Who built their own cars and still own them?

[mdross1]

Originally Posted by lal Naja

Perhaps this will be a record. Got my Butler Cobra in 1987. Bought the frame, body shell, dashboard, wiring & interior. I wanted to do everything else myself. Got a Performance engine package from PAW. Spent hours to Blueprint the engine. Matched combustion chambers to the same cc. Ported & polished the heads. Matched the manifold & header ports. Painted everything with hi-temp wrinkle finish and assembled it. Fit the engine & 10T trans to the frame. Rebuilt the Jaguar IRS installed that along with the MBG IFS that I totally rebuilt. Was never totally happy with the MGB IFS. But got the car about 90 percent assembled.

Then bought a business and that took my total dedication. Every now and then I'd tinker, but not much progress. Then the business took a turn and fell off a cliff dragging my house, life savings, my other cars & toys and almost my life with it.

But I was attached to my Cobra like Charlton Heston to his rifle. Out of my cold dead hand.

Life continued and time heals all. Many new things have happened to the car. Tossed the T10, installed a TKO600, tossed the MGB IFS installed a Fast Cars IFS. tossed the soft top, installed a hard top. I'ts a love hate relationship. Often I hate the grunt work building custom parts for it, but when I finish each project I get a smile and a good feeling of accomplishment. In about three weeks I hope to fire it up for the first time and I may have to have the smile surgically removed after that.

I know every little detail about my car. I guess I've loved the whole process. I hope to test drive her in April, then totally dismantle the car. Then I look forward to sanding every inch of body and perfecting every surface before I finnally start applying the paint. Reassembly will hopefully happen in record time and I hope to be enjoying some summer driving in 2011. So is that a record or what? 25 years, where did time go?

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/kx9WB7wK This link will take you to my build. You can also see my pictures in my profile here on the Forum.

Arthur

Wow lal Naja, you define dedication and perserverance! Congratulations to you and hope you enjoy your creation as much as I have mine.
I

[lal Naja]

Thanks got your good words. Yes I look forward to the day. Arthur

Originally Posted by mdross1

Wow lal Naja, you define dedication and perserverance! Congratulations to you and hope you enjoy your creation as much as I have mine.
I

[mdross1]

Originally Posted by lal Naja

Thanks got your good words. Yes I look forward to the day. Arthur

I related to your slide show, it brought back a lot of good memories.Having a machinist background and very much a perfectionist,spent a lot of time in places that only I would ever know about.It certainly satisfied that inner need everytime I see the car those good memories flood back,knowing the car could not be more perfect.I too build my own drive trains and know exactly what it takes to satisfy my need for speed.Every detail got all the time and thought it needed to give the car the character a Cobra should have.This season have a new Davinci 1000cfm dbl pmp to fine tune,and just about ready to order an ACE hardtop. Mike

[era427tp]

I bought ERA 295 in December of 1990,got it registered in July 1991.I still have it but I have to go through the motor due to a broken valve spring.