The Hobby thread here got me thinking about my own hobby and its tight budget (formerly wife enforced but now self enforced)
I have had this car since high-school, I bought it in 2006, imported it from Portland and paid a grand total of $1800 for it. I was under the assumption that because it weighed only 2200lbs and had a 4cyl it would be good on gas. Poor stupid Me!! it got 20mpg if i was lucky running premium, between that and failing emissions tests limiting my insurance to 3 months at a time i did not use it much in college as i did not have time for it. Even though i have been working for a few years i have not had the time or money for it between buying a house, renovations, getting married and other priorities the car has sat. Now i am in the process of rebuilding the car, i have an allowance of $100/month for the car, if im out of money the work does not get done. I am hoping to save as much money on everything else by doing it myself and getting parts off Craigslist and reselling parts. Here is what i have done so far.
The Car is a 1977 Toyota Celica, the plan is to get the weight down very low, fiberglass bumpers ect. And i will be running the engine and electronics from a 2010 cobalt XFE (160hp, 40mpg) i have always liked the ecotec engine because of there power, lightweight (aluminum) easy electronics and cheapness, i bought the first one for $100 with transmission, and then realized i would be spending lots on electronics so i ended up buying a whole car with 6500 miles on it for $500. The engine runs RWD through a solstice transmission
So far here is my timeline and budget
2006, purchase car -$1800
2006, sell racing seats and replace with stock seats that came with car +150 $1650
2007Purchase seat covers for old seats -$90 $1740
2008Buy black interior from junkyard -$200 $1940
2008 Vandalized insurance (crappy)paint job -$300 $2240
2011 Bought Fiberglass bumpers -$225 $2465
2011 Sold original Modified Racing Engine/took stock engine in trade +cash +650 $1815
2011 Sold stock engine i took in trade +350 $1465
2012 Sold stock transmission +$80 $1385
2012 Bought 2006 ecotec engine+fwdtrans -$100 $1485
2012 sold 2006 fwd ecotec trans +$60 $1425
2012 Bought 6spd tacoma/camaro trans -$200 $1625
2012 Bought 2010 cobalt wrecked -$500 $2125
2012 Paid to get cobalt towed home -$80 $2205
2012 sold interior from cobalt +$100 $2105
2012 sold head/tail lights on cobalt +$80 $2025
2012 Sold 6speed trans +$480 $1545
2012 sold stripped cobalt shell +$50 $1495
2012 sold 1st ecotec engine +250 $1295
2012 sold racing carberator from 1st engine +$100 $1195
2012 Bought solstice engine +rwd trans+mounts+header -$600 $1795
2012 sold old extra ignition parts +$60 $1735
2012 sold original header/exhaust +$200 $1535
2012 bought harbor freight welder -$100 $1635
2012 bought supra disc brakes -$100 $1735
2012 bought tercel rack/column for powersteering swap -$60 $1795 CURRENT
Future expenses what my budget is, i estimate on the high side
Paint $1000 (cheaper when you bring the car in all stripped and prepped, MAACO gave me the quote a bit under, bringing the car in as a shell means they cant screw up the overspray or do a bad job masking, i just get the paint, the one part i dont have the equiptment or knowhow to do)
Tuning $450 this is the price i was quoted to unlock my ecm and delete all the anti theft stuff, they would also do a dyno tune on it since i will run headers and a different intake, no need for emissions systems on this car
Shop supplies $500 filler, primer, brake lines, rust repair stuff, welding cable, fluids, tools, they add up very fast
New front seats $300 i have set that as my budget, waiting for some porsche or bmw seats to come up on CL for a firesale
Window/door seals and hinges $300 mine are pretty shot and and all glass will be removed anyways
Custom driveshaft $200 needs to be gm on one end and toyota on the other
Looks like another $2800 or so till this car will be on the road, i still have a few aces up my sleeve that i can sell to get this bill down, i have a performance intake from the solstice $150, either engine $600 approx, more cobalt parts (susp, steering ect) and lots of other stuff to try offset this bill. so if i can get it all done for under $2000 from here on in i should be able to finish the car on my allowance of $100/month in approx 20 months starting from august when we started the allowance. I really hope none of the guys i sold stuff to on craigslist frequent this forum... i dont think they would like to see what i bought and sold stuff for, i was not exactly forthcoming with the fact that i bought stuff for alot more before parting it out.
thats the car i scrapped out, front end, frame was broken, airbags set off, girl crashed it drunk so no insurance coverage and could not be written off. Bought it off her dad for $500, still ran good, repair bill would be about 7k, he owed 10k on it still... poor guy
All in all when i am done i am hoping to have a car show worthy car that is cool, gets 40+mpg (40mpg in 3000lb cobalt 4 door, better in 2000lb celica) and it should haul really well, the 2.2 VVT litre engine has been known to put about 190hp with headers and a tune, getting better mpg then stock, if i go with the 2.4l solstice engine that is the same just slightly bigger i would get 210hp tuned, not sure what the mpg would be. I will decide wich engine i will go with when i decide gear ratios/tire sizes ect. If i run very steep highway gears the larger engine would be natural as it would be more at home at low rpm if i keep the factory 3.91 rear end the smaller engine would be better at those moderate-high rpms (similar to stock cobalt rear drive ratio) If i ever get sick of this car i should be able to sell for a hefty profit, i was offerered $6k for it after the crappy insurance paint job (wich is now rusting and needs re-doing)