Building a car for less than 10K.......

Hi all.I am gonna build my 28 tudoor.I have added up all the **** I have bought up over the past few years,and I have about 3600$ in the stuff I have so far.I have a body,most of the patch pannels Im gonna need,complete front end kit from speed way,two frames,(one is a fabbed up frame I built with help frome the info on this site)the seats im gonna use,stearing box and collume,a gauge set I would like to use,spindles and drums,and backing plates,4 new tires(no wheeles yet) and lots of small nick-knack stuff from other projects.My uncle owns a junk yard and gave me a running motor and trans,SBC stuff I think.I will do all the work myself.I need some help thinking of other stuff Im gonna need,and rember....Im on the cheap.I think I can put together a finished and painted good looking car for less than 10 K$....what do you think?

P.S.I own a body shop,so the paint work is free......

Thanks ,
EVIL

 

Easily...

If you do the interior yourself, I see about 7k into the entire nicely finished car if youc an do the paint and body yourself. 10K with interior done by someone else.

Yous till have to come up with suspension, steering linkage, electrical, fuel tank and plumbing, finish your brakes, cooling system, rims, etc.

 

Hi

Well, doesn't seem unreasonable : look at the "So What" speedshop 999$ project...

It's not the price that makes it cool

Send pics of the progress

 

Yep thats perfectly feasable, I've got $7600 in mine and its done save for the finish coat of paint (which I'll do myself) and the interior (which I will end up doing myself...what can I say, I'm on a DIY kick) everything thats on it is newly rebuilt, swap meet or cut rate clearance pricing....

 

This encourages me on my project, except I'm going with a flattie, seems like that stuff gets a little pricey.

 

Everytime I mention I have 4 grand into mine, I start a fight. Flathead and all.....Round about $4,000.
My new car, Frankie Flyer Model A, has almost that just in parts and isn't even close to being done.

 

Sounds feasible to me. It is possible to save a lot of money if you do stuff yourself and get good deals (free/cheap stuff). I will have less than $8k in my coupe easily when it is done.

Bill

 

Well that sounds good. I have a siezed up flattie I got for $250, took me a long time, but I got it dis***embled, finally, I'll be getting the block checked out, but it sure looks good to the eye.

Crank, cam, and connecting rods all look good, but I did have to destroy three of the pistons to get it apart.

 

I got about $3,000 into mine so far. $1,000 in body, engine/trans, and frame. Another $600 in brakes, steering and other safety items. The rest in all the little stuff that nickle and dime you death. You know what I mean, you've been there before. You find what you need for $20, but you think it's too much. You wait 3 months for another, but every one you find is $30. You go back for the $20 item and it's gone. Finally you find one for $25, and you waste $10 in gas to get it. Or, you learn from this and you grab an item for $70, only to discover that a friend has one you can have free and it's in better condition.
I figure my build will total about 1 Bazillion dollars and I'll run my brand new car into the ground going for parts.

 

I know some of my old friends have done this.
If you find a donor vehichle pretty cheap and use everything off of it. Running gear, wiring, seats etc. Even the s**** off the body for patch panels.
My friend built a 50 Ford well below ten grand. His biggest expense was The car $1000, paint, gl***, window rubbers and some shop supplies.
He ended up selling it a year later for $14 thousand.
He has a full shop and that really helps. Hes got boxes of old gauges, sending units, switches etc etc.

 

I think it is do-able too!I have a good start on the car,I am actualy gonna build it for a family member.I wish I could aford to do it for free and just give it to them,but I dont have the funds for that.When they asked me how much it would cost,I told them I thought it could be done for less than 12k$,just to give me some room foe era.

EVIL

 

Yep, it can be done. I did my 55 Chevy ground up new floors, trunk braces you name it. A ton of ebay stuff and local finds , Just needs finish body work and paint and finish interior and have about 7500 invested

 

Haven't you ever heard the devil is in the details? I find that it is all of the little finishing up stuff that costs you.
It's not about the money anyways.
Never ever skimp on safety, you could wind up dead!

 

Take it to heart. She speaks the truth and knows what she is talking about.

J.

 

That should be no sweat, if you take your time, do everything you can yourself and scroung parts 10k should be easy to build. BUT if you want a 32 frame, full dress flattie, quickchange, crome up the ***...then maybe thats not feesable. I have about 8 in my 34, and it's nearly completed. another 2 or 3 thousand should get it on the road, my orriginal goal was under 10, so I figure I'm all right!

 

This build will be a driver.Nothing wild,just something dependable,safe,and cool.Like I said,I have a big head start on parts,Ill keep you guys posted on the progress.

EVIL

 

Evil
Looks like you're already in cheap. Ya better figure at least 1000 - 1500 just for ***embly stuff ( nutz n boltz, wire, exhaust etc). But less that 10K is more than done if you just don't go way overboard on something.

There's an old hooptie in my garage right now that should be driveing for way less than that, but my buddie is in real cheap and is a real bargain hunter.

Sometimes shopping is the key. it takes a bit longer but if your on a tight budget or want to keep your build cost down its a must.

 

Same boat as you bro. My goal when I started gathering parts for my 31' A was to pull it off for less than 10K. I'm thinking 5K for drivetrain and 5K for everything else. I think it can be done. I will do everything myself except for the motor work. Wish me luck!!

 

doing it all yourself is great, for 10k you'll have a nice car. the missing factor here is you are not considering what your time and expertise is worth. that's what will drive the cost up for anyone that has to depend on others for building thier car ...all or in part. the paint and interior alone can cost 10k.

 

I have a little less than that in my T,
it's not quite finished though...
unless you count the parts and materials I bought but didn't or couldn't use,
dead ends, bad choices, busted ****, duplicate parts...
if you add that stuff in it's well over the mark..

at least I work for free

 

Remember this thread????

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140691

 

I built my T roadster for right at $5000. Just in prime and blanket seat cover. Ran like stink and never let me down.

 

Well like I said,I am doing this build for a family member.I own a body shop,and have painted cars that the end bill was nearly 20,000$,but it was on a 250,000$ car,so it was justified.This build will likely be driven in primer before I paint it,just to work the bugs out,and my GF will probably do the interior.If this were a regular customer,I could see how the bill could get way up there,but ,this is my mom were talking about here....lol

EVIL

 

We thought we were gonna get my buddy Jason's coupe on the road for about half that, but when we went to put new gaskets on the flathead (which still ran quite good actually) we found it had two stuck exhaust valves. After tearing it down further we found there were also several pistons the rings were busted off of.

Needless to say, the budget was shot to hell.

It can definitely be done, keep us posted on your progress.

 

seems lake a lot of people have less then 10k in their car.......but nobody post a pic ?

 

as I said, I'm lacking finish paint and an interior, as soon as I figure out a color choice, the color will go on, till then it'll stay satin...

interior is a different story, I'm teachin myself how to stich right now...\

here's whats in it,

80 camaro front end (free)
rebuild kit for said front end, $200
body ($350, it was in sad shape though)
Bag kit with triangulated 4 bar kit, $1200
engine (425 HP SBC) $2000
bullet proof T350 trans $500 and some tradin
New tripower set up $700
8.8" ford rear with disk brakes $100
New ididit column from a friend $85
all the other parts (headlights, tail lights, brake components, guages, steel, materials, rear rims (fronts were free) tires, wiring, etc $2365
that last line was tradin, dealin, searchin etc that total is plus or minus 2 hundred bucks or so...either way I'm sitting under $8k

 

Cripes if I can't get my '29 Tudor done for about 1/2 10g my wifes gonna go *******!!
Guess it comes down to what you're using it for. More full time driving with wife and kids most likely means more $$.

 

the modified S-10 bed looks right at home on that truck. nice work!!

 

I built this for $4000 with handmade and scrounged parts.

Josh

 

I'm building a 30 "A" Coupe / flattie highboy that will be all pre '59. My original goal was $5000 until I bought a $2500 body. It still looks like I'll get out with a pretty nice car for about $7500.00