Ooo ! I've owned two gas guzzling pits. Neither really cost much money, but time, blood sweat & tears.
My first love was Thomas. Thomas was my SHO Taurus. It had a really odd Yamaha V8 in it. Once the chip was hacked the car did about 100mph all out. But the accel and torque were like being in the Starship Enterprise.
Sadly it only achieved about 9mpg, and when the torque finally proved too much for the wheel bearings (shredding them and snapping a driveshaft) it was sold.
It was given to me free of charge, and started life in a field where it had sat for about four years. Right before that it had a new head gasket.
In the large barn during bodywork. I did all of this myself. The entire roof was rotten to the metal so had to be bare metaled, then skimmed with metal glaze (runny bondo).
Then it went into primer.
And finally it was base coated, then hit with House of Kolor raspberry kameleon pearl. This was simply to keep the color close to the original and add some bling. Note the body has been completely smoothed over, all badges and logos removed in order to make it look like a standard Taurus. Sleeper.
At the time it wasn't a money pit. Just a serious time pit. I spent 3 months in the hottest fucking summer in a barn you could never imagine. 103'. I lost 2 stone.
It would have become a money pit however, had I finished it. These were the wheels I had lined up. $2000 with no tires. Foose Spank 5
Sadly the car was just too unreliable to make that kind of commitment. So, it got sold and I bought a Hyundai Tiburon. Known in the UK as a coupe the main difference was the spec. 2l DOHC, full air con, cruise, tilt wheel adjustable pedals and full electric everything. I got this after it had hit a deer two years before (you cant see the frontal damage) but had a damn good engine and ran well.
Then over the space of two years I turned it into this -
Not to everyones taste I agree, but no mean feat seeing as I had literally zero experience with cars mechanics and painting.
Dash. This was a Grant GT race wheel, carbon pedals, race seats and harnesses. Aswell as a $500 Sony HU (was removed when the car sold) Nesa DVD player, Fusion parametric EQ and god knows what else. Ignore the fact the car was automatic, Ill cover that in a mo.
Enormous screen (10") the biggest I could cram in.
And to finish it off holographic pearl paint. Here it is near dusk going orange.
And in daylight going green.
Vents were real, and at one stage it had one of these on it. This is during the rebuild, it was removed before the car was sold because the 16 yo girl who bought the car would have killed herself.
During the cam swap out.
So it was pretty quick. Produced about 200 BHP and the gearbox was switchable to allow red lining even tho it was auto. Fast enough.