This is really frustrating - a few weeks ago my wife agreed to let me spend about $15K on fixing up my Barracuda. The plan was to get an engine built first, then take car, engine, and transmission to a shop here in town and get everything installed (if it was just puting in the new engine I could handle it myself, but I'm also converting from an automatic to a 5 speed manual transmission). We would worry about paint and interior after getting all the mechanicals taken care of. I went and got a couple of estimates for rebuilding a 360, and everything seemed to be going smooth, until...
...she talked to some dipshit who's a mechanic and supposedly "races cars." He told her it would be a waste of money to spend $7,200 on an engine when we could get one from Kragen or Pep Boys a lot cheaper. Hmmm, this genius "races cars" and he doesn't know the difference in quality between a custom built high performance engine and a mass produced stock type rebuild? He told her it's a waste of money to fix up an old car because we'd never be able to sell it for as much as we put in it. I already knew that. I'm building it to keep, not to sell. He told her we'd be better off buying a car that someone else had already fixed up. Right, genius, except then instead of having the car we want, built the way we want, we get a car that someone else wanted, built the way they wanted. So now, thanks to this dipshit whom I've never even met, the rebuild plan for the Barracuda has been taken off the fast track and put in the slow lane. Why is it that people insist on sticking their nose into other people's business?
Well, the build will still happen - just a little slower, but I'm still hoping to have my Barracuda on the road by the end of May. I can drive it a couple of months to get the bugs worked out. Hopefully by the end of August I'll have enough saved up for a new differential, wheels, and tires. I'd like all the mechanical work done by the end of September so I can drive it to the Fall Colors Classic in Bishop this fall.