Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Car Building Philosophies

Car Building Philosophies

I read Hot Rod Magazine and other similar publications. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to walk the fine line between advertisers, experienced and novice readers, not to mention the specialty shops, experienced builders and inexperienced builders and the financial capabilities of the subscribers/purchasers.

There are many readers no doubt that see the beautiful machines that grace the pages of these magazines and simply look wide eyed and in wonder. The value of reading about and seeing these amazing vehicles shows the top end of the standard, and tells how the professionals and serious amateurs went about achieving them. It seems to me that if someone were inclined to do more than just drool there are several possible approaches to take.

1. Build a vehicle yourself as a driver.
2. Build it yourself as a show car.
3. Have it built by a specialty shop.

Each of these possibilities has appeal to a different age and socio economic group.

1. The younger and struggling builder would tend towards approach one.
2. The more experienced, skilled and financially able towards two.
3. Those with abundant financial resources towards three.

Without doing a scientific analysis I suspect the younger builder is trying to get the job done for under 15K, the intermediate for from 15K to 50K, and the affluent builders for from 50K to the outer limits of what can be spent. (Which is a lot.) The younger builder will tend towards building a daily driver, the middle aged a hybrid and the mature a trailer queen. They all will want to achieve as much quality as the budget will allow. Working behind the scenes is the old adage…it takes as much to get to ninety-percent of expectations as it does to get from 91-percent to one hundred.

While I am in the mature category, I lack the disposable income to move beyond phase one. This means that I must do everything myself and settle for what I can do with my own skills and limited resources.

My vehicles are drivers and my budget for a car or truck does not extend beyond $15K, which is a pittance in today’s street rod market. Still I plug away at it and will record in my blog how I go about doing it.