Hey guys! I’m just wondering what everyone does to keep track of what they do to their cars?
Maybe it’s the OCD in me, but I enjoy keeping track of costs, parts, mods, dates, etc. I usually use a spreadsheet and keep all receipts and paperwork in a folder. Just wondering if there is a better way or not.
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Excel Spreadsheet is the easiest way unless you create an online blog and keep track of your progress there. @edsnova did one when he built his TD replica and can share a link. He chronicled the build on his blog and may or nay not have kept track of expenses on a spreadsheet. You might be able to do that on the blog and hide that page from public view.
"A folder" simply wasn't enough. I have a single drawer, in a file cabinet, full of stuff and once the car was finished I wrote a lengthy service manual for it over a very cold January. It's written in Microsoft Word (now converted to Mac Pages) with a table of contents with hyperlinks into the eleven different sections. I wrote it:
There is a lot that is unique on all of our cars, even from the same builder as things get changed, over time, once finished/shipped. Writing a complete manual to use as a reference has saved me a lot of head scratching, even though it was a big deal to do.
My table of contents is attached (Word 2000 format). Altogether, I would estimate it at several hundred illustrated pages.
Good luck with your build!
Google sheets. Periodically I convert to PDF and download a copy as well, just in case.
(This is for Projekt Spyder tho, not for the TD, which has its own blog).
The spreadsheet is private. I also have the original three-ring binders with the "build manual" for each car, and a lot of receipts.
Great info!
| ITEM | date | cost | receipt? | paid to | hours | link |
Who REALLY wants to know how much they spent? I don't want to know for the whole car, that's for sure.
But hey, if you're a closet accountant then fine, you do you.
I did an EFI build thread here, and all costs were in it as well as most parts used, a lot with links.
I do have a binder with specs, parts, some wiring diagrams and definitely instruction manuals. I have a Vintage Spyder manual, the engine spec book from Jake, and the Webasto heater manual in there too. This is a great idea to have for you and whomever owns the car in the future. That is, unless you'll get buried in it like Greg and Al.
I'm a small businessman who does my own books. I can tell you exactly how much I've made or lost on any given job, and I know both instinctively and with a paper-trail where I make money and where I don't.
I have ZERO desire (actually, less than zero, if that's possible) to know what my car cost. If I did, I suspect I'd throw up in my mouth every time I looked at it, rather than formulate what kind of frippery I want to lavish on it next.
@DannyP posted:Who REALLY wants to know how much they spent? I don't want to know for the whole car, that's for sure.
But hey, if you're a closet accountant then fine, you do you.
I do. You don't need to be a closet accountant either to exercise common sense and make good deals. From the time I bought the old '78 build IM in Idaho and drove it home I had about $9,000 CAD in it. I put about $8K into it finally along with the Soob Frankenmotor and hardtop included so I'm up to about $17. It got wrecked and I netted about $10 K from the insurance and kept the car so I'm only down $7K. I put about $7K in the fixup so I'm now down about $14K. Found the Roadster in BC and bought it for $25,500 then sold the Speedster for $21K so now I'm driving a pretty good ( some may say I have low standards ) Roadster for a net cost overall of about $18,500. With the upswing in Speedster and Roadster sales figures, mine might be worth about $40,000 now....maybe more, I just don't know. Net profit could be about $21,500 along with a shyt load of fun. Some pretty memorable road trips too. I like those numbers and they are approximate. I'm not ready to sell yet. Might just give it to the kids. I like numbers, Danny. Studied accounting early and have been self employed for about 45 years.
A close friend once told me an air cooled motor was singly the most expensive motor to squeeze HP out of. He wasn’t wrong…but boy howdy am I happy!
On an aside: I’ve been creeping closer to finishing my 1957 Chevrolet Suburban. I made the mistake of quickly going over receipts last night. Oof! But the third full round of parts ordering is well under way. The fourth of six deliveries in this volley came today.
All the specs, however, are much more fun to have handy even though I keep each and every receipt for parts, etc.
Good thing I built both for me and not for profit.
I keep records up to the point when I don't want to know anymore. I toyed with sports cars and motorcycles for 50 years and always made money with them...but that was long ago. There's a 1954 MGTF in my garage that is eating my lunch money. I haven't looked at the accumulated cost in many months. I have begun to call that project "The coffin I'll be buried in". I'd love to stop the bleeding but must continue on. Hell might be like that.
@TheMayoMachine posted:A close friend once told me an air cooled motor was singly the most expensive motor to squeeze HP out of. He wasn’t wrong
Yeah, but the way you did it (with an ECU controlled turbo engine) is by far the most cost-effective. Well done.
I especially don't want my wife to know how much I spend on my Speedster. Yesterday I spent another $500. The big one she didn't know about was the Berg 5.
I have a banker's box., no hanging files, just a pile of receipts.
@Michael McKelvey posted:I especially don't want my wife to know how much I spend on my Speedster. Yesterday I spent another $500. The big one she didn't know about was the Berg 5.
Mike, come on...a wife that doesnt know whats going on..not gonna happen..
When the Berg 5 arrived she asked about the big box that was delivered and I said it was just something for my car.
Be on the watch for big boxes showing up from Sacks Fifth Avenue.:}
@edsnova posted:Google sheets. Periodically I convert to PDF and download a copy as well, just in case.
(This is for Projekt Spyder tho, not for the TD, which has its own blog).
The spreadsheet is private. I also have the original three-ring binders with the "build manual" for each car, and a lot of receipts.
Ditto on Google sheets and docs. I can get to them on any device (even my phone) for those times when I'm trying to decide "Do I cut the red wire, or the blue one?"
Dude, don't take everything so personally. Did you lose your sense of humor?
I think most people can tell when I'm joking, and I was.
@Jim Gilbert - Madison, Mississippi
Ray, that MGTF will be even classier than my old neighbor’s Corvair that she was buried in when we lived in Rhode Island. She was just one of a lot of local “characters” we had in town.
https://www.corvaircorsa.com/h...s%20was%20her%20wish.
I once heard of a lady in Foster, RI that was buried in her 1989 Cadillac Sedan deVille, too. Being in that part of the state, she might have been a mobster’s wife, I dunno.
Gordon...It's a, I say it's a figure of speech (Foghorn Leghorn). Hopefully, I will convert that damn MG to cash before they bury me.
When I look at my hobby and compare its cost to other folks hobbies I think I'm doing pretty well. I've owned 3 spyders, an intermeccanica conv D and a Caterham Super 7. I've owned my last spyder since 2017. I just purchased another used intermeccanica. Out of the cars I've sold I think I've lost less than 10%. And that doesn't account for the miles and smiles I've put on the cars. I have associates that spend tons of money on golf or tennis clubs. And that money is gone forever. I go boating and fishing with friends who spend who knows how much money on gas and high and dries and docks in thier back yards. So I'll take my hobby anyday over most folks. Or maybe I should just stay home and read a book.
Certainly ahead on the cost per mile 
I like to know the cost, and a simple spreadsheet does that. Keeping track of the other part isn’t quite as easy, but lots of options to do it.
@550 Phil posted:When I look at my hobby and compare its cost to other folks hobbies I think I'm doing pretty well. I've owned 3 spyders, an intermeccanica conv D and a Caterham Super 7. I've owned my last spyder since 2017. I just purchased another used intermeccanica. Out of the cars I've sold I think I've lost less than 10%. And that doesn't account for the miles and smiles I've put on the cars. I have associates that spend tons of money on golf or tennis clubs. And that money is gone forever. I go boating and fishing with friends who spend who knows how much money on gas and high and dries and docks in thier back yards. So I'll take my hobby anyday over most folks. Or maybe I should just stay home and read a book.
My Speedster and Coupe hobby was profitable monetarily, allowing me to buy the new BMW outright, but I consider the most profitable part the people I've met along the way.
My other hobby - track days - will never be anything but expensive, so I'll have to limit it as my budget requires. I know folks who spend small (and not so small) fortunes on tracking their cars, but that's not an option for me. Again, the best part of it is the number of friends I've made.
I guess the point or this ramble is that you can keep track of the money side of things and usually the end result will be in the red, but there are other aspects that need to be factored into your personal equation. Given the reasons stated above, I consider my investments into the car hobby to be highly profitable.
It's a hobby. Hobbies cost money.
When you want an ROI, you start making skewed decisions trying to figure out what a future buyer is going to want. At that point, you'd be better off to just buy an ETF and watch Matlock reruns.
@Stan Galat posted:It's a hobby. Hobbies cost money.
When you want an ROI, you start making skewed decisions trying to figure out what a future buyer is going to want. At that point, you'd be better off to just buy an ETF and watch Matlock reruns.
How did you know my post-speedster plan!
@Stan Galat posted:It's a hobby. Hobbies cost money.
When you want an ROI, you start making skewed decisions trying to figure out what a future buyer is going to want. At that point, you'd be better off to just buy an ETF and watch Matlock reruns.
I feel the same way. The closest I’ve come is realizing, marveling really, that the two years I was seriously getting the Spyder together I spent nearly $1K in HARDWARE at the Ace Hardware close to my storage unit.
@dlearl476 posted:I feel the same way. The closest I’ve come is realizing, marveling really, that the two years I was seriously getting the Spyder together I spent nearly $1K in HARDWARE at the Ace Hardware close to my storage unit.
Nice hardware is stupidly expensive, primarily because we buy it onesy twosy at hardware stores nearby. If you attempt to order it, it takes a week to arrive, you pay for freight, and it probably isn’t what you want. Buying with the Ace 1000% markup is still cheaper in the long run, unless I need 10 of a very, very specific and oddball bolt
I looked hard at a jillion piece $1500 hardware tool-house assortment, but I know in my heart I’d still buy 75% of it at Ace or someplace similar. I mean, when you want a stainless metric buttonhead bolt in an exact tread pitch and length, what are the odds of it being in any of the eleventy-billion bins?
@Michael Pickett posted:How did you know my post-speedster plan!
You’re nothing if not transparent.
You plan to invest in ETFs, watch Matlock reruns, and campaign for worthy causes like transgender equality in Mixed Martial Arts. After lunch, you’ll devote yourself to refining cold fusion and professional napping.
You’ll yell at kids to get off your lawn and shake your fist at the sky. Hopefully, you’ll take phone calls from a flyover county primate trying to bring a 1930s air-cooled lawn and garden engine into the 1990s with EFI.
@Stan Galat posted:I'm a small businessman who does my own books. I can tell you exactly how much I've made or lost on any given job, and I know both instinctively and with a paper-trail where I make money and where I don't.
I have ZERO desire (actually, less than zero, if that's possible) to know what my car cost. If I did, I suspect I'd throw up in my mouth every time I looked at it, rather than formulate what kind of frippery I want to lavish on it next.
I am in this camp. Is takes some of the fun away from the hobby. I have folder that I shove stuff in to & don't look. I have an idea of ($$$$) and that's good enough. See how I rated the $ sign just as you see restaurants get rated on Yelp .
In my case, with my IM6, my big outlay was right at the beginning, and it's only been oil changes/checkups since then, plus trying to solve the CV issue, which has consumed more time than money.
I sold my last two Intermeccanicas for what I paid for them, so it's been a relatively cheap hobby up to when I dove into my current build.
I don't anticipate getting my money back when I do sell my IM6, but it's a hobby, and you can't think of it any other way. I do have a file where I keep my receipts, and so far it hasn't been painful at all.
What else can you do with money, other than spend it or give it away? And if you have all of life's necessities covered, feel confident that you'll have enough until the end with enough to give to the kids and grandkids when they need it, then do so.
Well it does seem that depending on when the bump up comes 10 years or more would certainly get your money back out, but then you have to take in present value and future value in the equation and you lost anyway… but it feels good to get your cash back so to speak.
Ace Hardware… below
@Stan Galat posted:Nice hardware is stupidly expensive, primarily because we buy it onesy twosy at hardware stores nearby. If you attempt to order it, it takes a week to arrive, you pay for freight, and it probably isn’t what you want. Buying with the Ace 1000% markup is still cheaper in the long run, unless I need 10 of a very, very specific and oddball bolt
I looked hard at a jillion piece $1500 hardware tool-house assortment, but I know in my heart I’d still buy 75% of it at Ace or someplace similar. I mean, when you want a stainless metric buttonhead bolt in an exact tread pitch and length, what are the odds of it being in any of the eleventy-billion bins?
Ace Hardware… below
So I am in Sacramento on my maiden voyage and the pull handle on the passenger side SS Screw comes out, of course the FGlass now has a bigger hole ever so slightly.
So, I goto Ace hardware to the parts bin and the guy helps me to find the exact same SS screw with the same head but a bigger body… who would have that ?
Not the Orange, Blue or any other colour store.
Ace for me is king and I can hardly get there.
I guess my motto is more like "If you want to play, you pay" than anything else.
As Bob says, if all the necessities of life are taken care of, and you can afford some extras, then have at it.
I think Mike is more a Rockford Files guy than a Matlock guy, but yeah @Stan Galat you basically nailed him!
I think one of the best things about this hobby and this forum is that there are so many ways to engage with it. Some of us love the project and the pursuit of a specific goal that's more important than a running car. Others love trying to push the envelope of technical possibility. Some crave pushing the envelope by driving old technology as fast as possible. The technical, electronic game of fuel injection and engine management atracts others, while still others work for maximum authenticity. There are even those that engage in the fine art of number crunching, they like to know where they are as they play a financial game in this hobby.
All of it's cool, everybody gets to their own thing, and the level of support we give each other for our particular oddities is realy quite remarkable. I really enjoy hearing the stories of what folks are doing, why they're doing it, and what they plan for the future. I may engage with some more than others, but I wouldn't want to give any of them up. I mean, where else are you gonna get thread drift that starts with a coffee machine and goes 2 pages (so far) touching on best meals, social hierarchy, the bible, Dorothy Parker, and the power of ritual before returning to coffee. That stuff is BS around the campfire gold and I didn't even need to leave the house.
What a nice spot to hang out.
Well said, Michael!
In the bizarro world of Musbjim, each day is a GIFT, my life perspective since having survived combat action as a medic in Vietnam.
So, whenever participating in whatever recreational activity that fits my budget, I enjoy EVERY minute. Regarding expenses, problematic issues or no ROI, I harbor ZERO angst because I consider these issues as the cost of doing business ( RE: enjoying what I'm doing with whatever time I have left on this earth).
Have I mentioned that I thoroughly enjoy this forum and fellow knucklehead SOCers. Each time I log on it's like sitting on the back porch and shooting the $hit with all my buddies.
@MusbJim posted:In the bizarro world of Musbjim, each day is a GIFT, my life perspective since having survived combat action as a medic in Vietnam.
So, whenever participating in whatever recreational activity that fits my budget, I enjoy EVERY minute. Regarding expenses, problematic issues or no ROI, I harbor ZERO angst because I consider these issues as the cost of doing business ( RE: enjoying what I'm doing with whatever time I have left on this earth).
Have I mentioned that I thoroughly enjoy this forum and fellow knucklehead SOCers. Each time I log on it's like sitting on the back porch and shooting the $hit with all my buddies.
And we certainly do shoot a lot of shyt.
