oldcutlass

My wife and I are kinda low tech Eric. We don't use ATM's and can't see a value or reason for them. We use a joint checking account, but I can't remember the last time I wrote a check since you can do everything online nowadays. We use credit cards in place of carrying cash and pay em off at the end of every month. On a side note the credit card rewards program pays me more money when I spend money than what I get in the bank, go figure.

KDV

+1

droldsmorland

Bills expensive but for me hes right around the corner and you get what you pay for. Barnash is another good builder on Lyell but Bills the Olds guy.
Oh and I dont have a wife!

toro68

Only a couple grand? Heck I would of not said jack-crap to her!

w-30dreamin

It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

I would have done the same as you.Just do it and then inform her.

tecar442

This is exactly the way we conduct our personal finances. The wife and I never argue about car expenses. In fact she's the one who suggested fixing up our convertible that had set up on blocks for over 20 years and also helped pull and install the engine. Now she thinks we should buy an enclosed trailer to haul it on long trips. Don't use money you need for bills to buy parts. That would be a bad choice.

coppercutlass

Many know im a penny pinching budget building scrounging gearhead. My reason for that is., I like to save money plain and simple plus cheap thrills are where its at. I think in the last 6 months I have not spent more than 500 bucks on car stuff and all of that money came from sidejobs selling parts and some of those parts came from trading stuff I had. My girlfriend/fiancé got mad at me once and said "how come you have all this money to blow and im sitting here broke " :we have separate accounts and split bills: . I simply told her " look I scrounge, ask for hand outs whenever possible, I trade labor for work space to do side jobs to pay for parts, Im wearing the same jeans I wore 3 years ago along with shirts, I drive a turd bucket Saturn to work everyday, and limit my personal weekly spendings so I can have gas money to take the beast out. What sacrifices do you make ? ". I think I struck a cord with here because she is horrible with money but is learning if you spend less on dumb things you get to do fun dumb things lol. She works car sales on straight commission and some weeks are harder than others. There has been weeks when I couldn't take the car out because I had to put the cruising fund towards groceries. There was even a 2 week spell where I had to wait to spend 50 bucks on trans fluid and trans pan gasket and filter because I had to step up and cover her end of the bills which I don't mind. I think I spent more on helping her out than my car this year., AND she gets a ring this fall. Not fair at all lol.

gearhead1218

WOW, this thread went well.
Update; Better half was more mad about the amount than being mad at me. The original estimate was for around 6K. Price blossomed almost another 3K.
I don't keep anything from her since she get's my paycheck and pays the bills (AND PAYING BILL). It's worked well like this for the 24 years we've been married.
AND, I had this Olds before I met her. Matter of fact, I met her in it. After I sold it in '02 she mentioned that I would regret selling it. When I was given the chance to buy it back I reminded her of that statement. This car has more sentimental value than monetary value. As a matter of fact I call it "The Money Pit".

Bill Trovato IS expensive. No arguing that. But he is one of the best in the business and with his close proximity to me, it made sense to have a quality build done, The mentality I'm trying to use is build it right, and make it last.

And yes guys, I used the drugs and gambling excuse as well.

Professur

+50% ... wasn't a very good estimate.

stevengerard

But it is still less than most of us have gotten taken for in repairs. Ole rule of thumb - get an estimate - double it and expect to pay twice that in the end.

70Post

You're assuming nothing changed. Did the customer decide to go with some other, higher $, parts during the process, etc??? You know..."I want a stock rod, TRW pistoned build". Later on it could be "you know, let's change to Eagle rods and lighter pistons, etc".

z11375ss

X2 I NEVER let her know how much things cost.

kitfoxdave

The car stuff is expensive, but peanuts compared to airplane parts! But she still lets me play with airplanes....
She likes to ride in both!

chadman

Just curious, was this due to you adding to the build after the estimate or just a bad estimate to begin with?

edzolz

You best do anything to get back in her good graces, after all, the women have half the money and all of the pu$$y.

Professur

Not hardly. I get an estimate, and if it's more than 10% over, someone's got some answering to do, and it sure isn't me. That's on paper before any work starts for me. More importantly, it had better not be a surprise delivered after the fact. 50% means either something catastrophic happened that wasn't detected at the beginning when I ok'ed the quote ... someone screwed up, and how is it my problem to pay for that .... or the person quoting didn't have a clue .. and when their website states 28 years experience in Olds engines , none of those are really acceptable answers. But the OP hasn't said which of the above it is.


The OP hasn't said anything did. He appears surprised at the total ... I can't see how that would be the case if he'd been the one making changes. They wouldn't be accepting build changes without writing it down and updating the running total, would they?

If I'm paying someone a premium for their expertise, I'm sure not going to be telling him how to do his job. My first post in this thread was asking why the bloom. Still no details. I can't really see that shop blowing a quote that badly. $9k for the engine he's getting isn't unrealistic ...

droptopron

I bought my Cutlass in '06 or '07. At the time I was driving an '00 Regal that I bought for my wife when new and she always had newer cars. Previous to the Cutlass I was looking at a BMW as a daily driver. I used the reasoning that if I wanted to drive an old car every day and have the Olds that is what I should do. In '11 I bought my Caddy CTS new so that line went out the window.

Kennybill

I "use" to have a wife that hated/got pissed at my one car. I now have a Lady friend that likes my many cars. Life is too short for drama. Jmo, Ken

drjr56

Had the car before the wife,she is long gone.Car is still in my garage.Last summer I had a 455 built at a little shop in Paso Robles Ca. Carb to pan minus the manifold and pully's cost 9g's.....Motor has aluminum heads ,roller cam,and restrictors,and a pertronix ignition.Might be a tad high,for the hp output,which I think should be close to 450.About the manifold I did send them my Performer to clean and have divider milled down,included in price.

s i 442

Another thing I go by is, when I buy a car I put a price on it from day 1 and make adjustments to the price. Plus I have no budget, if the car needs it I buy it, if I want it I buy it but the whole time not going over what I think I can get out of it minus mileage I put on it.

oldsman72

Happy wife = happy life

If I go too far with toy expenses, I reel it in. Take a break with repair/resto until you can restore your "points". Otherwise, like I've seen happen to a buddy of mine, you'll ****-off the wife so bad that when she leaves, she'll make it her goal in life to separate you from that car. Be careful.

tru-blue 442

This has turned into quite an interesting thread.
I will second, "Happy wife, happy life."

I feel very blessed. We married very young,
I was 19, she was 17. God is good.

The sale of the 66 442 cpe. got us out of that
rat race in DFW 25 yrs ago and we landed on the Highland
Lakes and haven't looked back.

I had been mumbling about the cpe for yrs. I came across
the vert and so far so good. It did help that I had JUST paid
off her trailblazer. My argument was, "Hell, I have been making
car payments for the last 15 yrs, what's 5 more?"

On a side note the house will be ours next year as well.

A good woman is hard to find, all bullshit aside guys.
Good luck to all, sincerally. If I didn't say it, I
truly mean it, "Thank you God!"

oldstata

X2 A good woman is hard to find, all bullshit aside guys.
Good luck to all, sincerally. If I didn't say it, I
truly mean it, "Thank you God!"

gearheads78

PM the used price so you can pay for a lawyer when she kicks you out

I too am curious was this project creep or you mis-quoted or what?

coppercutlass

One of the local olds racers has a 9 sec engine that cost 10k. btr's seems way out there.

allyolds68

You'll just have to sell that Cougar to pay for it

j/k

I'm thinking about the Log Cabin one of these Wednesdays, you game? You can even bring that Merc if you want

MDchanic

I'd sell mine, but it seems they can be fairly temperamental, and demand quite a bit of time, money, and attention, so the market's not what you might think.

Lynxes and Minxes, on the other hand, seem to demand a premium, even when they won't go at all.

Go figure...

- Eric

allyolds68

I gotta say, that wasn't really the direction I was headed but it makes a whole lot of sense now that Eric has translated it for me....

gearhead1218

Wife has calmed down. She WAS mad. Her anger was at the idea of the amount of money overall spent, because HELL, this was a lot of money. The work done was QUALITY work with QUALITY parts. This costs money and we both know this.
Was BTR expensive? Sure he is, but compared to what and who? He's one of the best in the business and his work shows it.
There were no real suprises on this build. A running total was kept during to who process. And as said, I should have doubled the estimate.
There were a lot of parts bought, there were mistakes the PO made on the initial build that needed correcting, and in the end there was a little bling tacked on as well. But just a little bling.

BTW. The dyno results are ----- 549HP @ 5300
620lb ft @ 4000
Like I said. I wanted a quality, durable build that wouldn't blow up on me.
In the end I got just that with a bonus.
Even I'm not happy spending those kinds of bucks, but I feel I did get what I paid for.

starfire

Better hope she doesn't read this thread

coppercutlass

Starfire that's funny. Im literally about to order my front suspension parts from summit racing. I really hope she does not read this now .

Professur

That is a whole lot of torque.

drjr56

Dyno result are pretty darn good for the money.....It's an Olds not a Chevy. Did you share the engine specs somewhere.....

gearheads78

So is she gonna be mad adout the upcoming transmission and axle bills

Stevec

I was thinking the same thing

tru-blue 442

+3, but what a monster,
that thing will scare the mad
out of her quick or make it worse, one.

jfb

I have not read the other posts and i am divorced but what the heck. I say take her for a seat wetting ride and let the chips fall where they may. I have a girlfriend and she loves this kind of ride belieeeeeeeve me.

gearhead1218

Haven't as of yet. Was thinking of keeping it a mystery. But may post in the build section.

Chevy 12 bolt, 3.73 gears, Eaton posi, Moser Axles. CPT 200-4R built to 750HP specs. Rear was already done, tranny added another 3K to this adventure.
I'm feeling like a Sugar Daddy.

Hoping She'll know it was worth it when she gets behind the wheel and lites them up from a roll.

gearhead1218

Mike,
To meet a fellow member here I would definately consider meeting you at the Cabin. But know this, the place has gone more to the tuners and bikers over the last few years. Haven't been there at all this year and went once last year. And the place is 10 minutes from me.
B&C Restorations is having an open house and Cruise-In this coming Sunday, the 11th.
http://www.bandcautorestoration.com/
When I've got the time I stop over to Tom Wahl's in Newark on Tuesdays. Anywhere from 40 to 80 cars go there.

Olds_71_442

I would be happy with paying $9000 making those kind of numbers.

I wish Bill Trovato lived closer to me.....