IaM-Ray posted:Maintenance: Let's see, I'll start the list: Monthly or every 3 weeks as needed, hair colour, hair set, hair cut, nails, depilatory, fashion accessories, perfume, etc etc.
Ray. You are just skimming the surface. And don't forget I'm still supporting my 23 year old daughter who has the same tastes as my wife.
MusbJim posted:I'm an old school dude! I never discuss religion, politics or how much one earns or spends.
Whenever asked how much I spend/spent on any of my toys I politely reply..."Tell me how much you make and I'll tell you if you can afford it".
Well said Jim!
We won't compare our admission tickets yours might be a bit higher but I have two girls at uni, a 23 and a 21 y.o. as well and a son still in high school... there on the gravy train
You got to love it.
Gordon Nichols posted:It was fortunate for me that while I was building my car I was also on an expense account at work and traveling a lot, wining and dining customers. Once you get into the habit of carelessly throwing someone else's money around, it's a very short leap to doing it on a personal level, so towards the end (and after 6 years) I just threw money at it - Like my hideously expensive paint job that, after 17 years, still looks gorgeous. Maybe that was money well spent after all? It wasn't like I went overboard.....Just spent money in place of time on labor intensive things at a time when I just didn't have the time.
I've built a couple houses at the same time I'm trying to run a small business. If you've ever done one or the other, you understand that these things are mutually exclusive endeavors.
Unless a man has unlimited time, he almost ALWAYS starts throwing money around like a drunken sailor on shore-leave at some point in the project. There comes a point when you just want the freaking thing to move along (that point usually comes during the mechanicals, and keeps building through the trim). I'm at that point, where I know I'm going to be way out of line on cost/benefit-- and I just don't care.
The thing is: if the alternative is to cheap-out, then all of it until this point will have been for naught. If I neglect the business (further) so I can pull my own romex (just to say I did?), then I'm a moron who sends dollars chasing after dimes.
You have that story about the dude who wrote about shooting all the engineers, etc.-- building a home is a lot like that (again, all bets are off if you are OK with it taking 5 years to do). I had a good friend who said that the best way to estimate the cost of a project was to get a quote from 3 reputable contractors, add them together, and divide by one. That's the actual cost of the project.
My advice? If you don't want things to spiral out of control, buy something somebody else has already built. This applies to houses, cars, etc.
If you have a disease (*ahem*), and just want what you want-- then know going into it that at some point you're going to say "hang the cost" and do what needs done to get it. My oft repeated, ironic-only-to-me quote regards my first impression of a replica speedster, which was, "Cool car. And, it's a stinking VW-- how much could any of this cost, really?". That idea proved to be ridiculous.
If you know yourself, and don't want to be that guy, buy something already finished.
Stan Galat, '05 IM, 2276, Nowhere, USA posted:...If you know yourself, and don't want to be that guy, buy something already finished...
The only problem being that these cars are never finished. Ever.
You can buy a pre-fussed-over car and think it's done and just what you want, but six months later you will be focused on that one more thing that will make everything perfect. And six months after that, rinse and repeat.
And that's probably a good thing to know about these cars going in.
If you roll your own, you can research for a year, balance your dreams with your budget, plunge in, and know that when it's done you will still have more stuff to fix and improve and spend money on. If you buy someone else's 'turnkey' (ha-ha!), you will still have more stuff to fix and improve and spend money on.
If you want something that's finished, get a Boxster or a Miata or a nice, Persian rug.
Speedsters never are.
Stan, buddy.......
You bought your IM, if I remember correctly.....pretty much exactly as you wanted it.
Then what happened?
My car was finished when I added some caster, adjusted the shifter and let some air out of the tires.....all on the advice I got in here. After ten thousand trouble free miles, I couldn't be happier with it. Wouldn't change a thing.
Now about having a house built..... a good friend of mine who had built a few told me
" Building your dream home will be one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of your life if...and only if.....you don't care what it costs, you don't care when it gets done and you don't care what it looks like. Otherwise your marriage will be tested and you will never speak to your builder again "......
unfortunately, he was right...
.....and you have an extra 40% - 50% to play with~
BobG posted:
Then what happened?
I happened. 
OK, I agree completely with all the opinions about how it goes with these cars. "Turn-key" -- well that is a great ideal. Maybe Henry provides this (again, if you pay the freight) but generally, these are hobby cars, and you just never stop dreaming about what is the next cool thing to do. I'd call it part of (most of??) the charm.
As to houses, some 30 years ago I was so frustrated with looking at "other" houses so I could move out of my starter home, that I decided that the only way I could get all that seemed to matter to me at the time (floor plan mostly, but energy efficiency, passive solar, style, and etc.) that I finally decided a pencil and clean sheet of paper was the only way. So I set to it. got some help from an architect when I came to stumped about roof lines, but that was easily resolved, i drew up the plans (yes I did) and looked for a builder. found one that seemed pretty eager, was new to the business, sort of, and had good references. i believe my house was number five in his series. He said he could do it in four months, and I wrote a contract that he signed saying it would cost him a certain number of dollars for each week he was late. I also put in I'd give him a bonus of such and such for every week he was early. Anyway, we had a great time. i count him as a friend to this day, we meet for beer now and then, and I call on him for this and that on occasion. Turns out the house was done on time, and we did not have to dicker about bonuses and penalties at all. The house turned out more or less exactly as I imagined it, we tussled about how to do this or that as it went along, i did a lot of the buying of parts and such (mostly kitchen and bath stuff) and some of the work (like some finish carpentry and wiring). He gave me an invoice every week for what he had done and spent for parts, labor, S/Cs and profit/fee, and I wrote him a check. So, I was lucky, I guess -- found a decent guy, honest as the day is long, and was willing to work with me as opposed to for me. It's been about 30 years since I moved in, and in some ways the house still seems new. So it is possible . . .
As to exciting and rewarding, this was a very intense time, and it was, in retrospect, thrilling. Scary too. I saved up a lot of leave time before we got started, and took a lot of time off to deal with all. That was planned w/ boss at the time, but still he was not that thrilled. We got over it. House site was about ten mins form office, so I was able to be there as needed, and was on site almost every day, and certainly every week end.
I alluded, way up above, that I built exactly what I wanted for my car, and then made it better - mostly in the handling department and a bit for longevity and reliability (OK, the heater is a creature comfort, but a nice comfort).
But I also said that, were I to build another today, for me - not a spec car, it would be a lot different, as Kathy and I would benefit far more from a coupe so she could ride in it without special glasses/goggles for her eyes - that would be nice. So today, I would probably end up with one of these, from a Suby WRX donor:
http://www.factoryfive.com/kits/project-818/
BTW: Building one of these is about the same $$$$ as building a Speedster when finished, depending on what you find for a donor. Looks kind-of like the Nobles we see at Carlisle.
Thanks for sharing guys. Now lets have a moment of zen and watch this for 2 minutes and 30 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4W0SPEQvRA
Lawsh posted:Thanks for sharing guys. Now lets have a moment of zen and watch this for 2 minutes and 30 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4W0SPEQvRA
My dream car!
I had a 59 coupe .... many good memories... too bad Henry does not build them up here. On the other hand I am not sure how well I would fit in it
I discovered as my years got added that I was less and less comfortable with tight spaces... top down cures those issues Got to get to Carlisle next year and at least sit in a coupe.
!ntermeccanica 59 356A Conv D with hard top. Plenty of room. Had mine at Carlisle this year. Best of both worlds. And completely weather tight. Drove back to VA in pouring rain with AC on. Not a drop.
Coupes are fine, but give me a convertible any day of the week. I've had convertible 'hobby cars' since I was of legal driving age, and I would not like to be without one.
Coupes can be hot and noisy, unless there is proper ventilation or air conditioning, and A/C doesn't seem right in a 1950's type of car. But then, I don't live in California or Florida.
Well I would like to see your hardtop Phil, maybe next year, it might just work for me
Bob: IM S6 posted:Coupes are fine, but give me a convertible any day of the week. I've had convertible 'hobby cars' since I was of legal driving age, and I would not like to be without one.
Coupes can be hot and noisy, unless there is proper ventilation or air conditioning, and A/C doesn't seem right in a 1950's type of car. But then, I don't live in California or Florida.
That's why the "Sliding Rag Top Coupe" would be on my wish list, AC... as I get older, I like cooler while sitting in traffic at a standstill. AC is tempting, but then my wife would want drive in it more;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;. I like driving solo most times.
Builders, can you hear me?
IaM-Ray posted:Well I would like to see your hardtop Phil, maybe next year, it might just work for me
Phil as the best of both worlds. His hardtop fits and looks great, and really complements his IM.
I have ac... And I even use it with the top down. It allows me to have cold air at feet and hence the legs body and the dashboard.
without a good fresh air system a coupe would not be nice
ray
Had two 356 coupes from 1966 until, I dunno, the 80s. Daily drivers, they were. Cold in the winter they were. Younger and tougher, I guess, was I. While I was never keen on the modest heat in winter, never missed A/C in hotter times. All of this in MD and PA, although I did drive the A coupe across the country and back through all sorts of weather for about six weeks.
I have been in the replica coupes, and they do seem a little small/tight -- but that might be in reference to how the Speedy feels w/ top down. I know that I always felt like there was a lot of open space and room in the old coupes I had -- lots of leg room and no center hump made them feel spacious, as compared to other sports cars of the day: Triumphs, MGs, Healys, etc. where you were tolerated inside the cabin by the transmission as an unwelcome necessity.
ElFrazoo, yes they did seem much bigger then... but then we were so much thinner, smaller, and I can't give away any of my clothes as they would certainly not be able to fit anyone in africa
So, I've taken a couple of online autism tests. I've got family members who are ridiculously high-functioning in some arcane discipline, but completely crippled socially. They are professors, as you might find ironic. Water finds it's own level.
Anyhow, I've always considered myself one of the "normal" guys in my family, in that I actually got a pretty girl to agree to marry me, etc. Also, I'm a pipefitter as opposed to having a PhD in "number theory" (whatever that means) and I play with cars for fun(ish) in my garage.
Turns out, the tests say I don't have Asperger's... but I can easily toss a ball over the fence (and I'm pretty sure my toe has been under it a couple of times). Knowing these little facts explains a lot of why things that I know are really small in the scope of life (where I live, what I drive, etc.) take on an out-sized significance. When I really care (and I really care a lot)-- I don't want "close".
I want "perfect".
I married somebody with equally strong/stronger tendencies. "Right" is right, and "almost" is... not. When we are singing the same song, it's an awesome thing. When not? Well...
Because I'm not full-blown with this thing, I still have some sense of scale. Things get bifurcated into stuff I care enough about to be "right" (as I define it), and stuff that just needs to be operational. My business is named "Precision Mechanical". It's not "That'll Work Mechanical" or "OK Mechanical" or even "Pretty Good Mechanical". This is how I've made my living-- being the tenacious, single-minded idiot savant people want to work on things they absolutely need to have to stay in business.
I've done a couple of "clean-sheet" designed homes myself, Oh Frazzled One. I've never had an architect involved. I spent easily 200+ hrs on the design of this one. There was a stretch last winter when I slept less than 2 hrs/night for 2 straight weeks. My mind would not shut off, which I've learned is just part of being me.
In addition, I was raised by a Renaissance man-- so I want to do it all myself (cars, homes, business accounting, etc.). But the reality is that I can make more money running my business than I could ever save living out my GC/carpenter fan-boy fantasies-- and it ends up costing more (in real terms) and taking longer the more things I put my hands on it. I get things EXACTLY the way I want them (you should see the HVAC stuff I'm doing here-- stupid-cool), but it's the time element that really starts the money furnace. I spent 6 hrs digging out a window well at the new place today. What was saved?
As an aside, the 2014 National Building Codes being what they are (a freak-show of overkill), a new home costs easily 1.3- 1.5x what an identical home did 10 years ago (and I know-- we built one 10 years ago). If your municipality has not adopted them yet, and you have the idea you might like to build in your lifetime-- pull that permit now. Every time I see some "tiny-home" dude on Pinterest (p0rn for women) touting that he built his mini-mansion for $2995 with driftwood and cellophane, I wonder where he pulled his permits. I'm stuck buying arc-fault/ground-fault breakers at $80+/ for single pole 20a for 90% of the circuits in the house, etc., making a $500 panel a $5000 one.
Don't even get me started about HGTV.
Anyhow, if you can get a home you want built on time, on budget, and in the place you'd choose to live-- you are truly a 1%er. My wife cried when I told her I wanted to build again. It's a special kind of crazy-- but when you've got the disease, you've got the disease.
I think I'm going to take the engine out next year and do some thick-wall 94s and JE pistons.
Who is not in the spectrum these days
IaM-Ray posted:Who is not in the spectrum these days
In this place? Jim Ignacio and...
um...
Jim Ignacio!
DIY is probably tougher for guys, like Stan, like most of you, who can make more $$ doing what you do than you can save by doing what civilized people pay drones to do.
I am a newspaper reporter by trade, and so that is not an option. But, raised by blue-collar renaissance men and women, I get what I need, all the same. 
When we spec'd this terrace, six years ago, the guy from Akehurst, with the clipboard, said "High $40s, at least."
I was like "forty-what?"
Time is money, and with a little help & a bunch of weekends we got it done: 46 feet wide, 10 feet high, 30 feet deep (including the circle-pattern patio up top), 50+ tons, with three garden valves and a power outlet.
Well under $15k spent.
Which is still way more than I ever dreamt of spending on a yard. But my wife, she's happy. And so the hell am I.
No more mowing that hill.
There are humming birds.
And have you guys ever had purple tomatoes?
PS: wrt to that house I designed and helped build, mentioned above, and the business about paying drones vs doing it yourself. Two Items: 1. I mentioned passive solar, and I had a design for something like a Tromb wall, which is nothing more than a thermal mass behind glass facing south in the northern hemisphere that allows air circulation. This was not pure passive solar, but approximating it in a section of the house I call the green house. Design was simple: 12" cinder block, faced with brick and the cells of the block filled with 3 -4 inch diameter creek run (stream bed) gravel -- actually I'd call them stones, not gravel, more or less round. Idea: with an opening at the bottom and an opening at the top, air could circulate between the stones as the wall is warmed by the sun. Builder thought I was nuts, but said OK fine. Mason said: sure I can put the stones in as I build the wall. So stones were ordered. Dumped in the back yard in a pile next to the room. Swell. Trouble was, they really were creek bed rocks, just scooped out and loaded up. As dumped they were hard to discern from a pile of mud. So they needed to be washed. One at a time. with a garden hose. Very thick sticky mud. Took several week ends, wife and kids conscripted, and they were not happy about that. Many many hours of mind numbing washing.
Item 2: house is sided in 1x6 rough sawn Atlantic coast white cedar, T & G vertical boards. Figured it was best to have the boards stained before installed. Lumber yard would do a pre-stain process that I found prohibitive. So many gallons of stain were purchased, a couple of saw horse put out in the yard (which was no yard at all, just dirt) and the rollers and brushes were applied. Two coats. Holy carp, was that a lot of boards. Took a REALLY long time to do that one. Never did the accounting, but probably netted myself (and my son) about a nickle an hour for that.
Ed: I admire your approach, and the result is stunning.
Aaaaand thread hijack complete.
Pre-staining is fun, yup.
For me, I decided a long time ago that the pleasure of being able to say "and I pulled my own Romex" in mixed company was worth the inefficiency. I actually liked learning about how to design a good retaining wall. I doubt I'll build too many more, but it's nice to know.
The other thing is that it's very hard these days to get good help. For a lot of jobs (kitchen remodel leaps to mind), the amount of time and aggravation it would take to supervise the contractor exceeds the amount of time it takes for me to build it myself. Two kitchens under my belt now; I've got a handle on it. And, again: Consumer Reports says a decent mid-range kitchen job is mid-five figures. That ain't happening in my world—not when I can get the material for mid-four.
A whole house though? Nope. I know my limits.
(I have two uncles who, by themselves, built whole houses).
A good compromise for me was to act as general contractor and do some specialty stuff myself. We built a good sized bungalow a while back and I taught myself to do exterior stucco, stamped concrete walks, ceramic in tile bathrooms and kitchen and glass block around the shower and a unique copper facing on the fireplace. I had a helper with the stucco.
My kitchen count is at about four, likewise bathrooms. I can do tile. Was actually paid to pull Romex (and BX and conduit) for a summer, way back when. Learned an incredible amount of very useful stuff that summer. Have saved myself 100 or more times the money I made that summer (at $1.25/hr) doing electric work myself since.
So LAWSH, how's that build coming along?? 
Not bad Mr Frazoo! I have a flat smack in the middle of Oslo. Its an old warehouse that was renovated in 2006 for apartments. Big windows, lots of space. Haven't done much with it really. Was pretty nice as it was. Made several pieces of furniture though. A series for the living room that has the same style.. Lounge table, shelving for my records, books, and bench for the dinner table. So yeah, doin some small builds and hacks .
Phil IM356D posted:!ntermeccanica 59 356A Conv D with hard top. Plenty of room. Had mine at Carlisle this year. Best of both worlds. And completely weather tight. Drove back to VA in pouring rain with AC on. Not a drop.
Phil can you post some pics and where to get the top?
Rusty
Its an IM hardtop. $2900 option. I bought used so not my expense. Not sure if I would buy new since it's pretty warm in southeastern VA. But it's nice to have.
And my new addition.
Swiss Army car...
