Sunday Supplement

How about Christianity morphing out of Judaism? Everyone seems to forget Judaism is by far one of the oldest religions, if not THE oldest religion. It is an ugly time in the World regarding anti-semitism. And totally agree with your sentiments!

As for buy versus build, it is a trade-off as in anything. Buying a built car will always be cheaper. Nowadays, wheels are not very expensive so that issue is not an issue at all. Paint gets expensive but one could always “wrap” a vehicle for the same effect and at a fraction of the cost! Going with a “wrap” can offer many more color combinations and result in a pretty cool effect.

Guess, like I tell clients/friends…..what do you plan on doing with the car? The more power one installs the less reliability you will achieve in the long run. If all you want is the fun, cool driver, buy one close to what you want then make the changes and be happy till you find whatever HP you have is NEVER enough, you really wanted a manual tranny, not a slushbox or whatever the next build becomes.

Honestly, to build a righteous vehicle requires a lot of many hours, prep work and cash! Lots and lots of cash. You put something together and find it either wont work the way you thought or find something later that looks and/or performs better. No, today’s auction pricing has stabilized and maybe even dropped a bit as the times change and fresh younger buyers emerge. Look at Mecum-IL, prices were very reasonable and some nicely built resto’s were had for a fraction of their build cost. That will always be true of any vehicle one builds for love….what you like may not appeal to the next buyer(s).

And auctions like Mecum, BJ and such have limited times for so many cars to run across the block. They pick and choose what will sell in their minds as its all about the “numbers” and bragging rights (beyond the obvious money-making). How about an “auction house” set-up to mimic the street-corner car sale? Sell what ya brung….in a massive warehouse setting with online viewing and sales along with weekend auctions? LOL (sorry for rambling)

Steve, please don’t apologize. I very much appreciate the thoughtful comment and all of your thoughtful comments. If you ever want to write a guest post, that would be great. That offer is extended to all regular readers. I have posted 27 days in a row and wouldn’t mind a break soon.

It is highly unlikely that my restomod will ever be on the track. I can’t really afford a ridiculous HP build (1,000+) and I think 550-600 HP is plenty for the street. I want a modern, reliable car with power, handling and comfort. I disagree with calling modern automatic transmissions slushboxes, though. My wonderful wife’s 2015 Corvette has the 8L90E and its shifts are amazingly quick, not to mention much more precise than almost any human being could manage.

Like you wrote, more horsepower means less reliability. Another tradeoff like every other life decision. I don’t really want to put in writing how much I expect to spend on the restomod build, including the donor car. Besides, I won’t really know until I do it. I am going into this with my eyes wide open; I know this will be, by far, the most expensive car I will ever buy barring a huge lottery win.

Thanks again and I appreciate your expert view.