Ace-Garageguy

Porch is a misspelling of "Porsche" I've seen frequently.

Some whose lives are miserable try to spoil everything for everyone else.

It's a reasonable assumption that if the finish isn't lifting after all those efforts, it was a HOT material that has eaten into the plastic and crazed, possibly microscopically. I'd look at the surface under whatever magnification you can arrange, an if there is any crazing, take these other folks' advice to scuff and primer it...cause it's not coming off if it's crazed.

I think this is an equally classy look for the exterior, and hey...it's got gold wheels!!!

A successful exercise delving deep into the question of "how tacky can we make this thing if cost is no object?"

Vanity, coupled with a pathetic lack of a genuine sense of self-worth, is often the fuel the garden variety internet troll runs on.

..."confounds the internet". It doesn't take much, does it?

You are obviously a top-line expert on everything concerning custom fabrication and wiring. So expert, in fact, that you can apparently produce instant show-quality work, with no intermediate steps. I stated earlier that these photos were from early in the processes shown, but in your headlong rush to prove something, you must have overlooked that. Still, my hat is off to what must surely be your vastly superior knowledge and ability. A "fan brain", since you ask, is a short descriptor (to fit on the piece of tape) for the microprocessor that runs the cooling fans, based on several inputs...but one would surmise that someone with your undoubtable credentials might have been able to logic that out for himself. One would also expect such an expert to recognize a welding-blanket when he sees it, and not mistake it for something "drywall-taped". Indeed, one would further expect someone with your apparent superiority to be aware that "vice" and "vise" are different words entirely, with VISE being the name of the tool. It is a reasonable supposition that someone well-versed in technical education, as evidenced by your reference to "A Jr. High-level industrial arts class", would know that. PS: Love you too, Mr. Hall.

Copy that.

The problem with the chassis, a full-custom piece from the ground up, is simply that the builder was measuring-challenged. The thing looked good in the online photos, all powder-coated and pretty, but when the shop started trying to mount the body, it didn't fit, period. Though the chassis was sold as being ready to take a stock body, core-support, and anything else OEM-or-aftermarket-Chevelle a builder might desire, it was an outright lie, pure and simple. One frame rail in the rear was 2" too low, and splayed out 2" at the end. None of the body mount holes lined up. The engine was so high in the frame, you couldn't close the hood with a carb and air filter...even though those same parts work in a stock '66 SS 396 Chevelle just fine. That's when they brought me in. The engine was also so far forward, no radiator and fans made for any Chevelle would fit. The front frame rails were too narrow, which I assume is why Mr. Chassis Bozo set the engine so high...for header clearance. EDIT: Chassis Chimp built headers and a full exhaust system too, all of which I've had to rebuild pretty much entirely, as nothing fit for a litany of fascinating reasons I'll not belabor here. The ends of the front rails were also 2" too low. I'm still trying to understand the justification for that. And one of them was swung 1.5" to one side. The steering rack was mounted so bump-steer would have been terrifying, on wallered-out holes that would have let it move around. And on. And on. And on. Now all fixed, or compensated for at no small expense. And no, the owner doesn't pay me for ricking around on the web. I run stopwatch time for everything I do on the car, nothing else, no exceptions.

If you can weld and want to save a ton of money, you can build a clone of the Seven working from this book...or one of the book's clones. I had a Lotus factory-built Seven for years as a daily driver. Purchased it in England when Caterham Car Sales was a used car lot down the road from Lotus, and long before Caterham started building their own version. Stupidest thing I ever did was sell it.

I don't know where you're getting the "scrapyard parts" idea. The numbered, signed "GrumpyJenkins" / Smeding engine alone (including accessories and serpentine drives, etc.) was close to $25k https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/sucp-0812-572-big-block-chevy-crate-engine/ as was the bare chassis. The gearbox is a pro-built new 4L80E with its own stand-alone programmable controller, brakes are Wilwood all around, rear end is a Strange Ford 9" in a fabricated housing, rear suspension is newly-fabbed 4-link, front suspension is tubular fabbed upper and lower control arms and coilovers, all plumbing is aircraft-spec AN, power steering / brake booster is an engine-driven custom HydroBoost setup, core support and radiator are custom aluminum fabrications, fuel tank is custom-fabbed stainless, dash is mostly custom with a hidden drop-down door that exposes the trans and EFI programming modules, AC is top-line Vintage Air, with custom controls to maintain a factory GM look, but the HVAC box was turned backwards and relocated over the custom trans tunnel to make room for all the electronics forward of the passenger's feet...and to hide it...console structure is custom fabbed to house more electronics and a double-DIN nav/ entertainment head unit, etc. Only "scrapyard" stuff in the thing are seats and some miscellaneous console parts, which is all leather from a 2016 Caddy ELR...because the owner likes the looks of that particular interior. All the leather is perfect, seats are power, and full custom door panels will be built to match. EDIT: Of course the body shell was "scrapyard", but it was reasonably solid, never hit hard, and now has all new floors...plus its original genuine SS 396 vin. The owner had a blue SS 396 when he was young, and this build is his tribute to the memory. You're right about none of the bought-in stuff being specifically intended to work together...but it never is. EDIT: I'm at most 60 days away from engine start, which won't happen until all the sub-systems are 100% and tested, and the custom dash bodywork is finished, painted, and back in the car. The photos I posted here are from quite a while back. ...and I really need to get off the web and get back to work.

Yup. Still dealing with it after hairline-cracking my pelvis some years back. OTC pain meds, forcing myself to hike as much as I can find time for, and recently stepping up the physical therapy regime have helped enormously...but sometimes the pain is so bad at night I dream about it and wake up, can't sleep until I've walked around, stretched for an hour, or had a hot shower. Makes it kinda rough climbing into, around, and under the cars, but the PT has made it bearable.

This one will probably come in at around $300k. I work alone, as an independent contractor inside a long-established shop. Another old hot-rodder friend punched the louvers for me, but everything else that makes a shell into a functional vehicle (other than stitching the interior panels and paint) is and will be mine. I didn't build the engine, and I've already credited those who did. The chassis was initially a high-dollar custom unit built by somebody who was apparently incapable of running a tape-measure or a level, and it's been a huge part of why the build has been going since 2012: correcting inaccuracies and devising workarounds while trying to avoid bankrupting the client with re-dos necessitated by the stupidly built chassis. The cost would be substantially lower if we'd started with an Art Morrison chassis, which is a beautiful piece of work. Unfortunately, I wasn't involved in the chassis-builder selection, as I wasn't brought in until the magnitude of the problems directly attributable to the chimp-built chassis became apparent. The build has also been subject to the seemingly inevitable mission-creep, with layers of unnecessary complication piled on in the name of making the car "modern". But I'm not complaining. I love the work.

There are a few new guys coming in who have the desire, the work ethic, the mechanical aptitude, and the intelligence required, but they're not coming in as fast as the old-timers are dying off...those old wizards the smug techie dwerps, like the ones who can't even change their own lightbulbs, sneer and laugh at. Since 2011, I personally know of only three capable young guys who have come into the biz, and one has already left it because it's too icky. Another one has what it takes, and will probably be in his own shop in a couple more years. You can still make $100,000-plus annually just working in the right shop, not owning it, if you have the skills and are willing to hump it, but everybody seems to want to be 3rd rate web developers, barely literate IT "consultants", or emoji designers.

Thanks. Mayhap I'll start a build-completion thread somewhere it's more appropriate than "irks".

Fine, fine, fine.

Struggles I do sometimes, suppressing the frustration engendered by idiots.

Wow. Major cool.

Sure. There are hundreds. Here's a very few of the '66 Chevelle. The car as it came to me, empty shell on a "custom" chassis, with the engine sitting on mounts in the wrong position, firewall painted...which has caused a buncha workarounds. 572 cu. in. Jenkins/Smeding big-block short-deck Chevy, 750 flywheel HP, dyno'd on the carb and pump gas; who knows with the FAST EFI setup, but about the same. Same engine, converting to FAST EFI, custom snorkel and filter-can masters for composite molds shown in progress. Finished parts will be aircraft epoxy / fiberglass. Filter element is K&N for a Dodge Demon, airflow in snorkel was CAD / CFD modeled...by me...prior to building it. Custom louvered inner fenders, LH side shown with blister being fabbed to clear the airbox. Electrics in progress, early in the game. None of it's a "kit", or Painless etc. Multiple ECUs, CAN bus where appropriate, stand-alone otherwise, and critical-system redundancy w/ manual overrides. 2016 Caddy ELR interior going in Endless punchlists, below. Shot was taken during the bumper straightening / fitting process, prior to sending them to chrome. My part of the job takes the car to running / driving with all systems 100% functional, and road-tested. Then I hand it off to the paint guys, some of the best in the biz around here. They blow it apart, do their thing, and build it back up...while I finish moving to Az. EDIT: Now let's have some clowns say it's not me who's doing the work (which I've heard more times than I can remember), or criticize and run their mouths about things they have absolutely no knowledge of, or rebleat the gibberish about my being uncomfortable with "technology" or something equally idiotic about me living in the past and not "keeping up with the times". C'mon bozos. Step right on up.

I had really wanted to compete in the old Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild design contest, but I had neither the skills nor the tools in time to get in before the end. Here's an interesting article about the disappearance of most of the models that were entered. http://www.deansgarage.com/2015/mystery-of-the-missing-models/

Really, Bentt? Really? What is with you, anyway?

Hey Bentt...what's so funny? Share the joke.

Thanks Ray. Everything arrived about an hour ago, in good shape...but still not updated on the app. I only whizzed away one day waiting HERE, because FedEx won't leave stuff without a sig due to the high incidence of porch-pirates lately...and I usually have everything delivered to one of the shops if USPS is the carrier, because one of the local drivers just dumps packages at the street, on the ground, next to the mailbox, or in somebody else's box, or one street over that has the same number, or in the yard, or in the driveway in the rain.

I don't make AN fasteners or AN fittings and hose or Delphi electrical connectors or gauge sending units or gauges. These are all standard bought-in items. That's why I have suppliers. Or are you just being snarky? I don't get a salary for sitting on my butt at a workstation and going to meetings. And I don't do business the way we did in the old days of "order and wait", or keep a lot of stock. I generally use the "just in time" material supply model. If the "supply chain" fails, any part of it, I'm left twisting in the wind. So it IRKS me. EDIT: And it's also a large part of why these two projects will be the LAST I ever do for clients. The constant bulldroppings just aren't worth the effort anymore.