$$ spending moolah. keepin track of every nut bolt & washer.

Do you keep track of every little nut, bolt, washer, any part any gasket, anything & everything on your project?
I DID not including gas to & from getting parts or wherever.

Man does it add up!! $$$$$$
i dont care but i added it up & man what i had in my head for money spent & what was on paper are 2 totally different totals!!
fuk it i threw away the whole notebook i had everything totaled on & just kept most the receipts. i had to laugh at the total. ALTHOUGH ive been offered more money for this ol bone than i have in it it isnt for sale.

somewhere i read where a guy claimed he only had 9,000 or 11,000 or somewhere in there in his car & i thought LIAR!!
everything looked new with nice paint wheels etc... if he had a shop in the middle of a junk yard where he could step out the door & grab used antifreeze, hose clamps, brake lines & hoses, gauges, exhaust, wires, trans fluid, brake shoes, etc... etc... maybe then he does if he got the car free.
--------- it sure adds up fast!

 

I always tell myself "Money is only good for one thing..."

 

I keep track of every cent like that using an Excel spreadsheet.. although somtimes I wish I hadn't.

 

No, I dont want to know

 

I do this for fun, not as a business.

I don't keep a running total for all of the other fun stuff I have done, why should I sweat over the cost of small parts.

If I have the money, I keep building. If I don't I wait until I do. .....Easy.

 

Yes I kept track for awhile and it freaked me out so tho hell with it , I'm finishing my car!

 

Nah. I thought about it once, but what if I bought a can of primer, and used it on the hotrod, and the Jag, and my Jeep, and on a flower cart for my girl? What then? Divide up the cost of the can by 4 and allocate like $0.62 to all 4 separate projects?

I'm just not that into money to take the time to do that.

Pete

 

who cares how much it costs? you cant take it with you so spend it on something you will enjoy!!

 

No, too much incriminating evidence for the wife to find!

 

cars are a funny hobby on that way. do golfers, skiers, campers, hunters etc figure out what they spent on thier hobby? no.

"man I spent way too much on golf last year... I'm never going to get my money back out of this."

sounds kind of weird don't it?

 

GOLF
yeah, that IS weird.

 

I didn't when built the truck before but I may keep better track of expenses this time around.

We seem to want to forget those trips to the metal yard for 4 ft. of 2 inch .090 square tubing for one piece of the car and over to the hardware store for a sack full of 5/16 x 3/4 capscrews to bolt the fenders back on.

In the past I have tried to keep track of the receipts and what I spent on major an necessary components.

On the T Bucket I built from scratch way back when.
Engine, trans, rearend = photo copy of ***le to doner car that ended up being sent to the crusher.
Receipt for tubing for frame
Receipt for engine kit.
receipt for custom valve covers. (remember Weiand black wrinkle?)

Plus receipts for other components that I used including lights, gages and some wrecking yard receipts for small pieces like the emergency brake lever.

The idea behind doing that was to do***ent where the components came from when I went to the Texas DMV to apply for a ***le more than to do***ent what I had actually spent. Simple proof that I actually legally owned the parts that I had used.

With my truck on this build it is more to remember what I used.
What water pump, starter, alternator, clutch disk, throw out bearing, wheel bearings and brake pads and on down the line.

With our mix and match setups It's a lot easier to know parts numbers of the things we used if we break down on the road than try to figure it out on the side of the road.
I can make it to the nearest parts house and tell them I need an A5 bearing set and a 6815 seal a lot easier than I can explain that I need an inner wheel bearing for a Mustang II front end on a 48 Chev pickup with a 292 Straight six.

 

If I kept track of every cent I spent on my car I would have to tell my wife the truth.

 

I keep track of everything I use on a note book so I know where every dollar went . When I finish the project I add it all up and cry !
Then when my wife asks how much money I put into the project I can tell her how much very accurately ! I just divide the amount in 1/2 ! Works every time !

 

Ain't that the truth. I have a su****ion she is catching on though!

 

I do.. currently I use google do***ents. it allows me to "share" with others the amount I spend..

I know *almost to the penny the amount I have spent on the recycled 40 ford woodie and it is without a doubt the cheapest 40 ford woodie I could have had..

when I work on projects for other folks I usually "share" the info with the fellow footing the bill.. that way we both know whats going on..

in addition i have been using it to log my time which helps keep track of labor costs as well.

it is amazing what the little stuff costs.. and the amount of time it takes to acquire it all..

 

I keep receipts for parts, hardware etc. I do a once over on the receipts and just get a ballpark idea of what I spent and thern figure in a grand on **** I forgot about and gas.

 

You are correct my friend.

 

... on the other hand back in the 80's I was on a roll buying cool old cars and driving them around and selling them. I wasn't trying to make money, but rather drive an old car for a while without it costing a fortune. kept track of what I put into them since I was not keeping them for too long and wanted to get most if not all of my money back.

of course these weren't "projects" so it was a little different.

 

Most of my old hot rod projects I like to think I broke even on, and, except for bikes, usually come pretty close. But never thought about it within the context of golf, and things of that sort. What a waste that would be. All that money just down the hole, with nothing in the garage to even partially show for it.

 

My thoughts exactly. I only want to count the big purchases ... like the body and drivetrain, so I can tell the dudes at Rod & Custom I spent less than $5,000.

 

Building for resale I have to tally every purchase, need to know what my investment is + labor hours. Pretty scary some times The words BELOW min wage sneak in.

 

I used to do the same thing........kept every cent spent entered in the Excel spreadsheet..........finally got curious after 5-6 years of how much I had spent up to then...............the total scared me to death........I had receipts for $27,000 up to that point.......and that was 3-4 years ago......has to be well over $30,000 by now, and you'd never think it to look at my car......but I have two big notebooks full of receipts....

I know I'll never get anywhere near that back *if* I ever sell it.......and it still needs an interior!

CB

 

NO ... to scared to add it up ...
PLUS it would KILL the enjoyment

 

It adds up, here is a similar thread.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22106&highlight=cost

 

If I had kept up with ever penny when I started
I wouldn't still be building hot rods! HRP

 

Funny you asked this, I keep all my reciepts for everything I put into the car. I added it up last week and almost hit my head when I fell off my chair!! WTF...there is no way I have that much into my car! It should look better than it does, should run better than it does, and should not leak as much as it does for the amount of money I have into it. Needless to say that folder with all the reciepts has mysteriously been misplaced before the wife has a chance to add them up herself! I never imagined how much I had into it at this point and I am just getting started with it.

 

Man, no ****. I added mine up and thought, If my ol' lady ever finds out I'm in deep ****, Do you relize how many pair of shoes that could have bought? HEHEHE

 

I have a ledger sheet in my desk drawer that my wife started filling out when I started on the 39 last August.... well we quit writing stuff down in September....

I DON"T want to know what I have spent,,, I like to find comfort in generally knowing that a new Mercedes will cost more than I will have in my car...

 

I really have no clue, nor do I want to.