I think that a lot of guys get way too caught up in the "gotta haves" and don't see that a straightforward rod or custom like several of the ones shown in the thread can be built for a reasonable price. The Common links here Everyone (or at least almost everyone) did his own work and most of them think in the terms of hours rather than dollars spent on the car or truck. No one got carried away with high priced "rare" parts. Most have done some pretty wise buying and lots of trading along the way. Most are pretty simple and don't have a lot of "trick" parts. Wheels and tires are well done but again not budget breakers. All of these rigs can be upgraded later as funds grow without spending money twice on the same thing in most cases. I'm not sure what my total budget for the flathead straight 6 powered roadster I am building will be but I have a feeling that the tires and tubes will be the singular most expensive item on the car. Just right 16 inch bias ply tires that have a vintage race car look to them don't come cheap. <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
ok, mine is no where near as nice as any of those posted, but I started out with this 68 triumph I built..had about 1800.00 in it including buying it.. traded that for this even up.. after some sanding it looked like this then for 500.00 I picked this up for the great running 390 and the interior to put in the 50.. guess its time to spend some real cash now and get it done!
that's a nice looking Plymouth. a buddy of mine in High School bought one of those with a 303 Olds and hydro for $800.00 about 1977. nice car. I think he sold it for $1600.00.
It helps when it comes to climbing into it. P.S. Where else are you going to get an LSR trophy for $1600?
I'm not able to build anything yet as my one car garage is filled with three carloads of crap. I'm moving in the next month to a house with a two car garage. Next summer, I hope to finally start looking for a project. What I find is the budget builds are a lot more interesting than the high dollar things I can't relate to. Thanks for sharing, Mike
I paid $200 for my 57 chevy 2door wagon, and got it on the road with the parts of a $200 79 camaro. this equals $500 on the road. I made the missing side trim out of that foam,fake wood baseboardtrim, then I painted it silver,A coat of bright blue rustoleum finished it off. it was fun!!! I paid $300 for my 59 biscayne shell which had new floors in it. I used nearly every piece of my rusted out 60 impala which I had gotten for $100 to put it on the road. $15 worth of magenta housepaint finished it off.... All under $500. You can see pics of this one on my profile photo album "59 biscayne" I like building cars cheaply, but some day I'll build cars that other people like too.
Trying to get my Willys done - still mocking up everything. I'm around $1,300. Should slide in under $3k. 50 Coupe hiding in the garage.
Its not wrong.. we all like Old cars.. We do what we can, to make it work.. I like this thread also..
when i was a kid this truck belonged to a friends dad. at the age of about 12 years old i offered to take if off his hands. with a funny look on his face he said he's not looking to sell it but when he gets ready to i'll get first shot at it. at 27 years old in 2001 he called and told me he was ready to let it go. just my luck i was layed off and dead broke, i ended up talking him into letting me paint his new daily driver for trade of the 69. to this day i have a total of about $375 bucks for omni paint and primer for his truck, $500 bucks in the wheels and tires ''used'', $350 bucks for a strong running 350 and $175 bucks for a new windshield i had to replace due to crazy exwife..
I would only paint , if it really requires it.. Rustalot.. The Henry J is a low budget build in my garage.... it will be another 2 years before it sees the road.. Im having fun searching for items to continue..
This was a budget beater for me, got hurt at work so sold stuff out of the garage to fund this project and using a lot of what I already had. Stuff like buying 2 450 Holleys for 20 bucks then trading them for rebuilt Carters to go on top of my 150 dollar intake. Making my own linkage and I've got 256 bucks in the intake from air cleaners down that Edelbrock sells for 1100, good greif ! The rear 40 ford truck rims cost me 10 dollars at a yard sale and the front 50 chevy rims were a freebie from a club member. You can build a cheap car if you do your own work, not a AMBR winner, but fine for a blue collar guy like me.
It was an original two piece T windshield, I just cut the top edge off the top frame and made a coupling to attatch it to the lower frame. That way I won't have an unframed top edge of glass.
I'm about $1500 into my truck including shipping from SC up to NJ, give or take a $100. Runs, drives, stops, turns, registered, insured, etc.
Traded a set of 440 valve covers for the cowl, 50 bucks for a sheet of 18 guage, 2x3 for the frame and 1x1 tubing to frame the body from work. 200 bucks for a running 194 six w/ powerglide ( never been into). Radiator and wheels off my 66 econoline b4 i sold it. Had the front end and some other pieces. Made the gas tank. Including title and other parts over the years, i have guessing just under 2000 in it . oh yeah the grill shell is part of the top of a coffin a friend bought to use at a holloween hay ride
I have $3500 total in this...... I built it from scrap parts last fall and have since put 20,000 miles on it.
I have got around $2700.00 in mine, most of it was for the tires. Cab was free, 389 Pontiac was $200.00. Hope to be driving it next spring. Curt
The Jalopy Journal
