My OCD Is Getting The Better Of Me

[RunningRed]

Hey fellas, ever since I went through my Cub and fixed the majority of the issues it had its been eating at me to strip this thing down and repaint it. I mean the paint job someone else did was really good but it was done years ago. There are spots that some rust is coming through and needs some attention. I probably don't have to repaint it and I kinda like the old look to it since after all it is an old farm tractor. However, I have been struggling keeping my mind from giving her a new paint job. There are still some things I wanted to do before I wanted to paint but it runs fine to me. I have a manifold gasket for when I adjust the valves which I haven't done yet and don't know if it even needs done. It also looks like the bearing for the fan needs replaced and the radiator still needs flushed or replaced. The transmission still catches some of the gears when shifting into another gear some, it doesn't do it in the winter just when it's warm out. I just don't know if it's worth repainting before all of this other stuff is done. However I don't have a ton of time to work on it either. Someone talk some since into me, I'm the kind of person that has a really hard time leaving well enough alone. There a lot of old grease and oil on this thing as well so it would be an absolute pain to remove it.

 

[Board shortener Tom]

Years ago my brother wanted a hot rod. I told him to buy one already fixed up and just drive it. He bought a basket case and went through everything including some body work but he has never painted it so it's not been put together. It sits in pieces, in primer.

At the same time he bought his project I bought a big old land yacht from 1963. It had an old repaint on it and needed some tlc....but I could drive it anywhere. As the years went by I fixed most of the little thing but still could drive the car at any time. I finally sold it a few years ago, nearly tripled my money invested and had all that time to simply enjoy the ride.

My point is, sometimes we miss all the fun because we can't just enjoy what we have unless it is perfect.

 

[RunningRed]

Years ago my brother wanted a hot rod. I told him to buy one already fixed up and just drive it. He bought a basket case and went through everything including some body work but he has never painted it so it's not been put together. It sits in pieces, in primer.

At the same time he bought his project I bought a big old land yacht from 1963. It had an old repaint on it and needed some tlc....but I could drive it anywhere. As the years went by I fixed most of the little thing but still could drive the car at any time. I finally sold it a few years ago, nearly tripled my money invested and had all that time to simply enjoy the ride.

My point is, sometimes we miss all the fun because we can't just enjoy what we have unless it is perfect.

You know that makes a lot of sense. At times I try to make everything perfect. I have been restraining myself because in all honesty it's not that bad at all. Like for example I've been working on my sickle bar mower and instead of just getting it in working order I plan to completely restore it to like new condition which there's nothing wrong doing that. However it turns into a huge project that after awhile I quit enjoying the work and just want it done. It takes away from my enjoyment of just enjoying a piece of history. That's my down fall, I try to make everything absolutely perfect.

 

[Board shortener Tom]

You know that makes a lot of sense. At times I try to make everything perfect. I have been restraining myself because in all honesty it's not that bad at all. Like for example I've been working on my sickle bar mower and instead of just getting it in working order I plan to completely restore it to like new condition which there's nothing wrong doing that. However it turns into a huge project that after awhile I quit enjoying the work and just want it done. It takes away from my enjoyment of just enjoying a piece of history. That's my down fall, I try to make everything absolutely perfect.

I had this same condition for a very long time. I had years of partially completed projects that never got done. It caused me a lot of stress to see them just sit there. I got rid of all of them and now I don't start a bunch of projects at once. I just make small changes here and there until I get to a point where I feel "that's good enough now" which may be a full on restoration.

We recently bought a small farm. All the outbuildings have rotted sill issues which will require me to jack up parts of the buildings and replace the sills along with some sort of support below the frost line. It's taken a lot of restraint to not jump into all of them at once. So I'm evaluating things and am coming up with a plan on how to address the major things first and work at small pieces until all 4 buildings are back in good order. It's going to take a few years but I am not going to stress about it nor am I going to make a giant mess of it.

"How do you eat an elephant? 1 bite at a time."