I think it’s different if you’ve never had a resto, bc then you’re partially driven by curiosity: to see if you can actually do it. I did it once, with the swb. Would I do it again? No. It’s way more enjoyable to me to have a vehicle that I can USE.
I made a vow with the lwb that it would never be down for more than two weeks. I only broke that vow once, when I put the rebuilt F135 in in 2001. Then I gave myself three weeks.
I’m starting down the rabbit hole again with the Karma Cruiser. Two weeks. It will not be a frame off resto. But it WILL get wheeled. That I guarantee.
I have a LOT of friends on this forum that have over a decade in their builds. IMO, that’s a ridiculous opportunity cost. I was telling
@majdomo last week about the 60 that used to belong to
@calfj60, which had been in three different shops for a total of 3 years when I met Tim. After a cursory review of the rig, I told him to cut his losses and dump the truck, buy something that ran, AND NOT TOUCH IT! He’d already lost three years of camping with his wife and daughter. Three years that he would never get back.
He called me six months later, told me he’d done as I suggested, had already been out camping a few times in his stock 80 series. More importantly, he said it was the best life advice anyone had ever given him.
