Today marks the first real day I've handled parts for this car on any moderate scale - and that's solely due to the fact that we're moving (again) and I'm packing up parts and relocating them to the new house a few miles away.
I have not touched this car in ~6 months. The transmission I bought last year has sat on a workbench at the back of the garage since the day it arrived and I took it out of the shipping box. I gave it a 'once over' once it came out of the box and put it on the table and that was about it. I didn't flip it over and look at the bottom or scan every inch of it.
That's where I fucked up. Today while preparing to move the transmission from its resting place for the last six months, I noticed that the case is cracked when I felt a jagged edge in an odd place - likely from damage during the shipping process (note the packing peanuts still stuck to the bottom) and I didn't catch it. The tape on the top covered the crack and because I never rolled it over to look at the bottom - I didn't see the crack. To say that I'm disappointed in myself is an understatement - this is fucked.
My motivation to work on this car remains at a serious low point and to now discover that I have a damaged transmission makes it worse. It represents yet another black hole of expense for a car that hasn't been on the road (or even on tires) in nearly a year. I continue to regret my return to this hobby and every instance like this only reinforces that regret. All of the money and all of the time I've wasted trying to get closer to a finished car is a real fucking bummer. It's hard to compare this to anything else because nothing else has been such a consistent letdown in spite of everything I've done to try to buy the best parts, rely on the 'best' resources and spend money in the right places - I somehow wind up worse results than if I'd made decisions by throwing darts at several mediocre options. I'd have more success as a raging alcoholic picking winning horses at the track.
I've got to make some hard decisions this year.