Seeing the rec ent polls on engines etc. Thought it may be useful to have one on build costs.
I've had a go at setting this up but as I'm pretty thick on the old computers, it may not be the best way to do it but may give us some good info.
Here we go

Hey ! It worked !!
Guess what my car has cost ? (if you are looking at the first vote that is !)

thanks guys

i've spent more on tools than on the damned car! plus a thousand hours of toil...

I think thats a good point, I for one allowed for ALL the costs associated with my build incl SVA etc. This also includes the sort of tools I had to buy to complete as they (in my opinion) are part of the cost.

I already had my tools before I started the build as I have always been building something or other. If I included them in the build it would treble the cost. Do we include the shed in the cost?, as I built that for this kind of job as well.

although I bought all my tools just for the build, i reckon every single one of them can look forward to a hard life, so would have needed to buy them at some point.

Mark

I think a sensible approach to this is the way to go. i would suggest that if for instance you built a double garage to build the car in (like I did), this would not be included!!
However, if you (like me), bought a brake pipe tool that you may never use again, this should IMO be included.
But, whatever people include in their build is up to them, some like peteff have built, and will build other projects and spread these costs over years. others will buy things for a one off project and never use them again

I haven't started a build yet, but have ticked the box for under 2K as that is what I am aiming for. Had to tick something to see the results so far!

Well done fifer, you did it. 3-4k for me including everything needed for hillclimbing (tyres, trailer......). Its all the stuff needed for SVA that puts the cost up, and buying everything new from a company. Scrappys and autojumbles are the best place to go if you want to keep it cheap.

quote:

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Originally posted by JoelP
i've spent more on tools than on the damned car! plus a thousand hours of toil...

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I like the difference between the anticipated cost, and the known costs, not one below 3K!

I spend £20 a week on the car, £1K per year, my total build time 'should' be 18 months, plus the SVA/Registration costs, just below £2K

I'll not add tools on total price or the garage that cost 3K and house move so i could have a garage which was over 6.5K in costs not to forget the extra mortgage

Hell this car has cost me thousands.

Sold the Lotus Elise to have room to build it, can I take off what I got from that. That would take me to about £-8k!! Quite possibly the cheapest build ever.

Not very scientific I know, but seems to me that although there is a split of 80% Estimated votes to 20% of known costs voters, a bit of a picture can be seen here.
About 50% of the known cost voters reckon +6k to 20% of Estimated voters +6k
Seems the 3k to 6k brackets get around the same % from each group of voters.
And less than 3k seems to be favoured by the Estimator group.
I guess you could analyse this in many ways but am I right in thinking this shows that "most" people underestimate the costs ? and, the average cost is around 4k ???
Any views ? without getting very Mathmatical

Hell, when you look at it that way we could have all gone out and bought a lovely Robin Hood instead.

You got it mate !!
You know, before i started this project, I did what everyone does in that I spend a grand on magazines, sent off for every brochour, went to shows etc etc. And all i can say now is that I'm as pleased as hell I built a Locost. Yes its cost me near 6k but whilst at the recent Stafford show, I didnt see many (7 type) cars that IM (humble) O, looked as good, or were built any better than mine.
Big headed i know but thats the way I feel.
I just know that I would have spent at least that, building a RH or the likes and at least this way, I can say to admirers that I built it myself, not from a Kit !!

If its any comfort this is my third "kit car" and by far the cheapest. It will also be the best performing, nicest looking and most of all funnest to build. I've never been forced to do so much home work(one of my favorite parts) And lets face it,If we were all interested in the cheapest, safest, easiest car we'd bought an econobox of somekind.Besides,I kinda fancy my midlife crisis of choice....

Fletch

Hmmmmmm,

Only one completed car under 2k. Mine.

May I suggest you re-read the title of the book?

Cheers

Chris

Chris! do you still believe in Santa as well?

The book is only for conning the wife into letting you start in the first place!

I'm just under £4000 and nothing left to pay for except the Sva & registration,not bad for a twin cam screamer .......

Looking at your photos ChrisG, nice car for under 2k, well done, dont know how you do it.
By the way, how did you get SVA with these bonnet catches ?

Free Donor, all the steel for the chassis for a tenner, Ali nose and grp wings were college projects(free materials) home made dampers,theft etc,

My car was registered pre-SVA hence the catches and donor registration.

Cheers

Chris

quote:

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Originally posted by chrisg
Free Donor, all the steel for the chassis for a tenner, Ali nose and grp wings were college projects(free materials) home made dampers,theft etc,

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Yes.




No.

About £1300, don't know what that is in American, sorry..

Cheers

Chris

Uk to Us, to make it easy (although it's not, its really quite complicated) I have been using the 2:1 ratio. It's slightly less, but 2:1 works close enough.

I expect it to cost me around 2k US, then after it's built and registerd I will do some add ons and modify it. I am planing on hitting the 4k button, but I expect to never be done until the car is out of my life. i find that a car is a never ending money pit. An oil change here, an engine rebuild there, well, it just gets pread out over time...

Oops I used the other math, divide US currency in half. I should be spending about 1K UK by end, and then more after that.

Mine was under £2k. £1500 before sva, insurance and rent so about £1800 altogether. Understanding scrapyard and £35 donor help a lot.

There seems to be a high nickel-and-dime factor for stuff like coatings, sealants, fasteners, rod ends, and the odd shop job like propshaft, laser cuts, etc., that all add up to a lot

I'm not doing anything fancy for engine tuning, fuel intake, brakes, gauges, seats, and so on, but I'll betcha it will still wind up about $5,000, or £2,800 in old money.

A big ticket for the rotary engine is the exhaust. Replacing the stock exhaust costs about $2,000, but I hope to do a NICE custom one for about $1,000.

[Edited on 12/4/04 by pbura]

I'm pretty confident I can finish it for around the £3k mark and I think I could have got that to closer to the £2k mark if I'd been a bit less inclined to just buy stuff that was going to cause me hassles finding second hand. Also, it would have been both cheaper and quicker if I'd stuck to a standard width chassis and some sort of Ford engine.

My main cost elements have so far been:
Bodywork £365
Seats £320
Engine £200
Spring Units £220
Exhaust silencers £140
Gearbox £140
Harnesses £80
Various Steel bits £150 ish

I don't count tools unless they are specific to the Locost build and I've not counted welding consumables as I am using CO2 pub gas and have only used one and a half rolls of mig wire plus a few nozzles etc. I started the build on March 1st 2003 and hope to get it on the road before the end of this year (ideally by October)

Better get back to the garage then...
Craig.

I dont believe that to redo the exhaust yourslef will cost you that much. MazdaTrix or RX7.com sell the exaust flange for $34 US, buy another pair of flanges for the header to cat, and another one from cat to muffler. The flanges I was looking at were $15 a piece, plus the gasket was 5, a high flow cat will be another $65, add a muffler, depending on what you want add $100, plus another $100 for piping with bends and straight pipes etc... Total for a custom rotary exaust is $379, including headers.

That is also high pricing everything except the flanges. The muffler I want is a $55 flowmaster, and I dont expect the exaust tubing to be more than $50, especially If I buy straight pipe, and just have it bent, plus I really am thinking hard about Chroming it just for the bling factor.

I dont know what you want, but it could be a $1000 titanium motorcycle can I dunno. I expect to pay roughly

I'm figuring $100 for a DIY header, $250 for a good catalyst (gotta have one ), $175 for a dual-tube muffler with 3" inlet from a rod shop, $100 for RPM-activated switch and pump to activate auxiliary intake ports, the balance for pipes, hangers, heat shielding.

Everything in 304 stainless except the header, which can be mild. If there's room, I'll have it coated, elsewise will paint.

I'd like it to work good, sound good, look good, and last forever. Hopefully, I'll be able to afford it. Funny how all the $$ seem to kick in at the end

Really the only high-quality splurge I have in mind.


Edit: Oops, forgot to mention the pre-silencer.

[Edited on 12/4/04 by pbura]

Here I found it even cheaper, and nice and thick stuff too:

1x
http://www.racingbeat.com/resultset.asp?PartNumber=16183

1x
http://www.racingbeat.com/resultset.asp?PartNumber=16189web

4x
http://www.racingbeat.com/resultset.asp?PartNumber=16195.3


I plan to buy 2 of the U bends, just in case, but you only really need 1, then join them after the bend, buy a nice quality 2-1 collector, flange, cat, flange, muffler, tip, simple as that

plus you can pivk up a nice high flow cat for $65

I think I probably paid around £300 for all the bends (in 316 - they're never gonna rust ), collector and link pipe (in 304, they're unlikely to rust in a hurry, provided I don't contaminate them) and end can (in titanium, again, never gonna rust provided I don't contaminate it and oh boy was it great fun welding it ) and then probably another £100 maybe more to get it all polished (dunno what the going rate for this kinda thing is), so I'm looking at £400 or more just for the exhaust, and that's with me doing most of the hard work, plus the tig welder that I bought with the exhaust system in mind was another £400! I think it looks pretty cool, plus it's all pretty accurately balanced lengths, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Every single other component of the car seems to go well over the £250 mark to do the whole thing. Ah well, I never set a budget and I don't intend to now, it costs what it costs to do it the way I want to. I haven't kept a record of the cost, and frankly I thing I'm glad of that in a way. The closest guess I can give is that including probably £2000 or more on tools the car will cost around £10000, but I honestly couldn't say if it were more or less. Think about it like this though, what else could I get for that, a brand new very mediocre hatchback, and then I'd have to pay triple the price for insurance, no thanks.

I tend to think that if something costs less per hour of enjoyment than I get paid, it's pretty good value, and I'd say I probably achieve that just for the build, I find it occasionally frustrating but for the most part very satisfying, and there's not much I'd prefer to be doing.

Kingr

P.s. If anyone wants to see what my exhaust primaries and collector look like there's pictures in the thread call "kingr's been busy"

[Edited on 12/4/04 by kingr]

It seems like everybody has certain things that they want to be just so. I get a lot of enjoyment out of looking at other builds and seeing what people have done that makes their cars unique.

I know that I'm OTT in a couple of areas, but I'm enjoying myself.

If I can get the results I want on the cheap, I will. Heck, I was prepared to shell out $700 for coilovers if I had to, but the revised budget of $100 is just fine

[Edited on 13/4/04 by pbura]

I agree with you kingr, I just spent the better part of 5 hours doing a 1 hour job, and had a blast every second. I figure if I went to a movie it would have cost me $30 for tickets, plus another $20 for popcorn and soda, instead i spent $500 on a donor car, already made 1/2 back so I spent $250 for 5 hurs, plus I still need to do the motor and tranny mounts, I'm guessing it's gonna be 10 more hours to get the motor into the chassis and completely welded in. At 2 hours a movie, over 16 hours thats 8 movies, 8 movies x $50 each, thats $400 worth of movies, the donor car end cost is $250, so i just saved myself $150 in entertainment value