Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Thank you Brick. Ya know, that is a tough question. I still think (and know) I could have come in at a lower fiqure than I ended up spending. As I have said, I just got caught up in this T and started putting some more expensive parts on it as I thought it deserved them. But if a guy shopped wisely, used some preowned or similar parts, and did most of his own work like painting, etc, I think a car could be done for $ 5,000.00 and be pretty decent. It has been so many years since I had a rod on the road, I wanted this one to be kinda special.........hence, more costly.

Obviously, there would be some corner cutting. You couldn't expect to use $ 260 each rear tires, or pay a pro to paint and upholster it, but you could still incorporate some good parts if you were patient and shrewd in your haggling. You would also have to forego things like a total machine job/rebuild on the engine, but if you found a good running/sound donor, that would be fine. That is something that turns me on about the rat rod movement.........not the crappy ones, but the low buck, built at home, inventive, cool ones.

Look at the build JRobinson is doing. He is making great progress, and I bet he is keeping the expenditures relatively low by building and modifying most of his own stuff. He also used a good running engine tranny combo, and other parts from the same donor. I really like that about his build. That track car will be a blast to drive, and he won't be sucking up tons of gas every time he uses it either.

A big part of how cheaply a person can do something like this is how self sufficient they are at performing needed work. If you can weld and fabricate it yourself, you obviously save the cost of paying an outsider to do it for you. It also plays into this what connections you have for cheap parts. If you have buddies who will swap stuff with you or donate unneeded parts, that sure helps too. Someone just posted that a friend was offering them a 351 Cleveland engine just to take it away!! Those are the kinds of friends I need.

Don