Project Economy Slowdown

[Retro68]

Is the economy having an effect on your project. Lets here some view points on how you are coping with things. Do you feel the gas prices have made you change your opinion about gasoline engines and how will that make a change on us old truck collectors.

[Pont406]

No changes for me. Building another motor right now. I did noticed a lot of cars and trucks for sale at the local cruise night yesterday. I don't know why?

[Palf70Step]

Only thing slowing mine down is time. Stupid work & honey-do's.

[67dragtruck]

Originally it made me have second thoughts on building another one. Then I decided that for something that's not my daily driver, I don't really care. I'm putting fuel injection on this one, edelbrock pro flo, and can tune it. I bought an innovate motorsports lm-2 wideband to make sure I can get the tuning spot on and expect to be able to get 15-16 mpg out of it or will be disappointed. If it will get that, I will drive it anywhere for vacation and not sweat it. As far as the economy, it will slow the build somewhat, but business has been pretty good lately so I'm hopeful to still finish it within a year. New project thread to come soon.........hmmm need a name for the project.

Tom

Tom

[Chevyman680063]

My build was already moving slow before the economy was. I thought it would be cool to use one of those hydrogen fueled skateboard chasis that GM came up with. I remember GM said they could be made to any size you needed but GM hasn't put them into production and even if they did there wouldn't be anyway to fill them up because there are no hydrogen fuel stations around here. I would even consider going with one of those electric motors like what I saw on the Discovery Channel last year when they were talking about future fuels. They had a car built with one of those electric motors in it and they put it up against a Ferrari or one of those exotic cars and it beat it no problem. One thing I would miss would be the V8 sound, wonder if they could put some sort of sound device on it that would sound like you're revving a V8 when you press the gas pedal. I'm all for helping the environment but I don't want some tuner car sound.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Chevyman680063

My build was already moving slow before the economy was. I thought it would be cool to use one of those hydrogen fueled skateboard chasis that GM came up with. I remember GM said they could be made to any size you needed but GM hasn't put them into production and even if they did there wouldn't be anyway to fill them up because there are no hydrogen fuel stations around here. I would even consider going with one of those electric motors like what I saw on the Discovery Channel last year when they were talking about future fuels. They had a car built with one of those electric motors in it and they put it up against a Ferrari or one of those exotic cars and it beat it no problem. One thing I would miss would be the V8 sound, wonder if they could put some sort of sound device on it that would sound like you're revving a V8 when you press the gas pedal. I'm all for helping the environment but I don't want some tuner car sound.

You'll need to change your vocabulary if you go electric. No mo gas pedal . ..... it's the accelerator .

[Chevyman680063]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

You'll need to change your vocabulary if you go electric. No mo gas pedal . ..... it's the accelerator .

I actually started to say that but figured I could slip it pass you guys.

[ChevLoRay]

I know we'd have to call it an accelerator, but is that electrically accurate? I recall a series of contacts that enabled the voltage to the motor to be stepped based on which contactor made the circuit complete.

I've seen golf cart (E-Z Go and Club Car) that would almost snap your neck if there was a sudden application of voltage....where I worked, dust was an issue and we would use Electical Joint Compound to lubricate the wipers/contactors. Get one gummed up and fun could occur.

For automotive applications, we'd have a more highly-sophisticated "accelerator", huh....

[jayharrell]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

You'll need to change your vocabulary if you go electric. No mo gas pedal . ..... it's the accelerator .

I just talked to a guy here in austin, Fred in Lago Vista, that is in the midts of putting and electric motor in a 67. I pointed him to the board, it will make for some good conversation for sure. He mentioned getting a manual trany and leaving it in 2nd unless he needs to go in reverse. Said he was going to paint it green too.

But, the 'slowdow' hasn't affected my build as much as gas prices and two growing toddlers. Its an up hill battle. LOL

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by jayharrell

I just talked to a guy here in austin, Fred in Lago Vista, that is in the midts of putting and electric motor in a 67. I pointed him to the board, it will make for some good conversation for sure. He mentioned getting a manual trany and leaving it in 2nd unless he needs to go in reverse. Said he was going to paint it green too.

But, the 'slowdow' hasn't affected my build as much as gas prices and two growing toddlers. Its an up hill battle. LOL

I thought a cool project for someone w/one of those 'deep' checkbooks I hear about would be one of the new hybrid set-ups from the crewcab trucks/tahoes into a 67-72. I also liked that turbo strait-5 set-up that was in the smaller trucks/trailblazers (but it seems their mpg's weren't that impressive).

Like anything else, we will need to adapt to the times or we'll disappear much faster. If you're not growing, changing, or learning, you're losing ground.

[Chevyman680063]

Originally Posted by jayharrell

I just talked to a guy here in austin, Fred in Lago Vista, that is in the midts of putting and electric motor in a 67. I pointed him to the board, it will make for some good conversation for sure. He mentioned getting a manual trany and leaving it in 2nd unless he needs to go in reverse. Said he was going to paint it green too.

But, the 'slowdow' hasn't affected my build as much as gas prices and two growing toddlers. Its an up hill battle. LOL

I just found this article about a 700hp electric car, and it even has a sound module that will make it sound like a V12 if you don't want to drive in complete silence.

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/artic...newcarresearch

Ok, I'll get back on topic now, just thought I would share that with you.

[bw4sale]

No money for my project before...no money for my project now. Nothings changed.

[Shyguy]

Yep! The economy is slowing down my projects. Actually if I only had one project it would not be too bad, but now I am working on three.

I am building a sewing room for my wife, making my '67 short stepper road worthy and up-grading my '71 long stepper farm truck.

Since I have not worked for quite some time and my wife is working full-time I figure it is only right to put the sewing room as priority, now and then I do find a good deal on parts for the trucks.

I don't think I will ever get rid of my toys because I enjoy driving them and they remind me of simplier times.

Danny

[PanelDeland]

I've seen the economy go up and down over the years.Sometimes it was the countries economy sometimes it was mine.I do save a bit more for retirement now but mostly because I'm of the mindset that"you should be able to live better when you retire than when you worked".Since I will have more time this means I need more money.Since that has been a trend my whole life I don't see much change.

[Gray Ghost]

Yep....while I am busy it's nothing like it normally is this time of year. I'd guess my spendable cash after bills and such is about half what it was last year. My 67 hasn't been touched for quite awhile. By the miracle of trade outs though, I am getting a 454 for it as well as a new water pump, headers, Griffin rad [all aluminum] and a set of valve covers.

Hopefully this wll change very soon as we get funded at the wildlife center....then all bets are off. I'll be getting about a 20% raise and dropping over $7k in gasoline bills yearly...guess where that cash is going?

[allen123]

gas prices arent holding my foot back

but the prices on parts are holding me back back cause there raising them at the stores cause of shipping

[bw4sale]

Or you could get super technical and call it the "go-thingy". Sorry. What about the new mercedes with the joystick control? What do you call it then?

[chrislehr]

I have slightly less cash for the project because our house electric and car gas bills are double the usual.

[rodstored-72]

I have felt the "econimic situation" hard! I have been laid off for a month now. i do civil designing & Autocad in the Phoenix area. The construction has come to a halt. I have bought a few things for our truck, but the biggest thing was that i was planning on tear down for paint & body work this year & that is not going to happen & probably wont for atleast a year or so! I am going to use this time to add to my resume & i am going to also switch gears on my career path. Anyways my project is basically on hold until i can get a job & redo my "budget".....

[Boog]

I feel sure that most of us are/will adjust our plans/use of our projects. Maybe a small block instead of a big block. Maybe a mild build instead of race setup. Maybe just drive it less than planned. I wanted my truck to be a simple, dependable, non computerized, non overdrive truck. No electric gadgets. It will be only an occasional driver but now with the high gas prices I am thinking of making one exception to my plan. Keep the 4.10 gear and install an OD trans.

[WorkinLonghorn]

None of my "projects" ever make it past the planning stage,so nope,nothing changed.

[Sinisterspeed]

For me, It finally got going again. While preparing for this slow down I picked up a second career so even though I only do it part time its all extra money. All the used parts have gotten cheaper and some of the new parts have too since they are not selling as many. I have had to hold back on adding a couple more projects to the shop do to room issues since everyone seems to be getting rid of them now too. So as far as myself so far so good, we shall see if I need to throw the ebrake come sept, or oct. thats the rumor where I work. trying to get the big things done before then and I might have a shot at driving it before I die.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Nope, mine's done... for now (There's a fleet bed in the waiting) But I do plan on getting one of the GMP 240 hp or so crate engines next year.

What it has done... truck went from 100 miles/week to about 20-30 miles per week (on average.) Like, I drove it about 75 miles this week, but nothing at all last week.

[Ackattack]

The slowdown in the economy hasn't affected my build directly. If anything it has indirectly put pressure on me to speed up my build.....

Basically, we're looking to move to TX or KS (or that area) and have enough equity in our house to buy a house there cash; but since the housing market has slowed down, that has pushed our timeline out a while, so finishing the basement isn't as high of a priority.

Then, I also talked my wife into opening up the floodgates to get the truck done by next May so we can go on hotrod power tour; but now we just found out she's pregnant and will be due in March, so I pretty much know I have to get done by then.

Also because of the kiddy on the way I bought a jetta TDI (1st tank of diesel was 47.4mpg) and will be selling the corvette (no back seat) so the extra left over from the sell of the vette will be applied to the project truck.

[Fastfun]

I did not put as much HP as I wanted but I am going fuel injected with a 4L80 transmission so I am hope I can get at least 20 mpg