Do You Love It Or Do You Hate It?

By Joe Whitaker

I once had a customer and a friend that bought and sold cars to and from us and bought a fair amount of restoration parts. He liked all types of "old cars" not just Chevy's. He called me one day to tell me he had sold all of his collector cars because he just didn't want to do it anymore. When I asked him why, he told me he had just grown tired of it; but the straw that broke the camel's back was when he pulled into the parking lot at work one day in his favorite '56, some of his coworkers were in the lot and they kind of laughed at him. These same coworkers then proceeded to ask him why he messed around with that old junk and he took it personally. He sold it all, but about 6 months later he was back in it and decided he didn't much care what others thought now!

I've never thought of getting out of the hobby because of what other people thought as I don't much care if some people aren't smart enough to understand why old cars are so much fun. That's their problem, not mine. The only time I ever sold "everything" was after college when I moved and thought I wanted to be a suit and tie executive. That didn't last long and I was drawn back by my love of the hobby and the cars. I must admit, though, there are times; sometimes two or three times a week that I say to myself "Once I get this to fit or get this paint the way I want it, I'm done. I'm getting rid of this heap and never messing with cars again." Sometimes I remember to follow my own advice and just walk away when things go wrong and come back to it later when things usually fall right into place. Things usually calm down, I get the part to fit, or repair what I just broke, the paint comes out fine and I love it again. Even after I have sold a car and feel ready to take a breather, I get the itch to have another and before you know it, I do.

Fortunately, since I do all of my own work on my cars I have never had the urge to get out due to outside circumstances. Outside circumstances like work done by an overpriced body shop that steals your parts and then goes out of business or an interior shop that installs an interior that looks like it belongs in a Yugo. Bad experiences people have with body and paint shops is a big reason people leave the hobby never to return. I can fully understand and sympathize with jumping ship after losing big bucks to an unscrupulous shop; but I know people that have been through multiple bad experiences but they love the cars so much they just keep going.

Hopefully for you the love/hate relationship you may have with your cars is 99% love and just 1% (or less) hate. I can easily tolerate hating it 1% of the time if it's 99% fun the rest of the time. When you get mad because things don't go just your way and you're ready to give it all up, don't be rashŠtake some time to think it over and you'll love it again!