RPMS

I agree with the other guys. $6k would be about right if you drove the car in to them and they did all the work, but considering the work you've already put into it, $6k is really steep. With the amount of work you've already invested ("Sweat equity") I'd imagine that you could get a high quality spray for about a thousand dollars. Add another $1,000 - 1,500 for any bodywork that's needed, and that's what I consider reasonable. I also agree with Denny. Get references from your local car club to find a good independent painter. Or talk to the guys in a local bike club. Motorcyclists are crazy for individual paint jobs, and there are sportbiking squids in every bike club who crash and need new paint on a regular basis. Just my .02

I hate you, you know that?

Don't worry about it. We'll just turn to running corn squeezings. Personally, if gas ran dry, I think I'd set up my own little distillery in the backyard to fuel my habit.

...and for God's sake, don't buy their crap about "these windshields don't need any sealant around them." I had a major installer do mine (Binswanger) in July, and I believed them when they fed me that line. The only time my car has been out in the rain since then, it leaked like a seive. DEMAND that they use a good sealant!

You might be surprised to hear this, but I've got definite thoughts on this issue. It seems to me that car manufacturers screw up when they overstep what they do well. As an example, my Grandma had a Buick Rivera T-Type back in the eighties. It was a speedy little car and wasn't bad, except for the fact that they put an electronic dashboard with a virtually nonfunctional touch screen control panel in it. Hit the slightest imperfection in the road while trying to adjust the radio, and you were listening to Spanish talk radio instead of the Lawrence Welk she wanted. Or you'd hit the heater instead of the A/C section of the screen. Now, tell me what was so bad about the buttons on regular radios and climate control systems that Buick designers felt compelled to replace them with that piece 'o crap? BMW's i-drive system has been similarly excoriated (sp?) by just about everyone who has reviewed it. Technology that does not NEED to be there SHOULDN'T be there. Put cables and levers on A/C systems instead of vacuum motors and electronic stepping motors. Tune radios with buttons. Is the public too stupid to turn the fan on the A/C down when it gets too cold? Are we really so lazy that we can't lift a finger to tune the radio? If the car companies would spend their development money on making cars reliable instead of trying to make them as technologically complicated as possible, we'd have MUCH better cars, and those people like me, who can't afford a new car, would get a more reliable used car, too. I shudder to think what the $50,000 cars of today will be like in ten years, when the navigation systems won't work, the power seats break, the climate control systems won't function properly, and the voice controlled functions will no longer recognize vocal commands. Doesn't matter who makes them, if they aren't sufficiently robust to be reliable ten years from now, depreciation will be atrocious! Don't get me wrong - I'm all for technological progress. I'm not about to go back to a points ignition and AM radio for the sake of sheer simplicity. But I don't think it's a smart idea to put the bleeding edge of technology in a car. Just because you CAN replace it with an electronic chip doesn't mean you SHOULD. Make sure it's going to be reliable before selling it to the public, instead of making the public be the Beta testers. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Len, I'll take that with a grain of salt, as I drive around in my 250,000 mile BMW that can STILL beat the pants off 95% of the cars on the road.

So what's the difference between balancers for the same application? Given the ones that work with an internally balanced crankshaft, why would someone prefer an 8" balancer over a 7 1/4" or a 6" one? Do the larger ones work better in a given application?

Wow, that's a great price. Grab it and run! Around here, they're rare as hen's teeth. I've been quoted prices in the $500 range for an rebuildable shortblock, when I can find one.

Good! My plan is coming together. Now all I need to do is convince you to shave your head, put on a yellow robe, and sell flowers in the airport....

Oh, come on. You can come up with a better argument than that. Sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling "bla bla bla bla" won't convince anyone of your position. You might want to go to your local library and check out the April 2002 edition of Consumer Reports. Look at the hard facts, then tell us why American cars IN GENERAL are anywhere near as reliable as their import counterparts. There are specific examples of statistically reliable American cars, but they are few and far between. I am happy that you have had good luck with the American cars you've owned. You are, unfortunately, in the minority.

Yeah, he'd sneak out through the exhaust valve. The first exhaust pulse would shoot 007 through the air, no doubt straight into the bed of his latest hottie.

Depreciation sucks, to the point where I can't in good conscience advise ANYONE to go with a brand new car, no matter how cool it is, unless they're planning on keeping it for ten years or more. Buying a two year old import car has the best chance of being a wise purchase, from a cost/benefit standpoint. But I've gotta admit, the new Altima is awfully cool. There's a guy across the street from me that has a black one, and it's not bad looking. And with 240 horses under the hood, that thing's gotta scoot! In a couple of years, I might well get one myself.

Scottie - That little thing is doing ALL THAT WORK? Doesn't quite seem possible, does it. Amazing...

Hey, guys. When the TBI injectors on a 350cid Chevy engine are functioning properly, should there be any dribbling? At idle, WOT, or any point in between, there's some liquid fuel dribbling from the injectors along with that which is sprayed into the bores. I can't remember whether they used to do that or not. Nothing comes out of them when the fuel system is pressurized with the engine off, and rebuilding the pressure regulator didn't do anything either. Maybe someone with a stock TBI setup could pull off their air cleaners and take a look at them for me? Please? Thanks,

Oh, I've already got three or four of those laying around. They're not so much. Stuff like that IS nice to fantasize about, isn't it?

Sure, torque is what wins races, but the real charge (for me, anyway) is the whole package deal of going fast. When a car can combine acceleration, handling, comfort, and makes the "right" sort of noises under acceleration, THAT is slick! And the "right" sound (for me, at least) occurs somewhere above 6,000 RPM. Winding a powerful motor up to the stratosphere carries with it a profound sense of gratification. The sounds that the GT40 replica makes David Karey's Post is an example of what I consider to be the perfect car noise. Listening to that man wind his car up through the gears is just about enough to make me want a cigarette. I say, go for it! Spend the extra money to make an engine that will scream up to 8k rpm and make your local ricers scatter in fear!

man, what a pity you don't live in Dallas. I just ran across an Opel GT in a pick-a-part lot this weekend, and it's in nearly perfect condition. A little rust on the wheelwells and showing a little age in the paint, but otherwise it might sell on the open market as a complete car. I think they're cute little cars, too!

Black with red/orange colorshifting ghost flames. Is there any other choice??

If you were good at budgeting and wanted to do the work yourself, you might get 2 V8Z cars for $10k. If you hired all the work out and bought a rust free Z to start with, 10k would do the trick nicely. Or you could just use the 10k to buy a stripped down Toyota Tercel and be done with it...

Where are you located, anyway? There must be a lot of hungry mechanics around there, with prices like that!

Sorry about all these multiple posts, guys. By the time I realized my browser had locked up, I'd hit the "send" key over and over. Sometimes it takes a while before I figure things out.

Man, that's almost TOO cheap! Figure $120 for the manifold, $150 for a used Holley and $100 to get the driveshaft shortened, and after all the labor to clean things up and bolt stuff together, they're not making much money on this deal. If you're happy with the caliber of work they're doing on other people's cars, then go for it. Tough to imagine that you could possibly lose on this deal.

Hey, John. Could you elaborate a bit? Should he not buy it because the inlet is the wrong size, or because it's a crap muffler? I'm curious.

Look in the Consumer Reports automotive guide to used cars and see what cars get much better than average repair ratings, and which get much worse than average. The Japanese cars have so many red dots (good ratings) that it looks like someone bled all over the page. Look to the American cars, and you'll see a sea of black and half black dots, signifying more repairs than average. American cars are getting better, but they're still not as reliable as their Japanese counterparts. I can't understand why some folks insist that American cars on the whole are just as reliable as imports. It just ain't true, and I can show you any number of studies and publications that support this. There are indeed some random American vehicles that go forever on just oil and filter changes, but not nearly as many US cars behave that way as Japanese cars. Sure, after a while ANY car will break, but historically the MTBF (time between failures) of a Japanese car is greater than that of a US car. That's not my opinion, that's numerical fact. If you want to buy American, more power to you. I admire you like I admire those who support public radio and their local PBS stations. But don't for an instant fool yourself into thinking that on average, domestic iron is as reliable as Japanese offerings. Statistically, it just ain't so. If you happened to be one of the people who have an American car with 250,000 miles on it and have never had an unscheduled repair, I'm very happy for you. It DOES happen. But not as often as with Japanese cars. Do I feel guilty about not buying American? Yes. I sincerely wish my personal economic situation would allow me to buy a product from Detroit. But I can't afford to gamble that the car I buy *might* be reliable, and *might* not.