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

What I mean is, how close are you to doing everything you *reasonably* can do on your car?

No, I don't mean silly stuff like casting your own block or whittling tires out of a wheel of cheese or something.

I *do* mean stuff like this: rebuilding your own starters/alts/trans/suspension/exhaust/brakes, doing your own paint/body/wiring(but ideally not from a kit), etc

So, allowing for you to purchase items that are impractical to make such as a rebuild kit for your alternator or caliper seals or suspension bushings(but bonus points if you make your own on a lathe), how close to a 100%er are you?!?

Bonus also for least money spent, recycling junkyard parts, and just about anything requiring a mill, a lathe, or a tig welder!

It ain't bragging if you did it, and if you're looking for a nit to pick then you have a small penis and throw like a girl





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Personally, I'm just a hack, I'm far from 100%. I paid a guy to put together my exhaust back from the headers, I bought a wiring kit(rebel wire-good stuff), and I've bought rebuilt alts and starters from wherever seemed the least worst, although I'm regretting that decision.

 

I don't fo my own upholstery and if I can talk someone into spraying my paint I try to get out of that also. But I'm not normally lucky enough to get out of squirting my own paint.

 

Like P&Bnr, i hand out the upholstery (althought it looks kinda interesting so i might give it a shot one day) and paint.

 

I'm more like 1% and not the type that carries a ball peen hammer either. I pretty much have to ask questions how to do everything on that car...otherwise I will end up doing it twice haha!!!!

Really though, on my '35 I've done a goo bit of the work. The only things that I have sent out are the engine to be rebuilt, the rear end to have NOS 3.54's installed and I'm going to end up sending my intake out to Dickster for a complete build. Other then that, it's all be done in my lonely garage. I even plan on attacking the interior.

 

Never tried upholstery,... And a word to the wise,... If you ever see me with auto electric wires in my hands,... go get some marshmallows and hot dogs. Maybe a video camera,.... Don't know why,... tried it several times,.... But it just don't turn out good.

 

I can do pretty much everything... and have done everything including machining my own engines, making axles, do my own exhaust systems, machine parts on my lathe, (I have a mill, but it isn't hooked up yet) mounting and balancing my own tires, I've rebuild automatic transmissions, do paint, body work, bend my own roll bar tubing, fabricate making things like my own '32 rails that actually look like '32 rails... MIG and TIG weld etc... but I've never stitched up my own interior.

I know guys might say they are 99%ers... but you also have to look at the cars they build.

Being a 99%er and building a '55 Chevy like mine isn't that hard to do.

Being a 99%er and building a car to race or a hot rod and doing everything including the machine work on the engine, mounting and balancing your own tires, bending your exhaust, rebuilding your automatic transmission, narrowing your own rear end is a bit more.

BUT... it isn't much fun working alone, so I like to help my friends with their cars and I enjoy them helping me with mine.

Also, I have a friend who is a whiz on a CNC machine... better than most guys out there that are "machinists"... he helps me when I dream something up but can't make it.
Like when I made my own 2x2 intake for the SBC in the Roach Rod... he did the part that was welded on to the existing manifold to make it look like it was cast that way.

Sam

 

car is off topic but I do almost everything but welding, I just haven't had the time to learn to weld, other then spot welding stuff I make, I occasionally farm out the final steps of the exhaust, but I fit everything myself first, it's just easier to have it welded up on a lift. I do make my own suspension bushings too as mentioned, but pretty much everything else, wiring,plumbing, upholstery, parts fabrication, bodywork,paint,exhaust,brakes, etc. I have a certain way I want stuff done, and no one else is going to take the time to do things my way. I need to do an alignment, But I would like to get the basic old school alignment tools and do this one myself. I haven't tried the whittling wheels out of cheese yet, whats the best kind?

 

it just takes time is all, you have to think of it as a bunch of small individual circuits. I must be a glutton for punishment with the electrical, because I love doing the stuff, thank you mistress may I have another?, I'm doing a super complicated later model harness right now, with a complicated alarm and audio setup, the wiring looks like the space shuttle, I can remember 500 different wires and relays but I can't weld worth a crap

 

I asked a similar question I can't remember when.

If people get outta hand they'll put the kibosh. Who knows, maybe everybody will behave?!?

I bought my own sewing machine and material to do the interior. Those seams may be crooked(when I actually do it) but they'll be my damn seams and I can live with that

I'm hoping to pay someone with a booth to shoot the paint. We'll see LOL

I never touched a wire before in my life but I read half a dozen books and every pamphlet MAD Electrical sells before I did it. It ain't purty, but I'll be damned if my wiring doesn't work. Crimp, solder, heatshrink every connector and IMHO you're set. The catch is it's sloooooow compared to using those insulated crimp terminals.

 

I look for cars with the paint and body done. I can do engine, trans, wiring, (from scratch), plumbing and just about everything else. I did some body work when I was a kid, and it looked like it was done by a kid! I look for older rods that need some refining. Plus at 62 years old, I just don't have the energy to do a frame off. Although I do have a '29 sports coupe that I'm thinking of taking down to the frame.

 

i do my own engine machining, fabrication, bodywork and i do all my own machinist work. ive done upholstery but its no fun. ive only built off topic cars so far so i wont show examples but i try to do as much as i can myself, im super cheap.

 

My wife does upholstery and I do everything else so does that make me 100%? I do research everthing new that I do so the outcome is better. I also expect to screw it up the first time but also expect to learn from it on the same hand....

 

certified auto tech and a machinist....

 

Hey..Im certifiable too.....although I think they ment something else

 

i do everything. not because im a badass or anything like that, im just usually broke.

 

Right on man!!! JOKER JASON.

 

Is there another way??

I don't do automatic trans or sewing but I have installed upholstery kits after they were sewn including headliners (the easy kind). Lebaron Bonney 36 Ford sedan and 65 Elcamino.

This current project will be my first all over paint job. I farmed it out in the past to get a quality job. I'm looking forward to doing it myself this time. I study all the paint posts and feel confident I can pull it off. We'll see. I'll take some pictures.

I'm trying to find a cheap 12V Ford generator core to rebuild as we speak. The emphasis is on cheap.

I've always done my own wiring. I guess I'm a 90%er.

 

I don't pay anyone for something I can do myself. My dad helped me with my first brake job with a screwdriver and pliers. That's when I started buying the correct tool for the job.

Paint, check
Body work, check
Engine rebuilding, check
Electrical, check
Mechanical, check
Patch panels, learning

I do feel however it is better to buy new or rebuilt starters as the price is usually cheaper than the time spent.

 

I've done everything, just not all to one car.
Upholstery - I installed a Mustang kit in our '67
Engines - many, including head and block machining
Paint - a few, outdoors, nothing special.
Wiring - many many rides. Kits and one-offs made by me.
Fuel injection - Every damn fitting and every damn diode on the circuit board. Runs great too!
Tires - mounted and balanced my own.
Brackets - make my own.
Starters and generators - rebuild my own.

I've not done chrome plating or part casting. And windshields hate me.

 

Not as much as i would like to be. Paint, Body and electrical are not my expertise but i love learning new things as i go along.

 

I can do lots of stuff, the question is really how much stuff I can do well. I picked my current project to expand my skill set. Going to try and do everything myself, but I am nervous about my upholstery skills and painting.

 

I try do all the mechanical, electrical, and bodywork, but haven't tried painting. (yet) I don't have the equipment or knowledge to bore engines or do large machine work. I have a small lathe and mill for little parts, but nothing big.
Try to make whatever I can, not always cheaper, but it's fun.

 

I'm probably a 40%er. I can rebuild everything under the hood except for the block and trans. I can do some bodywork, paint, and a little upholstery. Not on a pro level but an elevated hobbiest level. Metalwork, I'm learning so hopefully that will help soon.

 

I have to be a 95%er or It doesn't happen. I can barely afford it at that, I couldn't justify thousands of dollars on fabrication or paint.

 

Scratch buit frame. check

Fiberglass bodywork. check

Engine assy. check


Trans assy. check

Wiring check

And every other damn thng except three tig welds (I don't own a tig welder). check

Two records at El Mirage. check

Twi records at Bonneville. check

99.9% ?

 

100% er here, not very good, but at least i`m slow........lol

 

I do my own polish for chrome, paint, and upholstry.....

 

actually my car is basically done ! goin to repaint but same color . motor , trans , diff all rebuilt . everything seems to be the way i wanted it . im not sure if you are ever done !! lil updates & maintainance is always there to do . but mine is a true daily driver & im pretty happy with it . did all myself except motor (insert) . it is what it is ........... steve

 

I am on my 7th project completed entirely by me, but I am not a professional...I'll never win AMBR.
But, at a small town show, during a rainstorm, I'll win "best of what showed up"!

 

I do most of everything myself. I have had upholstery done if it needed to be right. I have done iit myself also. I chop my own tops,body work,paint 'engine assembly. Wiring I usually get help[color blind and they all look alike sometimes. When someone ask ,Who screwed this up? I have to raise my hand. I enjoy the build probably more than the finished product. Poor people have poor ways ,so I try and do it all. {Exclude auto transmissions}