The cost of a car

[Robert Swartz]

Well, I have to admit something. When I first started this as an idea. I traded a few posts on here about the cost of building this 1979 Firebird as a stocker. Some of you guys threw some pretty hefty numbers at me. Being an old hardhead, I refused to believe it would cost near what many said.

I'm adjusting my vein of thought! Basically, this car has only been moved from the original owners garage to mine and other than collecting pieces, nothing has really been accomplished. I've already spent $3200.00. Now, I'm going to say for cast off parts and swap meet junk, I've aquired some decent parts, a few new. I haven't even scratched the surface of this project yet.

[Larry Hill]

The journey to completion [ running under the index ] Priceless!!!

[Barnstorm]

The common thinking for alot of us geezers now is to buy a done car. People enter and exit racing on a regular basis.Sadly 50 cents on the dollar is top price residual on even a competitive car.

[treessavoy]

Figure out how much you want to spend in total.......then triple it and you might be in the ballpark.

JimR

[Jeff Lee]

Originally Posted by treessavoy

Figure out how much you want to spend in total.......then triple it and you might be in the ballpark.

JimR

And triple the time to finish also...

[greg fulk]

If your doing it your self ...it takes a lot of time....( been working on my street/strip car for 6 months & it still hasn't fired...but it's close!)

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

If someone told me 2 years ago what it would cost to build the DP Ida said they were nuts, after a year of research and lining up items I called it within 10k the Old man didnt believe it.

When working on it one day he looked up and me and said "You know if Ida know how much this would cost, and he paused. I still would have done it but Ida been better prepared"

I have decided to turn my 72 into a GT car, we have engines and trans reday for the DP car, so, andmy 72 Chally will never be worth more than about 15-17, its a 72. But I figure about 10 with me doing all the work cage paint, brakes, rear. Thats less the motor cost etc.

But TIME is Money, if you can packrat stuff for years, you can do it cheaper, no doubts, but if you want it NOW well, then everything comes at retail and expidited prices, I figure 5 months to build the 72 GT , 1 month cage, 1 month paint, 1 month Chassis, 1 month screwing around getting this that and the other, and 1 month finish up.

But when Im done what will I have ? Well a 72 that will be able to run SSGT with 2 different combos we have, a car that with the 318 and a different hood (I have) can run Stock, a car that with a tune and the spool out can run down to our Drive in, and a lot of fun, to me that will be worth far more than the sum of the parts, finished with a motor ? Still only about a 20k car, but well......Ill have immesurable fun doing it all with my own 2 hands.

Guess the balance sheets are enjoyment==$ , $==effort in some cases.

Originally Posted by Robert Swartz

Well, I have to admit something. When I first started this as an idea. I traded a few posts on here about the cost of building this 1979 Firebird as a stocker. Some of you guys threw some pretty hefty numbers at me. Being an old hardhead, I refused to believe it would cost near what many said.

I'm adjusting my vein of thought! Basically, this car has only been moved from the original owners garage to mine and other than collecting pieces, nothing has really been accomplished. I've already spent $3200.00. Now, I'm going to say for cast off parts and swap meet junk, I've aquired some decent parts, a few new. I haven't even scratched the surface of this project yet.

[Jeff Lee]

When I had my AMX painted into (mind you, it looked good before), it was supposed to be delivered in 60 days or less and I was paying for nothing but materials as it was a "sponsor" by the body shop. It was completed in about 10 months and somehow the free labor was about $7500 or $10K total. At about the same time I had a restoration '70 AMX they did and had problems with the paint. They finally conceded there was a propblem with there paint and re-painted it (a week before the BJ auction it was in). Somehow there warranty work cost me $1500 and I thought it looked better before they "fixed" it. That car sold for about $10K less than it should have brought and I'm convinced the
paint was the majority of the problem.
The race car AMX received a "Best Appearing" Wally on the first time out so that was gratifying. But the "sponsor" name was no where to be found on the car!
And I sure wish I wouldn't have been so easy on grabbing my ankles, I could use that money to get my chassis / engine work on a fast track instead of a slow track!

[Bimbo Jones]

The cost of building a race car reminds me of the mindset of someone after they've played poker. Most guys when asked how did they do they reply they about broke even. Translation, they lost a bunch. As with race cars we tend to not count the small items we obtained with out of pocket purchases. Very few of us really ever admit to others, wives, or ourselves what we actually paid totally after the project is completed. If a guy can keep the price of their project to less than a 30% over their budget I think they have done a pretty good job. In my class within a 50% over predicted costs.

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Originally Posted by Bimbo Jones

The cost of building a race car reminds me of the mindset of someone after they've played poker. Most guys when asked how did they do they reply they about broke even. Translation, they lost a bunch. As with race cars we tend to not count the small items we obtained with out of pocket purchases. Very few of us really ever admit to others, wives, or ourselves what we actually paid totally after the project is completed. If a guy can keep the price of their project to less than a 30% over their budget I think they have done a pretty good job. In my class within a 50% over predicted costs.

I think that fairly accurate across the board. I years ago learned to set up a seperate account for my "play money" something my wife a)didnt know about b)couldnt access and c) was completley funded from my toys themselves and their sale, hence it was no money out of the household. After spending over 10k on some bike parts for a pair of vintage racers I heard no end of it from my wife, daily, hourly this that or the other, made me sick to listen to it because it was nonsese the money came from other toys I had doubled and tripled my money on. So I quit for about a year, one day she said "When are you going to build more bikes ?" Wehn asked WWTF She was talking about, she realized when I sold them and was able to put a downpayment on a new house with the money it was a "winner" Just because I will put Toy money into the household, I woundt take household money into my toys.

Well, divorced her, problem solved

But what I learned aside from hiding it from her was it was a GREAT way to Track all expenses I never had more than 1 going really, so use the CC for all things related, I could wait till the end of a build and tally up months x-z and see what it REALLY cost.

Even thought single I still do it, I use Paypal becuase I get a CC and a lot of the items I buy and sell are on Ebay so it works nice.

But youre right, MANY (not all) of us never tell our wives, but she might not have liked me spending it, it became clear she sure liked when I sold and doubled, and put about 1/2 the profit back into the household accounts.....(she never knew what really came in But my toy account became self sustaining.