New to world of 32s. Thinking of building one to flip . Was thinking of a bare metal build simple setup black everything inside and under the body, (Frame, wheels ETC.) Or maybe every bare metal frame but polish out some of the welds and darkness from them and treat it with Gibs. There are similar things to each build that i feel would sell and was thinking with my fabrication and polishing skills i can make this happen for 30K with a brookville body amd me fabbing the chassis etc.? Maybe you guys can give me a reality check on that numbers of money spent and money to be made. Give me some advice on the type of modifications and parts that need to be bought and from where for the best price to achive the look that sells. Im going to post a picture of whats kind of in my head of the build and a list of what i was thinking . Brookville 32 roadster body Building chassis myself (I fabricate pharamacutical pressure vessels for a living and have done structure welding also.) Vega box setup Disc in the front with finned covers Drum in the rear. Everything black suspension components and chassis (Not sure on what front suspension setup yet) Lakes headers baffled Stock 350 sbc (finned valve covers,breather) Th350 Nice quality gauges 9" 4 link coil overs Chopped windshield Black top Black plether seat (no other interior) Thought about fabbing myself these items - (Just to have one offs) dash Guage panel shifter stick and knob tail lights Headlights Door panels maybe I have been looking at builds online and trying to find some good reads on exaxtly what im looking for and have went through alot of threads on here before finally just deciding to do this route of directly asking you guys, i appreciate your time and help in this matter. Built a turboed ls1 chevelle that was my first car. Do not have a favorite car but the 32 is top 5 for sure .
I have yet to see a new build that was made with all reproduction parts sell for anything close to the sum total of the price of the parts used in the build. If you want to build one for yourself, or just to have something to do, then go for it. But if you think you're going to make money on it I think you'll be very disappointed. At best, you might pay yourself a couple bucks an hour, and that might be generous. If you want to get paid to build a car, build one for someone else. There is a lot of demand for skilled builder labor and you can name your price per hour, and you can make someone else's dream come true. If you do nice work, you'll have all the work you can handle. Or find an original car that has needs and fix it. That way, even if you don't make much money on it, you put another old car back on the road, and there's some pride in that. The world of hot rodding needs more original cars getting finished. But the world of hot rodding doesn't need any more flippers building stuff out of new catalog parts and then trying to sell it for a profit.
Was mentioned in the other thread that going on, but the 26k is into 28’s after tax, leaves less room. Good luck.
[QUOTE="Squablow- Thanks for the insight. Had a 1929 rpadster come up and had that thought of getting it back to more of a traditional build and maybe making a buck of two on it . Its hard finding an actaul number on what these cars are going for though. Even roadster sales on sites are everywhere on the charts and none are built the way i am invasioning one. What do you think this would go for its a steel brookville body . 9" 350/350 with sniper efi . Id have the body and engine block repainted or just leave the body bare and put black skinnies on it was my thought to make it more era correct .
Well, that fucker's pretty ugly as it sits, so if you can swap some better looking wheels on there and re-dress that poor, unfortunate small block, you'd definitely be moving the needle in the right direction. Problem with pricing is, hot rods are really hard to nail down. They're not at all like, say, a '65 Mustang, where you have a pretty obvious price range from previous sales and you can narrow it down by options and condition and whatnot. Hot rods are all over the place price wise. Sometimes you strike gold, sometimes you lose your ass. They're great fun if you like to build cars, and they're fun to drive too, but they're very unstable as an investment to buy and sell. If you told me you could buy that car for the right price, and you were going to repaint the body red (or black, or really any color that isn't neon green), add some finned valve covers and a proper carburetor/intake setup, and put some chrome reverse steel wheels on it (in no diameter larger than 15"), I'd cheer you on and say that's a great plan. You'll be doing that car a favor and you'll end up with a nice roadster when you're done. But if you're doing it to hopefully cash in, you're taking a big risk. The finished car might sell for $40K or it might languish for a long time for sale at $20K, even if you spent more than that on it. If you really want to do it, do it for fun/because you enjoy it. If you come out ahead in the end, that's great. But if you're just doing it in the hopes of a big payday, you're barking up the wrong tree.
I think you may be underestimating the work required to fabricate an authentic looking 32 frame if you have never done one before. At least budget for the rails. If you have none of the parts already and plan to buy salvage parts you are still looking at a minimum of 10k above the cost of the frame and body if you dont want it to look like a junk pile. As said on previous threads real steel bodies are available and a lot cheaper. Another option is a model A roadster body which are even more available unmolested and rot free. One final suggestion if you are on a tight budget is to look for unfinished projects that have all the main parts you need but at a fraction of the cost of buying new.
It's simple math. Be prepared to spend 60-70k to build it, then be prepared to get about half that back when you sell it. But from what I hear, you can make up the loss in volume sales.
If you are planning on flipping it straight away, dont forget to factor in the 1000+ man hours that are needed to build it right.
For the first 10 years of the 2000 era I built around a dozen of what I called package cars. They were Brookville 32 roadster bodies, my own Cornhusker Rod And Custom straight axle chassis with all the suspension plain steel, Bell disc brakes with all the plumbing done in stainless, Tanks tank, Rootlieb hood, Vintique shell with Dales insert, chromed Vintique chopped windshield assembly, Cornhusker steering column with 39 banjo wheel, Borgenson joints and shaft, Walker Radiator. Everything was installed, fit, adjusted and in bare metal coated with Gibbs. These cars started at $29,995. Some were higher priced because the customer requested options like a seat (Glide), Gauges (Usually Classic) and chrome suspension (Peter & Jake's) a couple also requested that I source new SBC crate engines and trans installed. This was not a get rich deal but when it was a little slow it kept my only employee busy. This worked for me because I was able to source all the parts at dealer wholesale. I did a few package cars like your list but they ended up in the mid 40's to almost 50k. With all the price increases in the last 10 years I couldn't duplicate what I did back then. I think you are a little optimistic but go for it.
The green roadster is a 29 model A. Looks like an original steel body as its got the cowel gas tank... could be 20k, or 30 depending on the spec of the other parts.
The model A pictured is scary looking. I think that it would take too much time, money, and effort to try to make a profit on it.
The Jalopy Journal
