How close to a 100%er are you?!?

i've done most of everything but interior, but now i farm out stuff i used to do.Got a guy the does my engine work for me and i'm even going to farm out the body and paint on my 30 roadster build to a good friend of mines custom shop. What i've found is it really cuts down on the build time, after mocking up the roadster, engine goes to builder , body to custom shop lets me concentrate on chassis and finish it while body and engine are getting done

 

I did everything on my Model T except polish the crankshaft. Fitted the bearings, assembled the engine, welding, painting, etc. I used a kitchen scale to balance the pistons.

Trying the same thing on my '46. We'll see how it goes...

 

For the most part I'm self taught and with the help of a lot of patient craftsmen over the years I've managed to become pretty self sufficient. My dreams ALWAYS exceeded my pocketbook and skill so I had no choice but to learn and do it myself. I've got a fairly complete machine shop (non cnc though, all manual machines) lathes, mills, boring equipment, valve equipment, hot tank, so I can do it all except line boring. I've got the engine deal pretty much covered. Have everything to do all my own fabrication, saws, tubing benders, torches, plasma,mig, tig, gas welding. Had my own Fabrication shop and manufactured race car chassis, roll cages, spindles, sway bars, and frames for Howe Racing Enterprises(oval track manufacturer).
I never had a desire to do automatic transmissions because everything I'm interested in has 3 pedals (my '32 2dr does have a T-400) but I've got a friend that's an automatic whiz. I've got an industrial sewing machine and the wife is a master at it so one more "in house" service. My shop has a spray booth and I've painted several cars over the years but have friends that really excel that I call on if it's got to be perfect. Same with body work, I can please myself but there are others waiting in the wings when I'm not good enough.
Electrical is my curiosity (challenge) and after a few complete wiring jobs I'm getting comfortable with that aspect of the car craft game.
So, to be realistic I'd say somewhere around 80-90%. At 66 years old I'm planning on cruising out my remaining years content with what i can do and either going without or paying someone to fill in any gaps that are needed.

Frank

 

I can do a little of everything except machining and interior.Wiring ,welding ,bodywork ,paint ,exhausts ,etc.Im not great at anything ,but im pretty good at alot of things .My problem is im a working stiff and lack the specialised tools for certain jobs.Cant see spending 30-50 grand in tools to build a 5-10 grand car for myself to drive .If i were retired and had nothing but time on my hands ,with mail box money coming in every month or won the lottery,im sure i would do more ...

 

I'd say I'm in the 90s, but falling. I've never done serious upholstery - just simple stuff. That get's farmed out. When I was younger with plenty of time on my hands but little money, I did all the tedious things like wiring from scratch and making/scrounging every little part. Now that I have a family (less time) and some extra cash for my hotrod addiction, I'll buy things like a wiring kit where saving 20 hours of time is worth 200 bucks. I'll always do chassis, body and paint 100%, at least until my son gets better at it than me. I will NEVER EVER do the gold chainer farm out the whole project thing. That just seems wrong. As I get older, I could see buying a finshed car if the price is right, but I think it would sit for maybe a week before I have it apart to change something!

 

Everything but the interior on my cars. I do the fabing, the engine, the body, the design, the wiring, everything, but when it comes to the stitching, I leave that up to the pros. Jim

 

I have a body & paint guy who I share a shop with, and his dad does some killer upholstery work. I'm slowly learning the bodywork from him on the '55. I weld most stuff, but I'm going to have the subframe welded in by someone else 'cause I want it right. I have access to pipe and benders for exhaust, too.

 

About 10% so far. just getting started.

 

I am about 70% to be honest. You're just 10% higher to me. What do you think will we gonna do to make it 100%? If I get some additional transmissions, I will share it to you. Count on me.

 

I can do about everything except for the chrome,cant rebuild automatic trans or set up rear ends though but thinking about taking classes at the comunity college to remedy that situation since my junkyard trans in my 55 needs attention and I need to have another gone through.

 

When I first started building hot rods, I did as much as I could because money was tight...got a chance to LEARN a TON. I was also pretty much a one man band, usually had one friend to help. In the mid 90's I was out of racing/building, a nasty divorce had me broke. Took a few years to get back on my feet. When I started building again, it was with the help of my father-in-law, he brought his cousin with him to the shop to help too. We always had a lot of laughs and a good time racing/building, I guess having fun attracted a couple more "helpers", next thing I knew we has assembled a real nice "team", today, we have some real talent and between us we can pretty do much anything. Right now the only thing that gets sent out is the machine work to the blocks. Everything else including paint and lettering is done in-house. We have kept the fun in building and I think thats the important thing.

Rocky

 

if you've got the compressor a beadblast cabinet is worth every penny, don't buy a 100 dollar cheapo, spend the money for a decent size one, you won't know how you lived without it

 

I've done all of mine. Current project has had absolutely no one touch it but myself. Will be driving it when the weather turns warm again.

 

I used to do all of it (100%), then I got down in the back and started letting guys help out. It wasnt my way, but it got done. Now I am training my son (16) to do things my way and I am much happier. But, you cant beat the bench racing when a bunch of guys get together to work on something.....GOOD TIMES!

 

Please keep us on update if it is already 100%. I can do every thing buy rebuild used transmissions

 

Can I completely disassemble a car, make improvements, and put it back riding? Heck yeh 100 %! But, fortunately, I have an abundance of contacts/buddies close to me who build auto trans,sandblast,machining, paint or upholstery. I consider myself blessed in that respect. I therefore have no excuse taking so long finishing projects. peace