I have always enjoyed keeping my planes for years on end. I still have the first plane I "built", it was an Ace Grasshopper.....almost 20 years ago. It's in rough shape but mostly complete, it's a future project. In 2009 I restored my second build, a CG Gentle Lady I built when I was 15. It is motorized now, and is now one of my favorite park flyers!
The Stik has been further refined as I have tuned the motor and fixed the weight and balance, it is finally flying just the way I want....except the old Fox muffler cracked, so I have to find a replacement.
I guess one of the reasons I like fixing up old planes is that I kinda like doing Monokote. You can take a junky looking plane, strip it, take care of any structural or design mods you wish to do, and re-cover to get a whole new look. I have a PT-40 that was all red when I got it. I re-covered it with black and white and red trim, now it looks more like an original Tower Trainer (my first full-house aircraft).
It almost looks like a different aircraft design.
I still miss my junky, poorly built, damaged/fix/damaged-again Butterfly....actually I think it was the model that preceded the Butterfly. Anyway, I loved that old plane. Unfortunately when we moved from Indiana in 2000, we had no room for the giant one-piece wing (my dad and I modified it after having trouble with the wings coming apart). In the near future I hope to build up a Butterfly and hang my old plane's OS .20FP on it.
Matt