Well this has been a busy day. Morning service came way too early for me as my ride got here while I was still in the shower, then I was not quite done with e-mail and comics before I had to leave again for the Church Board meeting. While I was waiting for the board meeting to get started I got a text that some of the D&D group were breaking up and would not be coming back to play. So lots of drama today but not much work getting done. I still need to get the slot done for the extended stem and then braze the assembly together do make it solid, and I haven’t had a chance to touch it since I posted the pictures two or three weeks ago. I really need to get that done.
I’m still thinking about the Sprint-T. Thinking as in figuring out what I’m going to do with it to get it together and drivable. The biggest obstacle is Mrs. the Poet’s ban on donor vehicles unless I build it someplace away from the house. Since there is no way I’m going to have that kind of budget I have to do the crate engine and transmission route that costs a lot more than buying a low-mileage wreck and robbing it of all the drivetrain and brakes and incidentals… So I have found some really cheap crate engines but there is a reason they are cheap. Horsepower costs money, how fast do you want to spend? The range I’m looking at runs from 180 HP at about $1.5k, to 430 HP at $4k. The $1.5K engine will cost about $2200 to complete and weigh 50 pounds more than the $4k engine which will cost about the same to complete. So looking at $3700 for 180 HP compared to $6200 for 430 HP. And neither of those includes the transmission or support equipment that doesn’t mount to the engine. Well nobody ever said building cars was cheap, just cheaper than buying new. And more fun than signing a bighuge check and driving away in something you just bought, signing a few big checks, or a bunch of little checks, and driving away a few months later in something you just built.
Seriously though this is the big question to solve on this build. If I can’t get this one solved, I don’t get a Sprint-T, as simple as that. I want to buy a late model wreck and strip it but Mrs. the Poet won’t let me. I can buy a totalled wreck for about $7500-12k, and that’s cheaper because I get a complete engine and transmission with all the electronics and brakes and engine accessories and everything, plus I get to sell the shell for body parts or as scrap.
Seriously, I need to get a bigger budget for this thing.
PSA, Opus the Poet
Witch on a Bicycle 