Building on a budget = being cheap?

[Caveman Tony]

Budget... Cheap... it all depends on how you use your noggin'.


I'm in the process of re-doing my exhaust...

swap meet headers: $25
parts store glasspacks: $50 a pair
two 4-footers of 2.5" from jegs: $30 delivered (local guy quoted me $10 a foot!!)

One weekend of sweating/swearing with help from my gf, dad, and my 2-year old niece...... priceless.

How much do you think dropping off the truck at the custom exhaust shop woulda cost me?

[1931s/x]

when you have kids, you do what you have to do. kids come first. i have 2 old cars, i dont really want to spend money to finish the one the way i want, it was a street strip build and i want to change a lot of things to make it more cruisable, budget wise for me i sold one basket case strip project, i too kthe money and bought a less desirable year car wit hthe same platform, i was able to buy it and get it road worthy with used parts for half of what i sold that car. i then spent the rest on some upgrades. i drove it for a while thinking of what to do with it. i then took inventory of what i had and what id actualloy use of what i had, i sold off anything i wasnt going to use and was able to buy what i wanted. i have a 2 year old and since i was building a whole car, i wasnt about to try to throw an engine build into the equation. i honed my bb mopar 400, ditched the cast crank for a 383 steel crank i had, and had it balanced new cam rod and main bearings, cast rings, summit cam, and a summit roller chain. i re used a set of 906 heads that i had decked and rebuilt over 10 years ago, used iron rockers, the correct used pushrods, used springs i had. i baffled the oil pan, used windage tray, used oil pump cleaned and inspected, used performer intake and a used holley 750, a used replacement fuel pump, new water pump. new bellhousing and clutch kit as that stuff isnt really available used, a used viper t56 trans, used ford explorer 8.8" rear, i used my stock driveshaft put the ford end on it and shortened it. i rebuilt my calipers, new pads rotors and hardware, all new suspension. if i know the history, i will re use just about anything. i was going to use and old crane fireball cam i had, but for what the summit cam cost, why bother. i dont like to cut corners on saftey stuff. i know a guy at a machine shop that has built some plain old nasty pontiacs out of a bunch of used junk. he wont dare sell one, but they used to just throw them together and make some good power. he gave me a bunch of crap about my 400, but for him its ok... when i told him my situation he saw it my way.
its not making big power, but it runs damn good, i havent noticed any smoke, i took it on a 3,000 mile road trip to florida for the power tour kickoff and a family vacation, the car did great. no issues. i drove it to work all last week and a few days here and there before that. we take it to the beach and anywhere else on the weekends. its a fun car and we have a blast taking it everywhere, as long as its not oo hot out. if you have the time, you do what you gotta do to have fun. everything doesnt have to be story book perfect.

[LORENSWIFE]

Congratulations on the Baby on the way!

~Gail

[1trickpony]

Thank you Gail! Beings its our first we are really in for a suprise. What did you do to your hubby? Lock him away or what?

I am planning on building this in stages. Basically as time and money allow to keep up grading it. The first stage will be DIY port and polish the heads. Alphabet cam. Stealth intake with a carb. All the efi stuff will go in a tub and will work on porting that and maybe some gt40 heads for the efi conversion. Learn to tune MS. And then maybe a hairdryer. Not planning to go crazy with stuff that hasn't been done before just a little bit of what I have liked over the years. Having shiney new parts is nice but I feel doing what I can with what ihave or can get decently cheap will be better in the long run.