Make Hot Rodding Great Again.

[motorheadmike]

the only car that looks out of place is the yellow deuce coupe most of the other cars i feel could be made in someones garage

I don't think you read the article very closely or recognize the cars they chose because those cars don't match this narrative in the slightest:

I’m a firm believer that we need to bring back the shoestring budgets and homebuilt hot rods

 

[fleming442]

I thought of a good anecdote for the conversation. About 7 or 8 years ago, a bunch of us gearheads were in Ocean City for Cruisin. My buddy has an 85 Fox 'stang with a Steve Drummond built 408 Ford stroker in it that goes 10.50s on motor, 9.70 on laughing gas. It needs a cowl hood to clear the carb, has 275 rears, and runs on pump gas. I would call it a respectable street car, even today. We were out making some laps in his car when we come up against another Fox 'stang on 275s, a flat hood, and kind of quiet with 3 kids in it (1 hanging off the roll cage in the backseat). He walked our dog with....... wait for it....... a turbo LS! Shocker. I'm not arguing their power or cost effectiveness, but originality - none these days.
My Olds wasn't cheap because I tried building it a few times before I figured out that I couldn't build engines. I had to farm it out to get what I wanted. There's probably $10k in the engine with room to grow (better heads, cam, and induction), but I ran out of money. However, when I pop the hood, I know there's a very slim chance of seeing anything like it in the same parking lot. THAT, is why I keep my Olds "Rocket Powered".

I don't buy into the "Greek" yogurt fad, either.

 

[motorheadmike]

I thought of a good anecdote for the conversation. About 7 or 8 years ago, a bunch of us gearheads were in Ocean City for Cruisin. My buddy has an 85 Fox 'stang with a Steve Drummond built 408 Ford stroker in it that goes 10.50s on motor, 9.70 on laughing gas. It needs a cowl hood to clear the carb, has 275 rears, and runs on pump gas. I would call it a respectable street car, even today. We were out making some laps in his car when we come up against another Fox 'stang on 275s, a flat hood, and kind of quiet with 3 kids in it (1 hanging off the roll cage in the backseat). He walked our dog with....... wait for it....... a turbo LS! Shocker. I'm not arguing their power or cost effectiveness, but originality - none these days.
My Olds wasn't cheap because I tried building it a few times before I figured out that I couldn't build engines. I had to farm it out to get what I wanted. There's probably $10k in the engine with room to grow (better heads, cam, and induction), but I ran out of money. However, when I pop the hood, I know there's a very slim chance of seeing anything like it in the same parking lot. THAT, is why I keep my Olds "Rocket Powered".

I don't buy into the "Greek" yogurt fad, either.

I had an older gent (helping his in-laws move out across the street) stop me from my mowing lawn yesterday because he saw my wagon. Dude is into 50s Buicks. Got to chatting and I told him I love off-brand stuff because it is unique.

I couldn't care less for a '69 Camaro, but a '69 Trans Am would stop me dead in my tracks. I have a history with weird(er) performance cars.

That being said, I think I still have the only running LS swapped car in my small town - so they aren't that common up here.

 

[mclellan83]

I thought of a good anecdote for the conversation. About 7 or 8 years ago, a bunch of us gearheads were in Ocean City for Cruisin. My buddy has an 85 Fox 'stang with a Steve Drummond built 408 Ford stroker in it that goes 10.50s on motor, 9.70 on laughing gas. It needs a cowl hood to clear the carb, has 275 rears, and runs on pump gas. I would call it a respectable street car, even today. We were out making some laps in his car when we come up against another Fox 'stang on 275s, a flat hood, and kind of quiet with 3 kids in it (1 hanging off the roll cage in the backseat). He walked our dog with....... wait for it....... a turbo LS! Shocker. I'm not arguing their power or cost effectiveness, but originality - none these days.
My Olds wasn't cheap because I tried building it a few times before I figured out that I couldn't build engines. I had to farm it out to get what I wanted. There's probably $10k in the engine with room to grow (better heads, cam, and induction), but I ran out of money. However, when I pop the hood, I know there's a very slim chance of seeing anything like it in the same parking lot. THAT, is why I keep my Olds "Rocket Powered".

I don't buy into the "Greek" yogurt fad, either.

I guess I am different because I respect all cars for the most part, even the crazy donks or stance stuff because I still know the work that goes into it. I personally would never own or drive one of them, I also tend to really like stuff that you don't see everywhere. That's a big reason I have kept my GTO, honestly most Mustangs you hear sound good/better than my GTO but don't like that you see them everywhere just like the new camaros. With my GTO I threw tons of money into appearance to make it the way I wanted with doing the 05/06 hood and rear bumper with the Monaro front end. I was grilled because I put the Pontiac badge back onto it after spending all that money on the front bumper, but I didn't want to have to deal with all the questions of what kind of car is it when it had a Holden badge up front. Hell, thats half the reason I put the vinyls on the Monte I got tired of being asked what it is. I had bought the Monte with all intentions of dropping in an LSA with a TR6060, I actually had the transmission before I had the car. But once I got the car with as good as it sounds I decided to leave it as is once I put the Sniper EFI on it.
Totally agree that it is annoying to see everything go LS swap, but its hard to argue bang for the buck and just pure power out of them. I still watch all the TV shows but yes it is very easy to spot they all focus on throwing the parts that the sponsors have on a build. But I accept that is how they pay the bills, I just appreciate that there is a channel that has car stuff on 24/7. That was another one of my early 2000 ideas that was shot down as undoable because there was the speed channel with all the racing.

 

[69hurstolds]

Depends on your definition of cheap.....I'm just finishing a 5.3l swap into an 87 c10. I bought the c10 for $950, picked up a 77k mile lm7 for $500, and will have an additional $700 into everything else associated with getting it running. So $2200 total and I have the classic square body look paired with the modern reliability and performance of the ls.

My 86 442 is another example.....I bought a 4.8/4l60e swapped 86 grand prix with a rough body. Swapped the complete frame and drive train under my 442 (frame was almost rusted through on the 442 so I killed 2 birds with one stone with this project). After selling all of the random leftover parts after the swap, I came out dead even.....didn't cost me a dime other than my time invested.

There are a few of us out there doing this on a budget. 😉

It depends on your definition of budget. To me, that isn't really a budget. That's a net zero cost. Which might feel like it cost less, but it didn't. So if your swap cost 15,000, and you sold extra stuff for 15,000, it's still the same net zero cost. Would that be considered cheap? Hell naw. But it's still great if you can zero out the cash outlay, whatever it is.

So really, what I'm reading is that if you're cost-conscious, you can find a way to keep your net cash outlay minimal, as most hot rodders do. Plus if you get lucky and find something for a lot less than normal, it's a win. Nothing new. It's probably cheaper to do nowadays than it used to be when all the LS swapping got started since they have parts packages you can even buy to make the job easier.

But time is also money. While my labor is worth 0 to a subsequent owner, it's not worth 0 while I'm doing the stuff. If I don't mind spending the time on something, that's my choice to invest or not.

Regardless of your path, it will always come down to "how fast do you want to spend?" Everything is available in different flavors. Pick your favorite and enjoy.

 

[motorheadmike]

It depends on your definition of budget. To me, that isn't really a budget. That's a net zero cost. Which might feel like it cost less, but it didn't. So if your swap cost 15,000, and you sold extra stuff for 15,000, it's still the same net zero cost. Would that be considered cheap? Hell naw. But it's still great if you can zero out the cash outlay, whatever it is.

So really, what I'm reading is that if you're cost-conscious, you can find a way to keep your net cash outlay minimal, as most hot rodders do. Plus if you get lucky and find something for a lot less than normal, it's a win. Nothing new. It's probably cheaper to do nowadays than it used to be when all the LS swapping got started since they have parts packages you can even buy to make the job easier.

But time is also money. While my labor is worth 0 to a subsequent owner, it's not worth 0 while I'm doing the stuff. If I don't mind spending the time on something, that's my choice to invest or not.

Regardless of your path, it will always come down to "how fast do you want to spend?" Everything is available in different flavors. Pick your favorite and enjoy.

Pretty much describes the differences between my wagon and Monte swaps. For the wagon I owned the donor car (but still had to buy it) from which I took what I needed and parted out the rest, sold my Turbo Buick to free up funds, and then I spent a tonne of cash buying fancy new things to save time (including purchasing the car!), and there was still a bunch of time fabricating and repairing stuff that took years. This build represents my highest ever cash flow infusion into a project, and I feel like I squandered a lot of money in doing so - but the car hit the road in time for its intended purpose: to cart the kids around.

By comparison the Monte is full of used and repurposed parts for a reason: to get me back to basics. Yet, there are still a bunch of fancy new parts that are supporting the build because I don't want an unreliable POS at the end of it all. Throughout the process (and in the end) it feels better knowing I did much more of the work - finding and developing unique solutions along the way is very satisfying. The good news is I am not in a hurry for this car to be 100%.

 

[87National]

That being said, I think I still have the only running LS swapped car in my small town - so they aren't that common up here.

Same in my area......of the 150-200 cars in the local annual car show, maybe 2 are ls swapped. Among all my friends, co-workers, neighbors etc. that are into cars......I know of only one local kid that has completed an ls swap. I think some folks see the online message board writeups ....read all the ls content in Car Craft, and believe that ls swaps are more prevalent than they really are.

 

[87National]

It depends on your definition of budget. To me, that isn't really a budget. That's a net zero cost. Which might feel like it cost less, but it didn't. So if your swap cost 15,000, and you sold extra stuff for 15,000, it's still the same net zero cost. Would that be considered cheap? Hell naw. But it's still great if you can zero out the cash outlay, whatever it is.

I paid $2600 for the donor vehicle...... which I eventually got back after selling off everything I didn't need. Net $0 to replace the tired, underpowered, oil leaking 307 with a 300 whp 4.8 (while also replacing my rotted frame) meets my definition of budget.

 

[jiho]

I do however find the images they chose to be extremely disingenuous as most of those cars are bought, and not built.

Are we looking at the same images? Those cars look built to me, and on a hacker's budget too. Like someone just had fun doing it, using what they had at hand to do something with, not caring what others think. The true roots of hot rodding. I think those images make the point very well.

You mean they aren't built 'cause they don't have a snazzy paint job like yours?

 

[fleming442]

There are tons of LS swaps around here. I guess I'm too close to "the city".