Do you "build your hot rod" or "buy and drive"

Anyone can buy a car. No skill in that.

For me, it's about getting there from here. Bringing her back to life with my own two hands and learning all that new shit along the way. Then getting to turn that key for the first time, knowing that I did it myself. My project isn't anything special compared to most the rides here on the HAMB but I still love working in her just the same.

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Thats why they have "Prowlers". I'm killin me here!
If I bought one, I'd have nothing to keep me poor and at home.
61 Galaxie, 57 Country Sedan, 60 13' Alumalite, a kit car, 2,72 suburbans, DD's, bikes.
I'm an Idiot. My kid is about done with his Nova. I told him its working on it more than the driving it. He has the bug, but he dosent believe it just yet.

 

I enjoy the build process. The scrounging for parts, problem solving, learning new stuff and getting together with friends to work on each others cars. I do have to say though, that the older I get the less I enjoy the 'bull work'.

 

I trade a lot, but everything I get ends up blown apart, no matter how "finished" it is. My '33 Plymouth coupe is in a million pieces right now, for paint, upholstery, and some mechanical fixes and upgrades.

I'll get a project, blow it apart, finish it, and trade UP for the next one.

I don't think I could ever afford to buy one that suited me 'as is'.

I'd love to find a finished 48-53 Caddy to swap for next.

 

Every time my grandpa ever bought a finished car there was always something that needed to be looked at and fixed.

I don't have the time to build myself a car, but I still enjoy the thought process that goes into building a car. (picking out parts, design, and the hunt for parts) I wish I had the skill and time to do it, but instead of buying a finished car, I'd rather collaborate with a few shops and build it that way. Kinda like a general manager of a car build.

 

I had a lot more fun restoring my Camaro than I do driving it.

 

It has a lot to do with HOW LONG I PLAN TO LIVE FOR with my meager fabrication skills.

 

And yes...........As soon as I buy something real nice I tear it apart and start going thru it my way.

They're only done the day you sell them!

 

I've usually bought a running car, that needed work, and gone from there.
I don't know if i've got the perserverance for some of the builds I see, where some guy has started with a frame he found in buried in a river bank.
Actually i'm pretty sure i don't.
I know i haven't got some of the skills.

 

I recently traded the 33 coupe that I built for another nicely built car. I have built every car that I've ever owned (except Momma's wheels and my daily driver pickup). Now at 64 with health problems, I find I can't do it again. The thoughts about my next build continue, but soon the harsh light of reality sets in. One of my saddest days was I finally sold my welder, but it had become unusable to me.

 

I'm struggling here, i've usually bought em running --- then rebuilt the engine for performance, changed rearend gears, fixed the dents and rust and painted them. By the time i'm finished, i've got more $$$ in parts and materials than i would have spent on a similar LOOKING car. However, i know my car inside and out -- top to bottom. Thats where it at for me i guess.

 

Then there are us guys who may have no money for labor, very little money for parts, and can spot a deal at the swap meets.

 

I find I like working on the car as much as I like driving it. But it would be nice to have the thing blasted underneath, I am pretty tired of working under vehicles that shit is constantly raining down on me and coating my face and hair while I do it.

 

Very well put

 

Have to build, otherwise it wouldn`t be my car. Thats what I tell myself when I run out of cash. (often)

 

build it break it rebuild it ( I try not to break it the older i get)

 

To me the "journey is better than the destination" Build!

 

I am not sure I would buy a "turn key" car, but I know I will not do a shell build again. It is great to say I made that but if it takes 5 plus years and more money than your house is that worth it? The next project will be 60%ish done.

 

I guess I'm kind of in the middle. I bought a running driving car that needed a lot of detoxing, updating and back dating. And I have a long way to go...and I'm learning along the way. I just don't have the skills, tools or space to start from scratch.

 

I wish sometimes I had the money to buy a turn key car, but then I start to think about all the things I would miss out on (you know, welding burns, bloody hands, yelling at inanimate object, and most of all, that first drive). I think at this point, even if I were to win the lottery, I would never buy a running driving car unless I planned to redo the whole thing.

However... if I did win the lottery... I think it'd be really funny to buy one of those $100k+ cars that some company spent years on, then walk up, pay cash, and pull out a flat black rattle can and coat the brand new car in front of the builder, and then drive off.

 

Build!

I haven't bought a running driving car yet. Everything I have started as scrap that no one else wanted.

 

In life, you are doing one of two things: consuming or creating.

 

Doing both keeps the cars alive. Just don't lie about, period. Personally, I have to resurrect my own rides. Drive them regardless.

 

I've bought two turn-key hotrods in the past, a T-bucket that I'd lusted over as a teenager, and the Essex I currently own. I tore the T apart and rebuilt everything to my liking, and I'm doing the same with the Essex. The only rod I've done completely from scratch was my chopped '48 Chevy p/u.
I won't knock anyone who buys a finished hotrod.

 

I go for the built, little money in my pockets determinate a slow build, guess I'm learning at the time, sometimes wish I have more money, but I figure this is my way, my philosophy, to know all the parts of my car, and you know each part have a history behind, what is your? If I have few bucks in my pockets, I'll call immediately brookville guys, wish I have a decent deuce body, no a crap...

 

My wife will tell you that I have bought her very few vehicles that I didn't have to work on before she could drive them in the past 42 years. My rods either started as a pile of Model pieces under a tree along a fence line in a field or as the 75.00 Beater pickup I bought from the baby sitters neighbor and drove home with a clear title. I've built it from a bare frame up twice and am in the third go around from a bare frame.

I love building them but there have been plenty of times that I wished to hell that I had the cash to buy one already finished or up and running and only needing paint and interior to be finished. Face it we have just as many board members who really want rod or custom but don't have the knowledge and skills, place to work, tools to work with or time to do the work and that shouldn't keep them from having a rod or custom and enjoying it. Besides that someone has to be able to buy the cars some of our serial builders get tired of after they drive them a few times and start wanting cash for the next build.

 

I like to build my cars......... I enjoy that just as much as driving them. I have looked at buying a couple of different hotrods that were finished cars but I always found so many things that I didn't like on them. After I looked at what the car was going to cost to buy and then cost to change things that I thought it would need it was cheaper just to build it.....

 

Recently on another site someone stated they were going to have their mechanic replace his spark plugs. Several posters including myself said why don't you do it yourself. The man replied he was 74 years old and could no longer lean over the fenders and do such a job. I felt like a jerk.
I've both built and bought running driving cars over the years but now that I'm getting close to Geezer status with a bad knee, I'm done building cars. No more laying on my back in the garage all winter. My 62 Chevy wagon is my driver for now. I just can't do the things I used to do. Lets give the Geezers their due and not rag on then for buying rather then building.

 

The majority of these posts arent ragging, just people posting how they do it, but I see your point.
I turned 50 this year and notice Im slowing down. Maybe its the body, maybe its the mind, but I dont think I have many all day/all nighters in the garage left in me.
That being said, Im going to keep plugging away in the shop for fear that if I dont I will start slowing down way too fast.

 

Speak for yourself 'Gman', I'm 65 and still like laying on the floor under a rod, assembling a frame, wiring, welding, fabricating and everything else that goes along with building a hot rod.. Not all of us geezers are OLD.......