Canadian Rodder builds a hot rod

Planning Tools
by Frank Colgoni

So far, we've talked about a lot of conceptual stuff. That is, the overall project, various considerations, budget, duration, style, options and so on. Now, we're going to get a little more "practical".

We've developed a database of possible parts to be used in a build-up. In other words, we've catalogued, in computer database form, 370 parts that could potentially be used in a car. This is not to suggest that you would use all the parts but would likely use many of them.Each part has a part description, a phase (where/when it would likely be needed), an assocation to a part category (body, chassis, driveline, etc) and some considerations associated with the part.

With the database, the parts can be sorted in various ways. For example:
- all parts alphabetically
- all parts associated with the category (e.g. all parts associated with "body")
- all parts associated with a phase (e.g. early fabrication, early mockup, etc.)

These various listings can be printed and used as a checklist to guide the acquisition of the required parts - sort of a large "shopping list". As an example, we've shown below, an excerpt from the list of parts associated with the body category. At present, there are 62 parts in the body category.

Part	Phase	Considerations	Require?
Bar-Headlight	4	a	a
Body-Fiberglass	2	Year/model/fenders	a
Body-Original	2	a	a
Braces - Hood	4	# of braces required/material?	a
Brackets-Bumper	4	Useable/aftermarket/material/finish	a
Bumper, rubber, hood or trunk	6	a	a
Bumpers-New	5	Original style/specialty	a
Bumpers-Original	5	Useable/rechroming/other finish	a
Cable, trunk release	5	Single purpose or combine with hood?	a

If the report had been generated by phase, then the parts required for that phase would be displayed in sequence of category. As an example, this is what a report for phase 4 would look like. There's 71 other parts in the phase 4 listing.

Part	Category	Considerations	Require?
Bar-Headlight	Body	a	a
Braces - Hood	Body	# of braces required/material?	a
Brackets-Bumper	Body	Useable/aftermarket/material/finish	a

So, we're busy checking off the stuff we're going to need for this project. We'll let you know what the final tally once we're done. Obviously, the list may grow as things progress.

Given that we've got a body and a motor and tranny, we'll be in a position to fill you in on those details in the next installment so stay tuned. At that time, we'll likely introduce some of the players.

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