Re: The cost of a car
 

It was a rust free Duster,a hard find here on the east coast of Canada

Re: The cost of a car
 

Hey Joe, similar to an anology I gave a youngster at a bracket race, 20 some years back. He came up to me, admired my car and asked "what kind of money it take to build something like this"? I pointed over to a big Buick, Caddy, something that was parked close by, told him "go over and fill up the trunk of that car with $100 bills, three-four times, you might be ready to start"!

I appreciate the advise. I knew this would be expensive, it has become more clear to me. I don't have 25-30-40K upfront money I can throw into a car. I'm neither intimidated by the costs or the work. You all may be right, I may never get it together. For me, I desire the accomplishment.

Just for laughs, if I had that pail of $100 bills, wouldn't it be more prudent to put it toward the car? They will get burnt up, eventually!

Re: The cost of a car
 

Time == Money I guess.

You can pay and have it fast, or do it yourself and it takes more time.

Im assuming youre a "handy type" who can do machine work, fabrication, welding, painting all yourself ?

My buddy make some of the most insane things Ive ever seen out of junk and sheet metal, all hammer worked....takes him 2 years but .... lol

I have yet with the exception of gears and the like of "hard part" (engine parts heads, etc) like brake calipers ever seen anything on a car I couldnt do given enough time, do I want to spend 100 hrs doing something I can buy for $100 , hell no, but well if I didnt have $100 I would...

What do you have ? Not have ?

I am just curious what the high dollar parts you see as remaining ?

Motor/Trans ?

Re: The cost of a car
 

In 2004....I was racing mostly in S/C with the dragster I had built new in 1998 I was watching all the late model Firebirds and Camaros in Stock and really wanted to have one.
I learned long ago to buy a good quality used roller and thats exactly what I did. I bought a Firebrid that was very well built and had perfect paint. It came with a lot of engine parts and a trans and converter. I built an engine with parts and some good advice from Woodro Josey.....Thankyou Woody....
I had very little machine work needed to build a decent engine to get started. I bought a used laptop from Ebay.....I taught myself how to tune the EFI. I bought an Innovate LM-1 to help me tune that EFI on the LT-1. I had the trans and converter redone. Bought some used ring and pinions and changed them twice myself trying different ratios.....
I ran well under the index the second week out after fixing some minor EFI programming errors I made. I did get some good help and advice from someone I met on the internet who worked at Accel DFI , as I had an Accell Gen VII ECU....I did not spend a ton of money and ran as quick as 10.55 and at the weight I was carrying...that was about -.8 or more under the index. I did not feel I could chase this type racing as it was just not going to fit in for me......I sold it after making about 60 total runs. The new owner has spent a lot of time refining the tune up...has been on the chassis dyno and also had the help of a very good "tuner". The car has only run slightly quicker......He is getting a new engine from one of the best engine builders in stock so it should be a lot faster....

Bottom line is you can build a car pretty reasonably and be competetive for a reasonable amount of money.....I did.....and most all of my cars have been done the same way.....No they are not showcars..and they are far from the fastest. If I had kept the Firebird, I would have worked at making it faster...slowly as the budget and time allowed.......It was just not going to work for me but it was a fun car to drive and I enjoyed the build up time and learning curve on the EFI.......

Re: The cost of a car
 

Passion.....Can't put a price tag on that.