I saw that "dare" thread today... About going 160 on the flats... It got me thinking... What does it USUALLY cost you folks to build a car from the frame-up? What's the cheape$t you've built one for? See, I've got this 32ish frame just waitin' for me... An' a bobbed-out Triumph that nobody's riding (that I spent ALMOST 3 g's on) I love bikes... But what with the BRAIN DAMAGE that's already been incurred I'm too CHICKENSHIT to ride the bike.... For FEAR of what happens when I spill (again) That is to say if I fall again I'm damn near bound to be RETARDED- (moreso) And c'mon, I've been dreamin' of a HOT ROD since I was like 10..... So??? I know Fat Hack builds 'em with CHEAP tricks you wouldn't believe.... What's the scam? What's the scheme? Build-space, right? Comments???
The cheapest built cars usually look like it. This topic is like a dead horse, only the dead horse will eventually become dog meat but this topic keeps coming up! I bet you like cheap women as well? The ones with 3 teeth? "Cause I dont really need all those extras dear"
Ive probably got $8500+ into my '59, which as you all know is more than its worth. But I'll never get rid of it so what the hell....As for my roadster, Im probably into it for a five spot right now and am anticipating trippling that, but that would be the most-proabably end up costing less. Basically there's no cheap way out unless half your car is free...... -Dean
$4,000 to $5,000 is a cheap build in my opinion. I feel that guys who say " I BUILT THE WHOLE CAR FOR $1200", either don't take into account the price of gaskets, bolts, cotter pins, paint (yes rattlecan) , tires, oil, airfilters, lugnuts, etc etc etc.........or get a hell of a lot of "freebies"..... .....or they are just lying.
Survey says; "Mutt has it right"! Now for the bonus point; "How many of those parts were taken off of a proir project & recycled? Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy
I agree, and for that $4000- $5000 you better be able to do nearly everything your self of be able to trade off labor with someone that knows what you need done. Gene
Yea, that's just the parts cost, no labor. And it IS a dead horse and no one uses the same "rules" for adding up the cost. The only wa you come in cheaper is if someone gives you parts for free, or don't count all of what you had to spend to get the parts, like Swapmeet entry fees, gas, trailer rentals, tow truck bills, $500 parts cars that seem to end up a credit because they were parted out for more than the $500 etc. You can buy parts cars and part them out for a profit for ever and never deduct the profit off anything but your garage rent and food bill. That's called a JOB. Remember the "$6000 Deuce coupe assaults Bonneville" story one of the mags ran several years ago? My first thought was, where did they even get a Deuce for that cheap much less bring it up to race rules? Turns out that was what they spent to CHANGE an already DONE Deuce that the cost or value of wasn't included in the $6000! With the first engine in my truck i figured I had about $5500 but the truck itself I traded a 55 Olds for and I calculated the Olds to be worth the $75 I'd paid for it 12 years previous. In other words, I didn't include any reasonable purchase price for the GMC. (The seller had it advertized for $1000) There's always the "abandoned project" I always hear about someone else picking up for nickles on the dollar but I've never seen one first hand, not oe that was nickles on the dollar anyway... So I think that's a myth, like if you keep playing the same number youlll win the lottery some day
I'm gonna try to build a '50 2 door Merc for $2500...laugh if you want...I've got a '50 2 door, a '51 Lincoln 2 door and a '51 merc more door...the more door is pretty complete...the Lincoln is whacked up pretty good, but i got most of it's side stainless, a great rolling chassis, and a PERFECT driver's door (rust free), and the '50 is pretty solid, but stripped and just kinda beat up (the guy that owned it was an idiot...smacked it with a 5 pound sledge a bunch of times...long story) gonna build one good one for 2.5 g's...and like i said you can laugh, but I've only got $800 in the whole shit right now....
I went into town two nights ago and got some supplies to do some garage work this weekend. I spent $65 I bought: 20 feet of cable to make an extension cord for my welder. ($38) 1 3lb. bag of grade 5 bolts. 1 1lb bag of big bolts. 1 1lb bag of washers and lock washers. 2 wheels for a minibike (4.99 each) Throw in a bottle of pop and some gas and you've damn near got $100 invested in moving your welder and getting some bolts....o.k. o.k. the mini bike wheels sure don't go toward my build..... but does the cable to move the welder? I would lean toward yes!...its money out of my pocket that I wouldn't have spent if I weren't building a car.
If you have to use the word CHEAP, you cant afford the hobby,son...... I get $50,000 and up to build a car but my own 56 Chevy was done for probably $15,000 because I dont pay myself labor .
Was having the same conversation with PEDDRO at the weekend. The guys that build a A model roadster for $1000 forget to tell you they had all the body parts stacked in the rafters, six frames stacked behind the shed and a bunch of old motors to choose from. Read a magazine article in one of our most esteemed local rags a while back, entitled something like $10,000 deuce. Caught my eye. Read on and find out the guy already had the whole car. The 10K was to rod it. That's no 10K car. I reckon a cheap build in Australia for any decent sort of rod might be under 20K. Pete
I am as cheap as anyone out there, but it just depends on how you add it up . My cars are cheap , but I never figure my labor. I'm doing this because I want too not as a job. I will spend two hrs. making a $3 bracket. I am going out and pull a Vega wagon that is upside down in a ditch out this week and drag it home. It has a steering box and an air cooled powerglide ,I will take emblems and other crap off, fill it with scrap iron and haul it in to the crusher. The $75 I get from the crusher will pay gas and a couple Subway sandwichs ,so how much do I have in the parts ? I say nothing but it's all how you want to look at it,also don't let anyone tell you because you built a car for cheap it's junk ,thats bull__. I love the people who say "You get what you pay for" like they are driving Rolls Royces and wearing Arrmonti suits,nibbleing on Cavier. They are the ones that have too much in their stuff and are trying like hell to justify it. Just my opinion.
I'm the South Coast distributor of CHEAP and built my little modified for less than $3K out of pocket. But that includes nothing for the costs of parts that I'd been hoarding -- some for as long as 20 years. And it includes no labor costs whatever -- either my own or that of my brother who did all welding and much fabricating gratis. So....what's par on this hole anyway? As has been said many times before, it depends on what you count. If I had all the stuff I needed for a minimalist hot rod, and I did all the work myself, would it be free??
3400 for my 54,, yet i wasnt completly ground up.. swaped the driveline, did all the body work and suspension... you tell me my 18 dodge, 1400 bucks in a roller with out motor mounts... 30 ford.. once i get my front end from hellcat harry.. ill have it rolling around for 350 bucks
After moving parts that I've hoarded too many times, the time has come to build a "cheap" car or two. Most of the stash was obtained for free or was thrown into deals during the "gotta update it and paint it teal" 80s and 90s. Some was from rusted hulks that I obtained for little or nothing and parted out way back when. Knowing most of the old scrappers well enough to have wandering privilages goes a long way to keeping costs down too. Saying that, with the ability to build and finance costlier projects, doing the job on a challenging budget is fun. A stash of steel, scrap price metal available and a few boxes of welding wire that was given to me will provide far more rewarding brackets, mounts, gussets and what ever else than dialing 1-800-$$$-$$$$. The value of the time? Hmmmm, its better than watching TV or listening to relatives spew their liberal political views over a glass of watered down whiskey. Its my pastime because It is theraputic and satisfiing. Fabrication is fun. What is frustrating is when someone leads a newbie to believe that with minimal skills, friends, connections, tools and a proper space he can biuld a car for under a couple grand. Those dreams are not very realistic. Maybe they're not impossible either, but.... Should someone want to brag about their good scores or lo-buck tech, do it!! That is one of the great things about this place.
I was just thinking about my project... I paid $500 about five years ago for a van that I drove daily for a couple years. Now, I'm thinking I'll pull that motor/trans, maybe the steering column, etc. and use on my F-100. I think of it as 'free' because it was bought, paid for, used and I got my money's worth out of it... but really I suppose it would be a cost of $500... I guess I don't think of it as "lying"... just a simple brainfart, like not calculating in lug nuts, WD-40, MIG wire, welding gas, rags, etc. Oh yeah, and I figure I'll have the truck on the road for about $3k, but it'll look like I spent $100 on it! I figure I'll have it stopping good, and running good, but the body will be rough. Just my $.02... Ben
got about 4 grand into mine! only paid $700 for the car itself.... Then the new suspension parts, Ring and bearing kit for the 472 caddy, had to have the trans gone through (couldnt do that myself, OUCH) brkes, shifter, tires, wiring. It all ads up way too fast!
O.K. if you would like to do the 1-800-$$$-$$$$ route and mail order up your hot rod then figure on at least $35,000 for parts. I put together a spreadsheet listing all the parts needed to do build a '29 RPU using parts from So-Cal Speed Shop, Pete & Jakes, Chassis Engineering, Brookville, etc. That $35K included the rebuild of the flathead and the purchase of the flathead, and tires. Everything but the front axle and Kelsey-Hayes wires. Also, NO paint or upholstry AND NO shipping and taxes. No tools, no engine hoist, no engine stand, no miscellanous bolts, brake fluid, and on and on. It also included NO labor. This is the way some people have to go if they don't have the parts stash some people have in their back lot or garage. If they don't know how to assemble the pile of parts then they start paying the $40-$60 per hour shop labor rates at the local speed shop. That hired labor will add at least another $35,000-$40,000 to the car. Paint and upholstry can add $8,000. Now you are at $83,000. Most HAMBers call that gold-chainer territory. It all comes down to: If you want a hot rod that is less than $20,000 then you better have a stash of parts in the back lot to start with OR a really cheap cast-off project that you pay just nickles on the dollar. And you know how to build, assemble and fabricate with the tools in your garage. Oh yeah, you need friends that can do the things you don't know how to do. Our hobby is NOT cheap. But it requires, creativity, mechanical skills, visualization skills, forethought and the ability to barter. Oh yeah, don't forget a certain attitude and determination to keep working toward your goal.
So far my A Sedan has cost me nothing and I have 95% of the parts to build it. I have traded bicycle, motorcycle and car parts for all of it. I have also eBayed a ton of the stock parts off of it to finance the build, but all that is done and it's time to buck up with some cash... I would say that to get it all painted, upholstered and buttoned up, it will cost me $3000-$4000 more to do it right
My formula looks something like this. Builder car with shipping(my own) 1500.00, donor motor and transmission 850.00, 9" rear free. Total build cost is now over 5 times the starting point and still climbing. This shit adds up. Not bragging or complaining, just stating facts. Yes this subject is a dead horse. Don't compare your spending power to the next guy's, it's futile and you'll both end up broke. You gotta run what YOU got, not what the OTHER guy has. I don't use money to keep score.
Right on!," JOECOOL". Fact of the matter is i never look at "labor" either as being a "cost factor" , cause i love fabing stuff , and its truely theraputic to me. I get away with really low bucking it at Ecology parts yards , and its pretty simple to tell whats good and not good there , so your not buying crap over again. All my projects are born from junk yard parts and thats the only way i can build a couple at a time.
I built a '50 caddie for 5300.00 I kept every single receipt in a box and added them up about six months after it was as done as I was gonna get it. I did 100% of the work from the chop, shave, drive train, suspension, windshield cut...etc. But to tell you the truth, if I had to charge myself for labor it would be triple at least. If you get curious how it looks, Im driving it northbound on the 101 through Oxnard, CA in the last HAMB Calender, February.
We built the 999 car to see if it could be done. Not only that but we built it in 6 days (3 weekends). It can be done and we did it. Now let me say not everybody can do it. I get lucky at swaps and auctions and have some good old junkyards close by. I call getting a T gas tank for $5 getting lucky. The body was $150....on ebay Add that to the fact that the car was built using what was available. The motor and tranny was given to me by a neighbor. He bought it for the lowering kit that was on it and gave me the rest. It was a runner and we used everything we could. Most of the suspension was cast offs from streetrodders. The brakes were good. Big savings there! Price early ford wheel cylinders! I get a lot of metal at the scrapyard. It's new stuff cast off from factories. It's pretty cheap getting tubing by the pound. The car has needed a battery, altenator and starter since it was built. It also needs new back tires. The old tires are dry rotted and out of round. Plus the car's gonna get a new look this winter. All that will put the price over $2500. Like Tman said...this horse has been beaten many a time. Clark incase you're new here's a pic of what we did.
So, since you traded bike, cycle, and car parts for the 95% of the parts, do you consider the original purchase price of the traded parts towards the $3-$4k? If not, what's that additional cost? Just curious (see my previous post about my van parts)... Ben
The Jalopy Journal
