I also hate to clean, love to drive-my car was not as clean as it should have been but I figures that if I cleaned it all weekend and didn't win it would be worse then if I drove it all weekend and didn't win- I thing one of the reasons I won top five was I was seen driving the car all over and a couple of small hole shots But I think you can do both without a crazy budget the key is to stick to the theme of the car and plan everything up front which I think you have done and don't add

The problem I find is that most guys think they can have a top 5 car for the 50 large. It is possible to build a kick ass car for 50 grand in parts. In this months PHR John Parsons said he had 78,000 in parts and 4000 hours to build. So in my book that car is 78,000 + (whatever his time is worth) X 4000 hours. So at 40 bucks for an at home guy, you have 160,000 plus 78,000. I would say that thing is easily worth 238,000.

As far as the 3 times you original estimate statement, I think It depends on how rational your 1st idea of a budget is. If you think You gonna win the ridler on 50,000, YOUR PROBABLY HIGH..... But if you think you could be in the great 8 for 350,000, your realistic with the right builder and hopefully lucky.

The best thing you can do is really plan out what you want and then decide can I even afford what I'm wanting now let alone what my builder is going to invision. Or even what your going to invision when we get the car on the ground for the first time. The more you dream about it the more expensive it gets. The sky really is the limit, the only thing tying you down is your wallet andyou and your builder's creativity and passion.

just my 2 cents, which is over my budget.

Rodger

Is this a trick question? just kidding... I think your in the $30k - $100k+ depending on the complexity of the build. A simple muscle car driver to a full on dream machine like yours Ron. :thumbsup:

We really try to work with the client and make their dreams a reality. I learned early on that minding the money during a build is very important. You can spend money on something that doesn't "improve" the build. Like polishing and chroming an entire motor it looks unbelievable, but that's money that could go to improving the chassis, or a new parts, etc.

Oh yeah you run into those guys every once in a while. :lol: There is a certain amount of education for the owner when building their car. Unless they have build one full out there is alot that goes into a complete build. It's hard to explain that you can spend $5k just on fasteners, hoses, connectors, and misc parts.

Mick If you want to know what I look for in a builders that helps me choose- read this statement above that's what I look for I would Like to work with them- I also Like larry from LL customs from talking to him

To me the bottom line is that it should be fun and memorable. No matter how much you spend. I have built cars that were low budgets for the coolest guys and had way more fun working on them, instead of the million dollar car for the guys who just don't get it.

There is no better fruits of labor then when an owner and builder get on the same page of what the owner wants and the builder is just as excited about it. And seeing the look in the owners eye when he sits in the car for the first time and hits the key and you see his eyes light up.

That's gonna be me in about 6 months! Right Rodger! Rodger?? Hello??:_paranoid

Actually, that happens to me everytime I go up to see the car and discuss what part of the build we should tackle next!

Ron? Not to discount any of the other builders that you mentioned but I think you should talk to Rodger if you have a project that you want to do. I can say that I am beyond happy with the build as it has progressed even though I am beyond my budget but that is my fault! I've approved and insisted on many of the things that we have added from the original budget. I kind of knew it would turn out this way in the back of my mind anyways since I know how I am in these types of situations.

John

Ron
Thank you for the comment. Again thank you all for your insite's. As it has been said before you start adding all the bit's and pieces as well as the time [time in many case's no one think's of or consider's, such as refitting door's after the new seal's go on that are way to thick :willy: ] Money has alway's come hard for me, but I still have had dream's so when customer's come in with dream's and an unrealistic pocket book's. I at least spend the time talking with them, educateing them on cost and as was stated before send them home with a catalog just so they can add up some of the cost themselves. Many time's we can find a common ground for what can be accomplished on there budget's and the job still get's done and they still enjoy the hobbie. We do alot more 20 to 50,000.00 dollar partial builds than anything. I have never personely had a customer pay me a 100,000.00 to build a car. Those kind of budget's don't exsist in cental Wisconsin. if they did I would not have sold the big shop recently and moved back to the one next to my rural home. We cannot all afford to build great 8 contender's but that's okay, as long as I can roll a few gear's and feel myself being set back in the seat, and can stand in my shop and see either mine or someone else's dream's comeing true I will be one happy camper.:cheers: later Larry
www.llcustomperformance.com

When there's over 80k in parts, its hard to build a complete project for 100k.
We had a couple freshly pro-built cars come in that didn't drive right, terrible handling, braking, over heating, etc. Owners spent another 15k to get it working right. My best customers are those who've had at least a couple cars built elswhere.
When I built Cadillac Attack as a home builder in 1994 in my garage, sending out only the paint, seats, I spent about 3 times what I figured, 45k.
Lots of good points in this thread.

Jeff
I agree totally about customer's who have gone some place else before and I seem to get alot of customer's who show up after they have spent a fortune at another shop and then hope I can straighten everything out. Many time's I should have said NO but I did what I could to make them realize their dream,s. And when their happy and showing off their pride and joy, Well you can not possibly buy that kind of advertizeing. :thumbsup: I just wish they would have come to me first instead of triing to get a deal.:rolleyes:
later Larry
www.llcustomperformance.com