To Build, Or Not To Build,.....that Is The Question.

CarMichael Angelo

my rearend will smell so minty fresh,
15 Year Member
Nov 29, 1999
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Birmingham, al
Most of you will notice that all threads that previously had a prefix are now lumped in as "progress" threads.
It's no big deal really, but if you want to have your thread reclassified as a "build" thread all you need to do is let me know here.

**I'll put my flak jacket on now**
To me, a build thread involves more than just bolting something on. If there is part swapping, rewiring, cutting, welding and grinding involved, then that makes it technically a build thread with one exception. That exception being who is doing the work. If you are the one doing all the swapping, rewiring, cutting, welding and grinding, then to me, that definitely makes it a build thread. If on the other hand, all you are doing is taking pictures of somebody else doing the building, you have a bonafide progress thread.

My criteria for labeling the two all boils down to what can somebody learn, and how can they benefit from the content posted.
Simply put, if you pay to have your car painted by a shop, there is little to learn by looking at pictures of it. (That's not to say you shouldn't post pics of it, you definitely should). If on the other hand, you are the one doing the painting, then typically, the content of that thread is full of "this is how I did it", and conversely, there is a lot to be gained from that.

You'll see random thread prefix change overs as I get to looking at them, and if you want your thread prefix changed you just need to let me know.

Thanks.
 
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I got the good old progress thread after all the crap i have done on that damn car huh? Im just breaking chops i have no idea if that was even there before you started with this, im usually on tapatalk. You are spot on though Mike with your descriptions of each type of thread.
 
I got the good old progress thread after all the crap i have done on that damn car huh? Im just breaking chops i have no idea if that was even there before you started with this, im usually on tapatalk. You are spot on though Mike with your descriptions of each type of thread.

Boom.

All of the threads got "reclassified" regardless of how they were listed before. Not my doing,...the powers that be.
 
I'm glad to see the differentiation being made, Mike. Even when I was a kid watching my older buddies wrench on cars, there was a respect for those guys that do their own work.. and they earned it. Anybody with means can pull out a bank card and have something built for them.. but IMHO, this DOES NOT make them an expert or knowledgeable. In fact I've seen a lot of these folks give really bad advice. This place needs to be saved for the people who have earned that spot by doing the work, and learning from it, which is what earns them the prestige and respect of a true gearhead. Writing a check to have your car built is not a bad thing, but don't walk in here like Billy bad ass giving advice to people when the only skill you have is operating an ink pen or swiping a card.. My .02.
 
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I'm glad to see the differentiation being made, Mike. Even when I was a kid watching my older buddies wrench on cars, there was a respect for those guys that do their own work.. and they earned it. Anybody with means can pull out a bank card and have something built for them.. but IMHO, this DOES NOT make them an expert or knowledgeable. In fact I've seen a lot of these folks give really bad advice. This place needs to be saved for the people who have earned that spot by doing the work, and learning from it, which is what earns them the prestige and respect of a true gearhead. Writing a check to have your car built is not a bad thing, but don't walk in here like Billy bad ass giving advice to people when the only skill you have is operating an ink pen or swiping a card.. My .02.

THAT..... is what I'm talkin about.:rock:
 
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Most of you will notice that all threads that previously had a prefix are now lumped in as "progress" threads.
It's no big deal really, but if you want to have your thread reclassified as a "build" thread all you need to do is let me know here.

**I'll put my flak jacket on now**
To me, a build thread involves more than just bolting something on. If there is part swapping, rewiring, cutting, welding and grinding involved, then that makes it technically a build thread with one exception. That exception being who is doing the work. If you are the one doing all the swapping, rewiring, cutting, welding and grinding, then to me, that definitely makes it a build thread. If on the other hand, all you are doing is taking pictures of somebody else doing the building, you have a bonafide progress thread.

My criteria for labeling the two all boils down to what can somebody learn, and how can they benefit from the content posted.
Simply put, if you pay to have your car painted by a shop, there is little to learn by looking at pictures of it. (That's not to say you shouldn't post pics of it, you definitely should). If on the other hand, you are the one doing the painting, then typically, the content of that thread is full of "this is how I did it", and conversely, there is a lot to be gained from that.

You'll see random thread prefix change overs as I get to looking at them, and if you want your thread prefix changed you just need to let me know.

Thanks.
How about a build thread that has all of the wiring, cutting, welding, and grinding, but don;t have any pictures of it, cause it is essentially boring? I have done all of that, but it is bolting the new stuff on that looks kool and gets all of the ooohs and aaahhhs. I paid to have a custom inlet and outlet manifold made for my supercharger, cause I can't TIG weld. I paid to have someone else convert my 8.8" rear to 9" axle ends and have the diff braced and welded, cause I am not set up to do that. I paid someone else to build a bullet proof glide, cause I don't do auto transmissions. I paid to have all of the machine work done to the engine cause I don't own/operate a machine shop. I bought from various vendors all of the electronics, hoses, fittings, wheels/tires, suspension, chassis stuff. I paid to have a 8.5 cert cage put in the car. Essentially, I had to pay out of pocket for a lot of stuff, but I in the long run actually bolted all of that sh*t to the car and made it work. Does that count as a "build thread"? Even if it is a "drag car" cause we all know you think that is about the most stupid thing you can do to a car before sending it to the scrap yard. :shrug::hide:
 
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How about a build thread that has all of the wiring, cutting, welding, and grinding, but don;t have any pictures of it, cause it is essentially boring? I have done all of that, but it is bolting the new stuff on that looks kool and gets all of the ooohs and aaahhhs. I paid to have a custom inlet and outlet manifold made for my supercharger, cause I can't TIG weld. I paid to have someone else convert my 8.8" rear to 9" axle ends and have the diff braced and welded, cause I am not set up to do that. I paid someone else to build a bullet proof glide, cause I don't do auto transmissions. I paid to have all of the machine work done to the engine cause I don't own/operate a machine shop. I bought from various vendors all of the electronics, hoses, fittings, wheels/tires, suspension, chassis stuff. I paid to have a 8.5 cert cage put in the car. Essentially, I had to pay out of pocket for a lot of stuff, but I in the long run actually bolted all of that sh*t to the car and made it work. Does that count as a "build thread"? Even if it is a "drag car" cause we all know you think that is about the most stupid thing you can do to a car before sending it to the scrap yard. :shrug::hide:

Since all of your chassis fab is behind you, and because you think posting pics of it make for a boring thread, I'm actually wondering why you asked the question in the first place, but since you asked:

I agree that it's the pics of all of new shiny stuff bolted on to a part of the engine or car that makes looking at the pics entertaining. Regardless of whether the intended usage for the car is on the street, or at the track, the criteria remains the same either way.
There are alot of specialties that most of us either are not equipped for, or simply lack the skills to do that require a professional instead, me included.
The services provided by machine shops, body shops, chassis shops, and dyno tuners all exceed the skill sets of 95% of every person on this board.
Despite most of us being "professionally challenged", I can say with confidence that everyone here would like to see the pics of engine, before, during and after the machine process, the pics of the body as it goes through it's stages towards getting it's paint, (The drag racers can even go as far as taking a pic of that paint their newly painted car left on the guard rail at the 60' mark);)
While it's at the chassis shop who wouldn't like to look at a nicely done 25-? cert'd chassis?, and everybody loves to see the 30 second vid of all of that put together making 1000 HP on the rollers.

But, that doesn't change the fact that looking at pics of all of those specialties isn't gonna help to teach,or inspire you to machine an engine, paint a car, tig weld, or tune a car.
I don't have to even name the individuals, because all you have to do is think about it. There is easily over a dozen threads going on here at any one time where somebody has pics of an engine scattered all over a work bench getting ready to go back together, an engine compartment w/ all of its holes welded shut as it progresses along towards a smoothed engine bay, the floor of their car cut out and a SW kit laying around in pieces before it becomes a mild steel back half, or a Ron Francis wiring harness in some form of prewiring chaos just to name a few that people look at and can take inspiration from, and possibly attempt to do on their own because of them.

To answer your question: That depends on how much of the stuff you take from there and do yourself after the fact. (i.e. wiring, plumbing, suspension, or any other of the assortment of stuff that you know goes into a car to get it done) If it's full of pics of completed work done by pro shops and all you are doing is bolting stuff on than by my criteria, it's a progress thread. Everybody here knows which direction to turn a bolt to tighten it.

All I'm doing here is using the prefixes that are supplied in the forum to categorize the differences between a progress thread, and a build thread. Like I said in my very first post, it's really NBD. In the end the difference between the two prefixes is just a fork in the road that leads to the same destination.
 
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Me personally I don't necessarily feel we need the distinction between the two as long as it is noted as for what someone worked on and what they didn't.

The fox is perhaps the best "bolt on" car in existence so most of the work will fall to doing researching, picking parts and bolting them on. You can even build an entire race car from one right out of a catalog. Progress, build, all the same to me.

If people like to call what their doing a build or progress I think that should be up to them, I just don't think we should force them into a category based on what we as readers perceive it to be. As long as they are honest and don't take credit for someone else's work, they should name it whatever they want.
 
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Its all good. My post was more tongue in cheek to get a rise out of the mad fabricator himself......a lot of the stuff I did to my car there are no pictures of because once I get to working on the car I get so involved that I don't think to stop and take pictures of it. I do have several pic's of the completed stuff though. I just finished putting the interior back in the car. Have just before (interior gutted) and after (assembled) pics, but nothing in-between. Theoretically I could have paid someone else to do it, but don't have the pictorial evidence to prove otherwise.....:rolleyes: And that in a nutshell is a progress thread, cause I can show you the progress I made to the car, but I can't show you me actually "building" the car.

Edit:
It just occurred to me that the POTUS told us "you didn't build that" So really these should all be Progress threads, not build threads..............................just sayin
 
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Me personally I don't necessarily feel we need the distinction between the two as long as it is noted as for what someone worked on and what they didn't.

The fox is perhaps the best "bolt on" car in existence so most of the work will fall to doing researching, picking parts and bolting them on. You can even build an entire race car from one right out of a catalog. Progress, build, all the same to me.

If people like to call what their doing a build or progress I think that should be up to them, I just don't think we should force them into a category based on what we as readers perceive it to be. As long as they are honest and don't take credit for someone else's work, they should name it whatever they want.

I guess it comes with the territory. If I have the responsibility of "managing" this particular forum, then by definition I have certain things that I just want in place. People are free to call it what they want to from the jump, but it starts life w/ a prefix labeling it as a progress thread. And it'll stay that way unless they want it changed.

I'm perfectly willing to let the stay where it is if that is the common concensus. I just thought it'd be easier to tell the difference between threads like @RacEoHolic330 's build vs @hoopty5.0 's progress.
I'm not taking anything away from the hard work to Collin's car, I just wanted to use it to point out that there is definitely a difference between the content of both threads w/ both guys doing almost all of the work themselves.
 
Me personally I don't necessarily feel we need the distinction between the two as long as it is noted as for what someone worked on and what they didn't.

The fox is perhaps the best "bolt on" car in existence so most of the work will fall to doing researching, picking parts and bolting them on. You can even build an entire race car from one right out of a catalog. Progress, build, all the same to me.

If people like to call what their doing a build or progress I think that should be up to them, I just don't think we should force them into a category based on what we as readers perceive it to be. As long as they are honest and don't take credit for someone else's work, they should name it whatever they want.

^^^ This,
 
I don't see why we are making this about the people anyway. We're here to see cars get built regardless of who is doing the work. It's cool to see what people can do in their own garages, but I keep up with all of the projects, again, regardless of who is doing it.

I vote have one or the other, not both.
 
I don't see why we are making this about the people anyway. We're here to see cars get built regardless of who is doing the work. It's cool to see what people can do in their own garages, but I keep up with all of the projects, again, regardless of who is doing it.

I vote have one or the other, not both.

It's because people take credit for work they don't do and try to sit around telling others how to do it. (Which feeds egos but causes confusion) I'll agree that seeing progress on any fox is great, and stated above there is nothing wrong with paying someone to do your work.. The problem that comes along with it are the internet heroes that paid someone to bolt a blower on their car or build them an engine, or do some swap and then they get on stangnet with all of that "knowledge" and feed people bs... That's how it becomes about people.
 
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I've been a member and reading here for somewhere around12 years.
I can't remember the last time someone took credit for doing something that they didn't do.
And just because someone doesn't physically do it themselves, doesn't mean they don't know how to do it.
I know plenty of people that can do things, but they don't always because of time constraints.
Consider this, you make $600 a day, you know how to swap a trans, but it will take you all day. You got a guy you trust that will do it for $250 and will be done in 4 hours.
Why not goto work and net $350 and have your weekend free to spend with your family?

Some of the most accomplished guys here don't build their own shortblocks, why? Because their time is better spent on other tasks and they have qualified people with machine shops that will do it 75% faster.

I know plenty of people that pay others to cut their lawn, but it doesn't mean they don't know how to cut it.

My point is, someone's skill or knowledge can't be soley judged based on whether or not they did their own work.
 
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