I am putting some primer on mine today, hope-fully get it driveable by next weekend. Now ,I have $1800 in it right now. That does not include the wear and tear on the broom used to sweep the shop, the POPSICKELS that I passed out to the neighbor kids or when I burnt a hole in my tennis shoes. I understand what everyone is saying but if you take your time,are not locked into a specific build you can find deals everywhere. I bought a conversion van for $200, I sold the wheels and tires and kept the motor and trans, hauled the rest with some junk and got $183 back. Do I have $17 in the M/T or do I have $200 yet? It does have $210 worth of bolts,I run Wide five wheels because they were there,The battery and the steering box,master cyl. and driveshaft,were pirated from cars going to the crusher. The steering wheel was found laying on a friends bench,(Evinrude boat),two of the shocks were brand new garage sale,the fuel tank is a $5 air bubble from the swap meet, ect. There is a lot of labor doing it this way, it is much easier to call the 800 # and give them a credit card. I do not build my cars to please anyone but myself, your approval is not required. Some would say my car is junk, big deal! I do want to thank everyone on here for all the help in the past year or so, I only hope I can return the favor sometime.
its funny how these things tend to wander around. i guess it comes down to what you mean by hot rod. i have a 31 tudor that i have 6000 in and i haven't started putting it together. it has a lot to do with where you live. there is a 55 ford for sale in atlanta for 4k. seems cheap. looks nice in the picture. you can probably put a "ratrod" together for under 2000, that would be 1949 and before ? right? or you could throw some wheels on a pre 1963 car and call it a custom for under 2000. for 10000 you need to be one of the talented car builders on here. if you need to pay someone for work even 10000 is cheap.
$2,800 I will agree that people throw around ridiculously low costs for their builds but this is an honest tally of mine. I'm raising a family and have little money for my shit so i had to build mine cheap. I did get a freeby drivetrain (which is a 79 sbc) but other than that i either hunted, fixed, or made. There are extra shit which are had to include in this figure such as bolts, welding gas, and such which of course do add up. I kept supplied with this shit out of my humble weekly cash so let's say that it wasn't a budget breaker.. the bottom line is it is possible to build something inexpensively but the trade-off is fabrication time and compromise. Frankly i would have loved to run a sick nailhead or olds in my car but it just wasn't in the budget. I also spent a few hundred extra hours making mundane things like shock brackets and battery trays just to save buying them off the shelf (thankfully i enjoy fabrication). my car is far from finished but it's on the road and putting plenty of miles on it. by the time i can stamp her done i may have twice my initial investment in her but at least i can enjoy in the meantime.
my 40 chevy is a new project of mine,(about 4 months). i have been gathering parts and have been doing small stuff and mock up right now. I have a cab, doors, chassis and bed and i only have $50 into it(sold all of the parts that i didnt want to use and made my money back). and after this wknd i will have a motor and tranny and i still will only have $275 into it. I am not looking for a goodguys "Best of show" i just want somthing to cruise in. My goal is to have less then $1500 into it. And right now i dont think that will be a problem.
I think the key to building a car or more than one car, is finding some way to support your hobby with a cash flow dedicated to it.Be it buy low and sell high, sell things you just have not touched in years, if you are not attached to it. I think their are lots of ways to generate the cash, and alot of them have to do with work, you just have to do it.Currator here on the H.A.M.B. is real good at it, and I have learned a few things from watching him do it, but their are times he has to work real hard to do it...but in the end it pays well and extra mad money is a good thing..............But if their is something that I want for my build ,I will not compromise, if it takes alittle longer than so be it.....Be true to your vision, unless your trying to just throw something together, and thats ok too, thats what I did with my A truck.Littleman
To build a car, you need: A:Money B:Experience C:Time A lack of any of the above requires significantly more of the other two. I've built a car for a couple grand, drove it for a year, and tore it apart to complete redo it. I'll have at least 3 times the cash outlay this time around. Will it be a better car? Yes, because of the experience I've gotten. I'm also using a lot more desireable(to me anyway) parts and taking more time to ensure that the car doesn't have the compromises that Version 1.0 did. Littleman is right. Make sure the funding from your project does not come from the grocery fund. I buy large lots of parts so that by the time I finish selling off what I don't want, I've often made money on the deal. I've seen people run themselves and their family's finances into the ground by overspending their hobby. And it is just that, a hobby, so who cares what the other guy spent. Karl
As long as there's string, I'll never be left thinking about what its length might be. Hooray for the length of sting and the bears that shit in the woods.
I think the key to the whole thing is how much of the labor you can do yourself. Some guys have to send things out (sublet) and that increases costs by a ton. Then you have people like us (Flower and I) who toil away in our little shop making every little bracket, brace and doing everything ourselves....even if we have to learn how to do something we haven't done before. We have a little over $5000 in the roadster but alot of the stuff we used was under the bench or out in the shed. The sedan we spent 'way too much money on because none of the parts were "in stock".
someday i hope to. I actually spent some extra time making my engine and trans crossmembers bolt ins so i could do so later. I also made my radiator bracket flipable so i can gain another 2" for a longer mill .
If you take a little bit of time to search out some good deals and do some smart trading you can do quite well. I bought a 29A 2dr sedan chopped, recessed firewall, suicide doors, hidden hinges, floors done, top filled and some gawdawful pro street tubs in it. No finished bodywork but all the new metal was fully welded. No garnish moldings or anything else but I bought it with all this work done for only $275 Cdn. I then picked up an original boxed A chassis with a dropped and drilled front axle, springs front and rear, diff, hairpins, spindles, a complete roller if you bolted it all together, straight level and square. Only paid $300 Cdn. I was given a FREE 70 Ford 1/2t, total POS but I traded it to a guy for a 81 Malibu and he even threw in another $50 to sweeten the deal. Why he wanted that rusty old Ford so bad I'll never know! I stripped the Malibu and kept V8/TH350, driveshaft to be shortened, 4 good roller tires, tilt column. then I sold the steering box $50, diff $70, assorted body parts $75, and then had the picked over carcass hauled away. I had cut the tubs out and fixed the floors, picked up a seat, brakes on front and rear, fabbed some motor and trans mounts and had the drivetrain mocked in place when a move forced me to sell, but at the time I ahd most of the major parts I was going to use and I was only into it for about $675-700 Cdn. I was trying to get a running beater on the road for less than $4000. I think I had a good shot at meeting my goal. Would I have been satisfied with it once it was driveable? Yes and no. Would I have then kept improving it over time? Hell Yeah! You dont have to have it finished before driving it. Just look at how many guys on here post videos of their first ride in unfinished projects. Every one of them was having so much fun I don't think they cared that they weren't all painted and plated and polished, that can always come later.
I think it is WAY too easy to loose track of how much money you really have in a "hobby" car. I kept track and I now have just under 20k in a Mustang convertible that I could sell outright for about $4500. It hurts just to think about it. That includes the repair work for when my wife tried to launch a fat PA whitetail into outerspace with my F'in bumper but still a lot of wasted money. CHAZ
I have had my truck for 10 years and have not driven it yet. I spend what I can and work on it when I have time. My family has not suffered because of buying parts because like I said I work on it when I have some cash. Most of the parts were picked up here and there and god knows how manny times I have changed the direction I wanted to go with the build. I can honestly say that ont one person has picked up a wrench and helped on my truck. I am not complaining because I love to work on it. Just about the time you think it is road ready, I make a punch list of what needs to be done. That damm list keeps growing. I guess I could hook up a few wires and drive it off but It would not be the way I want to go on the first cruise out of the shop. I also think working on the rod is like thearpy because you listen to no one and build what you want and work when you want.
If you are on the hamb because this shit is a way of life, then cheap does not register....I spend every red sent I have on cars and parts. It is like a crack habbit, if I sell something, I need to buy something. I cant turn it off. I dont want to turn it off. I won't smoke, drink booze, party, get tatoes cause all that shit takes away from my car habbit.....If you really got it bad like I do, you should treat it like a business. Keep an account set up specifically for your car habbit. Plastic and bank account. This way your family, or your rent are safe from the habbit. If your habbit makes money, the money goes back to the habbit account. If you don't make money at this, then give yourself an allowance. Keeping it separate from your daily functions will make you function in society correctly and your habbit will be under some control....
Cash cost is relavent of course but what is often forgotten is the cost of man hours, bloody fingers, sweat, fights with the wife about spending time with your pile of steel in the garage and the countless hours thinking about building your car. Watching movie and rock stars and rich doctors buying cars from boyd cottington and barret jackson makes me a little sick in that they are missing out on a huge part of owning a classic hot rod or muscle car. Missing out on part of the trip.
Damn straight. Like the sign in the shop says: "you can have it good, fast, or cheap - today's your lucky day; pick two." -bill
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................................................................................................................................................................................................pie!
The Jalopy Journal
