There is a better way to ask your question.
How about, has any progress been made on the car since the last update?

John,,Heck don't even paint it,, the metal work alone is killer, don't cover it up, We like to see Rodgers welds !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????

Any updates?

I guess the only update would be the customer and the rest of America is still waiting for the economy to come back so the car can be finished.

Its looks awesome, been watching this build for a long time!
:thumbsup:
-Gary

Gotta be one of the toughest parts of what you do, knowing that customer is just as eager to cut you a check as you are to get it, but he's gotta keep the lights on at home too.


Jeff-

It is just the reality of the car world. It takes a ton of money to be able to put some of these cars together. There are alot of projects that can take years and years to complete. It's just about cash flow to be able to knock out a pretty extensive project in a quick time frame.

Ex - if a customer is doing a 250k project in 24 months ( Which is slow ) that's 10 grand a month. take that same project and do it in one year. Well that's obviously 20k per month. To most people that is alot of money. Imagine the cash flow when you get up into the Super high dollar range. Like 750K in 18 months....

Those numbers are mind boggling when put down on paper, even though I kind of knew already what these cars cost. How can they not at $90/hr, and we all know what the parts cost.

Sometimes I tell people that if my car was built professionally it would be a 1/4 million dollar car. I certainly see cars that cost that much to build that don't have half the fabrication work or development as my car. Obviously its a bit of a stretch because I don't have pro paint and bodywork (there's $50k right there) but I think its true enough - if you went to Roger or Troy or any of these guys to build what I've done that is the bill you'd be looking at.

But then I have to admit that in this day and age, in this economy, and with what's on the market, I'd be lucky to get $40k. (and a not insignificant reason for that is its NOT built by Roger, Troy, or pro builder).

Ha, and I was feeling the pinch when I realized my parts bills were over $1k a month for years. And after I'd spend 8 hours fixing some stupid bracket or uncooperative body panel I'd just think, how in the F'in world could anyone afford to pay shop rates for this kind of work ?

Well Our labor rate just went to 75. But we have been 65 for years. But when you consider how much times it takes to do something right and to the utmost quality. Then multiply that time by total amount of those hours. It gets pretty expensive. We have a truck coming out a SEMA that has an amazing amount of time in it for a bunch of hidden details that few will ever recognize. The customer jokes with me alot that he likes the mods that nobody will ever notice, but they will always wonder why in this case the truck looks so good.

This a very interesting read and not to mention awesome build been following for awhile and I know what your going through.
I feel pretty lucky with the situation I'm in on my build.
Reason so is Ive been able to have my body guy come to my place to work on my hot rod I've done all the fabrication on my car and he comes in and smoothes it all up and blocks it with in an inch of it's life fantastic body guy but nice he comes here so cars not tied up in paint jail.
Witch is good because there's always a lot of building and fabbing to do between his trips here.
I get him 5-6 hours every Friday or so pay him 100 bucks cash and he's like a machine when's he's here really happy plus I work with him and is a great learning experience watching him and helping.
Just takes time on these crazy over the top builds I to have made sooooo many lil subtle changes to my car and can't imagine what I'd have in the car if I paid a shop to do my fab work.