Hey Don,

There's an old saying, goes something like this:
"The bitter taste of poor quality lasts far longer than the sweetness of a low price".

Street Beast builds DOWN to a price, not UP to a quality level. This company is the latest incarnation of the old Classic Motor Carriages out of Miami, a company (CMC) who was famous for giving the shaft to a very long list of customers. Word is the Street Beast people are trying hard to clean up their situation, but the product still speaks for itself.

I've known two guys that have built Outlaw cars (both 34 coupes) and both just raved about how little work was required to get the body straight for a first class paint job and fit. In the example above, if you even take a modest hourly rate of $40.00 per (about 2/3 of what it would be here locally) that 100 hours would mean an additional $4000.00, and that's just for the appearance part. The structural, both body and chassis, may still be suspect unless more dough is tossed at it.

There are other quality Willys producers as well, Dennis Taylor for one. You may want to do a little more research, contact the vendors and some customers, and get a feel for their quality attitude, and then narrow your list.

Keep in mind too that building a car is always more expensive (in real cost) than buying a comparable one that is already finished from a private party. You end up making some compromises on certain features (either color, upholstery, engine set up, etc) but the potential for saving money can sometimes offset any one of those items, and the time to getting it on the road will be substantially less. Of course you still need to do your homework, and give the car a thorough going over to make sure you're not buying someone elses heartache, but good cars can often be had this way.

Another alternative (albeit one that takes some serious hunting) is to find one that's partly done (the more the better). The world is full of projects where some guy thought he had the drive, skill, pocketbook, time, space, commitment, family support, etc. etc. etc. to build a car from the ground up (even starting with a good basic package) and then he gets into it and finds out it'll take twice as much money and three times as much time to complete as he figured. He loses interest, the car collects dust, the wife gripes about how much money he's dumped into that "pile of junk" taking up the whole garage, and whamo!!! At first he tries to sell the pile of parts for what he's got in it and thinks the rest of the world should accept that that's reasonable. After a couple of months of not finding a good hearted soul to bail him out he might come around to the reality that he's going to have to take a loss. Is this unfair? NO! It's the way the world works. Unfinished projects aren't appealing to very many people, so there's a pretty short line of buyers willing to bid up the price. Well FINISHED cars rarely fetch a price anywhere near their cost of build, and those that do are an exception not the rule.

Time to put the happy face back on! Willys coupes are way cool! I hope you make a good choice and find the one that fits your need. Just take your time and check out all the alternatives, you've made a good start by checking here.