Bill: I am disappointed to hear that you think I have an unlimited budget. I do not.
I had to sell my daily driver, my last project vehicle, the supercharged Chevy SSR I had worked on for 3 years, to finance this project. When I added the body and paint work, I exceeded the money supply I had earmarked, and am just closing the sale of my Ducati motorcycle through a friend who owns a motorcycle shop (AF1 Racing), so I can do what I want to do on Red.
There is no "wealth" here in my household. I am a project manager who works for a company that does computer system projects, and most of my discretionry income has gone into getting my son through college for the past 4 1/2 years. My wife works at a grocery store chain as a cashier and trainer.
I've had a steady paying job for 2 1/4 years now, but before tthat I dealt for 4 1/2 years with chronic unemployment after the dot com crash and 9-11 decimated the industry I work in. I was unemployed 35% of the time for that 4 1/2 years, while simultaneosuly trying to get my son through college, so when someone accuses me of having money and using it to build this project in a way that others could not, frankly, I get angry, because it's SO far from the truth.
You might be getting the impression that I am spending a lot of money because of the detailing I am doing in my specifications and work, but actually, I am hunting bargains, and I find them because I work hard at it. For example, some people's idea of "searching the web" for best choices and best deal (not just necessarily best price!) is to look at 5 or 6 screens in Google, visit 3 places, and pick what looks best. I routinely, not exceptionally, search 40 to 50 screens at a time, and visit at least 1 or 2 sites on each one, until I find what will work and what I can afford.
I also look for "deals", and let all my friends know what I am looking for so they too can be on the lookout. Randy's boss found that LQ9 engine for me through his contacts at a salvage yard, and I got a great price on it, and his boss even brought it in on his company credit card and I just reimbursed him. I've talked to 3 small town car upholstery businesses so far looking for the right deal on just FIVE pieces of "soft" parts for the interior: the seat cushion, the seat back, the driver door trim piece, the passenger door trim piece, and the headliner. THAT and the bargain bin seat belts are the entire interior expenditure. I won't pay very much for just those 5 pieces, but coupled with the red metal on the rest of the interior, they will look FABULOUS, in white VINYL (not leather). I'm keeping the stock steering column and wheel. No power brake conversion or power steering conversion kits. The wheels will come from a vendor's "clearnace" bin, but will be quality, medium (not high) priced FORGED wheels.
You get the idea?
In addition, notice that there is no Heidt's front end, no power steering conversion, no sound system (not even a radio for crying out loud), no shaved power locks, and in fact, NO extravagant expenditures. I MEANT it when I said a "simple" truck. "Well executed" is NOT the same as "costly" if you pay attention to where you put the money.
As far as labor, Randy is a friend who does a lot to help me, but his adverse economic circumstances don't allow him to give away his professional time, and I pay him his full hourly rate for each hour of work he does on my truck. David Horner is also a friend, and he did offer me an exceptional deal because of that, and he does do stuff "free" for me sometimes, but if you read the stories about how just about any street rod or restoration is done by any "normal" person, friends contributing time or parts, or working for a fraction of what they normally charge "strangers" for their work, are a recurring theme. Heck, Jimmy Shine built his famous ratrod truck while working for Pete Chapouris at So-Cal, and if you don't think he got some discounts and freebies, you're nuts.
You don't get that kind of help from friends without EARNING it, and earning it means it's a 2-way street. My approach has always been to see how I can help a friend rather than how he can help me, and my experience is that when you do a lot for others, they help you without you asking them to.
I'll tell you honestly if David had not made his offer, Red would be running around for the next couple of years in primer applied by Randy (not me - I'd screw that up bigtime!), because I can't afford right now what David and his team of body and paint pros are truly worth. I have seen what they can do, and it's breathtaking, and it's not cheap. But I really like David, his wife Michele, Stormy, Billy, and the rest of the crew at Restoration Specialties, and I guess it's mutual. When they saw what I was trying to do, they wanted to help in the way that they can.
David put Criag on Red for just a couple of hours that morning. A pro can do in a couple of hours what we struggle to do in a day, and he also does it way better than we do, because he has been doing it all his career. Craig took the time to patiently exlain to me slowly what he did almost without even thinking about it, and I still missed much of it I'm sure. But Craig was smiling the whole time because so many of David's clients never ask him his opinion, or give him a chance to show off his skills and knowledge a bit. I'm also probably one of the very few clients who isn't constantly asking "when is it going to be done?" You don't do that when a friend is doing you a favor. You thank him instead for the way he is helping you.
This is my first "old truck" project, so my budget has been been adjusted a few times already, but if you are thinking this is some $50,000 project, forget it. I can't afford to spend anything like that on even my daily driver. I'm seriously probably going to have less in it than the average new car costs.
In truth Bill, I am not doing anything that anyone else could not do, who has a "normal" job and income just like me. I am just really well focused on it, pay a LOT of atention to details, and am very enthusiastic, and enthusiasm is contagious.
And no, my project is not intended to be some sort of "model" for what anyone else can do, or should do. The essence of street rodding beautiful old vehicles with tons of individual HISTORY is very individualistic in nature, and no two people want - or would tolerate - the same outcomes. But while the vision in each case is individualistic, the fantasy of "did it all myself" is for most real people just a fantasy, since few people have all the required skillsets, and fewer still have the money to buy all the required skillsets at market rates. We Americans are sometimes called fiercely independent, and we sometimes nurture that macho image, but in reality we recognize the importance of friends and teamwork, and THAT's how most project vehicles get done in real life.
Jim G
