BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Thanks for the comments and support guys, as always, it's much appreciated!
Glad to have you following along Jared. The support from you and all the others that comment help to keep the momentum going.
I wish I had more interesting and entertaining updates to post, but as the experienced of us know, this is the dark and under appreciated side of custom car building. It can't all be chrome this and fancy that!
Sometimes it comes down to plain old slugging it out and doing the stuff that ain't as fun or pretty as the big dollar stuff.
Boy, do I hear that!
I purposely don't keep track of the number of hours I put into the various projects on the car, it would probably scare me!
Lol
If I had to guess tho, I would estimate that there's probably in the neighbourhood of 2-300 hours in the hood alone up to this point, probably actually more.
Oh well. I knew at the time it was going to be an ambitious undertaking, its the price I was willing to pay for a unique "one of one" feature on the car.
Thanks very much for the feedback and compliment!
Glad to hear it Rick, I'll keep 'em coming as long as y'all will let me!
(And as long as all my pics don't crash the server!)
Donovan
Glad to have you following along Jared. The support from you and all the others that comment help to keep the momentum going.
I wish I had more interesting and entertaining updates to post, but as the experienced of us know, this is the dark and under appreciated side of custom car building. It can't all be chrome this and fancy that!
Sometimes it comes down to plain old slugging it out and doing the stuff that ain't as fun or pretty as the big dollar stuff.
Boy, do I hear that!
I purposely don't keep track of the number of hours I put into the various projects on the car, it would probably scare me!
Lol
If I had to guess tho, I would estimate that there's probably in the neighbourhood of 2-300 hours in the hood alone up to this point, probably actually more.
Oh well. I knew at the time it was going to be an ambitious undertaking, its the price I was willing to pay for a unique "one of one" feature on the car.
Thanks very much for the feedback and compliment!
I love Rktpwrd updates....
Glad to hear it Rick, I'll keep 'em coming as long as y'all will let me!
(And as long as all my pics don't crash the server!)
Donovan
Last edited:
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
As always, well written updates, and outstanding attention to detail!
Wow wow wow, I just read through your entire build and this is the style that I am going for! I love your execution!! I will be referring back to this thread A LOT!!!!
Beautiful car!
Beautiful car!
I started reading this 50 page thread last night.
It was just like reading a good book,I couldnt stop until I was too tired to read,then I finished it today.
Donovan you have more patience than I do,I dont think that I could do without having my Monte on the road in the summertime.
You sure are putting a lot of work into getting the small things done right,as the factory should have done them in the first place like you have mentioned.
Being a truck driver,if I were to change one thing it would be to have rear view mirrors on the doors.
But thats just me.
Keep up the good work !!!
Guy
It was just like reading a good book,I couldnt stop until I was too tired to read,then I finished it today.
Donovan you have more patience than I do,I dont think that I could do without having my Monte on the road in the summertime.
You sure are putting a lot of work into getting the small things done right,as the factory should have done them in the first place like you have mentioned.
Being a truck driver,if I were to change one thing it would be to have rear view mirrors on the doors.
But thats just me.
Keep up the good work !!!
Guy
Thanks very much.
It's obviously a long term project, but in the last few years it's finally starting to take shape and get to the point where when I post pics of it, guys can start to see the vision I've had for it rolling around in my head.
Stay tuned for updates as I continue to progress, and thanks for sharing in my journey with me!
Guy, thanks very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed reading along in the thread, I enjoy sharing my progress (and setbacks) with everyone here. Members such as yourself with all the kind comments you all provide make the investment in time doing the write-ups all worthwhile.
🙂
As far as not being able to do without the car for a summer, I think I actually did remarkably well. I made it through 7 seasons of missing out on car related antics before the bug to get back behind the wheel became intolerable.
The year before last, I picked up a second '80 Calais for a song with a hurt motor, and last summer I dropped in a built 350 with Vortec heads, a lumpy cam, a fresh 200R4 with a stage II shift kit and 3:73 gears from a 442.
Best of all, I made it look like the stock 305 that used to be in the car, right down to the factory valve covers and Corporate blue paint. Sleeper!!
🙂
It's not the stump pulling torque of the 455, but it's certainly been enough to take the "jones" out of being in something fun again.
So now really, I kinda have the best of both worlds: a toy to play around with when I don't feel like being shut in in the garage, but still have my pride and joy I can fret over the tiniest details on.
As far as the mirrors are concerned, nothing is written in stone, the final product may yet still include some in one form or another.
Thanks again for checking out the thread, and stay tuned as there's much MUCH more sure to come!
Donovan
I should probably do an update on here while I'm at it...
To be honest, I've kind've been uncharacteristicly slack-*ss on working on the car lately. Partially my fault, partially not.
Over the Christmas break (I had the week between Christmas and New Years off), I was struck with the overwhelming lack of motivation to do anything on the car. Again, totally uncharacteristic for me, but hey, it happens from time to time.
It sucked tho, as prior to Christmas I had big plans of going hardcore on the car that entire week.
I was going to finish prepping and masking off and paint the grilles and headlight bezels (no, I still haven't done that 🙁), get a bunch of work done to the underside of the hood, etc, and then when it actually arrived, I was so burnt out from the pre-Christmas stress, I wanted to do absolutely nothing but sit and relax.
Now, in the New year and with Christmas behind us, I was ready to start making progress again. On one of my trips out to the garage, another ballast burnt out on one of the overhead fluorescent lights.
"Crap. Now I've got two out. It IS getting pretty dim in here, maybe it's time to do that lighting upgrade I've been contemplating for a while now..."
And so it goes. $1000 in new lights, bulbs, etc (and I'm still not done yet, I still have 5 more to replace) and I've effectively doubled or better the amount of light in the shop. It's AWESOME!
And then the roof started to leak...
Or, more correctly, the "B" vent for the gas fired unit heater in the garage AND the roof started to leak. (Condensation buildup inside the chimney). $472 for roofing guys to come out and fix the roof, and another $530 for the heating guys to come out and try and fix the condensation problem. Which they didn't, the damn thing is still dripping. 😡
So here I sit. Broke as a joke, still with a dripping chimney, and no further along on the car. They say life is what happens while you're busy making other plans, and I guess this is what they mean.
Sooner or later, I WILL make up for lost time, and actually begin to make some headway on the 'ol girl again.
But that's enough for now, rant over!
Thanks for listening/reading guys.
Donovan.
To be honest, I've kind've been uncharacteristicly slack-*ss on working on the car lately. Partially my fault, partially not.
Over the Christmas break (I had the week between Christmas and New Years off), I was struck with the overwhelming lack of motivation to do anything on the car. Again, totally uncharacteristic for me, but hey, it happens from time to time.
It sucked tho, as prior to Christmas I had big plans of going hardcore on the car that entire week.
I was going to finish prepping and masking off and paint the grilles and headlight bezels (no, I still haven't done that 🙁), get a bunch of work done to the underside of the hood, etc, and then when it actually arrived, I was so burnt out from the pre-Christmas stress, I wanted to do absolutely nothing but sit and relax.
Now, in the New year and with Christmas behind us, I was ready to start making progress again. On one of my trips out to the garage, another ballast burnt out on one of the overhead fluorescent lights.
"Crap. Now I've got two out. It IS getting pretty dim in here, maybe it's time to do that lighting upgrade I've been contemplating for a while now..."
And so it goes. $1000 in new lights, bulbs, etc (and I'm still not done yet, I still have 5 more to replace) and I've effectively doubled or better the amount of light in the shop. It's AWESOME!
And then the roof started to leak...
Or, more correctly, the "B" vent for the gas fired unit heater in the garage AND the roof started to leak. (Condensation buildup inside the chimney). $472 for roofing guys to come out and fix the roof, and another $530 for the heating guys to come out and try and fix the condensation problem. Which they didn't, the damn thing is still dripping. 😡
So here I sit. Broke as a joke, still with a dripping chimney, and no further along on the car. They say life is what happens while you're busy making other plans, and I guess this is what they mean.
Sooner or later, I WILL make up for lost time, and actually begin to make some headway on the 'ol girl again.
But that's enough for now, rant over!
Thanks for listening/reading guys.
Donovan.
Here's something to take your mind off the car 😉 -- how did you setup the lighting in you garage? Description? Pictures? I'd be interested to know since your garage seems to have a great setup to imitate.
Thanks for the compliment on the shop.
Because there's quite a bit of info to impart on just the lights alone, I'm going to start a new thread for it under general discussion. Look for the thread called "Lighting upgrade".
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
That sucks man, that's always the way too, other crap breaks and takes the time and/money from our builds.I should probably do an update on here while I'm at it...
To be honest, I've kind've been uncharacteristicly slack-*ss on working on the car lately. Partially my fault, partially not.
Over the Christmas break (I had the week between Christmas and New Years off), I was struck with the overwhelming lack of motivation to do anything on the car. Again, totally uncharacteristic for me, but hey, it happens from time to time.
It sucked tho, as prior to Christmas I had big plans of going hardcore on the car that entire week.
I was going to finish prepping and masking off and paint the grilles and headlight bezels (no, I still haven't done that 🙁), get a bunch of work done to the underside of the hood, etc, and then when it actually arrived, I was so burnt out from the pre-Christmas stress, I wanted to do absolutely nothing but sit and relax.
Now, in the New year and with Christmas behind us, I was ready to start making progress again. On one of my trips out to the garage, another ballast burnt out on one of the overhead fluorescent lights.
"Crap. Now I've got two out. It IS getting pretty dim in here, maybe it's time to do that lighting upgrade I've been contemplating for a while now..."
And so it goes. $1000 in new lights, bulbs, etc (and I'm still not done yet, I still have 5 more to replace) and I've effectively doubled or better the amount of light in the shop. It's AWESOME!
And then the roof started to leak...
Or, more correctly, the "B" vent for the gas fired unit heater in the garage AND the roof started to leak. (Condensation buildup inside the chimney). $472 for roofing guys to come out and fix the roof, and another $530 for the heating guys to come out and try and fix the condensation problem. Which they didn't, the damn thing is still dripping. 😡
So here I sit. Broke as a joke, still with a dripping chimney, and no further along on the car. They say life is what happens while you're busy making other plans, and I guess this is what they mean.
Sooner or later, I WILL make up for lost time, and actually begin to make some headway on the 'ol girl again.
But that's enough for now, rant over!
Thanks for listening/reading guys.
Donovan.
