Craziest car part that you "just had to have"?
 

I have a new winner for me..

Being OCD is tough, and expensive.. I found this out durring the latest rebuild of Penny. I had finally found splined 12mm open lug nuts so I went ahead and install my new ARP front wheel studs into the ZR1 hubs. I have longer 12mm studs in the back but when I put the open lug nuts on the were just shy of coming all the way through the nuts.

It looked funny and from a tech standpoint they needed to be longer. I had bought these back when I did the three-link and they had to be custom ordered.

Specs: 12mm, full thread, 10.9, 60mm in length, 1.5 pitch

I needed them to be another 20mm longer. No problem right? Wrong.. turns out that 60mm is the longest offered. Any longer and they either droped to grade 8 (metric), gained a shoulder, or changed thread pitch to 1.75 -- They even checked Europe and no go.

So my only option was to pull the axles, drill them out and move to 1/2" -- but then I would have 12mm in the front and 1/2" in the back (here's where the OCD kicked in)

While researching online I found a place in Texas that will do custom hardened bolts. I guess they do a lot of stuff for the military and such.

http://www.zerofast.com/service.htm

Talked to them and they said "no problem".. but I only needed 10 so of course the price would be high for such a short run.

I ordered 12 (two spares) and the price was... wait for it.. $299.00

So I ordered them up and in a couple of days they arrived.. perfectly what I wanted, but they were raw steel and uncoated.

SOOOOO... off to Embee to have the Cadmium coated (after all, this would match my front studs).. Cost for this was $108.00

That means the 12 bolts cost me just over $400 or $34 PER BOLT! :faint:

All because I wanted open ended lug nuts and I'm f-d up in the head.. lol

So, what's the craziest thing you've ever shelled out cash for on your car?

http://i45.tinypic.com/2czu5cl.jpg

a color matched air freshener for $1.99.
I dont even like the scent... but its green.

It's got to be the Precision Metalcraft fabricated intake. At $2300 I could have done it much cheaper, but I had to have it for the visual WOW when you open the hood.

Well, it is purdy...

I like the air-fresher as well.. do they come in orange?

of course not you have to have that color custom made!!

I get that one Jeff................. ;)

Jody

You are sick. LOL. Everyone I know thought I was crazy for buying a DSE frame three years ago til they went for a ride. I thought I was OCD!

I'm surprised but I can't touch that. I'll just stick with my 12mm up front and 1/2 out back. :unibrow:

I might have to agree with Jeff about those Precision Metal Craft intake manifolds. They're pricey but really nice. And on a side note, let me just say, Jeff, I like your style when it comes to engine bays!

I also had to powder coat my brake calipers gray which ended up running around $800, after having to buy new pistons and seals for them.

Craziest thing I had to have though, I and I don't have any finished pictures would be these: http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC_0928.jpg

Matt

Ha ha Steve, that made me laugh.

I had a similar experience, but not with one particular part.

After running an 11.0 in my mustang on street radials, I decided to take the plunge and add slicks and a cage so I could dip into the tens. So I spent around $5000 on cage, race seat, harness, trans blanket, tech inspection, race wheels, slicks, front runners, fire suit, gloves, boots, arm restraints etc. Then made it to the track 4 times, battled rain cancellations and extreme heat (107f air temp with 134f track temp), made a total of 5 full passes, and broke tailshaft uni's, valve springs, blown head gaskets and now cracked a piston. And after all that I only managed a best time of 10.93.

Now I've decided to drop the comp and add a smaller cam to make it more streetable and actually have fun driving it instead of breaking and fixing it all the time.

But that's cars, and drag racing, and at the end of the day it's good fun.

Joe.

This is kind of like that. I rode my bike to my local speed shop and bought a B&M shift kit for a 350 turbo.........I did'nt own a car I was about 14 or 15 at the time.

http://boner.berettaspeed.com/vette/brakes6.jpg

C6 Z06 brakes - even though my C6 came with the Z51 upgrade! LOL! :thumbsup:

My HRE wheels. I'm ashamed to tell some of my friends who are not car afficionados how much I spent on them. Of coarse, us car guys understand...we all suffer from the same disease.:rofl: But, uninitiated car guys would not understand at all. Anyway, the rims were $5700 alone, then another $1300 for the tires. Those 305/30/20's were not cheap. We are not even gonna talk about the Baer 15" rotors with 6S 6-piston calipers. Another purchase I don't tell my unofficial car friends.:faint:

when I got out of high school in 1987, after watching mad max and the road warrior a few too many times, I worked and saved all summer for a 6-71 blower kit from Don Hampton.

nobody around here knew anything about blowers. so, needless to say, I got a crash course in forced induction. almost literally as the first time I pinned the throttle I nearly took down a light pole.:D but nothing could wipe the grin off of my face from being a then 19 yr old kid with a 6-71 and dual quads through the hood of a second gen camaro.

wheel tubs and 21.5 mt's soon followed. can you tell that I also grew up in the peak of the pro street era??? :D

Mine has to be the first Tilton carbon/carbon clutch at a mear $4500. The worst thing is every other manual I have driven sincefeels like crap...! :lol:

Everything from the windows down? No... that would miss the headliner... Everything from the grill back? Maybe...

The SuperRam and Procharger for sure.

Crazy cause the car would have been done a long time ago if I wasn't so crazy and had to build a blown efi motor. Should have just bought a new carb and called it a day.

I bought a Latham Supercharger........ These were designed in the mid-50's, and 600 were manufactured from the mid-50's to the mid-60's.

http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n...a/P1310034.jpg

http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n...a/P1310033.jpg


--Eric

How did it run ?

Jim

Jim,

I haven't run it yet..... but it ran well when it came off this car:
http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n...a/P1010154.jpg

http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n...P1010122-1.jpg

The 54 Corvette belongs to Bob Bruhn. I took these pics at SEMA in 2008.


--Eric

Steve... When I first heard Jackass was getting these I had to have em!!:willy: There went the brake budget$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Well I don't have it....yet. But I have dreams of this trans is a few different cars.
WARNING YOU WILL WANT ONE TOO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipC8I...eature=related

WARNING YOU WILL WANT ONE TOO.

I would put a cooler shifter in whatever it went in and get rid of that noisy reverse handle that rattles to no end. But man life would be great with this trans.

Thanks, I took a cue from Jody on the engine bay. I did as much as I could to hide wires. If I had not phoned in the EFI harness to a guy in California, I could have done better. I still want to hide the coils better but...maybe next winter.

One thing on the intake is that hardly a soul can pass up telling me how I could make more torque with a stock plastic intake.

I think you did a pretty good job hiding the coils, I can't tell where they are from the picture, and you hid the wires too. I've also had people tell me a composite manifold would work better *cough*Rupp*cough* but I can't believe everyone would say that. We have pretty identical looking engines down to the valve covers and people always think I've got some kind of big block or even a "trick 502 Ramjet."

Matt

i want one!.. the craziest part would be the 2-7/16 inch buttrefly enderle stack injection and electromotive tec3 i got for the deuce roadster... totally piontless but Übercool

and good reason why, that thing looks awesome !!!

Steve,

Next time let one of us europeans know, $300 is a LOT

According to my bolt guy 10.9 come without plating because the bolts will loose the 10.9 proprieties when plated (I dont know if its because he doesnt have coated bolts or if its true).

here you go...

http://members.cox.net/redfire69/ima...azorgills1.JPG

http://members.cox.net/redfire69/ima...azorgills2.JPG

it all started with this rendering from Bob Thrash from Rad Rides

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album..._16_syborg.jpg

then troy let me borrow these tires

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album...5_05_14_00.jpg

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album...5_05_14_01.jpg

of course i took them over to Dave at Comp Fab

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album...5_05_14_04.jpg

had to cut a little room to make them fit

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album...5_05_20_06.jpg

and then somehow the frame got cut off

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album...5_05_20_12.jpg

and here we are a couple years later

http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/album...26_Josh_65.jpg

that $500.00 rendering has cost me a fortune.