How To Plan A Project Car Buildup

If you’ve never built a car before, the task of turning your dream into a real vehicle can seem daunting. There are a jillion parts in an automobile, and just about as many ways to make a mistake. Let’s face it: There’s a lot more at stake when you’re building a car than when you’re fixing the slice in your golf game or tying a fly to dupe a fish. A car-building mistake can put a serious dent in your wallet, in your car, or in your health insurance deductible, so it pays to do it right the first time.

We spoke with several of the top rod builders in the country—Roy Brizio, Pete Chapouris, Ken “Posies” Fenical, and Barry Lobeck—and asked them how to do it right the first time. Here’s what they had to say.

Getting Started

The right move when starting a buildup is to resist the impulse to buy a car and start tearing it apart. Before you spend dollar one on a car or on parts, have a firm idea of what kind of car you want to build—that means exactly what kind of car. Not just a year and make, but the style of the car (traditional or high-tech, for example), how it will sit, what kind of driveline you want, how you will use it, that sort of thing. You should be able to see the car in your mind’s eye down to some pretty fine detail.

You can gather that kind of detail by going to car shows, reading magazines, getting involved with a club, and talking to people who own the kind of car you want. Keep a scrapbook of photos to solidify the image in your mind. Once you’ve found a car with the look, thumbtack a picture of it over your desk so you can stare at it constantly. * Ferret out aspects you hadn’t considered before, like whether or not your car fits you—“Literally,” says Lobeck. “If you’re a tall guy, you may not fit into a chopped coupe or a T roadster.”

Set a budget—an honest one. “The money is the reality check,” Chapouris points out. “Especially if you’ll be taking work to a pro. Can you afford it?” A quick poll of shops across the country netted us shop rates that varied anywhere from $40 up to $80 an hour. Specialty work can run $100 an hour. According to Lobeck, “It takes 1,200 to 1,500 hours to build a car. Do the math.”

You can save a ton of money by doing some, or most, of the work yourself. But as with the budget, be brutally honest when you assess your abilities. Not everyone can, or should, tackle a car buildup on their own.

As Chapouris puts it, “You have to be pretty handy to build a car. Not only do you have to know which end of the bolt goes in the hole, but also where the lock washer goes.” You should be the kind of person who gets a lot of satisfaction out of solving problems with your hands. “If you hate having to replace the flippy stopper in your toilet tank, or if you don’t want to take apart the lawn sprinkler to find out why it’s not working, you won’t be happy building an automobile. It can be tedious work.”

Tedious, complex, and exacting, as the results of your handiwork will be moving down the road with you inside it. “You gotta have fun, but you also have to be safe,” Chapouris says. “If you don’t feel right about doing things like plumbing your own brake lines, then don’t do it. Subcontract the work.”

“Hey, even the pros send stuff out,” Brizio admits. “We don’t build everything here. We could, but why? We can send stuff—like engine assembly—out to the experts who can do it faster and cheaper. If we don’t build everything, how can the guy who’s building a car in his garage expect to do it all? He should concentrate on what he can do and take the rest to a shop so he doesn’t get frustrated and give up on the project.”

Set up a time frame for your rod buildup. In a world of cell phones and e-mail, we’re programmed for instant gratification, but building a car doesn’t work that way. “I don’t care how big a check you write, I’m not going to get the plater to work any faster,” Chapouris says. “The paint isn’t going to dry any quicker. A car built from scratch is going to take a year to finish.” Lobeck’s 1,500-hour estimate works out to 37½ 40-hour workweeks. Don’t count on a builder spending 40 hours a week just on your car.

These time estimates are for from-scratch hot rods, but they’re also for professional builders who aren’t learning the craft as they go. Beginners may be better off not building by a schedule. Give yourself ample time to gain skills and fix mistakes as you go.

For those still in the homework stages: “If you’re starting with an existing car, buy a shop manual for that car,” Chapouris says. “It will be worth every penny when you take the car apart.”

Once you’ve decided on the car and the theme, stick with your plan. “Don’t be a flavor-of-the-month guy,” Chapouris says. It will save you money and time if you’re not changing parts midstream. This can be tough for a novice rodder, as part of your learning process is to solicit help and advice from those in the know. But if you’re not careful, you’ll wind up with a car that looks like it was designed by committee, and not the result of one person’s dream.

Brizio warns against jumping ahead of yourself. “It’s so tempting to buy the wheels and tires early or to plate and polish trim pieces before the body is ready.” But, he says, “if you buy a set of wheels before the chassis is set up, you might not have the right offset. Or the fenders might not fit over the tires. Or in the year it takes to build the car, some trick new tire may come out.” Patience ranks up there with time and money as a key part of the process.

Buying Tips

Our builders offered these suggestions for when it comes time to lay down your hard-earned cash.

All agreed that it’s better to spend more money for a better car to start with, as it will cost you less in the long run. If you’re looking for an existing car to rebuild, “buy as complete a car as possible,” says Chapouris. “You stand a much better chance of finishing the project if all the pieces are there—bumper brackets, door handles, window lines, that sort of stuff. This is especially true if you’re buying an oddball sort of car. If your car is off-the-wall, and there’s not much of it there, you’re signing up to fail.”

If you’re in the market for a reproduction car, “shop for bang for the buck,” Lobeck offers. “You can pay for it now, or pay later. What have you gained if you save $1,000 on a body, only to pay $1,500 in bodywork later?” When you’re shopping for components, it’s best to buy as many as you can from one source, Lobeck adds. “That way, if you have problems, you’ll know where to return the parts.”

According to Brizio, it’s best to save up your money and buy exactly what you want. “Let’s say you really want a ’32, but you think it’ll be cheaper to buy a Model A. Well, the repro Model A body is $5,000, and the ’32 is $6,500. Most of the parts, and certainly the time and labor, cost the same whether you’re building the A or the Deuce. So why not wait a bit, save the extra $1,500, and get what you really want? Plus the ’32 will have greater resale value.”

Chapouris is a believer in the “stepping-stone” car. “If your budget is tight, buy an obscure car, build it yourself, and sell it as a stepping stone. This car will be so cheap you can probably scavenge stuff for it, like engines that other guys are just tossing out. It may be the only profitable car you ever build. Plus it’s a great car to learn on. You won’t be afraid of it, like you would be if you were learning on a Deuce Vicky.”

A Solid Foundation

Once you’ve bought a car or you’re ready buy repro parts, our experts agreed that the work should start with the chassis. “Form follows function,” Chapouris says. “Don’t do any bodywork before you’ve worked out the chassis, otherwise the body won’t sit right.”

In order of importance, “after era and style comes stance,” Fenical says. “Set up your suspension and tires, and then modify the body accordingly.”

If you’re working on an existing car, one of the first decisions to make is whether or not to use its original chassis. “If you’re building a car like a ’33 three-window and you’re starting with an original car, unless you’ve just gotta have the original frame you’re better off buying a new chassis than fixing the old one,” Brizio says. “We can’t rebuild an existing chassis as cheaply as we can build a new one, and the original won’t be as nice.”

“For the average guy, buying a complete chassis saves a lot of headaches and money,” Brizio adds. “We have customers who buy a chassis with the master cylinder in place, the brake and fuel lines plumbed, and the suspension already there. If you really want to hang your own suspension, buy what we call a Stage 1 chassis—with the crossmembers and motor and trans mounts already in place—and then put in the suspension.”

The suspension’s location in the frame provides fixed points to build other components around. “You put in the new suspension, then you route the exhaust,” Fenical tells us. “You have no choice about where to put the rear axle, and you know the exhaust has to clear it. Once the exhaust is in, then you place the fuel tank. It has to clear the rest, and it should be outside of the car.”

According to Lobeck, the brake master cylinder and pedal are two more fixed points on the chassis that have to be accommodated. “The brake mount can’t be moved, and the geometry of the pedal is critical. You can’t cut the pedal and expect to still have brakes. That’s why 90 percent of the chassis sold have the brakes already on them.”

“The locations for the motor, transmission, steering, pedals, and radiator all have to be thought through together,” Chapouris says. “The left side of the frame is the most complicated, since you have to place the master cylinder and pedals, plus you have to make sure your steering will clear the headers.” This is why it’s critically important to have made your engine and tranny choices before this point, so you’ll know their configuration and can plan for their mounting points.

Brizio keeps mockup parts around, like “junk engine blocks, empty blower cases, alternators, air conditioners, stuff like that,” to test-fit the components as the car is going together.

Be sure all the components going on the frame are in place, including the brackets and holes for the brake and fuel lines, before you think about priming and painting the chassis. “If you have to drill a hole or weld a bracket, they all have to be primed and painted or they will rust,” Fenical says. If you’re rebuilding an intact car, examine the original chassis closely to make sure it’s straight, that it wasn’t wrecked and repaired badly, that the metal is sound, and that all the rivets are still in place.

“You’re ahead of the game if you have an assembled car,” says Fenical. “You can build the exhaust before pulling the engine and make sure the headers clear the steering before you take it all apart. Then you’ll know what needs modifying.”

Massaging the Body

According to Chapouris, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when rebuilding an existing car is to tear it apart before taking careful measurements around the engine compartment. “Many post-war cars had sixes, so they have long engine compartments and just about any engine will fit. But don’t take the car apart without measuring where the firewall is to see where the pedals will go, or measuring the inner fenders to make sure headers will fit. Keep the car together until you’ve decided what’s going in it.”

Fenical takes this a step further. “You should build the car while it’s still together,” he says. “Do all the changes before blowing the car apart so you’ll know what needs modifying and what the car will look like.”

For example, if you’re doing a top chop, perform the surgery while the car is on its wheels, not when the body is sitting on a table. “The suspension changes the shape of the car,” Fenical says. Also, all body mount, door, and panel alignment should be checked with the car on its wheels.

Once you’ve made all your body mods and repairs, pre-assemble the car on the chassis to make sure it all fits before you send it to the body shop for paint. “It sounds like we’re doing the work twice, but in the long run you’ll save time,” says Brizio. “In the end the re-assembly will just fly together.”

At Brizio’s, they pre-fit all the car’s components, “then we take off all of the stuff that doesn’t need to be in the car and roll the car to the body shop,” explains Roy. “That way they can get all panels to align at all the proper gaps.”

If you’re buying a reproduction body, do a lot of homework to make sure the various components will work together. Not all repro bodies are exact reproductions of the original car, so parts don’t necessarily interchange.

“Only a few of the companies talk to one another,” says Chapouris. “So not all components will bolt together. For example, a So-Cal windshield will fit on a real Deuce, on a Wescott body, and on a Brookville, but won’t fit on a Rod Bod body.”

“I think you should plan on having a hood built from scratch,” Fenical says. “They almost never fit the cowl, radiator, grille, and fenders.”

One other word of caution from Brizio: Depending on the company you choose and which body you’re purchasing, there may be a six- to 12-month wait for the body to be built. Remember what we says about patience? But this could be good news, too. “When you’re planning and budgeting, you may be able to put down a deposit for the body, then spend your money collecting other parts and building the chassis while the body is going together,” says Brizio.

Nearly Finished

Fenical tells us that the first thing he does to a car after it leaves the paint booth is insulate the interior, including inside the roof before installing the headliner. “It not only keeps the heat from billowing into the car, but it makes the whole car ‘dead,’ like a modern factory car. It’s a $1,000 to $1,500 unseen expense, which may be hard to justify to your wife, but it makes a huge difference in the driving comfort of the car.”

Wiring the car always comes after paint, but before upholstery. “You don’t want to paint the wires,” Fenical says, “but you want to be able to cover the wires with the upholstery.”

Posies also takes the time to pre-assemble pieces like the seat tracks and hood- and trunk-release cables before installing the interior, so that if any of those pieces needs fixing it can be done while the car is apart and access is easier.

Buy Versus Build

If all this sounds way too complicated, there are other options. Lobeck suggests buying a completed car before you build one, as “you’ll have a much better idea of what you want after you’ve owned one. Spend $30,000 on a car and see if you like it. If you don’t, it’s much easier to sell a finished $30,000 car than $30,000 worth of parts.” If 30 large is too rich for you, Lobeck figures you could get into a post-war Ford or Chevy coupe for $15,000 to $18,000. “And that’s a good way to get into the hobby.”

Chapouris suggests a “shave and haircut:” Buy a car that’s already modified, but make it your own by changing its color and swapping on new wheels and tires. “You’ll be in it for only a third of what it takes to build a whole car.”

“It’s much cheaper to buy a built car than to build one,” Fenical tells us. “But either way, never look at a car like this as an investment. Buy it or build it to enjoy it.”