i love workin on my truck...no doubt about it. i will do anything and everything i have the tools for and feel comfortable doing. I will even try stuff i'm not comfortable with as long as someone is there to fix it when i **** it up(tyler)

 

yeah i do most of my wn work... only thing i dont do.. (yet) is body work, and transmissions... i can rebuild a standard trans with my eyes closed, but an automatic scares the hell outta me.... dunno why i had the trans tech try t show me all of it, but im always worried im gonna screw something up.


then again who am i to talk i havent done really anything to my truck yet... except some trans work..

 

I don't really care who did the work on someones vehicle. As long as it was all thought up by them and they didn't buy it pre-modded.
Some people (my self included) can't do a lot of the work. As long as the owner had a an idea in his head to modify it and gave it his/her own personal touch, I don't think it matters who turned the bolts.

I do however feel that you get more self satisfaction if you can do the work your self.

 

Exactly, this is the point I'm trying to make. I think that it's getting lost a little bit here.

I don't think there are any members on this forum that simply drive their stock truck into the local speed shop and tell the owner, "Here's a blank check, make it run 11s and call me when it's done." We don't have those guys here, that's not the demographic of this site, and that is what makes it great. They have no interest in what actually goes into the process of building their vehicles, just the finished product. Those guys are in my opinion the ones who truly "bought".

Everyone on this site does their research and learns about their trucks from expereinces of other members and vendors here. Then they install what they are comfortable doing themselves or with the help of others, and farm out the rest. And that applies to probably 97% of the trucks and owners on this site. I think it's safe to say that everybody on this forum, given the choice would like to do everything on their truck themselves, even if they don't know how to or have never done it before. Those guys shouldn't be lumped in with the guy whose only tool is a pen and a bank account.

That's all I'm trying to say.

 

I love working on my truck(78) Ive done everything except set up on the rear end and machining work on the motor and the tranny,what helped me is my "dad" showing me a few tricks and pointers.But i would love to learn body work!

 

IMO it comes down to someone working to there abilities. If someone is able to do all the work on their car/truck that is great, but if someone has no clue or does not have the tools, space or expertise to do it themselves is that person less of a hot rodder? Personally I do all the work on my vehicles. On my race car I am making a solid frame car out of a uni-body car. I have even made a few tools to complish this task such as frame/leveling jig, bead roller, metal brake, etc... I am making the entire floor, trunk and firewall foward from scratch, adding a completely different front suspension, etc... On my truck I done all my exhaust, paint, intake from scratch and I just started tuning. My truck besides what is listed is basically stock, so does all that make me more of a hot rodder than some on here, IMO nope. People on this site are in different stages of learning/modding, some go deeper than others, but we all share a common goal which is to make our rides our own and faster, better looking, etc... Just my .02.....

Cliff notes, there are different levels of 'BUILT'.....

 

Oh, something I forgot, people who buy rides from like Boyd Coddington, are not hot rodders, ricers that clear shopp mainly at Autozone are not hot rodders....