If you really want to do it you will find the energy and make the time. Once you really get into it it gets alot easier. But getting the motivation to start is the hard part.

Generally I try to fit in an hour or two every day, at least as often as I can. I wind up avoiding the ugly jobs, or dirty jobs in favor of smaller stuff that can be done in a session, but usually I have a number of operations all going at the same time and eventually they get done. Mostly. I mention this kind of stuff in my blog at the moment.

This is a timely thread for me.
I too have a young child. 18months old. She is just getting about the yard now without me having to hover over her. I hope to be able to get her out into the garage for short bursts of work on the car before she gets too distracted by other things.
She seems to have a knack for finding the grubbiest stickiest things on the ground.

W.

That seems to hold true even when they start dating.

My daughter is more interested in the car than my son. Just don't force it.

Finding time for this stuff and being a parent is hard. It is about getting motivated. Plan the work then work the plan. I have also learned that a certain sense of fearlessness is good. Not in terms of safety and doing stupid stuff but I am willing to learn just about anything, even if I know squat when I start. And being naïve sometimes has the advantage that you don't listen to people who want to put boundaries on what they can do and accomplish. That just means the rewards of success are that much sweeter!

I can relate to everything posted. I have 2 young girls and most weeknights by the time the girls are in bed I'm too tired from work, commute and getting the girls fed, bathed and storied to work in garage. Sometimes when I have time I just don't feel like it. Usually my wife gives me a few hours on Sunday morning.
I usually break projects up into a series of small tasks. Some stuff that I just don't want to work on, usually something seized, goes to the shop in sub-assembly form. I have to remind myself that I'm doing it for the experience. It's not a job, just a hobby. It should be fun. Case sealing was stressful for me.

I used to be one of those that looked down upon check book builds, not any more. After taking a long time to fail on a rebuild I've concluded that I'd rather pay for some help and save a car rather than drag it out for a long time while life gets in the way.

Good observations everyone, keep'em coming.

The key to working on cars is to make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew.
You've correctly identified you prefer smaller maintenance jobs and not full out rust job frame off restorations.
You clearly don't have the time and energy for that.
At my age, anything more than a few hours on the weekend is too much for me.

Being alone in the garage often proves my only real escape. After a long day at work and the wife and kid are in bed, I sneak out to the garage for some alone time with the car. It could be 20 degrees in there but I just don't care. Something about being alone with the machine just gives me peace and thus I always do my best to find the time, even if its for 20min.

Mitch1, I can relate, I too have two girls. As they get a little older I find I have a little more time, that's good and bad. Don't want my little girls to grow up, but you can't stop it. My youngest is very into cars, especially Porsches so who knows. The oldest, not so much. Enjoy every minute, it goes too fast.

1) I have a white board in the kitchen.
2) No more than 5 tasks on the list.
3) A task has to be two hours or less.
4) I don't order parts for a new task until I've crossed off at least one on the list.
5) At least one task a week.

I've had this system for about 10 years, seems to work pretty well.

Garage night for me. She has a book club others have poker nights. All I have asked for is on tuesday whether I get home from work at 1:00pm or 9pm, its my night in the garage. She plans for it and it works well. The wrench gets thrown into it often because If I have a business trip or evening work function that week, it means I can't have my night. I have 4 kids from 10 to 1 yr old.

I have tried to go out at 11:00 when all are in bed but just too kicked from the office.

Amen. I feel the same way often. And as I have only owned the car less the a year, everything I am doing is for the first time. Makes for some slow going....

This.

Definitely an escape. Sometimes I find myself wasting 20 min just staring at it and nit picking. Man, I'm ready for spring!

Stick around here. There are many folks on this board who are retired/semi retired that will do bang up work for a very fair price and love doing it.

I like it a lot. Number 3 is awesome for a busy family man. Break it down and save your marriage.

Great thread! I literally found out my wife was pregnant THE DAY I TOWED MY CAR HOME.

I have managed to do a ton of work since then. I think keeping things in the 2hr range has kept me motivated and since I have small garage I need to be able to do a full clean up when I'm done. Anything more than that and it's starts beating you up mentally and physically.

Thankfully I have found a few hours each weekend to keep going. Winter temps are the only thing slowing me down now.

I have 2 small children and a pregnant wife so time is also dear. My trick is to go to bed early on fridays or saturdays, wake up at 230 am and get in 7 or so hours.

I have a car that was not in terrible shape when I bought it 10 years ago but eventually I found rust in the usual places (suspension pan, rockers, lower front fenders). I remember Zeke saying that repairing this would typically take a DIYer over 1000 hrs. I thought that was ridiculous at the time, but it's proven to be true. I am now several years out and close to painting. I've got at least that many hours in it, probably more. But I have to say, all in all, it has been a great learning experience!

BTW, is Zeke still out there? I haven't seen any posts from him in awhile.

No kids opted out of that program years ago.
Retiring end of March. Have a list of things I put together this cold, dreary upstate ny winter. April, car gets lowered off jack stands, let the fun begin! Usually do honey do list things during the day and work on the Porsche evenings and weekends. Wife does her thing with pet chickens, I help her out with building and repairing coops and such. Time management was priority while working, not any longer! You guys keep working, somebody's got to pay for my social security. I did for 50 years. Gonna have fun in my garage going forward...

I just started a restoration and at times its overwhelming. I put each task in a category interior, body et. I write them all down and then try to check something off the list daily or weekly until the category is finished.