Solutions For Your Project With A Shortage Of Cash

I know, I know. No politics. That's not what I'm after at all. What I am after is how do you guys come up with new ways to get your projects running on a shortage of cash due to this shitty economy? Do you reuse stuff? Are you scavenging for parts like Mad Max? Are your buddies chipping in and donating parts that they aren't using? I want to hear your stories of how you are over coming tough times to get your projects going.

 

Pull a heist at a 7-11. Get away. Repeat. Gary

 

I was going to put my wife up for sale but found that I could make more renting her out by the night.

But lets see...

Nobody seems to like my wheels and tires but I got them from an old man cleaning out his garage for a $100.

Broken marker lenses that some ahole wanted $250 for got replaced by the lenses from some work lights I picked up at Harbor Freight for $7 a piece. Tail lights were also from Harbor Freight, a $9 magnetic towing kit that I modified.

Wiper motor, master cylinder and parking brake assembly came off a old Chevy van that I saw a guy cutting up for scrap one day. Free. Always a good price.

Interior dome light, $5 from a guy in Canada off e-bay and he didn't rape me on shipping.

And no shit, If found a CD Player setting in a shopping cart on my way home from the grocery store one day. It's not the latest greatest thing, but it's better than the old tape player I was going to throw in there.

Of course there are always the pick and pull yards and such if you have access to those and time to spend looking around for things that will work. And my wife keeps telling me Home Depot should have sponsored my build as more of the truck than I would like to admit has come from there.

But, when all else fails and I need $15-$20 for a part, I can always do the wife rental thing.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=574288

 

I build everything I can, and learn on the way.

What I must buy, I scrounge thru the junk yards and make do.

That said, I've been saving up for some new stuff while making what I can.

Good luck

 

I've been talking to Scootermcrad all morning about stuff I can sell to finish my '35. I need like $1500 more to finish the thing off and I have run out of stuff to sell that I'm not going to use later down the road. Sucks.

 

Sometimes you can take a small amount of cash and buy a car, part it out and make the amount you need to work on your car. You've got time to blow it apart, and time to ship, plus the buyer pays shipping.

 

x2.

 

scrap.... ive been scrapping on fridays (im off fri-sun) to keep my project goin. be suprised what you can hustle up scrapping metal

 

Yep, buy and sell, scrounge, do it yourself.

 

digging in the scrapp containers where i live look at , old farm equipment for sheet metal ,

 

I look for ways to make a little extra cash. Sell crap or do what I do for a living on a smaller scale for small clients. I'll also barder goods/services for parts.

 

Like what Druss32 said, start with a car that will be cheaper to build.
Then do all or as much of the work yourself. With the HAMB at your nearest computer, you would be suprised how much tech help you can get.

 

'been selling extra stuff to buy the parts I need.
always have fabbed what I can and rarely farm any work out
but, mostly have to realize some projects will just take longer to finish.

 

long story, but I will try to make it short.
borrowed a little cash from the inlaws to buy a "parts" car. used the parts I needed then sold everything else off to pay back the inlaws. got side tracked instead and bought metal fab equipment (rather than pay them off) to start making stuff to make money to help fund my car habit (and eventually pay them back). so far so good.

find something (service) that you can offer and start "selling" that to help fund your car parts.

 

The thing thats really killing me on my car is the switch from 94's to 97's. I believe that I am going to bury myself when I send these 4 things out to Uncle Max for even just the recoating and throttle shafts as well as buying any parts for them that I might need to rebuild them. I'd really love to have him just go ahead and build them for me because I know they'll be right but right now I just am trying to find the money to get them sent out.

Things like Shocks, Generator & starter rebuild and those carbs are my last big purchases I believe. I am going to have my wife do the interior when the times comes but that'll be last on the list.

I just went out in the garage to see what else I can sell and it looks like that anything I sell I'll pay more for in the long run when I need it again. If it came down to it I guess I could sell my HEMI and 6x2 intake but I think I'd be sitting on those for a while seeing what others are in the classifieds right now.

 

This will fly right in the face of those who believe in making a plan and sticking to it, but I've found myself changing the direction of my build as opportunity and the fates dictate.

My current project car is an example:

My original plan was for a low buck, very traditional, 95% HAMB-friendly build (I don't do bias-plies). At various times I bought two different engines for it, both traditional but both needing overhaul.

Bought a donor vehicle to rob the front & rear suspension systems. Finances dictate that I keep the donor car wheels. So now my project is leaning a little more away from traditional, but probably could be posted on this site with only a minor shitstorm ensuing.

Got to fiddlin' around with the suspension donor, lo and behold I got the damn thing running! Aaargh ... what to do now?
I've suddenly got a good running, low mileage, relatively modern engine to consider. Correct cylinder configuration (or the one that I like, anyway), considerably lighter than either of my other engines and comes stock with power levels the other two engines could only achieve through application of many cubic dollars. It also has the advantage of coming with a rugged overdrive automatic trans. It's a perfect match for the rest of the driveline, 'cause it came out of the same car!
Best of all, it already belongs to me!

Well hey, tradition is cool ... but it's hard to buck reality sometimes!
I guess I'm a dreaded street rodder now. Damn shame, but then again I never paid too much attention to labels. Guess I'll have to settle for a "traditionally flavored" car.

 

If you're by yourself and trying to do it solo it can be overwhelming to think about how much you need to buy and or work on. My best move I made was just stopping by all the older local shops and sparking up conversation about what I was building. Even the jaded greasy old guys start smiling when they hear that your smashing your knuckles against a flathead or what not and more than once I had parts just given to me from some dusty corner of the shop. Made some good friends who have helped me out tremendously on my project and taught me some things I wouldn't have been able to learn elsewhere.

 

Well put,its how it all started.

 

Traditional is a state of mind retromotors. In my opinion, Free trumps OEM almost everytime.

 

I've learned to lower my standards and like it. Nothing new goes on my car unless it's safety related.

 

If you have a skill with any degree of demand add it to your monthly work time, you know, side work. Buy and sell. Start out small and make a hundred here, fifty there, and always add to the knot you started with to make higher volume returns (be careful! this practice is addicting and could induce loss from chasing "the deal"). Sell the crap you've been holding on to because it's valuable or going up in value. There's renewed interest in "garage sale" thinking and trading thanks to the pawn/pick type shows. Co-op your build time with someone who needs help and pool your resources of talent and skill. It's cheaper and more valuable than cash.

Now really, do we need to discuss this? I thought every diehard hotrod and kustom guy was born to do this kinda shit in order to build anything. No? I can't think of anything in my shop other than some tools and equipment that I paid for with my regular income. Does that make me a "cut above"? I never thought so. I thought it was normal. If it isn't then some of you fuckers are pretty wealthy!!

 

I tried buying and selling parts but I never was able to give back the initial investment. It all went towards my build which left me nothing to buy more stuff with.

I will tell you that I am in the works of creating something that can help me with my early ford addiction in this upcoming year. Hopefully the idea will take off and I'll be able to free up some money to finish a car.

 

marry for money... wish i had.

 

stay single as long as you can!

 

HA HA HA HA!

My Mom was raised extremely poor in West Tx, and passed that on to us kids. We were very poor growing up too.

She used to tell my brother and I "Remember boys you can love a rich girl as easy as you can love a poor girl"



How I get project cash? I take a SMALL amount off the top of every pay check. It adds up sooner than later, and if it never hits my checking account I dont miss it. Kinda like it was never there.

 

I built mine when the economy was good.

The latest project is budget all the way....I felt guilty about spending $500 to buy it, so I cleaned up my yard and got enough money from selling scrap that I could afford to buy most of the parts I needed for it.

 

The other side of the coin, now that I'm nearing the end of the build, I wish I had just put down the money for what I REALLY wanted to begin with. Example: I spent over $150 on used tailgates then finally bought a brand new one for $300. Now I'm out $450 instead of the $300. Sure I'm gonna sell what I don't use, but that money might have been spent better somewhere else.

I got side tracked, changed my mind, totally convoluted while fixing up my F-1. The next build is going to be simple and thought out to the point where it's zen like. (at least this is what I keep telling myself )

 

constantly going through stuff I have had for years and selling at swap meets, craigslist, etc. just trying to get my chopped '51 Ford on the road as a driver project to sell/part trade to pay some bills and get a very basic driver. have some special parts that will not sell till I get next ride. then whatever I can not use will go up on the auction block. my bank account has just enough in it so bank does not close account.

 

I'm having drawbacks because of this. I bought all my parts when the economy was still good, but I never had the time to put them together. Now, I've got the time and no money. I should have bought all the shit then, but I didn't. I'm stuck in limbo with really pretty, expensive shit and no small shit to put it together.

 

My bank has a "way 2 save" feature where a dollar is deposited into this saving account every time i use my card. I just checked mine and had $233 in there. granted it was my money to begin with but any way to help me save is cool with me.

Im married also but I just got my wife interested in the parts of the car she likes like the paint and re upholstering the seats, but told her it has to drive good before it looks good so she is much more supportive of me spending a little money at a time on the "go" while she plans the "show"