I don't post here much any more, but I drop in periodically to see what's up, and some stuff has happened lately that I thought I'd share. About two months back, a freind of mine bought a car. He bought a really nice 1969 Chevelle, 396 SS with a Muncie 4 spd and a 496 cu in BB in place of the original 396. The car is black, mostly stock with a few mods and very, very nice. It has Budnick wheels, 3" exhaust with Flowmasters, aftermarket guages and some small stuff here and there. It's a nice car and he bought it from a dealer in Texas who offered it on ebay. Although not cheap, it was reasonable for what it is for $27,000. Sound like a lot of money for a car? Why didn't he build one? Here's a little more to the story: about 15 years ago he thought he wanted a street rod, because all his car buddies had one. He bought a decent project car, a 1946 Chevy with a small block already in it. The car was in primer, no interior, but it ran and it was a starting point. He paid $7,000 for it. He wanted to swap in a big block, add independant front end, get it painted and upholstered. How long could that possibly take, and how much could it possibly cost? More than you could ever imagine. First off, he disassembled the car, then started buying stuff, a big block, lots of billet, some wheels, etc. Since he really didn't have much of a garage to work ona project car, he rented a one-car garage for $80 a month. Then he started doing the bodywork. Mistakes were made, redone, made again. Frustration set in. The wife became upset at all the money begin spent and work was put on hold. More parts were bought on the sly, rent fees piled up, several false starts took place. So many parts were bought with no rhyme or reason that he could no longer work on the car without first unloading the whole garage. Finally, it became too much and the whole project was pretty much abandoned. Time passed, the rent was paid and so it went. The car sat a total of 9 years in that rented garage. For those keeping track at home, that's nearly $9,000 in storage fees. Add that to the $7,000 he paid for the car and you get $16,000. Although I never asked what the total for parts and tools was, I think a conservative estimate would be in the $6,000 range, bringing the total to $22,000, give or take. What did he have at the end of it all? A car that might (if he's very, very lucky) be worth $5,000 with every part he ever bought for it included. That's a $17,000 loss, not to mention ten years of his life that he could have been enjoying the car, ANY car! All that brings me to my real point, if you don't start with a reasonable plan and by reasonable I mean brutally realistic about your money and your talents, you are setting yourself up for financial and emotional disaster. There's no shame whatsoever in buying a nice finished car and quite often you will be money ahead.
