Welding is as easy as using a glue gun?! Yeah no, sorry. Total BS. Maybe you're fortunate enough to have some natural skill there, but that statement right there tells me you don't know much about welding at all. Welding on these cars isn't necessarily the most difficult welding there is and you can get to a place where you can do some of these modifications yourself at home with an inexpensive welder, but you're dramatically oversimplifying the process.
I don't completely disagree with what you're saying, people can do a lot of work on these cars themselves if they're willing to put in the time and that CAN save some money. But oversimplifying the skills, time, and equipment needed doesn't help anyone.
Sure, people run out of money thinking they have to buy all the fancy expensive stuff marketed for these cars. But I've also seen people get in WAY over their heads trying to do things themselves when they don't have the skills or equipment to be successful. And typically, its MUCH worse financially when you do the latter. Buy a bunch of parts and run out of money and you still have a fairly complete car and a bunch of parts to sell. Tear the whole thing down yourself and get halfway through some metal replacement before you realize everything is crooked and you've got a paperweight when it comes to unload your project. Then you either pay out the nose for someone with the skills to go back and fix your work, or let it go for pennies.
I think people should do more of their own work. I do all of mine, and I do a decent amount of fabrication too. But that doesn't mean that's the right choice for everyone. I have thousands of dollars of tools and decades of experience working on cars. You can do your own work and find it easy, that's great. But not everyone can do that, so be realistic. Encouraging people to do their own work is one thing, berating and belittling people for buying parts to make their project go a little smoother isn't cool.
