Aside from the obvious boring reality that I have a job that also demands my time and a personal life to attend to, what eats up the time working on the car is the attention to detail we have to put into it. It's easy to slap things together and call it a day, but the small details are what sets us apart from the posers. Here's a little example...
Today I was working on changing the studs on the intake manifold to longer ones to accommodate the carbs, Phenolic spacer and the throttle cable bracket. The studs I got were longer, but then too long so they had to be trimmed to clear other parts of the carbs. Most people would just cut them and go on... But look what I'd do...
From left to right; the stock stud, cut down to size with a hack saw and then finished on a grinding stone to smooth the top and round it off to a similar profile as the original. I then clean the finished product up so it looks like new before installing it.
Repeat that process 8 times for all the intake manifold studs and you'll see where the time is spent. Every part of the car is treated with the same attention to detail. Most of these things, really are not even seen when the car is finished but I do derive some sort of personal satisfaction knowing it's there.
Today I was mocking up the positioning of the A/C condenser and oil cooler for the car;
While doing this I got to look inside the bits of the car that are usually hidden from view. This is how it looks without any cleaning or anything. 3 years on since I restored the car (and it has been used quite a bit since then) I'm pretty happy with how it looks in there. All the accessory brackets are powdercoated, new bolts were used in the assembly and the backs of the fenders and wheel wells were coated with a Wurth resin based undercoating before everything was sprayed inside out with Anzhal car show finish urethane paint. All of that detailing is what takes time, but, at least in my opinion it's worth all the effort.
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