Cooking up cool ideas is always fun and easy, but the first actual step in beginning a project is the most daunting.
Today I’m working on my four door Datsun 720 truck. It’s one of the various ongoing and evolving projects I own. Today I’m addressing some complications that showed up while assembling the fuel injection. After installing the intake manifold (complete with 4.0L Jeep throttle body) I’ve discovered the throttle position sensor fouls on the battery. Ugh! So, I’ve headed off to the salvage yard hoping to find a sensor that will mount up and work. After an hour in “the yard” I’ve discovered the TPS off a 2001 Ford Escape will work with minor modifications.
Moments like these highlight the snags that we worry about when starting a project. After all, nothing is a “direct bolt-on”. As much as you or I spend days and hours imagining and trying to avoid the snags, spatial issues will arise and there will need to be some sort of work-around figured out. I had my manifold mocked up on an engine on a stand as I tried to imagine how everything would fit. My imagination just simply isn’t good down to the millimeter as where things line up in real life.
As with anything, the reluctance to face these anomalies can lead to a lack of desire to follow through. A sort of “Automotive Project PTSD” for those who have gone through the process and had to work through some steep challenges. Often, those people’s challenges are accompanied by steep learning curves.
Of course who can forget the many times logging into an automotive forum, coming face-to-face with an individual who’s at that point in a project. The pages of this NICOclub forum are littered with thousands of archived examples of people who took the first step, faced adversity, and turned to whomever they could for support. Do you know what makes those people great? They decided to take the first step, and hopefully see the project through. After all the brainstorming and pondering, they gathered courage and made the first cut, removed the first bolt, or plugged in the first part.
Cooking up cool ideas is always fun and easy. Google image search makes researching possibilities and imagining them very possible. Forums and social media groups host piles of information. Again, that’s often the part that’s easy. But the first actual step in beginning a project is the most daunting. There’s so much at stake when you begin. And let’s be honest; a
lot of projects get started and never finished. And we don’t want to be part of that statistic.
As challenging as it is to start doing the actual physical part of the job, there’s no way to really be 100% without the first step. Then, as things move forward, enthusiasm usually builds, providing momentum to overcome the challenges. Sure, there’s times when things don’t work and we end up stalled. But having commitment to see things through to the end has its rewards. After all, when the project first fires up and drives, who can curb their enthusiasm and excitement at that point?
So with that, I’m going to get this ‘01 Escape TPS mounted on the Jeep throttle body in my Datsun 720. I can’t wait to hear this thing run! Now go get your own thing running!!
[editor’s note: The author, Patrick Smith, is the owner of High Impact Motorsports in Las Vegas, a serious Datsun collector, a phenomenal mechanic and diagnostician, and a great friend to the community.]