So my question is I sell all these Kustoms selling for over 100k weather it be one of the beauty's OZ has turned out recently, a John D car, or the big time local shop down here Hi Speed. I see/hear/read about there cars selling for over 100k or close to that price. Now while they are beautiful on the outside. I would expect them to be beautiful everywhere from that price. Ive never really been close enough to or seen the under side of one of these cars. I'm just curious as to how perfect they are. Are the rubbing the floors out and buffing them? is there mud on the cars? or is it lead/finished metal? is undercoating OK, on something high dollar. would it adversely effect the price? I hope that one day I can reach that level of building. I just dont really know what it takes. So basically. What makes a 100k kustom a 100k kustom. What details do they attend to that give the car such value? thanks guys.
First thing: remember a Jonh D' car is built by Oz. Mine looks like a mess underneath because I drive my Kustom. Sorry to all the builders I admire but the car has a motor and wheels so I drive mine. You will get a lot of comments on what makes a 100K car, so release the hounds....... B
Check out some of the indoor shows where they put the cars on racks with mirrors and study them. Some are over the top chromed/polished everything, never driven. Others may have minor road battle scars, but maybe they made the cover of some rag, etc. and carry a premium price because everybody knows the car. Reputation of the builder is another piece of it.
i choke when i hear people having millions into a car, Riddler contenders and such. i dont think i would want to build one of those too stressfull!!!
As I always say, Good thing I don't have stupid money, 'cuz I drive the wheels off my cars, but then they would be Duesenburgs and Barris originals....Would just piss off too many people.
You guys are TOTALLY correct! $300K for anything that's in the running fro the bigger titles- with many more dollars spent on the most detailed cars. 1 million was the OLD high bar- 2 million isn't far off.
at 75-150 bucks an hour labor and the thousands of hours put into them the labor is the majority of it.
Brandon,check out what it takes at some of the other shops that can and do high end cars Like Wild West rods or scott rods both in the tucson area........you need to save the cash and hit the "grand national" formerly the great oakland roadster show.in Pomona this will give ya a damn good idea whats up in the show world,take a good camera with a flash and a lotta batteries you WILL learn alot there
Jim I think 300k isnt even enough to be a serious contender in the big shows any more. The shop i work for will have 350k+ into an O/T mustang that will be a show/driver and 200k into the 55 nomad driver. I think it has been bumped up to the 500k range or so it seems.
2 mill is in the rearview Jim... 'First Love,' the gorgeous '36 Ford that won the Ridler in '07, supposedly cost over 3 mill to build. Or so I've heard...
dont know what i should think about ,yesterday my 53 beater was standing on a strret , probably 6 k in it total and a couple walks by and means oh look that beatuy car but its total unpayable and they walked into a audi a 4 . So what would they think if i had decent chrome and a shinny paintjob and what would people doing seeing such a car on the street ? dont matters howe much money i ever owne ,a rod and kustom is handmade for me ,by me and i never would spen more tha 50 25 for the build and 25 for the paint job
thanks for all the input guys. I'm surprised at some of the numbers being thrown out, but ill believe it. One of the reasons i was asking was because i had assumed that they where drivers, at least some of them where drivers maybe. And was wondering what the bottom of the car had looked like if it was going to be a driver, for 100k or more. I just couldnt imagine why they would cost so much. I guess im gonna have to hit up the GNRS next time around and see what makes them so special.
the rule of thumb in the show world was....show it and win,then when its done being a serious points contender drive it and enjoy it or sell it
I worked at another shop a few years ago and we were building a 34 ford sedan delivery for the ridler. When I left the car was painted but it was fucked up in a few spots so we had to redo a bunch of work. The bill was at $700,000 then. I was just there today to say hi and noticed the car is still not done. The floor pans were cut & polished, and smoothed right out, the chassis was skim coated, blocked, and the paint was also cut & polished. it has over 60K worth of electronics and wiring. Custom billet pulleys, valve covers, and every other odd and end with the cars logo (a ghost) engraved into it. The "ghost" logo was also embossed on the floor pans, door jams, striker plates etc etc. In my opinion the car was very ugly, and way too impractical and I hated working on it. The owner of it has no taste at all when it comes to design, but deep enough pockets to make it happen.
hey phatcaddy. How much do you have into the 57 caddy of urs if u dont me asking? that thing looks pretty awesome
I dont know the price on the OZ Welch 40 Merc. But Ill tell you on thing the inner fenders are as nice as the out side of the fenders. The gaps on the doors and hood is so close to the same you can not tell. Its a wonderful looking car! The inside is beautiful. But labor is what jacks the price so sky high. John D- just bought a 1959 Cadillac Britz for a customer to start customizing and it cost 250k. Thats not even with any of Johns builder doing anything!
I think people would hate me too if I was filthy rich...I'd take multi million dollar Pebble Beach type cars, and old show cars and drive them...Most likely beat them...Man that would be fun....I just couldn't have a car that I loaded up on a trailer to go to a show or something...I would have to drive it every where...Why pay 500k for a car that you can't drive...Why not just by a DiVinci painting instead? You'll get the same visual enjoyment....
So the only way to make a small fortune on a custom car is to start with a large fortune? Yea I know that's an old quote about car racing but it seems to apply here. I would guess that the only way to really turn a profit is to have all of the skillz to fabricate and paint it yourself and have enough hours to work on it.
Its mostly in the labor, you can spend 3 days on the smallest intricate detail which can accumulate $2700 in labor now times that by 3 people and instead of 3 days make it 2 years and now you have a huge bill oh and you asked about bondo. these things are bondo pigs, shops have shown cars in bare metal before they are painted, and people always comment on how amazing the metal work is, and how "i bet you can just primer and paint" but months go into the body work and some of these cars hold a huge amount of mud Its a simple equation skilled craftsman + lots of time + material = expensive car
Just looked that car up. I only have two words. HOLY SHIT. I don't think I would enjoy owning something like that. Seems like to much work without the payoff of being able to drive it worry free.
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