A New Years Question to Ponder
 

How much of the build does one have to do on his project to be able to say, I built that??

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Very Happy New Year

Dean0

I would never say I built it with mine (it was a FM build) but I'm making it my own. There may come a point it no longer resembles the car I bought (engine changes, body changes, transmission change-7 speed?-, interior changes) at that point...nope...they still built it. ;)

When you have removed & installed at least 90% of the bolts.:anim_19:

tbone heller - I like that, 90% is a great number, I will be attempting everything on my project except, Paint, needed machining / balancing and my 11 yr old daughter in a manic on my TIG, so I will leave any Aluminum or Stainless welding to her, LOL.

DIY to the Bone.

Dean0

This is a really hard question because I'm not sure who is building what in my garage. The only reason I even own the car is it was too dead to drive and my son owed me 2 grand on it. I never thought for a minute I could do something as complicated as swap an engine but I had absolutely nothing to loose by ripping it apart so I dug in.

From there she taught far too many lessons to list here without boring you to death. I kid you not my hand was literately trembling when I took the hood off the Camaro at the start of the build. There were so many times in the build I thought a problem could not be over come or that I completely killed the thing with what I just did to it. Eventually I got to the point that I had no fear to cut the quarters off the car and attempt to make fiberglass flairs from nothing.

It truly still blows my mind and even now when I page though my blog I can hardly believe that guy in the photos could ever do what I accomplished on this car. When I started I knew nothing about engine swaps or paint and I am now starting to learn about brakes and tuning.
http://i59.tinypic.com/fd96di.jpg
So I honestly can't say if I am building the car or the car is building me and that's the thing nobody sees when they see the flaws in the car. They see amateur work and I see a car so far beyond my capabilities it shouldn't even exist!

Now wait a second here. If I can learn to tune you can learn to paint!

Jim +10 on having the ballz to just Keep Moving Forward. I was lucky when I was young, I grew up in a machine shop and my dad's hobbies were farming and experiMENTAL aircraft, always had 2 or three on the go, mostly turbo rotary, as the big thing then was who could land/take-off from the smallest fishing pond and a tractor or baler or rake was always in the shop for repair, lucky me. I always had a go-cart,(at least 20 different models of my design), and at 16 I got my first car, 1976 T0y0tA Corolla, 1200CC 4 banger with 329 000 miles. My first "Big Boy" project was born, Farm truck 327 in my Yota, rear end lasted for 20 mins :thumbsdown: , first lesson in HP vs Breakage was learned. I left home at 18 for ROTC Service/University was out at 22ish and was ready to take on the world. Decided I hated farming, metal work and engineering so for some reason became a journeyman carpenter in 91 and started my own business. 2005 it just so happened I was building a new home for Rex Jardine of Vector Power Boats when my latest opportunity was born. I learned mold / plug building, Fiberglass / Carbon Kevlar, Marine Engines / Drives and all of the electronic stuff involved with CAN BUS and uploading of Pre-Tuned PCM files for Vectors P1 Offshore Race Boats, tuner is always updating the tune. My latest Project with Vector has been the building and design of an Offshore DRONE for the Israeli Military which has involved me in some incredible Tech with auto target / firing solution software along with Hi res image cams / radar / sonar / and all the server setup required on board for all the different equipment to communicate with the remote pilot. Touching a Raphael .50 chain cannon is only a dream for a Canadian LOL, let alone being able to test the remote trigger and firing solution software.:crossjerk: ( will post a few pics in another thread once I upload to my webspace). Gotta stop writing books on this forum, dammit!!

To answer the above question about painting, its one of those jobs I hate so will trade that part with fellow DIY'er who has asked me to help put EFI on his 454 model A.

Keep moving Forward
Dean0
I have dealt with a lot of h8r's in the boat world, even been accused of having a small dick, too much fun is just right.

I used a kit. Is that cheating?
I still had to solve issues when things didn't quite line up, had to figure out the fuel system, modified the placement of the rad and built a new rad support, modified the rear diff mount (Now my design is part of the Boss Frog catalog... thank you Ric!), and did all the assembly. I had a friend do the paint work but I installed the doors and fenders, changed hoods/dash/top, took out the passenger air bag for a place to mount the ECU, made the accessory drive brackets, and did the install of the Painless harness and removed unneeded stock wires until it ran right. My Dad made faces for my stock gauges when I modified the cluster to fit the Speedhut Tach and GPS speedo.
Now, because of all that I make a point to never say "I" built it. It was "MY" car but "WE" built it. I haven't figured out if that is modesty or stupidity yet.
The new car has been all me thus far. Still using a kit but I am the one turning every bolt. I need to hit up my body guy for a favor cutting the rear bonnet for the tail lights but even they are my idea and re-creation.

At first glance I really liked Tbones 90% idea but in pondering it that really doesn't really work. You can build a Ford swap easy without making it to 90%. But more than that what exactly is a build? Let me see what you think about 3 versions of the same car.

Starting with a stock 95 Miata the owner swaps to coil overs and a big brake kit changing all the bushings and installing a torsen while he is there. He installs a turbo, a bit of areo, racing seats, a roll bar and full gauges.

Car 2 the same 95 stock Miata but this guy sends Martin 4 grand and builds a monster V8 car using all kit parts.

Car 3 same car but this guy does all the fab work to put a Lexus V8 in it using no kit parts for anything.

Clearly there is a huge difference in complexity between 1 and 3 yet would we not call these 3 examples builds and say the guys that did the work built them?