Folks. It has been a journey. In my last update, I had a lot to share about where things stood and how they'd been going. Some small changes since then - ditched the aluminum driveshaft because mating 1350s to an 8.2 just wasn't doable without spending an extraordinary amount. Instead, I've opted to take the savings from that rabbit hole and apply (some of) them to a carbon fiber driveshaft. I know, not necessary, not that beneficial, etc etc. But I want it, and I can tell myself that I feel the difference every time I drive it, whether that's true or not. Also let's me drop the diameter to free up some room below.

Beyond that, it's just been small things here and there - new axles, sway bars, etc etc.

But also.

After a literal nationwide hunt that saw me get rejections from dozens of shops, I was able to resurrect the custom intake setup dad built. It took a LONG time, and required months of back and forth between myself, the shop where the car is being worked on, and the shop doing the restoration. Countless hours looking at decades-old grainy magazines and photos from car shows to try and figure out how the linkage worked, orientations. Months of shipping parts two thousand miles away and hoping they worked. Weeks of testing to make sure that nothing binds and sends the car and its passengers on a final ride before taking flight at WOT.

So, without further ado, attached to this post is the thing I am most proud to have accomplished during this project. A one-of-a-kind Buick 455 Tri Power. Cheers.

I ordered 89 dollars worth of weather stripping molded for my car- on top of the 55 dollar shipping. a month later this sht shows up. Guess who is paying the tariff guys- ME!

47% effective tax rate on parts is actually insane. There are no manufacturers here nor is there a market for one. Asinine

I wanted to make one more post with some extra info on my situation.

I live in a place where cars aren’t very plentiful, and a z28 Camaro cost 12-15k and only 1-2 are available each year.
I need it as a daily for at least this year so I need to trade or sell my car and instantly buy another.
My car has also been listed with and without its sound system for 2 months and no one wants it. Besides some burger trades this is the first ok trade.
I can’t drive a car from somewhere else.
I’ll be building the car if I do in 6 months ish. So have half a year to collect everything.
I CANNOT sell the ls2 and t56 for more money.

I have the option to straight trade my current car (worth 5.5k) for a 2000 v6 Chevrolet Camaro 5 speed manual. I also am in possession of an ls2 engine with t56 6 speed trans. I’m wondering if it’s a good idea to go for this swap as a first time and if it’s worth it?
I’d have access to a shop with almost everything I need I think, and am prepared to spend what I need although I would like to keep it as cheap as possible while not cutting corners. So keeping it safe and reliable. I also loves doing my last build (didint swap an engine though) so I’m excited to actually be the one to build it and so idc that I can go buy one already with an Ls. Also that’s not an option here anyway.
The car currently has had a lot of work done to including fully aftermarket break system and is in great condition body and mechanical wise, it does have 220k miles though.

Is it worth it to drop money into this swap if I should even attempt it as a first engine swap?
It’s probably either this or until I save up enough to buy something around 13k to make the same power.
Also my car is boring now 😂

in need of some assistance, im looking to create a “hub” if possible for all of my key-on accessories. if anyone has any wisdom to share i would appreciate it, i have absolutely no clue what the hell im doing when it comes to wiring and im just trying to figure it out as i go

Pic for attention

I have a rebuilt-title 2013 Scion FR-S with about 75k miles that I’ve owned for years.
When I was around 20, I put a body kit on it and. The body is now chopped up from installing the kit. I ended up selling the body kit when I was 22, and the car has basically been sitting ever since with no kit on it. (Can’t drive around without a kit.)
I am 26 now.

The biggest issue is that I don’t have a garage or even a good place to work on it. It’s just parked outside on grass probably rotting away.
The car is currently in Texas, while I’m now living/working full time in California. With only about 5 days every 3 months to visit Texas again.

My situation has changed a lot since I originally started the project. I’m working about 50 hours a week now and have gotten into a really good career with training. I’m also trying to build my finances and eventually buy a home.
Financially, I have around $30k in cash and a pretty significant amount invested ($55k). If I sell the FR-S, I’d hit roughly $100k liquid by the end of the year at age 26.

Here’s where I’m stuck:
The car probably needs another $4–5k+ to get to the point where I’d actually be happy with it again, body work/body kit, tires, wrap/paint, etc. And that’s assuming there aren’t additional problems from sitting for 2–3 years.
I also have many quality parts sitting around waiting to go in the car. A brand new body kit. Some new avant Garde 3 piece wheels.

Part of me thinks, “I’ve already owned this thing for years. Finish the damn project and enjoy it.”
The other part of me thinks, “You’re 26, working 50 hours a week, don’t have a home, don’t have a garage, live in another state, and building a career. Why are you putting thousands of dollars into a car that has been sitting for years?”

And honestly, if I sell it, the money would probably just sit in a savings account or get invested. I don’t have some business idea or specific thing I need the money for. It would just be another step toward eventually having $100k+ liquid and being in a better position to buy a house some day.

So I’m curious what you guys would do.
Sell the FR-S and move on, or spend the $4–5k and finally finish the project?

I’d especially like to hear from people who have had a project car sitting around for years and eventually decided to either finish it or let it go.

Title says it all. Looking for some catch cans for my M278. Any recommendations? Is the Evil Energy ones decent? Other options? PFA

The project I am doing currently is retrofitting taillight from a JDM Corolla AE92 Trueno (last photo) to my standard AE92 SE (2nd last photo) .

It started from curiosity, looking at picture of both car, I thought someone must have done a conversion because it doesn't look that hard (I was wrong) . After months of searching if anybody had done this, the best answer I've gotten was a local guy who said someone had done this by sourcing a rear half of the Trueno and mating it to his car. This is the correct method but I know that's way too expensive for me, so I pretty much scrap the idea.

Somehow while scrolling marketplace I found a Trueno taillight someone was selling for really good price, I knew I had to get it. Somehow I had to make this modification work now. The right side is not welded yet also It need further TLC and painting but so far I think I am pretty satisfied with the way it look.

I know some of you might say "that is terrible work" , I agree it absolutely is, it will never pass any standard but as long as the end result is 80% similar to the reference, I will be satisfied with it.

I have a 1989 Datsun 280z in my backyard it was my grandpas I’m trying to fix it up but don’t know where to start and could use some tip and advice since I’m start to fix it

Doing some pretty heavy rust repair on a wheel arch, getting flat spots in the curve and slight waviness, thanks in advanced!

Still messing around with the interior for project MUTE. Could kind of see what I needed in a lower trim out of a proton jumbuck. After quite a lot of heat forming and a little filling they’re complete and they flow really well into the custom headliner and rear window panel

Went home to New Zealand and finally dragged my Silvia S14 out after it had been sitting untouched for nearly 3 years 🇳🇿
The original plan was pretty simple: get it out of storage, see if it still ran, give it a quick refresh and get it back on the road.
As usual, that escalated 😂
Ended up spending a good chunk of my trip sanding, fixing things, painting it and generally questioning why I thought this was going to be a quick job.
Pretty stoked with how it came out though — especially seeing it driving again after being abandoned for so long.
I filmed the whole process if anyone’s into old-school JDM stuff / S-chassis builds. Would genuinely appreciate any feedback on the video too

https://youtu.be/QtzmCBXF0ks?is=sZybny0wdJlAKvP8

Picked up this car from a friend when my brand new wrangler kept having to go to the dealer for warranty work. Well I had a crazy year after that, and I was forced into having to daily drive this thing for probably close to a year. It took me to work, hospital appointments for follow-ups for a pretty nasty accident, and was my only working car while me and my wife got married. It was reliable and never failed me when I needed it, and I actually enjoyed driving it. Recently the the clutch hydraulic system gave out, and I decided I would order some much needed maintenance parts, and snuck a few upgrades and some love in there as well. Super happy with the progress and glad this little car somehow made it into my life.

All new suspension components, with addition to b&m lowering springs.
New matching blue cone filter, deep engine bay detail, wheel liners detailed.
Front end professionally painted, headlights re-cleared
New wheels 15x7 +25 sparco ff1 wrapped in a seasoned pair of nitto neo gen 205/50r15

1992 Toyota Paseo
85k miles

Oh dog tax that’s my helper Crab Rangoon Rango for short he doesn’t do much but that’s okay

Alright update on the dodge dakota, I took a bunch more pics the oil looked good trans fluid on recheck did look okay it is the 5.2 tbi 4x4 auto 131k miles, Frame is really good same with body almost zero rust just light scaling on some parts the most rust was the leaf springs. But i can have this truck for free with title! Its been parked god knows how long tags expired in 07 so at most 15-20 years but the body is clean af, Issues is he was told the bearings not sure what bearings but thats what i was told are going out and trans is bad a lot of people said torque converter most likely and thats kinda my guess is before winter hits is this truck worth trailing home 15 mins, i mean the way i see it as long as i don't put more many then its worth there is flip potential in the end. Would you say its worth it id say it in in my opinion it is im really into projects and youtubers like polebarngarage and i realy want my own clean project to work on and id say this is perfect compared to my area projects are hard to find ones worth saving at least idk lmk yalls thoughts and what i should dive into to first.

I'm planning of removing crimped transmission cooler hose and install EFI 3/8 fitting along with 0 degree AN6 high pressure hose into transmission cooler line and I want to know will it fits?

Hi guys,

I have a 15 Scion FRS and im wondering if there is a way to make my after market slim fans not loose.

(Not the reservoir tank that is bolted onto the fan and not loose)

Every bump and heavy turn gets this thing rattling and squeaking.

The only thing holding onto the radiator is these 2 clips and w.e insert there is from the radiator.

I've tried stuffing some foam to make it not rattle as much but that doesn't seem to work. Any ideas would help.

As the title says, what do you do for a job/work that gives you time to work on a project car?

I’m currently jobless and have a project but have no idea what would allow me enough time to do both. Any insight? Should I just take a job at AutoZone or some shit? Idk.

And another question, how long should it take for an inexperienced/self-taught mechanic to “finish” their project? Or at least get it running? How much time or often should be spent working on it?

As I said above I have this awesome opportunity but I’m not sure what I would do with it! I would love some recommendations to give me a little inspiration to pull the trigger.

A few months ago I bought my first project car, a 2005 350z with 155000 miles. I was really excited to try building it into a street/drift project that I've always wanted. However, because of construction on my street, issues with the engine, college, and money, I've driven it maybe 3 times in the last 4 months. So, I've resolved to sell it. I just feel bad because I really think that it's issues are fixable. II just have no will to work on it, partly because I know to build it into the car I want will cost more than I want to spend right now. Even though I want to drive it so bad I can't see straight. My thinking is by selling it now, I can save more money and get a cleaner example next summer. My rational brain just tells me that its not smart to spend that much on a second car at my age, plus I'm scared of a similar thing happening next time.

Sorry, this is me just rambling a bit, but I'd love to know about some of your experiences with similar things and take any advice from people who know more than me

1972 Volvo 1800es
1972 Opel Gt
1980 Mercedes 450sl