Project Opinion - When its it time to call it quits?

[Mattman2010]

I have been working on my 85 crew cab for about a year and 3 or 4 months and I am just starting to loose motivation on it because every time I think I am getting somewhere I have to dump more money into it to fix something.

What I am looking for is opinions on when to quit working on a project because it is to much. So here is some background information on me and my project.

I wanted a crew cab really badly and I finally found one that the guy was asking $1500 for. I went and look at it and it had rust in spots that I had never seen (should have been a really big sign for not buying it) but I figured I could probably fix it, I got the guy down to $1100 and bought the truck. Well I tore all the body off and converted the frame to 4x4. Well I then started looking more into the body and realized the mistake that I had done buying the truck, the whole body was trash, so I went out and found another truck for $400 and stole the body off of that truck. Well worse comes to worse and I dropped the bed, but I saved the cab and the front clip. I built a new transmission hump for the cab which I am afraid that a molded floor mat will not fit over, and painted the front clip and cab white. And like the body on the first truck everything I pulled off of that truck had a bad seal and so I have basically ended up replacing everything on the truck. So now what I was hoping would be a somewhat cheap project I have over $6k in and not even close to done. I still need to find a replacement bed, and paint it and the doors, figure out what to do with the floor of the truck because of the transmission hump. And fix a bunch of stuff that I did when I converted the frame that I don't like. I would say I would easily be able to spend another $5k on this truck, but in the end I think the truck will only be able to get no more than $2k when I am done. I know you loose money building these things but that is just to much when I am only 19 and in college working a minimum wage job, and it sucks every time I think I am getting somewhere I end up putting each paycheck into the truck just to fix something.


I still want a crew cab 4x4 truck, what I am trying to figure out is if this project is worth continuing on or if I should stop while my loss is low and find another one in better shape. I have seen several lately that are less than $2k that have good interiors, and seem to have no rust and dont need a paint job. Yes they are only 2wd, but I have all the parts to convert the truck on my current project. And most of them are 4 speed trucks so I would only have to cut a hole in the floor for the transfercase instead of making a whole new hump like i did. I think that if i started with a truck that didnt need a paint job, and didnt need an interior that is where I am going to save most of my money. Most of the parts that I want to keep off of my current project are the parts that I have the most money into, and then whatever I have left I would just try to sell off to make some money back. I figure that I can just swap all of my new parts over to the new truck and have the truck running in less than a month and be able to drive it all the time and not have to dump any more money into it. I mean I hate to give up on my project because I have so much time and money, but its starting to get a little ridiculous. I might even keep my current project for a future project, but all of this is just ideas for right now.

You might be wondering why not just leave the truck the way it is for right now and just drive it, well it has nothing for sound deadening in the truck right now, all i have is the metal between me and the motor so it is really loud in there. One reason why I am thinking of buying another truck is that I think the interior for this truck will cost the same amount as one of these trucks that is less than $2k. My floor modifications just scare me in thinking that I will have to find something custom to get it to fit my floor. Interior stuff is really expensive and I need all of my seats repaired and so I am thinking about just finding a truck that I could just convert to 4x4 for right now and drive it, then I can work on painting things later on. This whole frame off thing is just starting to be to much for me, I want to try to work on other projects but I am a guy that cant start messing with something else till what I started on is done, plus my income can really only support one hobby at a time

Ive pretty much convinced myself that starting with a new truck is probably the best way to go, my dad (who has helped me a ton on this truck) just kind of wants me to keep what I have and keep going, but I am to the point that I just cant justify putting more money into this truck. My dad wants to be done with helping me with my trucks for a while, but I guess he doesn't understand that there is probably another years worth of work to be done to it.

Sorry for this long rant, I am just looking for opinions on this.
Thanks, Matt