Ace-Garageguy

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.

Interesting question. I've been kinda looking for something similar for a build of the Eddie Dye roadster. Closest real-world color I've seen was on a late-model Caddy hippopotamus. Somebody like MCW or Scalefinishes otter be able to mix it if you can find a color code.

This horse isn't getting up again, but I'll say just this: the front brakes visible through the spokes are probably adequate for a hot Pinto or Porsche 914 pushing 150HP and 2000 pounds, with a manual gearbox. No way in jello are they adequate for a 3000 pound car with 1000+HP...even if working properly. Add in a sticking throttle, and a slushbox making it necessary to ride the brake pedal and probably boil fluid that's full of moisture contamination from sitting, you get what you see here. ------------------------------------- But lotsa "car builders" are idiots, and so are lotsa owners. First complete hot build I did for a client way back in '77, I put a 365-horse Chebby 327 in a Triumph Stag. Clean, well engineered and fully sorted car I road tested extensively before sending it home. Imagine my horror when it showed up on the hook two days later, 3 feet shorter. My God I thinks to myself...was it MY fault? Nope. Owner's 16 YO son took the thing without permission, drove it smack into the side of a Buick as he crested a blind hill. Crazy thing was that ol' dad said "build another one".

"Unfortunately we are unable to retrieve your tracking results at this time. Please try again later." Getting this horse exhaust for days now from FedEx. $525 worth of parts I need to make a living, lost in the "technology" ozone. I'm impressed.

Looks like a beautiful model, and all your added details make it better. The all metal semi-monocoque is quite convincing. Very impressive.

SALT treaties have really done very little to functionally decrease the possibility of a nuclear military engagement.

Bin dooin rantin an ravin bout dumm an dummer fo yeers, an itz kep me sane by lettin out the pressure.

your own hat.

Music hath charms to soothe the long-leggedy beastie.

not that ye

Sentences are hard, as is counting them.