Lateral-g project car on a budget. - Lateral-g Forums

3kidsnotime · #1 09-12-2006, 10:52 PM

I had an idea and emailed our Administrator Scott, He and I thought it would be a neat idea to have a project car that the every guy with some skill could build, His final lets ask, so here we are. The idea is this a car that can be built on a budget most people here have a family and some times the dream car is just too far away from the truth, But lets take a clean buyable car not a 69 Camaro or a 70 Chevelle That kills the budget from the start, Lets set a budget and a platform where the car can be built from, Each step will be detailed as far as cost and how to do it youself, With pics and sorces and total cost of each step, And also each member can put their input in as were we go as far as engine what do we do with our budget every one sends an email we take a poll on each step and thats what we do The color of the car the same we take a poll and so on. Remember this car is not a blown 1000hp this is a car every one can build and also to show and or help first timers. Also a clean good looking handling car with lets say 350 425 hp, The budget I wanted to say 10 grand but 15 is a more realistic idea. Lets do a hard evaluation of the project at 10 but cap at 15K, I think we could build a nice car at that. I will supply the car the cash and labor, I ask of Scott to help with all the posting and poll. So lets get some input on the idea good or bad. I dont want to hear we cant build a car with that amount of money but what can we do. So here it is its up to you YES or NO

Musclerodz · #2 09-12-2006, 11:21 PM

Sound like a good idea to me. Lets see, "F" body, second gen firebird, "X" body, Pontiac Ventura, "G" body, 78-82 Malibu. Does it have to be a car? How about a 67-72 chevy truck? any one of those can be bought for $2500 or less drivable in decent shape. Fuel injection also drives the price way up so I would plan on carburating it until most the car is finalized. A detailed list would take some time so this would need to be broke down into smaller steps as we go along. The main thing will picking the vehicle besides cost is the availablilty of aftermarket parts and interchangability of factory stuff.

Mike

tyoneal · #3 09-12-2006, 11:22 PM

Neat Idea:

How about fixing up a 1965 Riviera.

They can be found relatively cheap,
They have Killer lines and no pollution standards.
350-425 hp would be easy with a 425 Nailhead.

For the looks, stance and lines, I think they are under priced compared to many other car that just look bland.

4 Seats, enough for a family.
Lots of parts available.

What do you think?

Is this what you were looking for?

tyoneal

**JayR** · #4 09-13-2006, 12:09 AM

Great idea! I can't wait to see what happens and look forward to following along. As much as I hate to say it, for the sake of budget, you should probably go with a Chevy or at least a GM car with a strong motor that doesn't need rebuilt and would respond to a simple cam/carb/intake/exhaust swap.
There's lots of great aftermaket suspension/brake upgrades available for the previously mentioned GM 2nd gen F, 2nd and 3rd gen X, and G bodies and all are good lookers when done right. If you do an F or X body, you could borrow all the stuff learned from PHR's Project g-28 so that would be a big head start.

As much as I love Rivieras, I think it's too big, heavy and rare to be a good g-machine and I don't know that the aftermarket GM A-body stuff bolts on.

I say start scouring the Auto Trader and Craigslist in a radius you're willing to travel and put your findings to a vote.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Beast2831 · #5 09-13-2006, 05:08 AM

Let's do it! I like the 2nd gen F body idea. This sounds like it would be a fun thing for everyone and also help those who are still learning.

G-Body · #6 09-13-2006, 07:05 AM

Sounds like a great platform for a G-Body car 84 olds or monte etc everythings available easy to work on and still plentiful and would be differnet and kick ass looking

Hdesign · #7 09-13-2006, 07:20 AM

This sounds really cool. I think it can definitely be done with those constraints if we start off with the right platform and get creative! My vote is for either a 80's g-body (there's a million of them for short money) or 3rd gen F-body. They're probably what everyone will flock to anyway once all the 60s steel is gone or uber-uber expensive. I'm partial to the g-bodies since I had 5 of them!

black2002ls · #8 09-13-2006, 07:43 AM

this is an awesome idea

**XcYZ** · #9 09-13-2006, 07:44 AM

Jeff (3kidsnotime) and I been talking, and he wants this to be a fully documented budget build that will be covered on our website. What I plan on doing is create a webpage(s) just for the build then have it link to an ongoing thread here on the forums - a blog of sorts. That way, the project will have a dedicated URL and will be easier to find, add pictures to, and follow the progress with, etc, yet still be interactive. I think this is a cool idea and I hope it plays out the way we hope it does.

I talked to Jason Rushforth, and he thinks it would be cool to have the designers on Lateral-g come up with their own designs for the car and then we'd all vote on our favorite.

What do you guys think? Would this be an interesting addition to the site?

Here is the project car:

black2002ls · #10 09-13-2006, 07:49 AM

I like the idea of utilizing active members. Especially the design idea, Full interactive build!