Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

Tweet

Also im a certified welder so i dont have to pay for that,went to a welding school to learn how so i could do more stuff myself

A couple of years ago, a fellow from Rod and Custom magazine Jim Rizzo built a roadster pickup, that he did a whole series of articles about, that was supposed to come in under $10,000.00 Then he had an engine given to him----his finish paint was red oxide primer---his interior was non-existant (indian blanket)---he had no fenders front or rear. I think he was pulling everybodies chain about the final cost. Nobody ever gave me an engine.---a complete fender package in fiberglass is about $1500, an interior costs minimum $200 even when you make the panels and upholster them yourself. The hotrods that I built, I had to buy everything for. I had no friends, relatives, or aquaintances to give me engines or other high dollar items. I still don't think you can do it for under $3000---am I starting to sound like a broken record yet????

hotroddaddy: No, I don't think legitimate freebies is cheating. Whatever you put on the car at whatever you paid for that part is the actual cost. If it cost you nothing, it has no cost. Like the radiator I mentioned I am planning to use. It was given to me because someone thought it was worthless, I feel I can have it redone for $ 50-$100.00 and have it be servicable. So I will use that figure when I add it into my total. Same if I pick up some scrap steel at the dump and use it for some bracket. It didn't cost me anything, so how can I claim a figure?

Buddies are always giving their freinds cast off parts, so if it works on the car you are building, more power to you. That is the beauty of this low buck stuff.


Don

I still don't think you can do it for under $3000---am I starting to sound like a broken record yet????


Hey Brian, I just figured out why you think it can't be done. It's that US to Canadian Dollars Exchange Rate thing !!!

Don

Don---Well---even with the friggin exchange rate (it takes $1.17 Canadian to buy $1.00 USA.) I'd a still been way over $10/000.

Oh, see, I thought it was like the Yen, 20,000 = one dollar.

Don

Hey, by the way, started bending up the bed last night for the '39. Used alot of your tips to do it. Thanks again.

i built this car for less than 1500.00 useing stuff i had laying in the floor. i had 700.00 in the motor, including the blower. it ran 11.0 sec. 1/4 mile, stock short block, 200.00 heads, stock conv. shifted at 5,000 rpm's. best i could tell i had about 2800.00 in the car. raced it 3 yrs. and sold it for 3700.00.

Good going there, as a 1st time builder and having limited $ to deal with like this aproach. I am currently build a 57 chevy truck , like you been doing lot of swapping and deal making. I got a rolling chassis only, no motor or tranny, but guy thru in a old carb that could not use and I sold it, and bought a 283 from a guy at work, so I got it for nothing. I too are on a budget but think it is in reach to do same. Keep up the good work and progress reports.

Mike: really great looking drag car. Bet you upset alot of guys who had mega-bucks in their cars, when you beat them. Of course, how could they tell, because your car looks high buck.

When I was a teen, there was a guy in our town who had a '55 Chevy. He had only $ 400.00 in the car, and he was beating everybody around. Of course, he had stolen a brand new 409 Chevy off a dealers lot and used the entire drivetrain in the '55, but that is another story altogether.

I heard a few years ago he was found shot in the trunk of a car, so I guess his ways finally caught up with him.

I agree with the comments about starting with a donor car. Every once in a while I take a bicycle to the local industrial park and start peddling around. It enables you to go slow, and see things you would miss driving a car. I carry a tablet and pen, and when I see some interesting car sitting next to a body shop or garage or business, I jot down what it is and where I saw it. Then I can call them later, or stop in, and ask if the car is for sale. I find that most body shops and garages have little interest in old cars sitting around (by old, I don't mean '32 Fords, just cars of the '70's or '80's) so you can pick up one of these for a song, and sometimes score a good running engine and drivetrain for very little money. When you strip the car to it's bare bones, just call the local junkman and away it goes.

By buying the entire car, you get a much better deal than if you went to the local junkyard and bought each component individually.

So far with the bicycle routine I have scored numerous cars, like an Olds with 455 engine (the one my kid is using in his '29) at least 6 Fox Mustangs, a van that I fixed up and sold cheap to my girlfriends Son, some Grand Marquis Mercs, and some I can't remember. The average cost ranged from $ 50.00 to $ 400.00.

And, the exercise is good for you too !

Don

OK- I got this for a trade on a 53 Chevy PU I had put on a S-10 frame. I paid 500 bucks for, and got it running with a fingernail file & some fresh gas.
So I got 500 in it total now.
The frame was free for hauling it off.

how do you shrink these things??

Go into the place where you keep the pictures, and right click on that picture. Then left click on edit. Then left click on image at the top of screen. A box will come up, select stretch and skew. change the 100% to something smaller, like 50%, do the same for horizontal and vertical. Then left click on ok. left click on the x to close out the picture, and it should say, do you want to save the changes to this picture, left click on yes, and you should now have a smaller picture.

Don

Itoldyouso, capitol garage(it was a wrecker serv. in richmond) gave me that pont. body and a pinto car that i used the front clip off of when i started building the drag car, to get it off of his lot. i used the clip, brakes, steering, master cylinder and paddles out of the pinto. that thing would fly for what i had in it, but with the blower on it everybody thought it should have been faster. i couldn't make them understand if i run it 100 more rpm's than i was running it it wouldn't stay together. the motor and trans. was a motor and trans. that i had left over after installing a low millage used one a few weeks before and i put a set of bearings and rings in it, bolted a blower on it and went racing. i paid 300.00 for the blower, and it was so wore out you could see day light passed the rotors, but it would pump 4 lbs. of boost and thats what i wanted. i think the only thing on that car that was new was the shifter, it had a th350 trans and the shifter had 3 levers, i wish i still had that shifter, you dont see them no more, and i forgot what it was called. if anybody knows i'd like to know.

Lighting Rods

you are right, dont see them much no more, thanks