I went to an old timers house a while back. he is like 75 or so. Anyway he had a picture of every car he had ever wrenched on. im not talkin about everyday cars, but everything he would consider cool. After lookin through them for over an hour i asked how many their were? his reply was staggering. he had owned and built 635 cool cars in his life. I used to keep track of all of the rods, customs, ferraris, porsches and early vws I had done. To the best of my knowledge i have had a hand in the building of somewhere around 300 cool cars in my life. i am very fortunate to have worked full time in the industry for over 20 years and that is why i have been aloud to massage so many cool rides. this got me thinkin, whats the average number of cool cars any H.A.M.B.er has been privilaged to beat on? this isnt a contest because many of us have done it only as a hobby. I am just curious.
I gotta dig this post up because the Chicken Salad post made me look up Jim and threads he has started. Yes I am a "cyberstalker" LOL!!!! Sir, you are a RULER!!! To answer your post, personal cars 4 (with another 6 or so started and sold before competion). Customer hot rods and customs I've laid a hand on to date, counting when I worked at another shop... About 200. Funny thing is, they all had upholstery...most of mine never do!!!!
6 with 4 projects waiting (I'm 60 now, it's going to be tough working in another 625 or so before I'm 75!)
Hmmm...since the age of 16... 1969 Chevelle...first car, rebuilt the engine, swapped transmissions, etc 1969 Cougar...in this case, "building" meant fighting to keep it alive...but it gave me more under-the-hood experience than just about any other car! 1967 Tempest...first car I was ever hired to build. I was 18 and ambitious, and built for my neighbor when she wrecked her 71 Camaro and wanted it's entire drivetrain and other guts put into a bare 67 Poncho rolling chassis. Learned a fortune on that project, and it was a fun car to build and drive! 1974 Gremlin X...This was another "save me if you can" project that turned into a fun little sleeper with a V8 stick shift! Had a ball with that car, and halfway through the project a friend of mine (not a car guy) decided he wanted it and bought it...then paid me to finish some stuff up for him and tailor it to his liking. He loved that thing and thrashed it for a couple years afterward before blowing it up one night doing donuts! 1977 Malibu Classic...Started off as a $200 winter beater, and evolved into a rolling test-bed for some bolt-on horsepower upgrades on the 305. Came to love 305s after that one! Fast, cheap and fun! 1970 Pontiac LeMans...When the Malibu above was officially retired, it's motor went into this ex-drag car and became a cool street/strip ride with colorfull paint and history! Ran it at Milan just hours after getting it fired for the first time, then drove it 400 miles up to the cottage in Canada the following weekend, then cruised it all that Summer. Traded it off for a 69 Mustang, then bought it back a year later and drove it some more. Eventually traded it away again. It re-appears now and then...several owners, drivetrains and paint jobs later...and people still say "There's your old car!" Ha Ha...it's so different now that even I hardly recognize it...but it's always fun to see it again! 1972 Torino Sport...This was a totally cool car! A high school buddy bought it and drove it as a bone stock 351W car...gold with the gold Laser Stripe and scooped hood. He yanked the 351W and dumped a poorly built 429 into it, then gave up on it. When I asked him about it one day, he told me I could HAVE the car if I towed it outta there! I showed up with my girlfriend and my 69 Mustang and we flat-towed it to my house with that! I put in a freshened up 460 and another high school buddy of mine fell in love with it and had to have it...so it became his after some haggling!! 1978 LeBaron...Ha Ha...this sort of drops the ball on being a "cool car"...but it was a fun little motor-building project! It's the car that affirmed my love for small block Mopars and it was a fun little street racer...if not a pretty one! 1977 Mustang II...This was a Ghia coupe I bought with a 351W dropped into it. The guy did such a poor job with every aspect of the swap, that I had to do everything over. It woulda been easier to start from scratch, but eventually everything was sorted out and it was a blistering little daily driver. Sold it to some kid who worked at Detroit Dragway and I used to see it there every weekend when I'd run brackets. 1974 Roadrunner...This one was another "Save me from the Grave" project. A clean, rust-free Arizona car with a 360 HO in it that I scored for $400 in a bad neighborhood on a dark night! Ha Ha...just getting that car HOME was a project in itself...nevermind fixing it up afterwards! 1949 Chevy...I'm skipping ahead almost ten years here, because in between the Roadrunner and this one was a string of trucks, a couple MORE Pintos and odd stuff most other folks wouldn't care about. The 49 was a MAJOR "Ressurection" project and it finally hit the road after I replaced the motor, trans, driveline, rear axle, radiator, wiring, exhaust system, fuel system and shifter! Ha Ha...it was a rough little turkey, but I drove it all Summer with only one break-down...when the starter died. (The ONE thing I didn't replace on the new motor!). The car is still out ther in HAMB-Land...having been nicely re-done by RacerRick up in Canadia!! There's been others, including a few cool cars since the 49, but those are the highlights and most memorable ones...as well as being the ones that I actually got done enough to drive for a while! I omitted the big 4x4s and stuff like that...but suffice it to say, there's been a good number of heaps that have passed through my hands and driveway over the years! All of them made me a little richer in one way or another...mostly for the experience and the memories!!
Oh, and now I'm doing (or re-doing more accurately!) a 51 Mercury for CathyH. It's hard to believe I've only been at it for a month, but the car has come a LONG ways in that time! Oughtta be making an appearance at Jay's party today, along with DIRTYT's latest creation!!
I never actually gave that any thought- probably about 100 I would think- maybe more - at least that I had a good hand in...
A couple two tree...... Honestly, i have no clue anymore..a lot if i were to combine my own stuff with those i have helped with. I've had a hand in or built everything from early 30's ford's, 50's chevy's, 60's Impala's, muscle car's, vette's (small stuff), and truck's just for myself..plus a bike here and there as well. Too much crap to list. I have two friend's i work with on a regular basis..one with hot rod/ custom style car's, the other with generally 60's car's, plus my own.. Just from this past winter to now i've finished a frame off on a 58 Vette, then got my own 63 Impala back on the road..helped work on a buddy's 34 Ford C-dan, and another's 36 Ford C-dan, rebuilt the upper end of the mill on my 52 chevy truck along with other thing's on that one.blah blah blah.. There has truly been a LOT since i started doing this.. It never stop's, and i'm glad.
Personally that I've owned / built (or rebuilt).....Well lets see.... First one was a 77 Vega that I built an old Buick 231 V6 and put in. Made my own motor mounts and all the related transmission / clutch linkages, and when I bought a set of headers for a Skyhawk, it had a list of all the factory part numbers need to mount a Buick V6 in a Vega...guess I should have bought the headers first! No pictures on that one, but the second one I did up was... Third was ... The fourth never made it to the road Fifth was.... Sixth one... Seventh one I resurrected... This one is in progress right now With any luck the next one after that will be... And I have a 40 Ford tudor sedan sitting in the corner waiting...So I guess if I get to the last two it will be a total of 10...and I did the Vega about 20 years ago. Guess that's not to bad for a hobby or as I like to call it....my mental health time.
I can't say I have even built 1....The only thing I have done on the truck is get the motor rebuilt, which I wish I would have done myself. And the wiring of course. I want to build an HA/GR and I may go and get the motor for it next weekend. Found a 292, hopefully for the price we all love the most. I had a super beetle, a 73, some sports edition (how ironic) but sold it before I ever started on it. If I can get the truck running, I may sell it off for a loss, build me an HA/GR and possibly pick up something I can build without pulling the heads off the motor.
from the ground up?....2. 59 Beetle and my 49 Hudson. I've done motor swaps, major re-builds, etc on 10 or so more....
Well knowhere near as many as you Jim,i've been fortunate to be a part of some very interesting builds.Not that they have all been HAMB style or for that matter just cars.I've enjoyed being a crewmember in NHRA competition with a TA/Funny Car that was sponsored by GM Goodwrench,powered by a 540 in Keith Black Hemi,with BAE heads and PSI blower.I also crewed on a TA/Hydroplane with KB power before that.There were also a couple of supercharged BB Chevy powered boats before that.On top of these i was with a team running a TF/Harley that ran 6sec 1/4s.Various other bracket racecars and even a Formula Atlantic roadrace car are also on the list.
lol, im 21 and have done one- it died with a diff smashing gearbox lockup- (the third gearbox in a year) , and then ive got- about two cars and two bikes on the floor and another six or so cars & trucks in the paddock paitently waiting, i recently realised that a t model ford has a lot less bits than a 54 chev sedan! tyler
None...I buy all mine with my rather large settlement, but I have stichted up some really cool cry baby dolls to compliment my billet wheels. Jus kidding...Detriot built mosto mine, yet I have owned and worked on twelve customs, muscle cars, and 4x4s since the age of 15. I am almost 38 (yes you still all have a few shoppind days left).
I've been building cars professional for over 30 years so more then I can count, I even run into a few now and then I don't remember doing till the owner refreshes my mind. Even my new shop truck project (57 F-100) is one of those, the guy I bought it from said I set up the chassis 12 years ago, looks like my work but for the life of me I don't remember it.
I've never built a car doing everything, and i'd suspect that well less than 1% of us has (kudos to those that have.) i've never done an interior, never built an automatic transmission and never pulled off perfect body work. guess what? i'm now on a path of learning auto trans, and im going to paint my wifes pickup truck myself. i still love to learn. that said, i grew up in a strong car family-- with my dad being a master mechanic / mechanical engineer and many other family members also building cars/boats/etc and my grandparents being into dealerships. So, i started very young. Between starting young and working a couple years at a shop that built drag cars for a couple years-- i've probably done my part in probably around 50 builds--- 12 cars/bikes for myself (the first being a 13 second '64 VW Notchback and the most recent being the '60 Cadillac.) With lots of experience, i still think i suck. My weakness is patience. I think im mellowing out more and more in my old age -scott noteboom
Since day one.....quite a few ranging from circle track cars, where I got my start in this stuff, to hot rods, drag cars (mostly door slammers) and full cirlce back to roundy-round sprint cars. Since I'm almost 60 now.....I really don't know how many, but most were start-to-finish in my garage....nothing sublet except some of the machine work. Of course the interior stuff is done by my wife, she won't let me near her sewing machine.
I can not rememeber at the cars I have built, to many......Every time I build a personal ride, I say its here to stay, but that all changes when cash is flashed. I have been with my wife since 1986, and she keeps up with the # of cars I have owned, and that # is 179 to this date. Things had slowed down alot since 1997 when my boy was born, but seems to be going back up since I paid the house off last Dec. I'm 41 now, and hope to be doing this Hot Rod adventure for a long time more
Hmm...I have had a few cars. I will list the cooler ones in a somewhat chronological order. 1969 Dodge Dart - new engine, trans, rear end, front suspension, interior etc. Ran 10.80;s with a juiced 340 and was my only car through several summers. My first car and still have it. 1969 Plymouth Sport Fury - rust bucket that I got running and someone offered my way too much money for. Buckets, console, and a 383hp/727/3.55 posi car! I spent quite a bit of time learing to tune on that one and it was the fastest car at my high school. 70' Sport Sattelite - both torsion bar mounts tore free on the drive home. Sold it to someone who again offered me way too much money after I put a floor and new torsion bar crossmember in it. 73' Plymouth Scamp - a zero option car that I put 100,000 miles on in one year and again, got offerred way too much money for. I sold it with all the parts I had gathered for a v8 conversion. 68' Dart GT - convertable! Learned all about brakes, convertable hydralic systems, and structural rust on that one. Couldn't fix it myself, but a friend picked it up s a partial trade on the next one. 67' Pontiac Lemans Sport Convertable - GTO conversion! Had a GTO hood, interior, 389 Tripower, and some trim. Learned a lot about multiple carbs, disk brake conversions, and how crappy the suspension designs were on those cars. Sold it for college money. but bought... 66' GTO Convertable - White with a black gut and top. Needed everything. Got its 389 tripower running (my first rebuild!), and built it up enough to get it running and driving and sold it. It still needed everything but at least ran and drove. 74' Plymouth Valiant 4 dr. - my first quadraport. Swapped in a nasty 340 (see 69' dart up above) and terrorized the street racing scene - especially the import guys. Sold it when a ex housemate ripped me off so bad, where it was the car or food and shelter. I got it back several years later from someone else who had bought it, but the trans was blown, the engine was gone, and the car was rusty from sitting. It ended up being sold again. 66' Pontaic Parisienne Custom Sport - 327/PG car in a huge boat. Engine smoked like cheech and chong, so swapped it for a 350, and TH350. Triple black car. Was awesome. I bought a house without measuring the width of the driveway and the car was actually too wide to fit in the driveway! It ended up being sold to a guy in finland by a broker who bought it off of me and tried to smuggle it into the US. 1980 Camaro Z28 - Turbo charged, 4 spd, roll bar, t-tops, etc, etc. Still have it and as soon as its out of the body shop I want to sell it. Its been in the body shop so long I have lost all love for it. 1978 Camaro Z28 - a very nice unmolested original. My friend fell in love with it so I sold it to him for a very good price. I also had the 80 Z above at the same time and actually bought this car for parts, but it was in such good shape I didn't part it out. 1949 Chevy Fleetline - fat hacks old car. Wow was that car rusty. Frame was missing the middle 3 feet on both sides. The rest of the car was missing the bottom 6" and the floor. This was my first real frame off rebuild. It ended up channelled on a S10 frame, with tons of body work, and attitude. A guy from a local hot rod shop bought it and is going to make it into one of those real nice hot rods. I learned a lot on this car. Mostly that I really hate doing body work. The new owner happens to be on this board also, but I don't think he posts. I am working on getting a rust free car this time around. Or at least something so cool I would be motivated to deal with the rust.
Depends on what built means. By what I think it means, none. But I have taken lots of $100 parts cars and swapped around parts, rebuilt engines, suspensions etc. to get a car. I've done very little bodywork, mostly I just look for the good body and then swap engines to get what I want. That's restoring or modifying but not building. My truck will be the first one I've built, meaning made the chassis and everything. Assuming I finish, I'll never sell it as it's the first one. All you guys who've built 100s will be asked alot of questions no doubt. PS: I am putting together one of those shitty $299 trailer kits from Harbor Freight. I'm gonna toss the crappy axle & hubs and put a rear end out of a car under it (Alfa most likely). It has a title and Texas considers it a vehicle so I guess that will be the first.
I can't say that I have never had help from friends on my projects (I wouldn't have it any other way) but... I'll only count the HAMB friendly one (not mini trucks etc.) 1. '64 Ford Galaxie convertible 2. '64 Ford Mustang 3. '60 Ford Starliner 4. '29 DeSoto 5. '27 Ford RPU 6. '47 Ford 7. '62 Ford Galaxie 8. '63 Ford Galaxie 9. '63 Ford Country Squire wagon 10. '52 Hudson 11. '57 Ford Fairlane 12. '31 Ford Tudor 13. '31 Ford coupe 14. '64 Lincoln Continental I think that's it. Wow, I guess I'm a Ford guy.
This is my first Rod whether you categorize it as a rat or what ever. But I have built muscle cars mostly and I did throw a 302 in an 85' Mazda RX7, also I turbocharged a 1997 Hyundai Accent (I was really bored) that weekend but it hauled azz and was loads of fun to drive. Of course the several 5.0 Mustangs with bolt ons and stuff just cuz they are cheap and easy to build with great results for low buck.
just some of the stuff i have owned and beat on over the years 65 impala 55 chevy 210 56 belair 68 camero ss 69 roadrunner 68 impala ss / i still own 37 chevy pickup / a work in progress
DANG!...that's a consistant 8 & 1/2 cars a year for 21 straight years, and starting when ya was a mere 20 years old. Sorry, still hung up on the numbers.... one car built or owned every 6 and a 1/2 weeks consistantly for 21 years straight.....I've had quite a few, but you gots me beat!
Quite a few, but only one HAMB friendly my '51 chevy wagon.and I'm still working on it. Alot of vw's, and still have a few of them as garage ornaments
The Jalopy Journal
