How many $$$ do you have in your PT car in parts?

[Bandit]

Not to sprinkle salt on anybody's wounds or anything, but I am just wondering if anybody has calculated roughly how much cash they have invested to get their cars to the level they're at.

I normally could care less, but lately everybody and their grandma has been asking me how much money I have invested in my ride, so tonight I finally sat down and figured the basic amount. The results shocked me!

Now, my car is far from finished (are they ever?). In fact, I consider myself at a good "starting point " for a decent PT car, having finally achieved some of my goals for the powertrain and driveline. There is still much to do to make it look halfway presentable.

I decided not to count labor, broken tools, emergency room visits, etc, and to only include the parts that are currently installed in the car (not parts I have broken or replaced) :crying:

All in all, I have over $20K invested sofar in parts alone, for my mild, beginner PT setup.

I look around at some other PT rides and I marvel; How do some guys afford it?

If there is a practical side to this, it is that beginners could get a general idea of what a project could cost them from start to end.

Be careful answering--if there is a chance your wife/significant other will see it, you might want to think twice! :slap:

Paul

[mpozzi]

Hey Paul,

I'm right there with you regarding actual parts cost (maybe a bit more) but don't have to worry about being ratted out as I AM the wife.

Mary Pozzi

[Sparky67]

I think that this is everyone's problem is thinking about the money in their car. I keep all the receipts, but rarely check on them. The key to building one of these cars is not telling the world on how much you have in it. Don't build it if you are worrying about the money. Anyway, just build it for the enjoyment of the car.


Jeff

[rocketrod]

In the low to middle 20s, not including the purchase price, and I have saved almost $4K buying everything in group purchases or used.

[restomodbird69]

well when i get my bird back from paint i will have 40k in it and that does not count my labor.i dont mind since i have enjoyed the fact that i am building a neat ride

[LowBuckX]

dependds how you look at it. Ive owned my car for 15 years and I have put about $14k into it. But that includes the car and Nos 1/4s and paint.
If I would have bought the car and went straight for a PT build Id have less that 10k into it but it has been a cruiser then a street/strip car now icarnated into a PT car. $14k includes all incarnations. And is about $933 per year.

[EFI69Cam]

eleventy billion dollars

More than I want to know.

[LowBuckX]

I Dont think you should include "your own labor time" to the cost. You should be doing this for fun not for profit. At least when talking about your personal car.

[BA.]

It is frightening when the dollars start adding up, and you look at your ride and you think.....damn! where's it at???

Here's what $12,000 - $13,000 looks like, not including purchase price! <see pic>


Luckily for me, I've had the body panels and Currie rear-end for 15 years or so. That cost is long gone.
Also luckily, I am paid much better these days than 15 years ago!!! :headbang:

It's worriesome for me to think that I still have to spend $5k+ on body and paint, a few grand on wheels and tires, and another on some kick ass brakes, oh, and I need an engine/tranny. Where in the hell is that all going to come from?!?! Um. I'm thinking....home equity, paychecks, and possibly a small personal loan. (4k - 10k)

I tell people at work who like old cars but aren't in the hobby that I'll have an easy $35,000 in the car, very possibly more. The good thing is that the car will be worth every penny in resale if I chose to do that, but I doubt that I would.

One guy in particular looked at me in disbelief in my $6000 welding/quarter-panel install bill. Look at the pic and you might understand why. :) It's all good, I can see the end goal.

[69rs]

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ctgilles.net/images/pictars/dr.evil_one_miliion_dollars.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ctgilles.net/pictars.htm&h=245&w=154&sz=12&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=IrfkPa9h2dGzOM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=69&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddr%2Bevil%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr %3D)
One million dollars.

[Bandit]

Hey Paul,

I'm right there with you regarding actual parts cost (maybe a bit more) but don't have to worry about being ratted out as I AM the wife.

Mary Pozzi


D'oh--sorry about being a sexist there, didn't mean to offend. That's what I get for ASSuming again...:geek: heh heh

Well anyway I am just curious what people have invested in their cars. Just a fun little research project for me. We all know you gotta pay to play. But it never ceases to amaze me how people can criticize me for spending $1000 on a mod for the TA, then drive away in their $40,000 new SUV, with $400-per-month payments, and have to pay for premium insurance since the bank still owns the thing!!

These are some things I like about the PT concept: you own your own vehicle, no one else has one quite like it, you can do whatever the heck you want to it, and even if it's low-buck, it's still cool!!
:git:
It's definitely not about the money, it's about the experience.
Most rich dudes in their new high-dollar sports cars just don't get it. :guilty:

[mpozzi]

Don't worry about it, Paul. There's tons more testosterone in this site than estrogen but us gals have lots of fun with P-T cars too. Regarding the fun of planning, building, creating, and then hopefully finishing and driving the end result, it's just that . . . fun!! There's not many late-model vehicles out there that get my "wow" meter going off the scale and the ones that do cost a bunch more than what I've got in the '73.

As for me, I started a binder at the very beginning. Saved EVERYTHING, kept research articles (threads in forums and other information), listed parts contacts and what we talked about, and generated a diary of what work was done each day and planned for the future. It's grown in size and is now a very large binder. The first page is the AutoShopper ad page that I found the car on. I doubt if the binder will ever see an end page . . .

I did this for personal interest and to verify any equipment and parts if an insurance Claims Coverage Question (CCQ) ever arose.

Jeff responded with the enjoyment of the car being the main point and he's right. Shopping "smart" for parts, either group purchases or scrouging in salvage yards, etc., can bring good rewards. While I don't have plans of ever selling my '73, the balance scale of what I've spent in parts (not the labor) vs. auction prices they're getting for some of the second gen Camaros makes it worthwhile.

Mary Pozzi

[Gordz32]

Including the cost of the car, frame staightening, and some smoothing, powdercoat, and all chassis parts: Brakes, Airide, 9" rear, motor trans, were up to around $30k, and rising. Our original budget was around 20k but you all know how it goes!! But it will be nice to see the finished product in the end. I can't Wait!!!!:woot:

[ProBell]

I second the BUILD THE CAR YOU LIKE theories.Do not build the car so other people think it is cool or like it. Build some thing that is a piece of you and fits your budget,time and skills.I think thats why most of us want to build are cars. As far as money, the project will take all you are willing to feed it. From what I can tell if you do a car from scratch, put your hands on every piece to paint,modify,repair or replace if broken I think most builds at todays prices would be from 40,000 and up assuming you did most of the work your self. The Betty of a PT car is when you have the big bugs worked out you can use the car for any thing. My car is the fastest ,best handling,best looking and gets the best gas mileage of any thing I own. So it affordable to drive to the track and make laps. At least thats what I tell my wife. Randy

[jfman]

, then drive away in their $40,000 new SUV, with $400-per-month payments, and have to pay for premium insurance since the bank still owns the thing!!

. :guilty:

Try my $800-900 a month on a 40k car.

[Zee]

I'm at about $20K and mine is pretty low budget compared to what I see around here. I have paint and some interior work to do but most of the parts have already been purchased. Just my labor and time from here on out.

[Roadrage David]

75/80 K

[jfman]

Stop scaring me guyz. My buget is limited ;)

I'm hoping to get everything done except the paint and interior for less than $8k

[nancejd]

I think this is all going to depend on what you are doing with the car. Do you really need tubular control arms or air conditioning? Do you need aftermarket brakes, or are you going to piece them together out of a wrecking yard? Dou you have to have fuel injection? You have to figure out what you want before you start, or your extra parts can sure add up quick.

[Mark Smith]

my initial plan was to build a nice car as i still intend but, after starting to frequent this web site and others like it my budget is going up.my plan is to drive this car.not building some trailer queen,but it will still look and most importantly perform well.i guess i could go out and buy the 4 door truck that i thought about buying before starting this build and still end up with a depreciating 40k vehicle.as my car sits right now most of the body work is done except paint.engine and tranny in, just got rear end put togetherstill have t run all lines for brakes and fuel.wheels and tires mounted.probably have around 25 k in it doing all work myself so far.

[novanutcase]

Although I haven't really gotten into the meat and potatoes(read MONEY here!) portion of my car build I can already see that, yes, $80,000.00 is what you will probably end up spending, including the price of the car, for your ride. I do it because I like the fact that I can have a car that I have always wanted since I was a little kid. Now that I'm a big kid I have access to it so why not right? Of course the money that is spent depends on how deep you want to get into the project but, unfortunately, as I am sure that most people on this board have experienced, once you start doing one thing to your car you want to do another and another and another until you end up three years later scratching your head thinking where did all that time and money go and you still gotta paint the damn thing?!!?? Maybe a good thing, if you are on a limited budget is to plan out everything you want to do and then do it in phases as cash allows.

[Bill Howell]

I Dont think you should include "your own labor time" to the cost. You should be doing this for fun not for profit. At least when talking about your personal car.

I am not sure I follow your logic Low? Labor is labor, regardless of who does it, unless you put no value on your time, you have to count it. Even if you do not put a per hour number, you still should keep up with how much time you have in it. Even though it did not come out of your pocket, per say, it did "cost" you our time. You can never put a true value on a car if you don't give some consideration to your time. How can you buy the proper amount of insurance if you don't count the time? You willing to give that away if something happens for pennies on the dollar? I'm not. Anyway, I just had to say this as I was reading this thread.

BTW, there is another similar thread, that we did about 6 months or so back about this same question, I will try to find it later.

[ProBell]

I agree with NOVANUTCASE. Do not let all the big numbers scar you, but it is a good idea to be aware of what the final cost may be.
Do your car in phases, Do not strip the car to 0 if you do not have the time and money to finish. Do one agree at a time. Pick a project like motor,front suspension,body,inter,and - - - -.At least that way you can drive the car in between projects wile you save money.
I have owned my car for 24 years and it is far from done. the only thing that shines is the rims. Randy

[go-fish]

A brazilian dollars !!! I guess I haven't put enough in it because it isn't finished yet.

[nancejd]

I agree with not counting your time. It would be like keeping track of how much time you spend with your kids, or skiing, because those things "cost" you time too. If you enjoy working on a car, it's a relaxing hobby, if it's something you have to do, then yeah it does cost you something. Working on my '69 doesn't cost me anything, the time is a source of enjoyment for me. Working on a daily driver to keep it running, not fun, and yeah, I would count that time as a cost to me.

[68sixspeed]

I figure I have at least a couple hundred bucks into my car, but I think that's called denial. Never add it up, just spread it out and don't spend more than you have for toy-cash. Credit cards can get you into a lot of trouble in this hobby. (hence some of the fire-sales we see now and then) -Dan

[novanutcase]

Do your car in phases, Do not strip the car to 0 if you do not have the time and money to finish.

Or a daily driver to drive while you are working on your project!

[LowBuckX]

I am not sure I follow your logic Low? Labor is labor, regardless of who does it, unless you put no value on your time, you have to count it. Even if you do not put a per hour number, you still should keep up with how much time you have in it. Even though it did not come out of your pocket, per say, it did "cost" you our time. You can never put a true value on a car if you don't give some consideration to your time. How can you buy the proper amount of insurance if you don't count the time? You willing to give that away if something happens for pennies on the dollar? I'm not. Anyway, I just had to say this as I was reading this thread.

BTW, there is another similar thread, that we did about 6 months or so back about this same question, I will try to find it later.
Useing your logic I have over 1/4 million dollars into it. Oh make that 2 million because If I enjoyed working on it as much as driving I should be paid for driving.

I just dont get it. Just dont get it. Im not in this for profit.

I think Im going to charge the state for all the time I put into my kid.

[Tiger]

I have stopped counting $ long time ago, for me the amount of money spent doesnt matter, not that I'm rich or anything but I'll finish my car one day anyway even if it will cost like one or two new Porsches.

But the rate and amount of buying new parts is changing in accordance with other "necessary" expenses (read food, beer, clothes, holidays, etc.)
one month allot, the next month none.

[Steve Firebird]

I have never added up the cost of my car. I bet in its current form not counting parts paid for and removed and my own labor I have close to 40,000 in it. I have had it since 1981 and I have tore it down and started over twice along with several major mods in between. I paid 1800.00 for it.Here is how I look at it even if I spent only 2500.00 per year on my "hobby" thats 75000.00 to play with and I still have a car with some value in the end. I have also bought and sold a lot of parts and cars over the years and made some money and lost some money.

[Tiger]

I have also bought and sold a lot of parts and cars over the years and made some money and lost some money.

hehe thats what I tell my GF hehehe
I mostly loose though:hand:

[syborg tt]

since were talking about labor. Here is my take on it. If you were going to have someone else build you your car you would have to pay labor. So i think it does count.

As far as my project goes i have about more money then i want to admit in my project

[ironworks]

Hay if anybody who does notr add the labor into the value of their car, ever wants to sell their it. I GET FIRST DIBS.

The C6-57 has a couple thousand hours in it and about 75,000 in parts and any outside labor, At this point and you better believe I'm charging for my labor. We bulilt the frame, radiator, exhaust, fuel tank, hood hinges, brake master cylinder resirvoir and a million other things from scratch. We bought and modified a million other thing. I can tell you that I have a hood and hinges with almost 200 hours in that if I was building that in my garage or shop, Some body is gonna pay if they want it in their garage. I love this hobby but my time is money worth money it just so happens I post it on the wall in a 4000 sq ft building in down town Bakersfield.

7.5 weeks until Sema and the truck is getting some black paint today.

Rodger

[BuddyP]

I have just over $4k into my '68 insluding the price of the car, but the only accomplishments so far is the rebuilt subframe, powdercoat, ball joints, bushings, sway bar, springs, shocks and Wilwood 12.19" slotted 4 piston front brakes. There is a floor pan in with that price too.

[Bow Tie 67]

I would agree with cost start to finish of about 40k. And thats doing all or most of the labor yourself, ( including paint ).

My 67 Camaro ended up almost double what I originally planned on, and that was before " pro-touring " was around. At this point I can't see doing the complete transformation over to pro-touring, although I have upgraded the handling immensly with some key components. I would much rather have a street fighter / pro-tour car. ( not mirror finish paint job ) I want to drive it like I stole it.

Last night I was cleaning the engine bay, and while thinking of all my blood and sweat, I started to wonder if selling and starting all over is the right move. But then again working on my projects is almost, if not more, fun than actually driving it. To me its like therapy, then I justify parts with money saved having to see a shrink.

[BonzoHansen]

Regarding labor, for the average Joe Garage, it is a labor of love and is far less relevant then one built for SEMA, etc., by Billy Pro. There is no comparison. It’s not like Joe Garage can really recoup the endless hours he spends on it. Joe Garage can’t really expect more for his car than the market will bear for a Joe Garage built car just because he spent 125,000 hours on it. If you want to get to that detail, what about overhead costs? Hell, where tracking labor is essential for Billy Pro’s cost control, tracking labor is an easy way to kill the spirit of Joe Garage. Just my $.02.

[jaybee]

I have a couple of thoughts on counting garage labor. First, my labor doesn't count the same way as a pro shop. Due to both skills and tools I don't work as fast as a competent shop, so it takes me longer.

Second, labor isn't really a measure of how much a car is worth, it's a measure of whether you take a bath when you sell. The Boyd Coddington Alumacoupe sold for something like $85,000 at auction. Considering the entire car was hand fabricated from aluminum it probably should have cost AT LEAST 4 times that.

All of the above is really my way of saying a car is worth what someone will pay, regardless of whether or not you count your labor, or even if you've paid a shop way more for labor than you can hope to recover.

[syborg tt]

IAll of the above is really my way of saying a car is worth what someone will pay.

AMEN to those words

[Tiger]

I'm in on it at well, the price depend on the market.
you can easily spend the same money in a pinto as you can in a 67corvette but you'll never get the same money back.

[cam69]

i have about $45-48 and still need about another $35-40 to finish to my liking :hammer:

[The Rook]

My typical weekend garage experience:

1 hour cleaning garage / moving stuff out of the way
1/2 hour digging out parts and tools
10 minutes tearing apart old
20 minutes cleaning / degreasing parts and self
15 minutes scratching head trying to remember how that came apart
15 more minutes scratching my head
15 more minutes . . .
15 more minutes . . .
30 seconds to grab a beer from the garage mini-fridge
Repeat 3-4X then realizing that I shouldn't drive to the parts store because I'm missing a F$#% nut or bolt
1 hour cleaning garage / moving stuff out of the way
Going back inside wondering if it will ever see the road!!!

But it's all worth it!!!

[jackreggers]

$30,605 in parts for my 69 Camaro as it sits. I just did the total to support any potential insurance claim. It doesn't include the $8100 purchase price, well over a thousand of my labor hours or all the cool new tools I had an excuse to buy. I've been fortunate and been able to keep the parts breakage and unusable parts bill under $500. Still to go is another $5-6K for air conditioning, front A-arms and coil overs, and new power steering setup. The 67 Camaro parts bill is a bit under $15K so far but I haven't touched the front suspension and brakes, wheels/tires, engine/exhaust or sound system yet. Probably about 400 labor hours at this point with most spent during the initial cleanup and disassembly. The next milestone is the front end so I'm keeping an eye on the GP Superstore for a DSE purchase.

[BonzoHansen]

My typical weekend garage experience:

1 hour cleaning garage / moving stuff out of the way
1/2 hour digging out parts and tools
10 minutes tearing apart old
20 minutes cleaning / degreasing parts and self
15 minutes scratching head trying to remember how that came apart
15 more minutes scratching my head
15 more minutes . . .
15 more minutes . . .
30 seconds to grab a beer from the garage mini-fridge
Repeat 3-4X then realizing that I shouldn't drive to the parts store because I'm missing a F$#% nut or bolt
1 hour cleaning garage / moving stuff out of the way
Going back inside wondering if it will ever see the road!!!

But it's all worth it!!!
Add: drive to the parts store #1, find out they don't have it, then go to parts store #2. Repeat for hardware stores for required 2 missing bolts. Add 90-120 minutes. Add 45 minutes interweb time and 4 days waiting if you end up ordering parts online. Do not pass go.

[Restomod]

Less than 10K ,that includes car,rim/tire, engine/trans/clutch/turbos,intercoolers,paint/body, 13" Cobra brakes,rear disc, sway bars, carbon fiber dash cap/door panels, all wiring. Driving 8 hours round trip to almost have to kill the guy to get the title and more stuff I cant think of right now.

[jfman]

So far I have $3800 in mine but it's still in the R&D phase :D


$1000 for chevelle
$2800 for donor

[Ummgawa]

North of 70K and it ain't near done.

[BonzoHansen]

Less than 10K ,that includes car,rim/tire, engine/trans/clutch/turbos,intercoolers,paint/body, 13" Cobra brakes,rear disc, sway bars, carbon fiber dash cap/door panels, all wiring. Driving 8 hours round trip to almost have to kill the guy to get the title and more stuff I cant think of right now.Pretty good. That is close to or less than what the girl in your avatar has invested in plastic surgery. :)

[Restomod]

She is ALL real!! Christina is her name.

[GinoRin]

Hahaha... I figured this out on my Grand National this past spring, I'm just north of $68000 including the price of the car, which was $17500 back in 1999. That also includes a $7200 body off paintjob including all new NOS weatherstrips, emblems, and trim, as well as $18000 in engine and related parts. I still have the original drivetrain in the garage too. What could I sell it for? Prolly $25-28k :hand: Will I ever sell it? HELL NO! Is it dont yet? ummm nope :)