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

Almost everything. I hate sewing. Drives me insane, all that jumbled up thread. I fabricate, modify, weld, paint, rollbars and cages, narrow housings, even shorten the occaisional driveshaft. I can install seat covers and lay and trim carpet with the best of em. I can assemble a freshly machined engine to near perfection, just don't do it much. I can diagnose an early starter or generator and short of rewinding armatures, no sweat there either. Still a new or rebuilt is cheaper to just buy as was said. I don't screw around with rebuilding clocks in the older cars. My fingers are like breakfast sausages and aren't conducive to teeny weeney items at times. Electrical, love it. Nothing like starting from scratch and gettin right the 1st time. Just remember good grounds and don't forget the star washers. Ignition systems are a pet item to me. Love tunin a car's ignition to where it starts so fast you can't get yer hands off the key fast enough. I even service my own O/T shit as often as I can. Amazing what a service manual reveals. Replaced the outer crank bearings in my sled with the help of a book and the will to do it. Spent less than $200 for a job the dealers get over a grand for.

Does that make me 100%? Nope. I'm sure I could do it but I've yet to rebuild an automatic trans. Watched it get done on a 'glide and a 400 several times so I ain't scared, just no opportunity as of yet. Now before it sounds like I'm this multi-talented automotive ace, I don't think I am. I'm basically cheap and I don't like scammers. I do research and ask questions, know what I want before I do it, look for every way to "get there from here" before I just pay for it. Oh yeah, I do most of my own metal finishing for chrome on select projects too including diecast. Very costly to do diecast, very time consuming to do it right.

 

I'm 100% capable of doing a 65% job to 95% of what needs doing on my stuff. LoL
I think it just comes with the territory...at least around here.
My dream has always been to be a 100% self sufficient HOT RODDER.
I can get by, but I'm certainly not there...and I hope I never am.

Learning new things is just too much fun.
To suddenly be a "Master of all things" would be torture for my enquiring mind...

 

I try do most of the stuff myself. From rebuilding transmissions to sewing my own upholstery. Thats what makes a car mine and not someone elses. It may not have the look of a "show car" but at least I can carry the pride of building a decent looking hot rod.

 

I would say 95 - 100 % I hate paying labor if I can do it.

Patch panel, body work and paint.- Check
Welding, mig, tig, stick and gas - Check
Frame building Z-ing - Check
Building suspension, steering - check
Engine, trans and rear rebuilding and installing - Check
Starter, Alt and carb. rebuilding - check
Electrical, building wiring harness - check
Cut flat glass - check.
Interior, seats, panels.- Check
Auto wood working - check
machine work - check
curve glass cutting - 50%
head liners - 50%

 

Everything but Upholstery, tried that once in 63 and learned a valuable lesson, I can't sew...................

 

I can't sew patterns, but I have worked in upholstery stretching door panels and covering seats. I've also made the piping, but I quit before I was shown anything of real value...

I've also never rebuilt a transmission. I have rebuilt a few engines, but after working with a guy who built race engines non-stop, I learned that unless you have the right tools, and are used to building them, there are a hundred different tricks and things to look for. I would rather somebody knowledgeable handle that. But I can install and bolt parts on and do what is needed.

Paint and body is where I spent most of my time, and I have no problems painting anything. I am a little out of practice as of late, but it's like riding a bike...

I can weld, but I haven't been fortunate enough to tig. I have gas welded and was pretty good at it. I haven't done any serious fabrication like building a chassis - most of my welding was on body panels.

I'd like to learn machining, but I know too many people that can do that already.. I usually just let them do it.

Like Samiyam said, doing everything to restore a car and BUILDING a car are two different things. I also think that if you can read and know your way around a tool box and have the right tools you can do anything...

 

Hahaha !! I think I get it.

My math is similar. Do 100% of the work but most of the parts are fabricated elsewhere. So . . .

(100% of work) X (fabrication by others) = 75% ?

 

How pretty must it be? Everything was done by me I've still got lots to learn though maybe I'll have another car done by 30

 

Hay I am a 110 percenter!!!!
I have to be, because I have no money and no friends with any skills exept mouching work off of me!
So I have been going to the "learnasyougo" school of rod building.

 

.....I'am about 80%..........I don't have all the equipment.....but willing to learn....

 

50/50 to be honest. In building a real nice car. The 50% that I dont do I trade for with the stuff i can do well. I did buy a commerical sewing machine, and I am giving that a wirl.

 

How pretty must it be? Everything was done by me I've still got lots to learn though maybe I'll have another car done by 30

 

Last calculation was 68.732 but I am trying harder these days

I will never be a 100%er because I refuse to learn how to rebuild transmissions.

 

Sometimes I want to farm out something, then I find out what people charge to do the work.

Damn.... It might take longer, but look at the money I saved.

 

I guess I'm close..probably a 89%r I don't sew but have done replacement upholstery from katzkin and stock replacement covers....I have also never done an automatic tranny...but that's really just because I have a good friend with a tranny shop! Unfortunately I am a jack of all trades and master of none and not smart enough to realize maybe I can't do everything......but I only have to do it good enough to please me.

 

Didn't do the seat or the turbo 350. Built the frame, body, top, wiring, plumbing, door panels, carpet, paint. I think this falls north of 90 percent. Built this for dad in 2006, it now has 22,000 miles on it. He is 75 this year and drives it every day it is dry, the last trip to the coffee shop it was 17 degrees!

 

I do all my own work and will continue to do my own work because I don't have the moola to give some one else. and I get to brag that I did it. some of the old farts give you a little respect .and thats always cool.

 

I try anything once, except for trannies. I have helped build several, but mostly in the here are the pliers kind of help. I can run a mill and a lathe, but I no longer have access to them. Learning how to tig. I can do upholstery, but I have made two seat covers one was pretty fugly, the other was based on an indian blanket that I stitched to fit a '50 Chevy rear seat; that stuff takes practice.

I usually farm out paint, though I have sprayed a couple, in semi-gloss Hot Rod Black. Oh and I sprayed my first car with 17 rattle-cans of duplicolor in the dorm parking lot my freshman year of college. I am sure the other kids appreciated the overspray! I get the body work to 80% and then let the paint shop finish it, I don't have the patience for the last 20%.

Everything else, I do myself. I have rebuilt starters, air compressors, engines, rear ends, all the brakes, etc. Wiring is time consuming, but I enjoy rewiring a car, I always have. I have even rebuilt some gauges. I have done some block repairs also, pic is included. This is a split water jacket in a Mopar 383. I used Lock n Stitch pins. It worked really well.

I enjoy fabrication the most. I have never cut glass myself, but I have installed it, does that count? Here is a pic of a set of kickpanels I designed and formed with a vacformer. The car is OT (71 Buick GS) but you get the idea. I also do my own plastic casting. I have done potmetal sand casting, but it has been 20 years. I want to get back into that, its a lot of fun.

 

Way over 90%.

I never send anything out unless I can absolutely not do it myself. I have always had terrible luck with "professionals" screwing up the few things I do send out. Plus, I'd rather use the money for more tools/parts. I've always had the attitude that if it cost $300 to have something done but I could buy a tool for about the same money I buy the tool. That way I learn something and have the tool for next time.

 

I dont do automagic transmissions, an expensive lesson there, engine machining, glass or trim. And i dont fit tyres. The rest I'll have a go at!

 

I am about a 98%er. I used to rebuild calipers, alternators ect, but now I usually buy them reman because it's cheaper than the parts to do it yourself. Same with halfshafts, a reman costs less than rebuilding one yourself. I am more likely to just scrounge up good used parts (except for brakes) I don't rebuild automatic transmissions but don't use them much either. I have access to a good machine shop but I admit that he does the more technical stuff for me.

 

it never ends.

 

With the exception of machining my own parts, I have done it all...

 

You, sir, are a patient man. Or persistent as hell.

 

i did the paint and body work,narrowed and set up rearend,did the s10 clip,rewired it,
had to have the machine work on the motor and have the auto tranny done,
will also have to have the seats, door panels and headliner done..

 

I'm self taught and learned out of necessity. Never had any money so had to learn to do it myself. I've pretty much done everything except rebuild an automatic tranny - I've put in shift kits and swapped them, but never a full rebuild - although I'd like to.

Otherwise I've done paint and body work, chopped tops, pinstriping, flames, stripes, fabricated my own frames, built engines, carbs, rearends, starters, alternators, brakes front to back, solder repairs on radiators, other miscellaneous mechanical repairs, sewn my own seat covers, door panels and even made the headliner for my chopped Caddy.

I broke my back several years ago and am limited as to what I can physically do now, but I still like to hang out in the shop.

 

I have a Model A restorer friend who is a 100% no joke. He just picks and chooses what he wants to do though and how much time he has. He is always telling me to do that yourself its easy. I ask how and he drops whatever he is doing and I get to learn firsthand how to do whatever it is I feel I need to farm out. He knows his shit too, don't think you can slip much past him cause he is like Bruce Lancaster and has forgot more then I can ever hope to see and learn.

Me on the other hand I would say I am a 75% as alot of the stuff I had to learn the first go around through reading, books, talking to people in the know, and relying on friends for help with simple stuff like assembly of the chassis and body. Most of the stuff I did on my own which is a big thing for my first real build from ground up. Not like it was anything to hard as there was little fab chassis wise. Mostly it was restoring parts to original like condition.-Weeks

 

I used kits for my front and rear suspension, and motor mounts... By the end I had mounted my own tires with a manual tire changer.... I've been told my welding sucks, runs and drives but the plan is for me to do the rest by myself... so 80%?

 

Through economic necessity I do everything on my AV8 project, with one or two exceptions. I had the radiator modded by a specialist, and the glass will be cut by a specialist. All welding, panel work, wiring, upholstery, boxing, exhaust, trans and rear rebuild, is me. Oh yeah, I had the new tires fitted and balanced by a tire shop.
I guess I'm about a 95%er

 

All mechanical except for major paint and upholstery , so I guess I`m close to 100%
Chryco