I appreciate it, actually. I've always been a big believer in driving a car no matter what stage it's in, but I'm sort of low-class anyway, lol.

WOW a lot of GREAT INFO in this thread, I to am an average joe as well and I have purchased some tools to do the work myself because I want to teach myself or just get an experience using the tools I have in my garage!

Although it might not hold a candle to some of the cars that are built on this site...at least I can say "hey I did all of that by myself". Like another poster said "it may not stain a SEMA carpet" but I am building it to suit MY needs as a nice driver and a cool car.

Marty that was a great write up !!!!!

I have one more thing I'd like to suggest. If you hear of a local stock car swap meet happening in your area, go to it and browse around. You can buy some useful second hand stuff pretty cheap. Anything to fuel delivery components, to suspension components, to performance power steering pump stuff, to dress up stuff that has some quality. Even if you can't find direct bolt-on stuff you can use, you might find some good material to make what you need.
I just went to one a few weeks ago. I didn't really need any suspension stuff, but I did find a nice set of aluminum valve covers I bought from a guy for $40, and a spun aluminum air cleaner with a drop base and a K&N filer for $30. The stuff cleaned up real nice.
I think I'll take Marty's advise about the Nomex wire wrap.
.
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...psdnuocj4k.jpg

Thanks Guys.

I've wanted to put pen to paper a long time ago and this thread gave me the kick in the pants to start writing.

ps - more to come over the weekend.

Marty, Thank you for putting this together. Well done. You said it just right,with lots of good and "real" info. I think I may print this out and hang it in the garage as a reminder:D
It can be very easy to get over your head, and you won't even see it coming. I say the reason I have had my Chevelle for over 2 decades now is because it was torn down for most of the time.:confused18: I wanted it a certain way and got it there. Now it is like Jim Ring told me "you went too far, it's too nice". But it is what I wanted. Not saying I won't do another one that way, but I think I will build the next one that can be used a little more with out worry.
To the OP, you can have your car done by someone and keep in somewhat of your budget. If your price is firm, I would scale it back and allow for incidentals. because well... !#$* happens. You can also look on here and find a car that is just what you looking for and in a price range that works, and maybe even afford to change a few things to your liking.
Good luck and have fun with what ever choice you choose.

Your welcome and I agree the same thing happened to me with the truck. It turned out so nice I was afraid to drive it. Thus the reason we built the 70 Camaro. Much more toned down of a build and something that I can play with for years. Heck I even have a Scott Mock chassis sitting in my warehouse that I plan to bring home this weekend and start putting it together. I may even smooth all of the C6 suspension parts similar to what Al's kids have done with there 5th gen Camaro. The cool part is the car can constantly evolve and I am sure at some point it will be way to nice to drive and then I will sell it and start another project.

But for now I want something nice looking and fun to drive. People forget that perfect cars are exactly that and when you get a nick or scratch your heart broken.

This thread should be stickied as "Must read" right after the forum rules when someone signs up for Lat-G

There is a lot of REALITY in this thread that most of us just glaze over when talking about our projects and ordering our parts. For you new guys... listen to the voice of reason from the guys that have been around because its true. This cycle repeats itself again and again. Everyone wants to build Troy or Stielow, or DSE's latest car in their garage but the reality is there are are thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in these builds. They are beautiful, they build excitement for our industry but in reality they are out of reach of 99% of us as they should be. We all need something to aspire to.

I've built building professionally for going on 8 years now on my own (20+in the biz). I am very blessed to have a clientele that can afford to indulge this hobby and I get to build people's dream cars. I've learned over the years when I get a cold call about someone shopping to build a project and in the first 5 minutes they tell me they want the "biggest, baddest, fastest, and money is no object" that we will never build a car. Once we start talking about the sheer "cubic dollars" of what it costs to build a car like they are asking for the pauses in the conversation start getting longer.

I try to lead the next part of the conversation back around to... "What do you want to do with the car?" Most of the time their response is... I just want something cool to drive. So then we start building realistic expectations, and honestly for someone who wants to build a driver on a "budget" (see previous comments... i.e. under $100k) it is cheaper to find a nice $30k car that someone else has mildly built and/or restored and modify from there with your end goal in mind. This brings up the next point that a couple guys mentioned.... there is a lot of junk out there so no matter what you buy you need to have it professionally inspected or at least bring your buddy that knows how cars are built to look for the metal tape, bondo, self tapping screws, and scotch locks. If nothing else, knowing the true condition of a vehicle becomes a negotiation point... Maybe the guy knows he got shafted when he paid someone to build the car for him and is asking top dollar but when you confront him with the reality of the car he may want to wash his hands of it for a reasonable price... main point is... Know what you are buying. These cars offer enough surprises as it is- you don't want to buy one with extra. If you can buy a car that doesn't have to go into a body shop then you will save a lot of time and money. Once you get into the paint and body on a car you either go all the way or not at all. It is expensive and you can't just say.. Oh I'll come back and fix that later. Expect to pay $30k+ to strip, typical rust repair for a 40yr old car, prime, block paint for the current acceptable level of "pro-touring" quality paint job when you are paying a body shop. Last two cars I had paint work redone on had 600 hrs in stripping, sheet metal work, redoing bodywork and painting... do the math on that at 65/hr for paint work.

Once you have your main goal in mind start building your project from there. As forementioned... sure a Roadster Shop chassis is bad ass thing to have... but do you really need it if you are on a budget and just want to do car cruises? I seem to remember some great car cruises back before we had all of these options.

If you are on a budget and really want to have all those trick features... build yourself a staged build plan. Get a running driving car now and enjoy it. Make your self a 1yr, 3yr, 5 yr plan for mods you want to do and start saving your pennies. Get your wife on board or those pennies will go towards a European vacation instead of Detroit Speed but that is another conversation. Too many people scatter their cars with high hopes of building the next great car and end up selling a basket case 10 years later. If you don't have the time or financial means to keep your project moving at a steady pace then do it in stages and keep the car functional. You will enjoy it much more, your wife will enjoy it much more, your kids won't be sword fighting in the yard with your door lock rods and you won't get burned out on your project.

If you have the means to pay someone to build your car professionally then shop around. As the guys mentioned there are a wide variety of door rates and cheaper doesn't always mean better, neither does more expensive. Shop on value not on price. Go see their work in person, at their shop. Talk to past customers if you can. Anybody can make a shiny car, but you want to see what is behind the PPG. How do they wire it? How do they plumb it? What is the quality of their assembly where you can't see it at a carshow? Is it built serviceable where it can be dismantled like an OE car if anything ever needed to? What abilities does the shop have? Metal shaping, fabrication, TIG, MIG? What are they doing in house vs. outsourcing? If they have to drive to their buddies shop to use the lathe, that is likely time you are paying for. Is their shop clean and organized? Do they itemize their billing so you know exactly what you are paying for? Bring along a friend or hire a professional that knows the business to come to the shop with you and critique what is going on. It might be a few hundred bucks spent up front that might save you tens of thousands in the back end.

You want custom metal shaping on your car? Smoothed engine firewall, aprons, rad support finish panels like those big builds? Maybe a custom floorpan for your modern trans? Wheel tubbing? Cubic hours again... and finding people to do quality metal shaping work is hard to find. It is becoming a standard of any quality build so a lot more people are learning the art but it is cubic hours on our end to learn it to be able to offer it.. not to mention tens of thousands in metal shaping equipment.

I could go on and on as you guys know... Main thing... Set your goals. Get professional advice if you have questions. Build a plan and stick to it. Drive as much as you can.

We all do it or something close to it. I look at that car of mine now and am glad I did it, and try to tell myself "its just a car" it can be fixed.... We will see. I am enjoying the shows at the moment. With little ones it is hard to get to them, let alone other events. Where we live doesn't help either. Plus they don't give you points for nicks and scratches. At least is is doing the same thing as before, just prettier to look at!
Now our goal is to get some media exposure on the car and scratch that off the list. Don't know if we will sell it soon and try a different avenue or not. It is hard to improve on this one since it has had everything done to it.
I like your camaro, and the way your going about it. Your truck was over the top but was fun to watch come together.

This hobby IS a blast.... and can be done on whatever level a guy can afford to do it on. I've never met anyone and judged them on how their car was obtained except that I won't bother with people that obviously don't care. By that I mean the guys that have plug wires looped around the shock tower. I costs nothing to clean up and route a set of plug wires. If you go to a show and raise your hood to show you don't care... then we probably don't have much in common.

To the OP.....


What you'll find is that this is a hobby. It's the best group of people and you can have fun at any level. I completely agree with those that say you can do this at all manor of dollars. All manor of time and everywhere in between. Just don't think you're going to build or drive a SEMA show car and you'll be just fine.

I'd suggest taking your time to buy a done car -- make sure you like the color first... don't buy a yellow car and want a black car. That will save you a lot down the road. But as many have stated here don't just look at the paint. Also don't be fooled by the killer list of parts. Great parts installed poorly are the most costly! That's a costly re-do. I'd rather have a factory leaf spring car that someone hasn't butchered.

Think about your time - You can take the time UPFRONT and wait and shop and get the best car you can for your money.....The shopping process alone will teach you a ton! The longer you shop the more you'll learn. Or you can jump in and buy some POS and spend the time on the back end waiting to drive it. Your call.

Many of us on here enjoy the journey in many different ways. Some have the money - some have the skills - some of us have built dozens of cars - some are first timers... some are over their heads and some aren't anywhere near what they could afford to spend. Doesn't matter. Do what's right for your personal situation. If you love this stuff - then this won't be your first or last car. You'll live and learn - you'll make mistakes - you'll survive and do it all over again. You'll meet life long friends and make lifetime memories.

If it hasn't been mentioned already:

If you plan to do a lot of your own work, make sure you really enjoy the process of building a car. For me I think I enjoy building more than driving/car shows etc.. I'm OK with it taking years to finish the build because that's the part I like the most. I've sold more than a couple cars shortly after "finishing" them because I got bored.

If you don't enjoy the building process, seriously think about buying a finished car so you can be enjoying it. Whether you do the work or farm it out 3+ years is a long time to have a massive chunk of money out on a car you cannot "enjoy".

I think it was said before, but the hidden cost of tools to do the work is substantial. I can do everything but paint and I estimate I have $35K in tools and machinery to do all that and I still can't build a car on the level some of these guys talk about.