So while you wait for parts what do you do???

So I was on the road for a month...so now I get back and I start nosing around the Jalopy in the garage...blew a couple more fuses on it...called for help...we actually got it to turn over last night...probably the first time in probably 30 years...I was stoked...
So....ordered more parts...went back out to the Jalopy and kept nosing around it...running my hands on the old lumpy sheet metal...I love the feel of crusty metal...
Kept walking around it...ended up banging on some old welds that I had made...ground some rust too...

So while you wait for parts...I go back out to the garage and find stuff to do on the old heap...

Do you guys work and rework stuff while you wait for the brown clown or FedEX to drop the next package??

I do...

Yes, I work on different parts of the project vehicle or go to a whole different half finished project to kill the time.

I have a process list with every build. I make up a lit of the things I need (or want), then put them in the order in which they need to be done (you soon discover that some things just need to be done before others). For me usually I had money to buy parts but no time to work on the project, or I had no money, but lots of time to build. I start out buying the things I need when I have money, but I will buy the parts in the order of whatever is next on the process sheet. I might buy the stuff for the next 2 or 3 things on the list. Then when I have the time, I build with the parts on hand. Doing that usually meant I had the parts on hand when I started the next step.
If my build caught up with the parts on hand, I would fine tune something I've already worked on, or more likely, I would be making the list of the next load of parts I was going to need. Most of the time, there was always something I could do that didn't need any part. Those things I wanted but required a lot of thinking, or those things that always seem like you have spent hours working on be don't seem to accomplish much.

Sometimes I just sit, listen to the radio, with a beverage in hand, and look at the project. Those times of staring at the project often create something that can fill up a few hours of time.

I do pretty much what Gene said with most projects I do auto or any other projects. We are going to do a full bath remodel and we are starting to get all the parts in that we need in order. Taping compound, to paint supplies, and we will end with the floor. I hate having stuff to store in the house but makes sense and you don't need to break the bank buying everything at once. Jim

Move on to something that'll keep the project moving forward

I try to be like Gene and stay ahead with parts, but sometimes things just don’t work out. Like this week, I’ve been doing belts, hoses, and heater core on the Vette. I’ve made two different orders with rock auto, ended up having three different shipping locations on one order, one on the other. Stuff from the first order is still out there, the second order may even beat it here. Plus a few things out of stock delays things. But I’m so slow anymore, parts are usually here by the time I need them.

Clean the garage, write poetry, go out to lunch with the boys. I have enough projects going on that I can shift from one to another if waiting for parts becomes a factor.

Even without somebody constantly cracking the whip, there is no shortage of things to do when that "next day" order fails to arrive!

Thanks to my ADD I have so many projects going at one time that's never a problem... haha!!!

BoB

At any given time I have 2-3 projects of my own to work on. I’m in to a little of everything from prerunner bronco to older Harley’s and everything in between so I always have a project that has parts waiting.

I usually have several projects on the go at once, and TRY to keep ahead of myself on parts orders so that there's little waiting. TRY being the operative word....lol. There's almost ALWAYS something I overlook or forget!

No one has said it yet - "Honey-Do" projects.... There are also plenty of those waiting to be done. ("I'll do it - You don't have to remind me every Spring." I hope I'm not that bad....)