I'm in about the same place 79chevydeelux. I was 17 when I got my inline. I'm 19 now and I still don't have the money to actively hot rod the heck out of this thing. I love this quote:

"Only a rich man can afford cheap parts."

I can't support real hot rodding at this time so I'm not going to try to skimp my way through. I can't afford to break anything. Right now I'm working on other aspects of the car rather than the things that reguire money. Things that take time (like redoing some wiring harnesses) rather than loads of money. Someday when I have the money (when I'm done college) then I will begin to work on this car in a hot rodding kinda way. I've got other stuff like a gtech meter and a megasquirt (for datalogging right now).