Don't listen to self-proclaimed "Experts"....

It's funny-but I see it all the time. Some neophyte hot-rodder who's thinking about a project will be listening raptly to some moron telling him about a bunch of "Gotta Haves" and encouraging him to spend umpteen thousands of dollars on stuff he doesn't need. And-this "Expert"-more often than not, is not a professional mechanic, doesn't even change his own oil, calls AAA if he gets a flat tire,and has never pulled an engine or transmission in his life,and has never built or driven any kind of race car-not a VW sand rail,an MG or a Miata, a Toyota or Datsun mini-stock, a hobby stock or street stock dirt-track or paved track racer, or any kind of drag car. Nothing. Yet he pontificates at length how other people should spend their money with quotes he got off the internet, in magazines and off shows like Top Gear. And it's funny-people will listen attentively to these assholes like their talking to Smokey Yunick, or Dick Landy, or Roger Penske,or Herb Adams, or Vic Edelbrock or Richard Petty or some other legend who was a trail blazer in Indy car racing, drag racing, or Nascar, or who designed an induction system or a whole car!!  Anyhow-I'm here today to save the first-time car restorer from making expensive mistakes on some ass-clown's advice.  # 1. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This is the best advice I can give anyone. Every car doesn't have to be a frame-off restoration where every single nut and bolt is replaced whether it needs it or not. This will drive the price of your project into the stratosphere. If you've got a basically solid car to start with-fix what it NEEDS. Whether that's replacing a rusted 1/4 panel or trunk floor, or buying a new radiator. I know a guy who bought a 340 Road Runner. It was a solid, running car. It had a dent in the left front fender, and the seats needed to be recovered, but otherwise it was all there. All he needed to do, literally was replace that fender, get the seats recovered, and a paint job, and he'd have had a nice car. A couple weeks later-I go by his place and he's got the car all tore apart and he's replacing stuff that doesn't need to be replaced. I mean he replaced the radiator, even though the car wasn't overheating, and it wasn't leaking. He replaced the power steering pump, even though it worked fine, wasn't making any noise and wasn't leaking. He replaced the starter and alternator-even though the car started fine every time you turned the key, and never had a dead battery. He was pulling the engine-and I asked him why. "I'm going to rebuild it." "Why on earth would you do that?" I asked, aghast. When we looked at the car before he bought it, I helped him go over it with the proverbial fine-tooth comb. We did a compression test and all 8 cylinders were within 5-10 psi of each other. It didn't smoke, didn't use any oil, had good oil pressure, and ran like a champ. It would smoke the tires at will from a light, and lay 8-10 feet of rubber when the Torqueflite hit 2nd!!  If he wanted more power-I could understand adding a set of headers, or an Edelbrock Torker intake, or maybe even a cam-but the engine was fine-it absolutely did NOT need to be torn down and rebuilt. It probably would have ran another 50,000 miles without trouble. Ditto for the brakes. The car had front disc / rear drum brakes and stopped just fine, with no weird noises or vibration. He replaced not only the pads and shoes, but the rotors and drums, the calipers,hoses,wheel cylinders, and master cylinder and booster!!  When none of that stuff was bad!!!  Anyway he maxes out all his credit cards and spends nearly 50 grand replacing every nut and bolt whether it needed it or not. Then he decides to get married and sell the car for a down payment on a house. He was crushed when he sold the car for $21,000-which is all the money for a 340 Road Runner back in the mid-1980's-everyone wanted the 383, 440 and Hemi models. Less than half of what he had invested. Now if he'd listened to me and just fixed what needed attention-he'd have had maybe 10 grand in the car, including it's original purchase price-and he'd have MADE 10 grand when he sold it instead of losing 30!!  Those wheel cylinders,calipers, radiator,p/s pump, and alternator and starter, etc-drove the build cost way up, but didn't raise the selling price any!!  Any restoration is going to be a labor of love, and I wouldn't expect to make a profit, but if you don't go batshit crazy replacing stuff that doesn't need to be replaced-like an alternator that works or a radiator that doesn't leak-the pain will be a lot less if you have to sell the car.  # 2. "Run What You Brung".  Magazines and gearheads talk flippantly about how "easy" it is to swap certain engines and transmissions. For a professional mechanic with state of the art tools, in a state of the art shop, yes,swapping a 350 Pontiac for a 400 / 455, or a Powerglide for a TH350 is cake. But for "Joe Average", in his driveway, with hand tools? Has anyone pulled a small-block Chevy out of a old Nova laying on the ground in the driveway? Or a clutch out of a Ford pickup?  I have. It's a sonofabitch, and that's if your simply removing and replacing identical parts. If your changing something or fabricating something-that's a rabbit-hole a 1st time restorer doesn't want to go down. So that's why I say "Run what you brung". What I mean is-if the car is an automatic-then run the automatic trans that's in the car. Don't try to swap in a Tremec 5-speed stick or BW 6-speed. Or try to swap a TH350 for a TH700R4. It's not worth the grief and hassle-and the money you'd waste is better spent elsewhere-on speed parts, tires and wheels, paint and bodywork etc. And run the engine that's in the car. If you have a 350 Firebird or LeMans, a factory or aftermarket 4bbl carb and intake, some headers and dual exhausts, and a B&M or TransGo shift kit in the trans will give you a HUGE increase in performance. You don't have to sell your soul to put a 400 in it. Ditto for a 318 Duster or Challenger, or a 289 / 302 Mustang / Cougar. Don't buy a small-block Chevelle with the intention of "someday" swapping in a 454. Unless your attending UTI or some other school to become a professional mechanic, I guarantee it won't happen. You'll get frustrated and sell the car.  If you "gotta have" a 400, 4-speed Trans-Am, then pay the price and go buy one. Don't think that you'll be able to "convert" a 403 / TH350 model. You "gotta have" a "Vanishing Point" Challenger with a 383 or a 440-then step up and pay the price. Don't buy a 318 model and think that you'll be able to-in your driveway-change the crossmember, torsion bars, transmission,rear end, leaf springs, radiator, and everything else that a "B" or "RB" E-body swap requires. I'm not trying to piss on anybody's dreams; I've built race cars and V8 Vegas, and V8 Chevy Luvs, and put small-block Chevys into 240Z's and 389 Pontiacs into GMC pickups; and I WOULDN'T attempt the Challenger swap I just described!!  That's what I'm saying-if your a first-timer-don't bite off more than you can chew. Yes-it's possible to put a 460 into a Fox Mustang-but with guys running in the 10's with 302s-why would you want to attempt it?  # 3. Everything doesn't have to be "Super Duty". I say this because in my car sales days working in a Ford store, I got a 40 year old adolescent who wanted to buy an F250 Diesel to tow his race car. The race car was a gutted '70's Camaro that weighed maybe 3,000 lbs. His trailer that he towed it on weighed maybe 1,000; even with gas and tools, he was only pulling about 4,500 pounds. He didn't need a Super Duty-a V6 Ranger can tow 5,000 lbs!!  He definitely would have been fine with a base-model F150-they have a 7,700 lb tow rating with the 6-cylinder and 9,500 lbs with the V8. I explained all this. Like talking to the wall. He was adamant, he had to have a Super Duty. Then it hit me-all of his asshole buddies at the track drove Super Dutys, or the Big Dodge and Chevy Diesels. If he pulled into the pits in an F150-one or more of these assholes would crack-"I see you brought your wife's truck today". "A little short on cash?" "You couldn't afford a real truck?"  This guy was 40 years old, and acting like he was in junior high. He was going to spend about $10,000 extra on a heavy-duty truck he didn't need, because he didn't have balls enough to tell another 40 year old adolescent blowhard to shut the F$%k up!!  Mercenary bastard that I was, I sold him the Super Duty. He was going to lay down for one somewhere, so Instead of futiley trying to talk sense into him, I took the commission. The moral of this story-is the magazines have to sell their advertiser's products to stay in business, and like I said earlier-most of these self-proclaimed "experts" get all their information from the magazines or the internet, none from practical experience. Here's a couple examples. Look in Summitt Racing's catalog in the transmission section. They sell brand-new BW T10 4-speed manual transmissions. There listed as having a 325 or 375 lb torque rating. However-in the early '60s-409 Impalas, 421 Catalinas and 406 Galaxies all had T10 4-speeds as standard equipment and they all had 450-500+ lbs ft of torque. People not only drove them every day on the street, they competed in stock class drag racing, sometimes making 30 hard passes in a weekend. Ironically- because of modern metallurgy-the newer ones have much tougher mainshafts and gears than the old ones!!  Yet they only have a 375 lb torque rating!!  What I'm saying is-if you need a 4-speed for your 389 GTO or 396 Chevelle and you can't find a Muncie-you'll be fine with one of these T10s!!  Ditto for the T5s in Camaros and Mustangs. They supposedly only have a 300 lb torque rating. Yet I know guys who have swapped in strong 350s and never had a problem. I know Mustang racers that run blowers and nitrous and run in the 10s and 11s with stock T5s.  The same for automatics. A TH350 or a C4 can handle up to 500 hp pretty easy. I know Grand National racers that run in the 10s with 200R4's.  So remember these simple guidelines, and you'll save yourself a ton of money and grief.  Mastermind