After many months (years, really) of internal struggle, I have come to a decision...
Due to recent family matters, and personal health reasons, As of January, 2011, i will no longer be taking on any new "side" projects involving air-cooled VW repairs. After nearly two decades of working on these cars, I have come to the conclusion that i was not making "good" money, just money, on any of these cars. When you add up the hours spent, i was barely getting by, making often times less than i did at my job, also working on cars, some 50 hours a week. My need to be a perfectionist causes me to take more time to do the work than people ever want to pay for, so i usually discount the work after it's done... Then there is the toll my work added to my side work has taken on my body. I have chronic back and knee problems, nerve issues with my left hand, and have been having issues with my left rotator cuff since injuring it several months ago. It really sucks when you can't afford to take time off to recover from injury. I average 6-7 days a week hard, physical labor. It stops being fun when you are doing this kind of work at 2 a.m. knowing you have to get up for work at 5. If i keep this up, my body will be used up by the time i am 40.
In the past few years in particular, my personal and work schedules have become so hectic, that trying to keep up this work is damned near impossible, and it certainly doesn't happen in anything resembling a timely fashion. I know people grow tired of me having their car for what seems like an eternity, and, these feelings are matched by the ones i experience every time i pull in to my driveway and stare at 2 or three cars that aren't my own, thinking every single time how i don't have time to work on those due to something else....
For those vehicles i already have in my posession, rest assured, your work will be completed as soon as my schedule allows. To the promises I have made, i will honor those, one at a time, also, as soon as time allows.
Only recently have i seen the light, and have come to realize that my family is far more important to me than reviving some old, beat down rusted up car that was parked decades ago for good reasons. I will still honor my promise to help out at Bugapaluza as well, but my new focus will be where it should have been all along, on my family, my personal health, and my art.
The studio has been revived and waiting on me to start back to work.
Best Regards,
Rick Swafford
