"Good deals" should be what the average guy can find in junkyards and swap meets, not "Moon Rocks".

I know I have a rep for being a cynical bastard, and I try to not always be negative, but lately something has been bugging the crap out of me about some of these "Budget" buildups you see in all the enthusiast magazines. You know the ones I'm talking about- "400hp for $1,000" or "12 seconds for 1,200" or whatever. Your reading, thinking-their's no way they can build this thing for the dollars their saying-then-wait for it-"Hey-what about that set of ported and polished Brodix Aluminum heads we almost forgot we had?"  Or "Joe's brother not only gave us the disc-braked, 3.73:1 geared posi rear end out of his wrecked Trans-Am, he even helped us put it in the Camaro and bought the beer!" Gag.  I know we've all run across screamin' deals. A friend of my dad's once gave me a complete Pontiac tri-power setup for a GTO I was restoring. That would bring $1,500 or more at a swap meet now. I once bought an L82 long block core from a Pep Boys store for $160, since some fool with a '74 Corvette with a lot of miles on his running car had their service dept install one of their $699 350 Chevy specials and turned in his old engine for the core. I paid the manager the $160 core charge and turned handsprings all the way home. Don't get me wrong, I don't care if they say they bought an Edelbrock manifold at a swap meet for $60, or a set of used headers for $50, what drives me up the wall is stuff like the buildup in a Mopar enthusiast magazine. After securing a 440 block out of a wrecked Chrysler Imperial, they decided to use the forged steel 440 crank and complete set of "Six-Pack" rods that they had "Laying around." AArrrgghh!! ( If I buy a Nova for $500 and stuff in the $4800 ZZ4 Crate engine and $1200 B&M TH400 that I have "laying around" in my garage and it runs 12 second 1/4s, I can't claim that I built a 12 second car for $500!!! )  Since a forged Eagle 440 crank retails for $1049 through Summit Racing, and a complete set of Eagle rods costs $650 through the same source, I thought-"How fortunate that they had $1,700 worth of premium parts "Laying around".  Worse than that was a Super Chevy article titled "10 seconds for $10,000."  The $7995 for a 500 hp 383 stroker motor was fine. What sent me over the edge was the "engineless"  '79 Camaro they bought to put it in, that had an 8 point roll cage, a TCI-built Powerglide with a 3,800 rpm converter, a 4.88:1 geared 9 inch Ford rearend, an ATL safety fuel cell, and a full set of Weld Wheels and Moroso drag tires and slicks. For $2,700!!!  Gee, I'd love to buy a car with 7 grand worth of premium parts in it for $2,700!  If they'd bought all that stuff retail-( A Complete Currie 9 inch rear with GM mounting points is about 3 grand by itself ) and put it into a $200 Camaro they'd have been about 6 grand over budget instead of $700!!.  If your going to include "good deals" in these buildups it needs to be stuff that the average Joe can find in the average town, not a "Moon Rock."  Or some unmatchable deal.  Mastermind