A good Question (IMO)

[Ummgawa]

Lets say that you live in a great place where the weather is great 9-10 months out of the year, your Pro Tour Thang is completely done (If that is really possible).How much will you drive your car?? Everyday?

And

How nice is too nice to drive everyday? I guess my reason for asking is that as I go further into my project, I find myself wanting every nut and bolt to be absolutely perfect (adding way to much time). I'm a drive it untill it's dead and ressurect her again driver. I love to drive mine, Like to get rubber In all 4 gears (6 gears I mean). What do you think?

[Y-TRY]

I was thinking the same thing. But I was just making excuses for not going all-out with the build-up, realizing that I built the car specifically to beat it up. I don't have the money to disassmble the car every 1000 miles to keep it looking brand new. And as much as I drive it, and HOW I drive it, will definately put wear on it. You can't go street-fighting without getting some bruises. I wear my rock-chips and road grime like badges of honor.

[BC69]

Id say built it how you want, and drive it how you want. I dont think it can be "too nice to drive". Take care of it, dont drive out of control, know the cars limits and yours, respect it, and enjoy it. Alot of the affects from driving can be washed off in an afternoon.
But who am I to talk, I got 75 miles on mine, and been bad weather since...

Tim

[Musclerodz]

Pro-Touring cars were meant to be driven. Mine like yours will look like new all over top and bottom. It is the only way I will have it. I go to the extremes even when doing maintenance. I can't bring myself to bolt on something that hasn't been cleaned, painted, or replaced. I won't abuse my Camaro by leaving it unattended in a Wal-Mart parking lot, but it will be driven many miles. Once I get over the first couple of paint chips and scuffs, look out! :willy:

Mike

[Ummgawa]

I have owned a lot of old cool muscle cars. I always tell myself "I'll just have the radiator rodded out, alternator rebuilt, power wash and do a good, cleansing brake job (an old habit). Next thing you know, I have the engine out power washing the whole underneath of the dang thing,"I'll just do a minor Valve job" and wind up going through the entire engine (Old man told me one time, "Sonny[he said sonny] if the motors out of the car, replace the Oil pump!!"), new clutch/pressure plate(its out after all) and of course a new aluminized exaust at least. And then it winds up so much nicer (I have a sickness for engine compartments looking good and all of the inside and outside lights working perfectly) that I get pissed if it gets dirty. I even like it when the window mechanisms don't work properly. I love a smooth rolling up and down window (Anybody?)and have spent days cleaning and fixing the things. I'm sure that a company makes a pill for this, Heck, If Phizer invented a pill to make a 75 year old Scwinn have a working kickstand, they surely can help me. Not with the Kickstand mind you, but the car thing.

Should I go on or can I get a witness here?

[zbugger]

Ouch.... I'm almost the same way. I really get carried away when it comes to my car. I try to fix something, but I always seem to wind up cleaning the entire area around it.... And then some. But that's not gonna stop me from beating the hell out of the car while I'm driving it. Road grime and chips are a sign that the car is being driven, and that's something that I look for on every car I see at a show. It impresses me more than a spotless underside. Detailed is fine for show cars, but clean is good enough for me.

[Rick Dorion]

I'm striving for perfection with every task, usually fall short but drive every day I can. I want to enjoy the car to the max. I wind up being my most critical observer on mine but the fun is priceless.

[Ummgawa]

I hate to use a "Antiques roadshow" term here, but, If I buy a car with a good "20/20" paint job (20 MPH and 20 feet away it looks good) with a nice Patina that can be waxed out to some degree, I am much happier driving the slop out of it than one with a super nice paint job. AFTER I have done all of the necessary mechanical stuff I'm prone to do. I see that my costs to complete my PT Maro is going to be close to a riteous down payment on a beach house we have been looking at on the gulf that just came up for sale by owner.

The Beach. The Wife. Need I say More? I'm still finishing the car. :D

[Payton King]

I feel your pain. My car needed a valve job and a front end rebuild 3 years ago...what did it get? A big block with a pro-charger, well not really, I traded it for an LS1/T56 and a 12 bolt. Well not really, I sold the LS1 to my friend and bought another LS1 short block. Got head and cam package,etc. I was going to smooth the fire wall, that did not happen either. It got media blasted and every piece of sheet metal was replace with NOS stuff. I am on my 3rd set of rims and tires. So if you have been keeping up, my car has been down 3 years. It has had 3 new motors, 2 transmissions a complete body make-over, 3 sets of tires and rims, 2 rear ends and I am on my second subframe. Need I go on!

My opinion on making it too nice to drive. No such thing. If figure if I am going to paint the bottom of the car a semi-black it will just as much work to paint it yellow like the rest of the car. Everything will be done to the best of my ability and if something starts looking too ugly...it should not be that much work to touch it up. I do not want to have a 1:1 scale die cast model in my garage. That just is not me.

[Ummgawa]

Scott?
Jody?
Bill?

What is your view?

[XcYZ]

I'm building mine to drive. I'm not a car show kind of guy, the only car show I've had my car in was the Car Craft Summer Nats, which is more of an event than a show. When the weather is nice, I would take my car anywhere when I wouldn't have to leave it unattended for a long period of time. I have every intention of making the HRPT with it when it's back on the road again, as well as the usual Saturday night hellraising.

For me, I enjoy working on my car as much as I do driving it. I just can't leave anything alone. lol

[Blown353]

I'm in CA, so typically excellent weather.

I drive my car every day if I have the time and the roads are dry if I don't have it torn apart to fix/add/mod something. This roughly translates to 4-5 days a week.

I don't drive when the roads are wet, mostly for safety reasons-- lots of people have no clue how to drive safely in the rain, I don't want to risk a loss of traction incident, and mostly because I have no wipers-- my air filter is where my wiper motor used to be. Also because I hate cleaning up a painted and semi-detailed undercarriage, and worst of all, cleaning baked-on water stains off the headers. If I get stuck in the rain I can deal with it but I won't willingly take it out into inclement weather.

I'm going to paint the car this year and will NOT be cutting any corners, and you bet I'm still going to drive it as often and as hard as I do now. Rock chips happen, you have to learn to live with this. I'm also going to yank the body and detail the frame/box it and fab a 3-link rear setup, but I'm probably going to do the nice looking and durable spray on bedliner treatment to the floorpans and powdercoat the frame in a shade that will match the body; down the road all I have to do is pressure wash it and it will look new. I want clean yet simple and functional on the bottom.

Like Scott, I take my car nearly anywhere as long as I don't have to leave it unattended or out of sight for any decent amount of time. Also like he said-- I like working on them almost as much, maybe more than driving them. If I ran out of stuff to do on the car I might sell it out of boredom. This is why I replace perfectly good components or take something apart to change it a little. Keeps me occupied.

Troy

[hotwheels]

i would drive mine anytime the weather was good.....if you are going to build a piece of art, you should enjoy the fruits of your labor. in my opinion, doesn't do anygood to build it, then park it..........hotwheels of turborides

[jannes_z-28]

I have mine as a driving project, since we have long winters here in Sweden I can do a lot in one winter. Season is only May to September.

My paintjob was done in 1993, it is still good but has a few chips here and there. It looks OK a few feet away.

I will have it repainted sometime in the future.

Anyway it is a driving car and I drive it as much as I can during the summers, even commuting to work.

Last summer didn't see much driving due to the engine disaster.

You shouldn't be afraid to drive it that is what cars are for, right. And ours especially. Pro touring is about driving, nothing else. If we then can combine that with appearance, just fine! But it should still be driven!

Jan

[lil427z]

i boilt my camaro to drive and drive it i do . 2003 2004 hotrod power tour longhauler . but i have also put the car isca indoor shows . and have done great in them . i am curtainly #11 in the points standing in the west over all
not bad for a driver .



rick kirkindall :thumbsup:

[907rs]

Jim, I've got to agree with Scott and Troy.

My car will be as clean as they come, but it'll also be driven often. If that's the way you want to build the car, then go for it. After all, a little dirt does clean up! :D

[Ummgawa]

Same here

Hard to justify the kind of dollars the car will cost without driving the tires off of it.

[lil427z]

jim givem hell :thumbsup: :morepower




rick kirkindall