[Joesmallwood]

Originally Posted by chrisbalich

No worries.
I may have overreacted. I'm 5.5 years into this build and as the car has gotten nicer, it's become more common for people to assume I've, "blown the budget." I can assure you that I have not.

The ethos of this build is: You don't have to be rich to have a nice 911 that you can enjoy and be proud of...as long as you don't mind getting your hands dirty. I'm a man of skill and persistence and creativity more than a man of 'means'. I like to think the LBDC reflects that.

I have put the whole sordid tale on the pages of this thread. I've kept no secrets and hidden no warts. My failures and successes are all on display. This thread is unabridged evidence that you can do it if you put your mind to it. You don't need to be a C-level executive or a trust fund baby to get there. You need grit and tenacity. I'm not going to lie to you. You need to have some funds available and you will need immeasurable patience. Patience to persevere when you'd rather throw in the towel. Patience to live off Kraft mac n cheese and ramen so you can save money when you don't have the cash you need for the next step. Those of us without the liquidity to splash out for big ticket items or big ticket labor have to make sacrifices to get where we want to go.

My car isn't as impeccable as a fresh restoration from the likes of JimTweet or Jonny042 or any of the big name shops out there charging house-money for cars.

But it doesn't need to be for me to drive and love it. How many of us on this board could spend $100-250k on a car and go thrash it across the country, mobbing down backroads, collecting rock chips, and still sleep well? Not too many. My car is not perfect. The paint isn't perfect. The window trims don't lay perfectly. Sometimes, it surges when it idles. It smells like gas and oil and rubber and automotive joy. It has rock chips in the paint that has less than 1000 miles on it and I don't care at all. A pristine garage queen with museum quality paint and no miles isn't a car to me. It's a trophy. It's set behind glass for others to see how great it is, but not to be of any use or to do what it was designed to be. A racehorse with no races to run. An old man with no scars who lived his whole life afraid of being hurt and missing the best parts of life for it. I refuse to be that person. I refuse for my car to be that car. We have scratches and scars and lots of miles, with more on the way.

I want this thread to be a documentation of my story. But more importantly, I want this thread (and the LBDC itself) to be an inspiration for others to strive for your goals and to really live.

Amen!

This prose is a great start for a "Prologue" for the rest of the story.