How do YOU decide what project to build?

[SamIyam]

For me, it's ALWAYS been "build what you find when you have the money to buy it"...

Some guys can actually CHOOSE what they want to build... I find that as I get older, know more people and "network" more... I can build more of what I want and not what just comes along... but still find myself WAITING for that GOOD DEAL.

So for me... the decision is made by what comes along at the time that I have the money to spend... granted, I don't have to wait for the $500 dollar Valiant four doors... but I still gotta wait. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

But if I were to sell one of my cars... and had a big wad of cash to spend on the beginnings of a hot rod car or truck... (say $4000-$5000) I think I'd be at a loss for what to build!

In short, there's a LOT of good rod projects put there for around $5000!

So, I ask ya'all... how do you decide?


Sam.

[desertratrodder]

Must have potential, and have a few qualities...
1. Not too expensive
2. Cheap
3. I'm able to brainstorm and figure I have most of the parts laying around to do it up.
4. Different. Not the thing with the trunk lid for a roof different. Just not a common car. I guess thats why I have Chryslers.
5. I have Chryslers because of 1-3.
6. Last but not least add the help the HAMB can give to make it a reality.

I would say cash flow is the biggest factor now, but some of ya dont have that problem...a car will be done this year.
It might not be painted though...does that make it Suck... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Slag Kustom]

i base all my cars off the end resale price. why spend your time or money building something that will never be worth more then the cost of a paint job and a motor

[malaguena]

I just saw how cool old school styled T buckets were and just kept buying all the parts for them that kept coming up. Now ive got tons of useless or duplicate parts and not really anything to build the car I want.

That was kind of an expensive way to learn, but at least I wont do it again. I think im just going to just find a roller project off egay or one of the swap meets.

[Chopped50Ford]

Find that car thats in your price range, w/ a vision in your head of what you would like to be when its completed.

I like the odd ball stuff, like Nash's, Hudson's and such. Makes cool customs.

[wes]

man, this post is pretty much what im going through right now, finally got some money and parts saved up and am searching for a model a coupe body right now, ive always wanted to build one since i was a litte kid. now im having a hard time finding one and am starting to broaden my search to a sedan or a roadster body, now im gettin so anxious i would be happy to find anything decent... i was really worried about comprimising, but im starting to realize that this will be my first real hotrod and not my last. Even if i cant find a coupe body this time around, i will eventually, i just wanna get somthing on the road!

[abe lugo]

When you already have a few rides,
take a look at some potential projects, then look at how much you have to spend. If you step back an wait a bit you might save up more and get a better project. and so on..
sometimes you'll kick yourself in the teeth for not waiting a bit. because more often than not that real dream project comes along right after you just bought that 500 dollar fourdoor.

[wes]

good advice

[Rocky]

Oh, man! This one's sooooooo easy. After 23,897 aborted projects, projects sold when they're half done and some projects cars not even picked up from the seller, I finally realized what it takes to successfully pick my new project.
If I can't see a mental image of the car all finished and have that image keep me up night with excitement, the project will sputter to an end before its' finished. That's the one I shoudn't buy.
It's gotta be the one I dream about. It has to be what I think about when I sit on the throne, or just before I drift off to sleep. We all have 'em. The one you YEARN TO BUILD AND DRIVE more than anything else.
Hey, maybe it's something you know you'll be laughed at for. So What? If you're on fire to build a pro-street 57 Stude 4 door...DO IT! Fuck everybody that looks down their noses at 57 Studes. If you wanna do it, buy the project but if you don't REALLY love it, don't even consider buying it. That kinda project will quickly turn into a job that you dread working on. If it ain't fun, you won't want to work on it.
See what I have for a project? A Pontiac coupe. Few people really want a Pontiac coupe. Now that I feel better physically, I'm starting to really wanna get out there and build on it again and I will! That passion to work on my car has to be there or I won't work on it. If it was a car I didn't really "glaze over" about, it'd sit and sit forever.

[moondisc]

[ QUOTE ]

For me, it's ALWAYS been "build what you find when you have the money to buy it"...



[/ QUOTE ]

Same here.
Like Slag said, I do look at resale too.
You may think it's your dream car and you'll never sell it, but you don't know what can happen down the road.
I like odd stuff too. You can buy it cheap, and when it's done it stands out 'cause there ain't 100 of them everywhere you go.

[burger]

I flip through book, magazines, and web sites like non-car crazy men go through porno until I find something that really catches my eye. Right now it's Cole Foster's Chebby Pickup. I'm gonna build something like that. Last year it was a plethora of early coupes. So I'm knee deep in one of those.


Ed

[beatnik]

I've got a lot of projects that are already built in my head, projects I've always wanted to do, but when it really comes down to it, it's always how much is it going to cost to build and is it going to be unique. I like to go to events and cruise night and not worry about having the same make and model park next to me.

When I was looking for something to turn around and sell, it was pretty random, I would just find something that was a really good deal, and would sell quick.

[Elmo Rodge]

Rocky nailed it. Without passion, it's just a job. That's how it works for me, anyway. In an hour or so, I'll be out in the garage thrashin' on my '36. The sun will be up by then. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Wayno

[choprods]

Sam let me put it this way......I have no less than a dozen Viable projects at any one time.
Thewy range from motorcycles to car haulers to extra size GARDEN TRACTORS!!!!
If the thought of building/driving/owning the proposed vehicle DOESN'T PUT GOOSE BUMPOS ALL UP AND DOWN BOTH ARMS ENDING IN A SLIGHT ENLARGING OF A LOWER EXTREMITY.........then its got to be the wrong one! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[roadstar]

It seems the "Deals" come like rapid fire when you are not looking, and sometimes you have to buy them because the price is so right, even when you really don't need it or can't really afford it, or don't even have a place to put it. But the bottom line is you bought it so it's gonna be a project in the future or you will resell it down the road and Hopefully make a buck or two.

But I have found when I have the money and I am looking for a specific make or model it will me non-exisstent. The deals that come along so often when you are not looking are no where to be had.

This is when the money starts to burn the proverbile hole in my pocket. I start to look at alternative makes and models thinking,yeah one of those might be cool to have for awhile.

And then there is the changing your mind scenario. You THINK you are building what you want and soon realize it really isn't what you though you wanted or you see something else that you "Think" you really want and on and on.

IT's a f$^^EN sickness http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[JOECOOL]

My criteria is
No more than ONE project at a time.No matter how good of a deal I'm offered I do not own more than one. I tried a lot of projects years ago and could not get any one car finished, now I have finished the last 7 or 8 I've started.
I ask myself "Is this something I am capable of doing?"
Thats why I don't have a chop top or sectioned car,And hiring it done is out of the question for me.
Does my wife like the project? I've been married 37 years and if MoMa ain't happy ,no-body's happy.
Can I sell it when it's done.One project at a time remember.

[Harrison]

Luckily I've had a "top three" for years and have been able to not get distracted. I'm picking them off in order. In 8 years the list hasn't changed and I haven't been temped to spend $$ elsewhere ('cept maybe on the Hilborn 'liner clone I want to do).

Here's the list:
Model A RPU - got it
Tall T Coupe - I don't want to jinx a deal http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
'38 Ford Deluxe Fordor Sedan - Shouldn't be hard to afford

After those three I MAY look for another '32 five window. By that time I should be able to afford one. I'll probably have to go with a new repro steel body though. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

JH

[Fat Hack]

Rocky and Choprods hit on the most critical part in my opinion...ya gotta WANT a car, not just want A car, if ya follow my meaning. Like Rock said...if you ain't thinking about it, dreaming of it's completion and seeing it in your sleep any time you aren't actually working on it, you'll quickly lose interest and it will sit.

There's about five or six specific projects that I actually WANT to build, and they are the ones that I've honed and streamlined in my mind out of the HUNDREDS of ideas that have come to me over the past couple of years. I've got 'em so clearly built in my HEAD, that I can 'look' at them and tell you every detail...down to the smallest little piece! It'll make building them when and if I am ever able to a breeze, since I won't just be taking something and working on it at random to see what comes of it...there will be a specific, detailed PLAN for each one.

Of course, I've had to take those projects and arrange them in my head in order from simplest to most complex...with the idea being that the last one in line will require lots of skills in the areas I'm weak in now...namely bodywork and paint! My thinking is that if you work through progressively more involved projects, you just can't help but to pick up new skills and more confidence in your abilities as you go...so that when ya finally DO get to that moment when ya lay the saw to a 32 Vicky body, you'll do so feeling that you can pull off the look you're after!!!

In the past, it's been as Sam stated...more a product of what came along at a price I could afford, to some degree. I mean, I usually had some sort of general IDEA of what I wanted, but often I'd end up settling for something a little less than "it" if the price and timing were right!

At the moment, I'm lucky enough to be building something that really interests me, and something that I've always wanted to do...a 49-54 Chevy with a later "alternative" powerplant and a total low buck, home grown flavor! It's rough, it's rusted to the max, and it's being built out of junkyard and donated parts for the most part...but it is the most enjoyable project car I've ever done! I've built far "cooler" and much nicer rides...but this one just feels good, and keeps me going at a time when I don't have much else to look forward to! Hopefully, it will provide a stepping stone to get me moving towards those few OTHER specific projects I have planned when it's on the road!

One thing, though...some have mentioned resale value of the finished product. That's one thing that's never entered my mind, and I don't allow such concerns to sway my course when I'm planning/building a vehicle. I do what I do because I want it done that way...and it's not neccessarily the way that the majority of the available market would want it. That's fine, I hate to sell a car, and most often either just trade 'em off for another project, or sell 'em at giveaway prices if and when I no longer need or want them. Once it's built...or brought to the point where they're roadworthy, I like to recoup my investment by driving the wheels off of them...after all, that's what they're FOR in the first place! If I drive a car anywhere and everywhere for a year after it hits the road, then I feel that whatever I put into the project was worth it, and the car don't owe me a dime! Weird thinking, but I'm a weird person!

I always felt that if you built something with resale value in mind, then you will compromise the build by keeping it within the bounds of what the buying public at large deems as desireable...which leads to the creation of another "checklist rod" as I call them!

(Popular body style? Check! Small block Chevy? Check! Turbo 350? Check! Wheels-of-the-Month? Check! Trendy paint? Check!....you get the idea...I would lose interest in a project like that before I even started!)

For me, it's gotta have an EDGE...gotta have a HOOK...gotta be different in some way. That's why I grew tired of the whole musclecar scene years ago. After a while, they all look the same...how can you do something unique with a big block Chevelle or small block Mustang? It becomes just another face in the crowd, and so, I can't get excited about such things anymore.

My mental list of the projects I want to do all involve either oddball drivetrains, unique body mods, or some other aspect that takes a body style I love anyway, and makes it into a car that I would really dig building and driving. Really, it's just that simple when ya get down to it!

[The37Kid]

Every car I've owned found me, only the 1937 Harley project was one I started to track down six years ago, and have about 95% of the parts now. Finishing a project is another story, I NEVER buy something I don't like the looks of, no matter how cheap it may be. Ok, free is another story, but even then most of those wind up costing you. I kind of envy guys with one car, especially one finished car. I'm not getting any younger and often think about getting all the parts for the projects in seperate piles, might even lable things. Working through a roadblock is the hardest part of finishing a project, wireing is the big one for me.

[Fat Hack]

Okay, I wasn't gonna reveal my "Secret List" of the Six Projects I'd like to get done before I croak, but ain't nobody gonna copy MY goofball ideas anyway...so here they are...the Top Six (actually five plus the one I'm working on now!) as I've painsakingly planned them out...with the basic highlights for each!

1. 49 Fleetline V6. This one is the car I'm doing right now...just a low buck rusty beater that will become my daily rat as soon as it's roadworthy. The original idea (brace yourself!) called for converting it to front wheel drive, and I may even go that route one day...but for now, it's going together as a junkyard beater!

2. El Blanco 2! Last year, Kulturepimp built a really off-the-wall streamlined 38 Ford pickup that just blew me away! I fell in love with the truck and longed to own it! The name "El Blanco" was just a nickname I hung on it in my head after someone pointed out that it looked like one of the "Graboids" from the "Tremors" movies! As soon as the Chevy is done, Thom is going to be commissioned to do another "roughed in" version of El Blanco...the basic chassis construction and body mods. I'll take it from there and finish it up with a small block Ford/T5 drivetrain and finish work.

3. Merc-Bruiser! This one has been in my head just itching to get built for several years...a 1954 Mercury with a mild section and dropped lid. Gutted interior, flat paint, no hood, subtle custom mods, and a healthy four carbbed 312 Y-block detailed to the hilt and backed by a four speed. Rolling on black steel wheels with chrome rings, lugs and wide whites. Open lakes pipes...half kustom, half hot rod!

4. Atomic Punk! A nasty, built-for-speed 33 or 34 coupe that'll piss everybody off! Fiberglass chopped body on a mass produced chassis with dropped axle front, ladder bar nine inch rear, disc & drum combo and a hairy small block Mopar for power backed with a tweaked 904 auto. Loud, obnoxious, fast and ugly! (I ain't disclosing how the body will be finished!)

5. The Highway Forty. Actually, I could dig building this one from any clean 38-41 Ford coupe. Dark blue metallic paint, Cragars, radials, nine inch, 2.73 gears, and a Ford 429-460 under the hood backed by an auto tranny. Just a mild four barrel motor plumbed into an exhaust system equipped with four mufflers...two per side. I want this one whisper quiet! Just a clean, cool cruiser that'll be a joy to drive over the highways, biways and two lane blacktops...no noise but the radio and the wind...but big block torque on hand for when it's needed!

6. The Vickup. A steel 32 Vicky chopped down into a pickup cab with a bed added to match the rear cab contour. Y-block Ford power, three on the tree, done up as a sweet but fully trad show-worthy driver. Bias skins, generator, vintage style tuck & roll...banjo rear...a late 50s/early 60s era vibe.

That's it! Got 'em all planned (I left out many juicy trademark details!)...don't know that I'll ever get to all of 'em...but ya gotta have a plan and a dream, right???

From the trashy, all-for-fun 49 Chevy...to what I hope will be my Magnum Opus...the much hated, but flawlessly executed (I hope!) Vickup, with the four other "gotta do" projects in between!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[dixiedog]

I've been down the "Good Deal" project road tooooo many times. Where you find a smokin deal and figure I can make this work - well.... It doesn't, you loose interest and it ALWAYS COST MORE than your little pea picker thought it would, turns into a bad marriage and you cant wait to dump it as fast as the last guy.

NOW
I get a VISION of what I like to see, one that eats at me day and night, I do the sketches and figure out how my fat ass is going to fit in it, and then plan on what I need do a budget, double the budget and start acquiring parts. I am now building a T bucket with a landscape bed sort of a RPU look to it.

Next project, Henry J Gasser, been in love with since I saw them run in Pontiac MI in the early 70's as a kid.

[slazzen]

well i got it pretty much nailed down to i am now going for quality i know some old timers and they come up with some cherry tin i am going for a 29 on duece rails next

[porknbeaner]

Sam,
Like you over the years I've built a lot of cars and or bikes because they were available. I've always been big on build with what you have on hand.

But there are specific cars and or bikes that I'm drawn to. For instance I like first gen F-100s. I'm also pretty fond of '33-34 fords.

I've never gone out looking for a specific car to build. But I've always been on a pretty limited budget so I look for a bargain.

I recently bought the Warpigg Chrysler for the wife for our anniversary. 3 reasons, she likes mopars, the price and my budget were in line with each other, and when I saw it i got an instant picture of the finished project in my head.

The instant picture has been a real problem for me for a very long time. I see something that falls into my likes catagory and then if I get a picture in my head I gotta have it. I can't think of very many times that I went out specifically looking for something to build.

Right now for instance I got the hots for a particular '34 Ford. Do I need a project, not on your life. Can I afford to buy it, hell I aint got two nickles to rub together. But I'll sell something or other so I can have it. I got that picture thing going on. What else can I say?

Probably didn't answer your question did I. Well that's how it works for me.

[zman]

I don't pick them, they pick me. They talk to me when no one's watching....

And Hack, don't you go and make that thing FWD. Now mid engine I can go for...

[KIRK!]

Sometimes it's purely opportunity but with my latests, the '47, I couldn't think of one that I'd seen that I really loved. So I decided to see if I could build one that I did. During the research process I found a few that piqued my interest but I'm still Building what I thought should have already been done. I also like some cars just because they are ugly. Again the '47 fits that bill (stock) as do the two '27 coupes that are next in line.

[Shoeboxer]

Right now my choice is based on whatever someone will give me for a '67 VW Bus or what someone will trade me for the same.

-Taylor

[cheaterjack]

I wait until I find what I have been looking for. I have been to a few shows where it looks like some guys just buy the first car they see that was built before 1962, no matter what year or make. I feel that a project should be something that you are going to dig when finished instead of regret ever buying. Just my 2cents!

[Tman]

Had a list in my head since I was a kid. 54 Chevy and 27 Touring were on it. That is enough until I get my new house and shop built.

[SKR8PN]

I agree 100% with Rocky on this one. Whatever it is,it has to be a mistress.......... It has to give me wood,it has to keep me thinking,and I have to be able to dream about it 24/7. This truck is the first vehicle that has done that to me in a long time.........
Fuck resale value..........if you are worried about selling it,then it's a business,not passion.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Back in '62 I wanted to try drag racing. I wanted to go as fast as I could on the least amount of money....more bang for my buck. This chassis was available for $250 and the same amount bought the Pontiac longblock with Jahn's pistons a new Racer Brown roller cam.

[Smokin Joe]

You don't pick projects, they pick you!
Kinda like puppies!
Honey, guess what followed me home!
Can we keep it?
It won't eat much and I promise I'll clean up after it! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[av8]

Over the years, I've owned and built both cars-of-opportunity and those I really wanted, and I favor the latter, hands down. In recent years it's become my pattern, my creed.

Those cars I loved best were those that were uncompromised first-choices. My absolute favorites -- so far -- were my '68 Chevelle SS396 coupe that I drove and restored during the '80s and my blue roadster we put together at Tardel's in the mid '90s. Both cars were covered with my fingerprints; the work on the SS over a period of seve years was all mine except for paint and interior; of the 2200-plus manhours spent building the blue roadster 1400 of them were mine. Both cars were exactly what I wanted and wanted them to be -- no holding back, no compromises.

I'm back on track with a project that I want very much to do, and have wanted to do it for at least the last 25 years -- build and enjoy the bext possible Ford F-1 daily driver. In those 25 years I've owned a couple of F-1s and a half-dozen early F-100s, trying to work my way to that great daily driver. The F-100s were compromises, even the '56 big window with a 428, and a super-low metal- and paint-perfect '55 I bought from one of my best pals, only to lose interest in it -- and its L79 motor -- because, well, it wasn't an F-1.

I struggled along half-heartedly with a couple of F-1s that were many, many hours of sheet-metal work away from being acceptable. I don't do sheet metal. Rather than tough it out, struggling along with projects of frustration and unplanned-for expense, I chose to let them go and start thinking about other want-to-do hot rods.

I parted with the last of the non-promising truck projects last year, late Spring, in time to concentrate on helping with Bonneville preparation. Then, a couple of weeks after Speed Week, Tadel heard about a really sweet original '48 F-1 for sale in Sebastopol. The asking price was super righteous, and Tardel could have made an instant thou or more with just a phone call. Instead, he phoned me, recalling the conversations we had about F-1s and the knowledge that it was my most favorite pickup. As most folks here know by now, I went, I saw, and I bought what has to be one of the sweetest original F-1s on the planet -- hardly perfect, but not so's you could tell from 20 feet away.

I've been driving and steadily upgrading it ever since. I have a full year's worth and more of added upgrades in mind, small improvements, little touches of extra convenience, more evolutionary than revolutionary, something I can live with and live for for lots of years.

Best of all, now that I have a long-term hot rod of choice to live with every day, I can spend mental energy on creating a from-scratch racecar I've had in my head and on my drawing pad for the last couple of years.

[FEDER]

One problem I have noticed as I get older is, I like SO many more cars now. I mean ones that I thought could never be cool or were just plain UGLY!. So now its even harder to choose.Im a horsepower junkie first, then the car next.
I like to know first its gonna haul ass, then I start lookin and thinkin about bodies. --FEDER

[2tall2beahotrodder]

Wanted a 50s chevy, for long as i can remember.. but..

Been fooling around with a modified RPU idea, and since i blu all my cash on a new S-10 truck, its better to learn and experience building a car from the scratch up, rather than trying to find a project close around here..

Its for the better, and ill learn alot more.. hopefully alot cheeper!!

[flatheadpete]

I decided to build my T-Bucket for a few reasons.
1. I knew I could do it affordably. ($3,000 and it drives)
2. Isky has the coolest one on the planet, why can't I?
3. Not everyone around here has a 'hot rod'. Alot of street rods. That's odd, huh? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
And last but not least it was affordable. (did I mention $3,000?)

[praisethelowered]

Wow, I forgot what an s-10 looks like. . .

[randy]

I've always tried to live a 'less is more' style car life. Deals are everywhere. That 60 Olds in the classifieds is a steal @ $5500 etc. etc. People stop by my house and offer me old cars for killer deals because I would obviously be into "fixing" them.

I think most of us manage with limited resources to some degree. I mean, nobody on here strikes me as a D'Agostino type. Seems a lot of people spread their money out buying 3-4 projects when they still drive a Mazda to work.

I just don't have the money to do two builds simultaneously, nor do I have the time.

NO MORE THAN 1 NON-RUNNING PROJECT AT A TIME. That's my motto. So far I've stuck to it. Then again, no one's offered me something SUPER cool for free.

-r

[JOECOOL]

I agree with Randy ,people have a yard full of unfinished projects and not enough money to work on any of them . As far as me asking myself if I can get rid of it when it's done,thats the way I finance the next project.I do not have the room or the desire to own several cars at a time.The folks who says thats not a hobby, thats a business,well thats their opinion,but I know my project savings account has plenty of money in it for anything I want to take on.If thats a business then so be it.

[Steve]

I kinda pick what I want and then go search for it. Not in any hurry when the deal comes along I'll take it. Right now though all has been put on hold cause I'm trying to buy a house. Then I'll have a good place to build that next project. I've got plenty of time.

[Tuff Tin]

Geeeeze! That F-1 is nice! Must belong to Mikey!
One of these days I'll get to meet you. Oh! And I'm slowly workin on a 48 F-1.

[porknbeaner]

[ QUOTE ]
Right now my choice is based on whatever someone will give me for a '67 VW Bus or what someone will trade me for the same.

-Taylor

[/ QUOTE ]

Someone hook this guy up. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

That's too cool Tayler. I like your attitude.

[zman]

Someone already tried to give him '55 Buick for free. Damn if it would have been on this coast it woulda been mine....

[DRD57]

[ QUOTE ]
It seems the "Deals" come like rapid fire when you are not looking, and sometimes you have to buy them because the price is so right, even when you really don't need it or can't really afford it, or don't even have a place to put it. But the bottom line is you bought it so it's gonna be a project in the future or you will resell it down the road and Hopefully make a buck or two.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is so true. I got my 32 roadster, re-purchased my 64 Plymouth and bought 2 1956 F100's, while working on my 57 Cadillac (and not needing another project), just because they were smokin' deals and because they were on "The List".

"Opportunity" cars can be fun if you stumble into something that you end up really liking (like my Model A) but if you're opportunity is something that doesn't give you wood then it can end up being something you hate.

I'm old enough to realize I don't have time to waste on any project cars that aren't on "The List" (my list of about 25 cars that I'd like to own some time in my life).

With the heaps that I have, I won't have to worry about buying any more project cars for a while. In fact I'll be lucky if I finish these before I croak. But then again, I know where there's a bitchin' 39 deluxe convertible in a barn...

[nor cal nic]

right place, right time... a certain feeling i get when i see it and all the planets are lined up just right... oh, amd SEMOLIANS...
nic