Originally a 318 car, needs quarters, front fenders, trunk and rear frame rails. Not sure what will cost less to do, and what will sell for more when I'm done. If I restore it, I plan on selling it and getting a tube car. Thoughts on this? I'm sure this road has been well traveled here, and many of you came to the same decision once, so I welcome opinions of all who have been there before me! Thanks for your input!

Entirely depends on what YOU want to do with the car. Race it, sell it, go all out or in steps...

The car is fairly complete except the front fenders and grill, but there is very little usable above the leaf springs. I was just thinking that maybe going race car instead of resto (Hemi clone) route that I could have a driveable car for less money, although it would likely be worth less finished as well.

I need either a tube chassis kit, tin work, fuel cell and 4-link it, or leaf springs and repop trunk floor, frame rails, trunk supports, fuel tank, etc. The tube kits and 'glas body parts look to be lot$ less than the repop resto parts they would fill in for. I seriously think I could cut the whole car off behind the c-pillar and not waste any good parts, so the work involved will be similar.

Is a rotisserie "restored" clone car (as in very nice driver, not 100-point show car) worth much more than a nice race car or am I just fooling myself?

I am DYING to have a pump gas drag/drag week style car, but don't know if I would be better off doing it with this car or trying to put it together, sell it, and find a roller for sale. I bought the car with the intention (justification to my wife?) of restoring it and selling, but the market for them was better, and the car needs a little more than I though once I got it torn down to the tub...

Whats the budget and whats the expected ET/mph of the this car ?

Its pretty simple

NO money, no go fast ..

Some money , you go kinda fast

Unlimited budget , you can buy nice parts and haul rear

9 second cars built from scratch will set someone back easy $50,000

Best thing to do if you are not ready right now, look for a deal and buy it

Couple of ?"s.

Do you like that type of car?

Do you want to race?

From what I understand most people never get close to what they have into a restoration when they sell and you could end up losing $$$.

If you like that body style and what you're after is a race car anyway, Get to and build the car of your dreams.

"experience, learning, and adventure of it. Other have done it, so I can too right"

Sure , you can ..


Just depends on what you have to spend , times are a bit different these days.

No matter what it costs to go "fast"

One person is happy with 12's next needs 8's to be happy

If you have an extra $1000 a month to spend and you are not ready to build for 25 months

You have $25,000 to spend

It took me 10 years to build my car

I went from this ...



/6 rolling shell orginally from TX. Bought it in '97 for $1100. Listed as a "parts car"..

And made it into this in 4-5 years. I had insured for an agreed value of $18,500. I had about $21,000 in it. I did about 85% of the work myself. I didn't paint it but did ALL the prep work and I helped the guy with the install of the backhalf frame and 8pt cage..



Build what you want. You haven't said what year/style car you have??!!? As you know the '70-'71 Cuda's are a touch more desireable. When it comes to sell it, you may or may not get what you want for it then.. It's all up to you.. if it were ME again, I'd rebuild it with stock floors and a minitub along with frame connectors. It seems uncaged cars are easier to sell,imo..

My favorites on the board as of now are Chips Cuda and this one...

I have a spare one of these lying around for a cuda

Don't be gettin' any ideas Kevin

is this an E or A body cuda? Just wondrin...i figure its a E body since you mentioned body panels...only sheet metal for the A body are 1/4 skins.

I bought my car as a pro streeter that looked like this

and ended up going this far because the car was in real bad shape

And the money spent just keeps piling up and I am doing all the work myself and don't forget about all the tools you will need
and a place to do it in.