Owner built on a budget;

[Hray]

Summary update: (for those that did not start at the beginning) Started the build sep 12, 2009, started with 8.5K forgotten project from someone else. Hoping to finish it with only another 3K invested. Hoping it will only take 500 hours to finish it.

up to today I have 110 hours on the build, spent 450.00. Got another 2550.00 in the budget to spend. With just slightly over 3 weeks I am feeling ok so far.

Todays news: All I can say is HOLY SHEET.... this is gonna be a blast.

With the hinges behind me I decided it was time to get back on chassis and motor. Finished hooking up the gas tank and all hoses to carb. Put in some fuel and fired it up from the tank.

Stuck the speedo unit into the tail shaft of trans so I can test drive the car.
Does anyone know the part number for the plastic gear that goes in first, I have a new cable but no plast gear on it. Hopefully, the west sac speedo shop will know what I need, or trip to junk yard again.

Zip tied the dash to the cowl real solid. Ran temp wires into the dash so I can start and stop the motor from cockpit. Zip tied the temp guages to cowl so I can monitor for test drive.

Installed the carb linkage to carb and pedal. Pumped brakes some, found out the front lines had not been tightened up, did that.

Sat the seats into cockpit, sat down and turned on key, hit the starter, and got one of the greatest adrenaline rushes i have had in a long time. sitting in that thing, feeling the carb respond to pedal, watching the doors half open sit there and shake while under idle, feeling the motor vibrations up through the seat..... Man what a trip, and I aint even went any where yet.

Maybe tomorrow or latest wednesday will be the first test drive. My junk tires on it have leaks, so gotta reinstall the new rims and tires for it. Plan on driving it at least 10 to 20 miles before disassembly for cosmetic stuff.

I figure to run the wiring harness after chassis is painted and motor reinstalled, and firewall has been painted. If I can have it disassembled by the 12th, that is one month from start date. Maybe not too bad, but still a long way to go.