How to keep your wife on board with a 911 resto...

[mnewport]

My wife has been pretty cool about my 911. At first she thought I wanted to buy a 996 or 997, and she was pretty strongly opposed to it. Once I showed her I was interested in a vintage car, she changed her tune immediately. Although I picked the SC, she seems to have a fondness for the pre-'74 cars.

Recently I embarked upon a restoration. I started with a windows-out repaint. She was fine with that. I tore out the interior and put in new carpet. She was fine with that. I bought new seats. She started to complain a little. After that she expressed frustration with any new part I purchased. What to do? I still want to get a set of 17" RSR-frosted Fuchs, upgrade the engine to 3.2 SS, change the exhaust, and maybe even do a long-hood style back date.

Obviously if she's complaining about a $10 used sunroof deflector plate, new wheels aren't going to be very warmly received. My solution? Take some time away from the restoration, and spend the same amount of money on her as I've spent on the car. We took a mini-vacation last week, and I helped her pick out some new decorations for our house. So far it seems to be working well. Sure it's a more expensive way to do it, but it keeps things flowing smoothly. Today I did a little more work on the car, and I heard no complaints .

[Dantilla]

My wife has had no complaints about whatever I do with cars, because she knows:

a) I'm a cheapeskate, and wait until I find "deals", and

b) She is far more important to me than any car ever will be.

For my 911 project I scrounged up a wrecked 1987 Targa, so I had the complete engine, wiring harness, Carrera flares, aluminum banana arms, yada yada to toss into the 1973 tub. Parting out the rest of the Targa further reduced costs. This was far less expensive than sourcing all the neccessary parts individually. Quite a bit of that Targa was disbursed at John Walker's Swap Meet over a couple years.

Keeping her happy is wise. I wish you well.

[vulcan300]

Sounds like you've hit on the magic formula. There are a few rules that married guys need to be followed to ensure that a resto doesn't end in a divorce.

1. The wife must be convinced at the start that making the car look better will make her look better when she's being chauffeured around in it
2. No wife will tolerate playing second fiddle to a machine so make sure that you're spending as much time and money on her as you are on the P car
3. If the car gets your Saturday then Sunday is for the wife and kids (if applicable)
4. Don't talk about the car too much
5. Never, ever, let her add up what you spent!

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by targamaniac

Sounds like you've hit on the magic formula. There are a few rules that married guys need to be followed to ensure that a resto doesn't end in a divorce.

1. The wife must be convinced at the start that making the car look better will make her look better when she's being chauffeured around in it
2. No wife will tolerate playing second fiddle to a machine so make sure that you're spending as much time and money on her as you are on the P car
3. If the car gets your Saturday then Sunday is for the wife and kids (if applicable)
4. Don't talk about the car too much
5. Never, ever, let her add up what you spent!

+1... With particular emphasis on point number 2.

A woman needs to feel she's very important to you. That's how god made them.

[Laneco]

Easiest way to keep me happy with the project is to hand over the keys and get out of my way!

angela

[vulcan300]

I'd be happy to hand my wife the keys but long ago she decided that the standard transmission is the work of the devil. It's all good though, it means more time in the captains chair for me

[rattlsnak]

Just do like most of us do: don't ever tell her anything, especially what things really cost.

[McLovin]

I can't tell if you guys are just kidding around, or not.

Your wives really care about/monitor what you spend on your cars???

[quattrorunner]

I don't even know what I spend. What I don't know don't hurt me.

[Gogar]

You guys have wives? Cool!

[anderson111]

I think this thread is made for fun...........

[Reaper930]

Want a divorce? Build a 935 k3 tribute...in less than 3 months it's all over with papers signed...

Lesson I learned was build the car I want first then get married hahahahahaha :-) but seriously...........

[winders]

I am building a race car. The builder and I worked out a budget that we both thought was reasonable. I know how race car builds go so I went in expecting to exceed the budget by a decent amount.

Well, as the project evolved, the price went way over the amount I allowed for going over budget. So much over that I told my wife that I was going to put the project on hold.

You know what she said?

"There is no way we are not going to finish the race car after we have gone this far!"

And she isn't even planning on driving it!

She's a keeper for sure!!!

Scott

[clutch-monkey]

Originally Posted by targamaniac

2. No wife will tolerate playing second fiddle to a machine so make sure that you're spending as much time and money on her as you are on the P car

this! not married, but the gf is fine with how much i work/spend on cars if it doesn't affect 'us'.
although she is on my case to finish the '64 spitfire convertible

[fastfredracing]

When it comes to this subject, I treat my lady like a fine mushroom. I feed her shyte, and keep her in the dark!
She is actually pretty good about all of this . I was trying to talk myself out of purchasing the 930, and she gave me the final shove to go ahead and purchase . She is a keeper

[burch]

2 hours of work on the house=1 hour of Porsche work

[foxpaws]

Where I work we make a lot of muscle car suspension parts - and often we get calls like this:

customer - 'So, I would like to order the package for my '69 Firebird'

us - 'Ok - we'll need a credit card'

customer - 'can I send in a money order'

us - 'Sure, we'll send out the parts when we get it. What is your address?'

customer - '123 main - but, can you send it to my work - my wife said if I order another part for the car she was going to leave me.'

It really happens a lot more than you think - I am sure the wife wouldn't be leaving - but it probably would create a few more 'loud discussions' if a $1,500+ suspension package showed up on the front porch.

[Dave 86 930 Fl]

I just spent about $5k on safety stuff, fuel cell, Hans, fire system etc. My wife is completely on board with the upgrades as her new carbon fiber race bike will be here in 3 weeks.

[NutmegCarrera]

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

A good fallback is to sin first, and ask forgiveness later.

My car has been a "rolling resto", as I do what I can over each year. Easy in WI, as you can only drive for 5-6mos, and spend the remainder of year accumulating parts for the next "stage".

Hoping to be done with "Stage II" within a week or two myself....

[JeremyD]

Haven't heard a word since I got a new pool service...