welcome back!
I also know the feeling... imagine being a 17 year old high school senior. every penny you made for the last 10 months, and all your time goes into making this 400sbc for your camaro. The camaro itself has every penny you made for the last 5 years (started saving before high school)

and it gets broken into at a football game at school.
and it gets the interior trashed, stuff stolen, and even the new edelbrock carb stolen.

and then to top it off... when you get some insurance money and try to get it going again.... the 4 nuts and washers that held the carb on trash the entire motor.

i sold the car soon after... but looking back I learned so much working on it. Without that car, if I just had a reliable cheap car.... I wouldnt know how to work on anything.

yeah. life gets ****ty sometimes.


Yet because of it, here I am today doing everything from welding up custom frames to designing electronics... I wouldnt have the basic mechanical skills without that car. Never mind engine theory, fabrication, etc... I can trace all that back to "wanting to build a cool car in high school"

atleast you know how to measure bearings now.