My proudest works to date are lost on crashed hard drives, which will cost me $480 to retrieve. Someday I'll either get enough cash or just rewrite the programs.
I'm also pleased when I have good, simple things that are written really well, or solve a difficult problem fairly elegantly.
Back in the 1980s my uncle blew the motor up in his Oliver. The core was destroyed with a grapefruit size hole in the side of the block where a rod came out. Back then a new motor for the thing was going to be around $2,000 so the dozer was dragged into a field and forgotten about until 2014. So really all I had to start with was the tracks, transmission, and frame.
The motor mounts, supports, braces, and almost all other external parts were fabricated in my shop from both new steel stock and scrap that my grandfather collected. Having heavy scrap probably easily saved $1,000.
I'll strip everything down again when I get the fenders and hood finished and run through the whole process on video with an itemized budget. Its been a fun redneck engineering project...and really not as difficult as it seems if one has all the right tools and equipment.
So I guess the dozer transmission frame, and tracks were a freebie and the car was also a semi-freebie, as it was going to be scrapped after all of the work I had put into it for my brother when he was going to college. Oh, and if this motor blows up I can get them for $100 a piece from any local salvage yard - a far cry from $2,000.
PS. I need a website to act as a sort of portfolio. I think your site finally made me realize that.
He bought it used with a knock if I recall...originally had a 4 cyl gas in it that ran at 2,400 rpm. New motor can run at 11,000 if I take out the rev limiter...no torque at idle but fast and fun. Its not a work machine anymore, just a toy.