Built Not Bought

3 seems really expensive. I can't even imagine 5 @JMT. Costco must be your second home.

Nearest Costco is 60 miles one way. We live in the most expensive county in TX. Gillespie. It’s one reason I’m moving to Spokane WA. Cost of living will be much lower even though I’m taking a pay cut! It is expensive. There are pros, of course. What a blessed life. Never a dull moment. People to take care of me in my old age. Family. I got to meet and enjoy some of yours...

Your build life seems like mine, late at night or early morning. Sometimes the boys help. They know trackbars, bumpstop, transfer case, sway bars, axles, skids, shocks, coils, they’ll be way ahead of me by their 20’s! 😂
 
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Nap time and after 8-9pm is my build time. Using the air tools or grinder is always a gamble. Luckily the baby is a heavy sleeper.

Lucky you for sure! My daughters room is right next to the garage. If I got the air compressor or grinder going, someone would wake up for sure.

This is the exact point that the wife and I can't agree on. She thinks 3 would be nice but in the same sentence says how we would need a minivan or some other 3rd row car and how another bedroom in the house would be nice.

The 3rd was nice because it ended up being a boy (we already had two girls). However, we are outnumbered now, so it's a juggling act. Fortunately the oldest is 6 and a half, so she's usually helping out to some degree.
 
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My take on Built not Bought is someone doing their own work or fabbing instead of buying an already built rig or paying someone else to do the work.

That's my take as well. Cutting your own steel, bending tubing, fitting and welding are building.
 
I'll tackle what I know I can do and Utube lets me know the things I think I can do or things I should just leave well alone. ( especially where safety is key )
Sometimes wish my Dad was a car guy, so I learnt using the 'trail and error method' when I was growing up with my first cars.....more errors than anything though haha
Built in my mind means 'built'...cutting, grinding, welding, fab work etc
 
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Built Not Bought..... I figure is anything you put your time in to, sweat in, soul in... you don't need to be the best at it.... you need to be involved in it. Maybe not the best execution... but see it through & not having regret but learning from it. (everybody starts from somewhere).... We all did... If you worked to modify it.. you built it....

As far as "family interference" I would consider you all blessed.... I am one of 7 children & we are close ... I know family. Unfortunately due to a medical issue we (my wife & I) loss a child & are were not able to have children.... so even if you miss "wrenching / garage" moments.... be thankfully for the family you love & the time you have.... Live... Laugh... Love...

If you build it.... they will come.... (if they don't.... they wouldn't understand anyway)....
 
I think the term comes from the old school hot rod builders who back in the day put together a vehicle from several sources, V8 engine in a Model A, different frame rails, chop and channel the body, that sort of thing. Handy with a torch, good with wrenches and proud of their work. Times change and along come muscle cars with lots of power, all you need is money and off you go. Fast forward to today and boomers with money can have that car they always wanted built for big dollars at a hot rod shop. People who can't afford to do that are jealous and resent it, and like to imply that those guys could not have built it themselves. Hence the term built not bought.
That's my take on it.

B
 
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I built things early on because I had very little money to buy them when I was younger. Became a way of life, and I enjoyed that for decades. Nowadays, I can afford to buy stuff, and building, for the most part, has lost its charm. I just want to get in it and drive it, built or bought.
 
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I'd rather buy mine than build it.

Try having three little kids and then tell me you want to spend your time building one :LOL:

Nailed it. When I was younger and 100% on my own in this world late nights in the garage getting ready to hit the track for the weekend was really a fantastic way to live. Fast forward 20 years, two little kids, a wife, two simultaneous careers... "Built not bought" just doesn't have the appeal it once did. Taking the kids to hockey practice, baseball practice, gymnastics, going to see their school plays, helping on their school projects, traveling for work, making time to act like my wife and I are still interested in each other (lol just kidding but I'm sure you get it).... The topic of getting a Jeep to go four wheeling came up last year so I stroked a check.
 
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Most of the vehicles today are assembled primarily by machines with limited human input. Even the folks on an assembly line have limited tasks in a specific area or component, I would not consider them builders, that is however an area I could argue either side of the debate. I doubt there are two identical Jeeps here on the forum. Every single one of us took different paths. Not to threadjack, but if you add a chrome doodad or angry bird grill, your Jeep is not "Custom". Harley has factory bikes they call custom, or people buy made in China parts bolt them on and call it custom. To me custom work is when you start with a blob of metal or raw material and fabricate into a component or decor. If you twist the wrench, you are building, or rebuilding.
 
Getting ready for our next build.
Shipping this to UP Michigan to dig iron ore:
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Remember when people would say "I built my computer"? I'd ask how they drew the circuit boards, what kind of soldier did they use, etc.
"Well I guess I assembled a computer"
 
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