Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway
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09-11-2006 04:19 PM #1
FMX---A word from someone who's "been there". I bought a 27 roadster fiberglass shell---no floors, uncut doors, no firewall, no cut out trunk area. I bought it brand new, out of the mold, for $3500 cash, from a no-name glass body manufacturer. Now, this post is not about trashing the body. It was a very good repop of a 27 T roadster, and when it comes as a one peice shell, there are certainly no issues with "fit" of doors or anything else. I worked for a year on that puppy---glassed in the 3/4" marine plywood floors and firewall (marine plywood is made with waterproof glue, so there is less chance of it "seperating" if the bottom gets wet a lot) I made all the internal bracing from laminated 3/4" plywood, glassed into place, and I framed and cut and hinged and latched both doors. I had a lot of fun in that year, and I learned/improved a lot of really neat skills working with glass.---So why am I rambling on like this???? Well, at the end of the game, I had a really nice 27T roadster---BUT---for very little more money, and the same amount of work, I could have built a hi-boy 32 roadster which would have had a ton more room and been worth twice as much when I went to sell it. I could have bought a one peice 32 roadster shell for $5000 when I bought the 27 body. The car ultimately ended up costing about $20,000 by the time I was finished. When I went to sell it, 5 years later, it took a long time to sell, at only about half what i had invested. It wasn't the quality of the work, it was just that 27's are only about half as appealing to the "hot-rod market" as 32 roadsters. What am I trying to say here???---just that when going into a projext, don't let "cheapness" dictate the body style you build. The $1500 you save up front will come back and bite you on the butt when you ever decide to sell that project and move on.Old guy hot rodder
Ditto on the model kits! My best were lost when the Hobby Shop burned under suspicious circumstances....
How did you get hooked on cars?