He told me to keep moving the vehicles around and that would show progress.
Slightly different situation, but similar vein... True story, as well.
I used to live in a town (long before my own addiction) that had a guy with a motor pool's worth of former military vehicles. He owned a corner lot at a stopsign, and had two or three parked in the driveway under repair with several more on the street all around his corner of the intersection. Eventually he got tired of the neighbors complaining about his collection, and he moved out to the country. Naturally, he left the house to his son. And like father like son, the corner lot was soon repopulated ... Except with 1960s and 1970s GM cars and trucks.
However, the son had gotten smart about keeping code enforcement on their toes. All of the cars were legally registered, tagged, and could move under their own power if parked on the street. He quickly devised a plan to continually rotate where the cars were parked. When code enforcement came around to do their inspection, no single car was parked in the same spot for more than five or so days at a time, and each car would move to a different spot at least the minimum distance away from the previous parking spot, as required by city ordinance. Additionally, cars parked in the driveway was also on the clock, and each car would come in for periodic repair for a few days, and would fall back into the rotation on the street. Thus avoiding any issues with having an inoperable vehicle in the driveway for longer than allowed by another city ordinance.
It was like watching a merry-go-round, and code enforcement was powerless to stop him.