I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, like there’s a lot to do with little time. I think maybe I take on too many projects and cause myself undue pressure. There’s just all these little things that “you might as well take care of since you have it all apart anyway”, you know? It seems to add up not only mentally, but financially as well. Not to mention the two other family vehicles I have to maintain.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all complaining. If I step back and see the big picture, I’m lucky to even be having these sorts of issues. Maybe I need to prioritize better and not do everything like I’d like to. There’s both the “NEED” and the “WANT categories”. Separation of these two is critical right now, and I’m failing.

You want to do things right the first time, don’t you? I’ve read way too many “If I could do it over…” posts on this and other boards that it makes me really try to get it right the first time. I’ve already skimped on things and really try to be poster-boy for the do-it-yourself budget racer, but I look at guys like Greg Umbay and another fellow (his name escapes me) I’ve met in the Oregon area who race the DX, and these guys really seem to have it down.

Maybe I should just stop all this little project crap and figure out what’s important. It’s tough though, because don’t you NEED brake ducts, and don’t you NEED longer wheel studs, and don’t you NEED wheel bearings, and don’t you NEED stainless brake lines, and don’t you NEED a spare intake manifold to clean up, and don’t you NEED a new master cylinder and booster, and don’t you NEED new rotors, and don’t you NEED new race pads now, and don’t you NEED a kill switch, and don’t you NEED a window net, and don’t you NEED a extra door bar welded to the cage, and don’t you NEED a header, and don’t you NEED a cold air intake, and don’t you NEED $15 per can brake fluid, and........

John – who want’s..... and needs

 

John,

You know what you need. You need those things that get you there and bring you back without drama. You need reliability and basic safety, and you need brakes. The stuff that makes you go incrementally faster you want. Do those as you can fit them into time and budget.

The best advice I've been given lately was from a source you might expect to be unlikely to offer this kind of advice (Scott Zellner): "I would never waste money like that.......save the money....save the money". You can hardly buy advice that good.

Scott, who knows that there is an eternal flow of wants into needs in our human reality......but first you need money.....now quit goofing off on H-T and get back to work...."you too Scott!"...

 

I've been building my car since I bought it new in '95. It ain't done yet.

I guess thats about all I have to say about that.

 

Great post, johng. I'm going through the same thing right now with the CRX build, and I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm always taken by the idea "well, this part's in pieces already, so lets repace everything now." Here's what I had to do. First, I posted the question (with several followups) about things that fail on my perticular car (hubs was a big issue) and things that every racecar should keep fresh (hoses, bushings, and bearings were the big ones). Then I sat down and made spreadsheet of every part I could think of that I might want to buy for the car in the future. Just put everything down that you can think of with no regard for money (only the best parts that is, not only the most expensive). Then I added another column for price. Total up the price column, have a , and add a third column for priority. I set my priority level as a 1-5, with a 1 being something that I needed to have before I would even start the engine and back it out of the garage and a 5 being something like custom graphics or a helmet intercom. Then I totaled up the priority 1 items, priority 2 items, etc. and it was much more reasonable. I ordered everything in the priority 1 category and now it has become a huge pile of parts (there's a recent post on this from me if you want to see the exact list).

Keep in mind, some things from prioirty 2 and 3 will creep in there out of convenience. I mean, if you're going to replace a torn CV boot and a bad wheel bearing, you might as well do the extended studs at the same time, even though their priority may have been a 2 or 3. Make sense? However, that does not mean that you need to need to buy an oil cooler setup just because you're draining the oil for a filter change. Drawing the line has been hard for me too, but I use safety as my main criteria. If it's something that could fail and hurt me (hubs), or if it's something that could protect me from someone else's failure (nASScar style door bars), I went ahead and just did it even though it wasn't a priority 1. However, I'm still not going to buy a rear sway bar, an exhaust manifold, or an intake until everything else is sorted out.

Hope that helps some. You could always win the lottery

 

I notice that your whole question presumes that you NEED to go racing...

Kirk