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  • Ground rules for 5k Builds

    It seems there's lots of questions regarding the "rules" of this section. Perhaps here might be a good place and post those questions/rules. What follows is my ideas of what those rules should look like:

    5k is for the complete build. It's also a mythical number since everyone here has skills that would cost a fortune if you had to have a professional accomplish what you do.

    If you start with an expensive "free/gift" car - it doesn't really matter since the idea is what you can do with what you have rather than what you had someone else built. Thus putting 5k into a Ferrari would be an oil change, interesting, yet not terribly impressive. Or, if you start with a car built by Rad Rides, again, nice car - but 5k might cover the trailer to haul the car in. OTH, if you resurrect a 65 GTO and spend 5k in welding wire, or build a 30s era race car with a pile of plywood and an old straight 6 (where is that guy?) - we'll all be quite impressed.

    Prizes - there are none.

    *All rules subject to change by the management; and there is some hope that the management will provide weedkiller as a prize.
    Doing it all wrong since 1966

  • #2
    is the weedkiller to pour under some of my other projects lol

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    • #3
      I could use some weed killer - especially the stuff that kills all poison ivy, oak, creeping grape vines, and other wild nastiness - but will not harm the pretty stuff the wife likes to look at.

      The ranger is scheduled to make a club drag event September 8 I believe - so - street exhaust is off the priority list.

      Dump tubes to preserve the wiring harness and get spent gases / fire out from under the cab is all that's required.

      Install drive shaft with spacer at pinion flange - measure spline fit - get longer driveshaft if required.

      Make new trans cooler lines and re - install trans cooler - AFTER exhaust is routed from Hedman headers - last set of new trans cooler lines is already in the scrap pile - they were directly in the path of the new header outlet - DOH.

      Put the battery and coil back in I robbed to fire up the forklift.

      Put the welds on with slicks and skinnies - tire shop messed up the rears taking off the old slicks - they're paying to have the wheels "refinished" we'll see how that turns out - they better be straight - a small blemish won't bother me. The skinnies I still have to get mounted.

      I'm trying to resist spending the $419 on caltracs when I know I can build my own set - and already have the rod ends - but there's no way I'll have time to build them between now and the drag night.
      There's always something new to learn.

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      • #4
        i still need to buy an engine. so far every one i have found has been no more then a core
        Originally posted by Remy-Z;n1167534
        Congratulations, man. You've just inherited the "Patron Saint of Automotive Lost Causes" from me. No question.

        75Grand AM 455:Pissed off GrandMA, 68 Volkswagen Type1 "beetle":it will run some year

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        • #5
          Originally posted by milner351 View Post
          I could use some weed killer - especially the stuff that kills all poison ivy, oak, creeping grape vines, and other wild nastiness - but will not harm the pretty stuff the wife likes to look at.

          Install drive shaft with spacer at pinion flange - measure spline fit - get longer driveshaft if required.
          I can help with the weed killer, roundup is total weakness, but I'm afraid you might have to buy replacement wifey stuff at the same time...

          Pinion flange spacer? Didn't realize these existed... might be just the thing to save me some time having a new driveshaft made!

          11/16" would get me a lot more spline surface!
          Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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          • #6
            My V8 S-10 will cost less than $5000 to build.
            Right now I'm at $1430 right now including parts & purchase price.

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            • #7
              Stiney - do you have a lathe at work or access to a good machine shop?

              My friend Lou at the local trans shop handed me this piece - essentially an aluminum disc with holes drilled in it for the pinion flange bolts, and a centering pilot, obviously it requires longer bolts. It bolts between the driveshaft and pinion flange on the 8.8. I will let you know if it's enough to make a difference for me. I don't know where it came from - or where to buy one like it, there's no part number or name on the thing that I recall.

              I still need to get the trans / engine straight in the frame and weld up the crossmember - best do that first.
              There's always something new to learn.

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              • #8
                I have a small lathe at home, and a couple of friends have some serious lathes in their farm shops. You thinking I could just measure what I need and cut a spacer to do the job?
                Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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                • #9
                  I will probably build an engine on a budget for this, it might even be a simple 400 using mostly stock parts and a hydraulic cam. I can build a bottom end like that for less than $1k and it will live for quite some time, even under boost, as long as I stay under 850hp with the stock block.

                  My thinking isnt to use stuff that is already together, but to devise ways of going fast on a tight budget that almost anyone could copy or emulate even if they have to farm out some of the stuff we can do ourselves. Things like lightening the car is a good place to start, you dont need as much power to put a 2600lb car into the tens as you need for a 4500lb car, and the parts will be vastly less stressed doing it. It isnt that difficult to lay up some fenders, doors, and hood in fiberglass, particularly if you dont need a perfect fit and finish on them. A back to basics approach and either using take out engines, like a 5.0/5.3/6.0 or building an older engine that maximizes the inherent strengths of that engine type would make sense.

                  When I started building the 79 Formula I had a $200 car and a 400 that needed rebuilt. I traded and scrounged all the parts to build a 455 and sprung for professional head porting. That car ran 11.71@115 for a little over $4500 including the price of the tires and safety items. Nobody was around to give me a set of Edelbrock heads or forged rods, they just werent widely available cheap back then, so I made it work with stock stuff. Now it is even easier for me to go that fast with a Pontiac on a budget because there are good parts out there and they arent overly expensive.

                  We can all find cheap cars, even a RWD V8 that isnt 4000lbs is available everywhere. Who says it has to be cool? It just has to be fast, and sleepers are cool. Find a cheap car in decent shape, stuff a big engine in it, and have fun. If I paint the thing it wont be perfect thats for sure.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by STINEY View Post
                    I have a small lathe at home, and a couple of friends have some serious lathes in their farm shops. You thinking I could just measure what I need and cut a spacer to do the job?
                    YES - finding the raw material maybe the hardest / most expensive part - look for a billet round bar slightly larger OD than the 8.8 pinion flange to start with - by X" thick to clean up to parallel faces at the thickness you need. Use a 8.8 pinion flange as your pattern. Make sure you confirm which set of holes your shaft yoke bolts through.... Not saying it's a 5 minute job - but - if you have talented machinist friends - this is a pretty easy part to make.

                    Machine both surfaces parallel.
                    OD trim to same - not critical - as 8.8 flange.
                    ID machine pilot same as 8.8 flange, ID on axle side for clearance fit over 8.8 flange - shaft side identical to 8.8 flange pilot.
                    Then drill the holes for the bolts to go through, and get longer bolts.
                    There's always something new to learn.

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                    • #11
                      I can say my best is a 14.8, with plenty of wheel spin. If I want to improve (or just get my Charger moving again) I'll have to rebuild the trans, which will put me over 5k. Maybe my next project can compete, whenever I get to my next project.
                      Also, does it have to be a car? I was bench racing with my friends and became pretty serious about half-assed turbocharging my friends quad because he's currently the slowest out of my group of friends. I've seen some stock quads and bikes run pretty quick, and a turbocharger, even half-assed, would make it even quicker.

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                      • #12
                        from my perspective my 54 Studebaker would fall way under the line. I paid $100 for it 25 years ago. Bought a Chevrolet truck - that was the profit end of a trade for 3 vehicles for my one. Bought a 75 Cadillac for $75.00. Sold all the running gear from the studebaker ($1000) and the parts cars that donated the 4x4 frame (long gone - but very profitable $2000) and the Cadillac motor (scrapped the car for $150) - which if you add it all up you come up with it's paid me $3150 .... about the only things I bought for it were the wiring harness (175), the headers (50 for the headers/25 for the flange), and the exhaust (450)... (otherwise it's only paid me $2450).

                        point being this can be some creative financing too... does it give the old guys who don't sell anything, ever (John) an advantage - sure - but he's running a Ford so he needs all the help he can get (sorry, fingers got typing and couldn't stop )
                        Doing it all wrong since 1966

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                        • #13
                          Im thinking of not using my Torino. I may be getting a '78 Tbird back I once owned and I just stumbled across a '58 Edsel Wagon from Oklahoma that's been in storage since '66. The engine is stuck, but I have a Mercury Marauder 410 and C6, and lots of 9" centers of various gear ratios. Wouldnt be real fast, but it would make a neat ride. The price is cheap for how nice it is, but enough to make it a challenge to do it under 5K.

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                          • #14
                            so , is this legal or a wtf flag..
                            lest week I hit the junkyard, and on the way loaded up steel and hit zions, and pocketed 155 bucks..
                            then spent
                            5 bucks per center cap (caprice cop car ) also fits 73-87 truck rallies 6 of these..
                            15 bucks for the 7" rallies (2 of these)
                            then hit r/c truck and was going to pick up the 3) 8" rallies.. long story short, after getting the 2 rallies at middleboro this clown comes up with a 4th 8" rallie, ever want to kill someone.. that was me..
                            anyways, got the 4 at 25 bucks a pop
                            so thats a total of 160.00
                            so do I add the 160 to the balance of the build or 5 bucks that it really cost me.. out of pocket..


                            to make you cringe, the metal was 4) 78-86 caprice 2 door , doors/ 30+ rotors and a gas drier that was a working unit that I couldn't give away..
                            Last edited by Stich496; August 28, 2011, 11:48 AM.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Stich496 View Post
                              so , is this legal or a wtf flag..
                              lest week I hit the junkyard, and on the way loaded up steel and hit zions, and pocketed 155 bucks..
                              then spent
                              5 bucks per center cap (caprice cop car ) also fits 73-87 truck rallies 6 of these..
                              15 bucks for the 7" rallies (2 of these)
                              then hit r/c truck and was going to pick up the 3) 8" rallies.. long story short, after getting the 2 rallies at middleboro this clown comes up with a 4th 8" rallie, ever want to kill someone.. that was me..
                              anyways, got the 4 at 25 bucks a pop
                              so thats a total of 160.00
                              so do I add the 160 to the balance of the build or 5 bucks that it really cost me.. out of pocket..


                              to make you cringe, the metal was 4) 78-86 caprice 2 door , doors/ 30+ rotors and a gas drier that was a working unit that I couldn't give away..
                              that's hotrodding, nothing wrong with that.
                              Doing it all wrong since 1966

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