I have never viewed my hot rods or customs as an "investment" It's about the enjoyment of building and the enjoyment of driving when it's ready to drive. It's about the hot gal riding in the BMW in the next lane giving you the "I'd rather be in that truck than with this full of him self guy" look going down the road. The Model A Victoria project will (and probably already has) have more spent on it than any other project I've ever built but I'm not planning on going overboard on it either. Plain and simple chassis with little or no chrome. 35 wires and proper tires. The flathead won't get many dress up goodies until after it gets driven a few hundred miles. The aluminum heads and dual carb intake can come later after the rest of the car is sorted out. The paint will be single color non metallic and the interior will be done by a local guy who does great work. The car will have some name brand pieces in it simply because they work and in the long run aren't all that much more expensive than parts that "might" work right. I looked long and hard at a fellow Hamber's T bucket yesterday. It's a very low buck flathead powered car with no frills but it's pretty well built and set up. He spent the money where he had to to make things right but didn't blow a bunch on bling that he didn't need to just flat have fun driving the car. It's probably a lot easier to build a 80K hot rod than it is to build a 15K hot rod. You just go out and buy the parts and put the car together. 10 K for a rolling chassis delivered to the door, 15K for a designer engine with all the bling, 3 k for a name shop trans. 13K for a new steel body delivered to the door and add in another stack of cash for the boxes of chrome goodies like head lights and windshield posts and frame. Load it on the trailer and haul it half way across the country for paint by the shop that you need to get a reservation two years in advance for and off for upholstery at the shop that did three out of the past five AMBR cars. Well maybe you can't get that done for 80K afterall. Mainly it still comes down to sitting down and planning the whole car from one end to the other. Then doing diligent shopping and sticking to the plan all the way through. Not changing your mind every week and having 4 sets of valve covers, three intakes, two extra sets of heads and three sets of new wheels and tires that you bought for the build but didn't use when the build is done. As traditional car guys we are lucky in many ways. A perfect set of Caddy hubcaps probably won't cost as much as one 22 inch billet wheel that will be out of style before the car it's bought for hits gold chainer row at it's first Goodguys event but the Caddy caps will still look great fifteen years from now.
I've probably got about 29 K in my truck, after adding the power booster and new carb and some braided fuel lines. They're never done though.
MrChevy well written. I see you are another guy who plays with the opposite of his Avatar name. Probably my all time favorite car is a Model A Victoria. But I said that about 39-40 Ford coupes, 55 Chevys, and others. Almost bought a 1932 Chevy Victoria bodied car once. Not even sure if that's what those were called. About what they cost, way back when some of us started this hobby they cost very little. Parts were scrounged from junk yards and the back rows of car lots. Most work was done by kids learning and having fun. Seems like a cheap paint job and maybe a fancy interior came later, if we were lucky.
I think we are losing the essence of hot rodding when we put a price on it especially when talking traditional and kustom. Hot rodding to me is a culture where you surround yourself with like minded folks at an undisclosed shop and help one another out. I guarentee that out of every 7 hot rodders, you'll have a mechanic, welder, body man, painter, or at least someone that knows a buddy. Sure you can go out, spend $10K on a crate engine and so on and so on but after the initial investment of getting your project car, fabrication and ingenuity will get the same results. I think that you can build a great hot rod for less than $15K and that includes TT&L. BTW, what's up buddy! Finally joined up. FYI, the 4 door Nova with the 327 is going for $1K and it's a package deal. I haven't seen it yet.
Its still in work. Im at about $28k right now. Used to save receipts and invoices, but it just got to the point of "Does it really matter" ? Its not worth what you put into it. Except sweat equity is what I consider the real value.
Yea- but then I built a 50k dedicated garage for it, even has a tile floor & a 4 post lift. Yep- I'm fucked.
I'm not close to being done but at the moment I'm far below the 35,000 price but like I said its not done yet, and this car was pretty messed up.
I have built several of my dream cars and each cost less than $5000 each. Granted they're not pro built show cars, but are daily driven and bring me thousands of miles of enjoyment. I know I'm a cheap bastard, but I can't afford to spend even one third of the minimum on the poll!
When I sold my '50 Chevy project I was about even money on it. But it was never going to be a top end show car for me. I'd buy a whole car and part it out and keep some pieces for it, or when I bought the glass it needed I got some other parts in the same trip which I sold so the glass worked out to be free.
I was hoping 3WLarry would weigh in on this one... I was FLOORED when he said how much he had in that black car. I'll leave you in suspense until he finds this or decides to open up!
I don't get the people who want to somehow put a value on their time. using that line of thinking at a rate of $25.00 an hour, I have $1500.00 invested in watching TV this month. time is free, I get 24 hours every day. doesn't cost a thing.
Make the math work to your advantage: buy a completed car you like for about half of what it cost somebody else to build it, then spend incremental time and money improving it and personalizing it. Worked for me, and I'm in way under your $35K entry bracket. Yeah, there's always some putz that will tell you "If you didn't build it, it ain't yours!" but if you wait long enough, a plastic bag will blow by on the wind and they'll wander off. At some point, I'll probably sell it for less than I have into it too, but so what? Fun is fun, and that's worth a lot. And yes... "Wife Dollars" are factored at 0.3
(I'll admit, I haven't read every response to this thread). I think there are a few factors that need to be remembered when tallying up the price of a build. The total cost isn't just the end-all-be-all. - First off, $35,000 invested in one year, is a fairly sizeable chunk of dough. But if you spent $35,000 over a five year build, than $7,000 a year is much more reasonable and realistic. - Second, I have a rough idea of what I've spent so far on my build. Not an exact amount, but a rough idea. However, I don't factor in any of the parts that I've sold, or the profit from any parts that I've bought and resold. So that I know my idea of what I've spent is higher than what has actually come out of my paycheck. My point is, looking at the final bill (or cost) is a poor representation of the process of building a car. I could spend $3,600 a year on cigarettes (average yearly cost to an american smoker) and have nothing to show for it at the end.
Most of my cost was tax and shipping.i was born 1962 the irish motorist is allwaysgetting it up the ass from the government in ireland and the cycle to the office brigade.fuck the lot of them
I guess what I spend is relative to what I can earn. If that gets out of whack, then Im in trouble big time. When I was earning well, I think I paid the wages of one guy in a shop for about three years straight. And the shop, in return, built me stuff that I had neither the ability nor the time to build. And they built it well too. I know what I want, I know the parts I need to find, I know the stance the car needs by the end of the project, so I facilitate, while others fabricate. So my cars tend to cost more than most of you guys can do, but Im still excited when I get to drive them down the road for the first time. For those, like me, paying others for their labours, you can keep the costs down by better planning and not changing your mind on what you want done to your car every two weeks.
Cost is relative to " How bad you want it " Some members here would think ... I have way too much $$$ in my 32 Fords. By other members standards ... I am in for cheap money. I do not smoke, drink or have other expensive hobbies. I have been married for 38 years to the same ( first and only ) wife. 32 Fords have been my hobby and dream cars for a long as I can remember. No fishing, Golf or other distractions for me. So the hobby is my way of life. The wife likes the old cars also ... so for us ... old cars has something for us to do together. We both like road trips so we go to car related events as far away as California. We have been in most of the 48 continental US states ... doing the old car thing. So for us ... the old car HOBBY is PRICELESS
I have hit both ends of the spectrum, and the middle. The most expensive is a driver, built and rebuilt over a ten + year period; but it is still just driver quality. The cheapest was an Oakland Roadster Show class winner, less than $35K to build over about 20 months, but at the time I had to sell a bit of stock to pay for it, and the stock would have been worth over $1M last spring if I had kept the stock. I have since rebuilt the car and still have it. My current build will likely end up costing somewhere in the middle by the time I am done, but I have made no attempt to keep track of the cost, as it is priceless. I have had the car for more than 50 years and my father bought the car new in 1929. It will have a thousand or so hours of my time, again just priceless enjoyment. I never think too much about the cost so long as I have the money needed. If not, the build just goes a little slower and the enjoyment continues a little longer.
From my viewpoint...there is no point in adding costs, if we add up the real costs it goes like this....I built my first car, a T bucket in my driveway, with a box of tools I carried around, paid a portable welder to weld stuff, around ten grand, I was proud, drove it five years trouble free, got all my money back in smiles, then, built a shop, bigger dollars, bought better tools, bigger dollars, built cars for others to pay for some of it, built my 36 15 years ago for $13000, havent put a penny back into it, its paid for in smiles. Bought another house in the country, had to have more room, got lots more stuff now, better tools, all related to my hobby. How much money do I have in my cars? It'll scare me to add it all up, cause its all related to...you guessed it, my hobby. However, not counting the hundreds of thousands I've spent getting here, I can usually build what I want under ten grand, including the original purchase. Not counting my time, cause I got f***k all else to do in my spare time anyway.
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