The reality is that unless you are rich, you HAVE to have some skills to put something together. Horsetrading is common to EVERYONE I know in this hobby. What WE did wasn't something that can't be done. His block, crank, pistons/rings, were $400. Those 360 parts he got offset a few hundred from the whole project. In the same sense, we swapped his 'desireable' SS spring 8 3/4 rear and suspension for a home-build junkyard Dana with gear and found used; spool, axles and coil-overs (new ladder-bars) all for a few hundred bucks more!...it's no different when you're HotRodding. If you don't try, you'll never do anything. The cost is relative to many things and should be mentioned. There are always going to be extreme examples but the core parts for a 451" can be had cheap.
