I need help bad!!!! V6 Power

[khan0165]

I agree...
A paint job is big mission! Specially when you wanna go black...

A black paint job is rewarding, but at a big price. The maintainance is overwhelming, and you need to stay ontop of it. It may not be for the weak-hearted, or novice petrol-head.

That being said... body work is a great thing to learn. Feel your car around to check for any irregularities. These can be things like, bubbles, bumps, rust, etc... The more body filler the car has, the more intense the job will be... for a proper repair. You could always take shortcuts, and be cheap and stupid about it, ha ha. But I garantee it'll come back to haunt ya.

If you have the garage space (steady for a couple of months), and time, and money, and patience... why not try body work yourself. There are lots of tips and tricks you can find from forums like this about quick stripping techniques, proper sanding techniques, etc...

Any "gloss" or "good" paint job will run you into the $2000 range... $1000 if you're "friends" with the guy. Painting is not as simple as throwing some paint on; there is alot of prep-work that goes into finishing after spraying the paint.

The cost of a full body job can only be dictated by how rough the body of your car is. But just as a starting point... if your car's body is in perfect shape, with no rust, no filler, and no dents... you're looking at $3000 to $4000 for full body work and paint.


Think about it...

 

[patmckinneyracing]

I'll agree with khan on the body work. Painting is the easy part of the whole process. 90% of it is getting the body lines straight and perfect and 10% is painting.

If you try your hand at this, at some point in the future I'm sure, wear a dust mask or respirator. I did about a month or two of bodywork and I paid for it for another 3 months from all the body filler dust that got into my lungs. Nothing was wrong with the body on my car, it was straight as could be but had some small, small dents in some spots. So I spent a bunch of time applying body filler and sanding it off to get it straight as could be. Your only a year younger than me, and I know how quickly sometimes you want to get things done. Patience is the key virtue when building cars. And it will pay off.

 

[beermonkey9417]

yeah i agree, rearend swaps are one of the best and cheapest ways to improve your power and youll already have it by the time you get your v8. observe: http://www.wallaceracing.com/reargear.htm

acording to that chart, i made a 70% increase in torque on my 71 307 sbc! yay 510+lbs of torque!

 

[gto78]

For places to find a rear axle, I'd check craigslist, ebay, and call some auto-salvage yards. Of course it would be great to buy the heavy duty 8.5" rear and posi etc. but if your on a low budget, I'd just get a standard 7.5" rear and bolt it right in the car. You can probably find one for under $200, and won't have to do any modifications like shortening the driveshaft for the 8.5 rear. For your stock v-6 you won't have any problems with that 7.5 rear unless it was previously damaged.

Again in my opinion I'd be going for 3.73 gears and an overdrive transmission. That first gear would be extremely strong with that rear/transmission combo. Also, I think that transmission would bolt up to any Buick, Olds, or Pontiac with no problems. My stock grand am had a Metric 200 transmission and a 301 V-8 from the factory.

In other words if some day you drop in a fairly stock small V-8, you won't have to replace the transmission immediately, you could still drive it until money is saved for a stronger transmission.

 

[Minion1186]

If you're implying on my 307,yes $200 for a basically complete running engine.I think its a steal,good beginner engine,and its a fresh rebuilt engine with some mods done to it,this wouldnt be expensive in my case,i have most of the parts,some i'd throw in for him and some are extra (Like $10 for a new stock intake).In the long run,he's going to probably go with a v8,here's a start.I also have a 350 olds laying around,it needs a rebuild and such,but would be totally worth it

And yeah its 200 for V8 "X" plus $50 here for wiring, $50 there for hoses, $50 there for exhasut, $50 there for whatever. It gets expensive without realizing. Its not the big stuff its all the little stuff that you dont realize.

 

[Bonnewagon]

I agree that a gear swap will give the most bang for the buck. However you don't want to go overboard either. 3:73's are awesome acceleration but you will be screeming trying to keep up with traffic unless you have overdrive. What trans do you have now? Is it overdrive? What gears do you have now? Posi or not? There is a code stamped on the axle somewhere, usually passenger side front. If it's a 2 series (2:41, 2:73) a swap to 3:08, 3:23, or 3:42 will do wonders. 3:23 is my favorite for a non-overdrive car. Excellent takeoff and not bad on the highway. If you could find a 3:23 posi rear you would be very satisfied with your V-6. Also 7.5 rears are common and cheap and you could sell your old rear perhaps. If you have an overdrive trans allready, I'd like to know what gears you have now.