving it. When I cruise downtown with the Lincoln, it puts a smile on my face. Time is tough with kids and a career (let alone side hustles and extra-curricular activities!) so you gotta get a little car fun in as often as you can.

 

You might need a dose of that, Joe!

 

Quite frankly, the few times I drive the FD and get into boost, the damn thing is viscous. I feel like I’m going to jail immediately. It’s fucking loud! It just pulls and wants more. I pulled through two gears passing a couple cars last week, and felt like I should have apologized to them. Its not the fastest car out there, but is is plenty of power for fun.

 

I didn’t mean this thread specifically just on the FD. There’s several projects I’ve got into, and I just feel like a soon as I get done I don’t wanna mess with that anymore. For instance, last year I put together a rifle to shoot 1200 maybe 1500 meters. As soon as I got all the parts on it and put it together, I shot it a couple times I just put it away and never touch it. I wanted to shot a few competitions, but again I just don’t have the time.

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Quite frankly, the few times I drive the FD and get into boost, the damn thing is viscous. I feel like I’m going to jail immediately. It’s fucking loud! It just pulls and wants more. I pulled through two gears passing a couple cars last week, and felt like I should have apologized to them. Its not the fastest car out there, but is is plenty of power for fun.

 

I didn’t mean this thread specifically just on the FD. There’s several projects I’ve got into, and I just feel like a soon as I get done I don’t wanna mess with that anymore. For instance, last year I put together a rifle to shoot 1200 maybe 1500 meters. As soon as I got all the parts on it and put it together, I shot it a couple times I just put it away and never touch it. I wanted to shot a few competitions, but again I just don’t have the time.

 

As with most things it is more about the journey than the destination. Hence why i have 50 projects going on at once at all time. Actually thats more if a time management issue on my part ....lol

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Either you enjoy building stuff, or you enjoy what you get to do with it when you get it done. For me personally I love cars, but I fix them and work on them everyday. Kind of a big contradiction to that part of it being fun anymore. However I still really enjoy a good drive, or race, and those things I don't get to do everyday. Those aspects of it remain fun. I do get some enjoyment out of helping other get their projects finished, but even that feels like a job most of the time.

 

It's tough, I spent all weekend putting an engine in my Corvette. I really didn't want to, but I will have fun driving it. My Camaro was great fun years ago, and I've just held onto it. Kind of feel like maybe we're in the same boat car wise when I think about that. If I'd find ways to go out and use it I'd love it a lot more. I built that car when most of my activities with it were illegal, and now that I try to keep myself out of trouble it doesn't do much.

 

oh well, random thoughts. Decide what part makes you happy and do more of it. If it's the journey of a project and then selling it to do it again, or the joy in playing with it at the end. Honestly just sounds like you're bored. I need a new hobby other then cars too.

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I am bored with many of the things that I used to do. Not to say I became an expert with them, but I got to a point where I was pretty good. Didn’t wanna invest any more money or time to take things to the next level. Some close friends on here know how occupied I am with my work, so free time to be able to enjoy some of these things simply hasn’t been an option. It’s not a matter of making time. However, for the downtime that I do get, there are other things that are a priority or that I enjoy doing more so then messing with the things that I’ve mentioned.

I went out to my range the other day and took a few shots at a steel plate that was probably 60 m away. I had it two out of the three times, unloaded the gun and went back inside. I was satisfied.

I guess most of this is just coming down to be sorting out how to justify what I do spend time doing. What can still hold my interest, and what I need to move on from.

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I am bored with many of the things that I used to do. Not to say I became an expert with them, but I got to a point where I was pretty good. Didn’t wanna invest any more money or time to take things to the next level. Some close friends on here know how occupied I am with my work, so free time to be able to enjoy some of these things simply hasn’t been an option. It’s not a matter of making time. However, for the downtime that I do get, there are other things that are a priority or that I enjoy doing more so then messing with the things that I’ve mentioned.

I went out to my range the other day and took a few shots at a steel plate that was probably 60 m away. I had it two out of the three times, unloaded the gun and went back inside. I was satisfied.

I guess most of this is just coming down to be sorting out how to justify what I do spend time doing. What can still hold my interest, and what I need to move on from.

 

Come shoot a uspsa match.

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I guess most of this is just coming down to be sorting out how to justify what I do spend time doing. What can still hold my interest, and what I need to move on from.

 

+1.

 

As long as you're happy with yourself, it's all good. People make big changes in life trying to chase a feeling they'll never get anyway.

 

The RX-7 runs; That's a win that many car guys can't claim. Come to my 'hood...I'll show you 3 guys within a stones' throw of my house that have classics in their garages (Thunderbird, Tempest LeMans, Nash) that don't run. That would make me crazy!

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I find myself getting into projects and completing them, only to not have much interest in them. Maybe I do it to see if I can do it. Half of me justifies the disinterest as being ok with downsizing on things I don't need. The other half is that I don't have time to mess with the things I have.

 

For instance, I've driven the RX7 less than 2000 miles since 2012. I'm not as interested in it like I use to be, but there's nothing to work on, so that may be part of it.

 

Anyone else run into this?

 

 

Constantly with motorcycles and it agonized me for a long time.I still get it from time to time with certain things.

 

I think a lot of it has to do with goals. When I was younger, just having the thing without any set expectation of what to do with it was enough. Maybe my vanity was more valuable to me back then that just having this thing and what is said about me was more important than figuring out a use for it, or I vaguly thought of what I wanted to do, but had no clear path to do it.

 

The thing that changed my mind about the hobby was to stop thinking about the "things" I would just like to own, and instead focus on the experiences I would like to have connected to the hobby. This gave the "project" a more clear goal and focus, energized me more as the reward seemed richer, and made me less connected with the object itself which was usually the barrier to me selling it.

 

I was actually having this conversation at CCC with a friend in reference to my CB750, one of the few vehicles that I still feel represents my ID. Recently the bike has become unreliable and my buddy started calling it "the cobbler's shoes" because I was too involved with my other bike projects to spend any time on fixing this bike that needs a little bit of work to become reliable again. Even though it broke down on me twice yesterday and had my wife cursing me to sell it, I still don't have much motivation to work on it since when it works, about 80% of the time, it delivers exactly what I need it to do plus some.

 

If you want to be excited about the RX-7 again, my advice is to think about something you have always wanted to do in the automotive hobby and set that as your goal, and then use the RX7 to accomplish it. Make the time for yourself to do it, it's rejuvenating.

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It’s life getting in the way. Go out for drive, find some desolate roads and open her up. Or call up one of your faster friend and race him. He’ll beat you, and you’ll get interested in your car again. Trying to improve it so you can have a rematch.
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In the world of machines to me the challenge of building and creating something that interests me is the reward. Once its done I move onto the next challenge. However with something like photography I still enjoy seeing some of the work and get a sense of pride from the finished product.
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