Questions on Pricing

Good morning, as many of you would agree the GT40 is an awsome car. My question relates to
what is a realistic idea for expenses/costs of building a GT40 and what degree of mechanical expertise should one have before jumping into this. I do not want to waste forum time and seem to blow smoke if the GT40 is an unrealistic venture.
Before you can answer or give me some advice/direction let me tell you yes, I can read a manual but have never done a motor rebuild or put a project together. I would hate to buy a kit and then pay someone to build it for me. Sound reasonable?

 

Bill,

The GT40 is a complicated replica to build up. There is a long line of part-completed cars in garages because people didn't face the realities of building one.

I wouldn't want to immediately discourage you because certainly people have built 40's as their first project, but think long and hard about your skills before tackling such a project.
(Although there is so much experience and knowledge on this forum it is staggering - and that helps a lot)

If there is one thing sadder than someone who doesn't like the 40, it is someone who used to like a forty, and now just regrets the money that have wasted on a part completed kit.

If you are at all concerned about your engineering/mechanical skills then consider buying a ready built car and tinkering with it until you feel confident enough to sell it, and finance your own build-up... and besides... most builders will tell you that this is by far the cheapest way of owning a 40!

As for cost for a build up... thats a very open question.

People claim to have built 40's for less than $20k, but personally I am very sceptical. At the other extreme, there are a few cars around (especially the race oriented ones) that have cost $100k plus.
I think that a sensible budget is going to be somewhere around $45k, perhaps a bit less if you are prepared to do more home fabrication, and compromise on some areas...
You do have the advantage of being US based and thus having easy access to competitively priced engine components, which can get really expensive for us poor European souls!

Hope that helps...

Neil

[ January 29, 2003: Message edited by: Neil Strenge ]

 

Thanks, Neil , for the quick response. I believe you are correct nothing would be sadder than to buy one and have it sitting incomplete in a garage. I believe your recommendations to be accurate and probably will look for a turn key GT.
Will continue to monitor the forum and see what I can learn from the knowledge pool out
ther. Again thanks.

 

Well, I - as an almost manufacturer - would say that there are different levels of difficulty involved with the GT40. And there are differing 'authenticity' levels as well. It all depends on what you want out of your '40.

For instance the CAV and the NZ cars approach the chassis in differing ways; one is a space frame, one is a monocoque. If you're looking for originality, then you may want to look closer at the CAV car. On the other hand, with the skin on, the cars are mostly indistinguishable from each other (if photos are to be believed), and maybe having a monocoque chassis isn't as important.

My particular offering is a semi-monocoque chassis, and is a single donor kit, which brings costs down even further.

It all depends on what you're looking for. There are some great website links here that show the different cars being built.

What I would recommend would be to figure out what's important to you, figure out what you're going to use the car for, and then call up the manufacturer and get their assembly manual to see if you can build the car. If the manufacturer doesn't want to sell you the manual...well, then you might want to look elsewhere.

ERA's manual is available online at their website. It's a good place to start. A hardcopy of their manual is also available (it has all of the pictures) for $60 from ERA. The ERA website is:
www.erareplicas.com

Hope that helps!

Your pal,
Meat.

[ January 29, 2003: Message edited by: meat ]

 

[Ron Earp]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by meat:

For instance the RF and the NZ cars approach the chassis in differing ways; one is a space frame, one is a monocoque.
Meat.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Both of these cars are space frames. RF has a monocoque coming, don't know about the NZ company.

Ron

[ January 29, 2003: Message edited by: Ron Earp ]

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ron Earp:
"...Both of these cars are space frames. RF has a monocoque coming, don't know about the NZ company..."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You're right, I'm wrong. I was thinking of the CAV, and had read a post by Robert about building a monocoque car. I edited my above post so as not to confuse anyone.

Sorry for that!

Your pal,
Meat.

[ January 29, 2003: Message edited by: meat ]

 

[40 Bud]

Talk to the companies you like. You might find that they will sell you cars at different levels of completion. DRB seems to offer a partially complete car; MDA sounds like they might work with you on level of build that would get you started. If you don't ask you will never know. Gordon Levy is set up to deliver finished cars minus the engine and tranny - talk to him. If you know hand tools and how to use them, take your time and don't mind spending money for specialized tools like rivoters, right angle drills etc. you could probably to the job. Having a grinder, air compressor, drill press etc. doesn't hurt either. Building engines is a waste of time with the crate or specialty builders like Gordon available. Same goes for transmissions. Just don't forget to budget for what you need i.e about $4000 for low end engine and around $10,000 for a racer. They look cheaper when you price them but then you have to add water pumps, distributors, carbs etc. Trannys will start around $3000 and can get up to $10,000 for some of the high HP holders. I wish I could tell you that you could build it cheap. But unless you luck into a real deal on somebodies unfinished project, you should expect to spend from $50,000 to $80,000 by the time you are finished. I bought my GTD kit in 1990 at dealer prices, did all of my own building including all body prep thru primer, built my own 330HP 289/302, added real knock off Jongblod wheels and paid for a complete custom leather interior. Before recent modifications to the brakes, adding a custom radiator and heavy duty fansand building a much deeper opening twin nostril front panel I had $65,000 in mine and my labor was free. I hope this helps you establish some guides for your project.

 

[Mike Dozier]

Bill

Most of us don't know how to rebuild an engine. But that's OK since buying complete
engines is cheap/easy in the US. If you can do basic auto wrenching, you can build a kit.

BY FAR the hardest part of the GT40 is hanging/aligning/adjusting all the panels.
And you can buy a partial built kit with
that done. The electrical work looks a little
scary at first, but if you can follow Manuals
you can handle that.

If you have the funds to buy a turnkey or turnkey less motor, by all means do it.
Certainly get you on the road quicker.
But if not, don't reject the build path
if you have patience, basic skills, and
a friend or two to help in a pinch.

Good luck
MikeD

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Bill;
It's worth keeping in mind that 1) there are frequently cars for sale on this or other forums which are finished running cars which just need updating. They cost less than getting a new kit and putting it together, no matter how reasonably the kits are priced. And I think the kits are fairly priced for the amount of R&D that went into them, especially the NZ and RF versions 2) most of these cars are offered in 'turnkey minus' versions which is really the only thing you can legally bring into the USA anyway. Those cost more, but the work is mostly done and I think you can be driving within a few months of delivery. There have been a lot of items about what an engine costs, but I think a realistic figure is 4-6K for a custom engine. There are a lot of posts about transaxle costs you can reference on this site.
Good luck, they are wonderful cars and NOTHING stops traffic like a GT40, even after all these years.