How much did you spend on your GL Bug?
 

here is my question, How much to budget for a GL bug.... I have a lot of ideas of what i want to do I figure I will spend about $10,000 total for the final project. I am wondering how much you guys have spent on your car?

Vincent,

Asking how much a project car cost is not a good idea. I know, I don't want to know how much I spend on my projects, otherwise I might not start them in the first place.

Or it may be like, "if you have to ask".

Ball park figures I would use:

6k for t4 motor
1k for big rims and tires
2k for big brakes and suspension
2k for interior and carbon goodies?
2-3k for a good paint job and body work

this doesn't include a car. :eek:

Anyone have sharper numbers?

that is not bad... if you think of what cars you can buy for around $10k most are not worth that just 3 years down the road. Not that you can ever get back the cost of what you spend on a project car. I was just trying to get an idea of what things cost and how much some people are putting in there cars.

Thanks for the reply.

Right now I have close to $10,000 just in parts. The only "big" part I have left to buy is the wheels and tires (about $3k).

Re: How much did you spend on your GL Bug?
 

Hello-

here is my question, How much to budget for a GL bug....

Whew! Good thing you didn't ask about T3's :-).

I'm not sure if I even want to know the total anymore...

Take care,

ok so.... how much did you spend on your T3?

a lot & I'm still a long way off finishing. Mind you my cabrio, after spending all of its life in germany then in the UK, was a patchwork quilt & needed serious bodywork to become what it is today ( 1000 hours in bodywork & paint). You can see some shots of my car in 'bodywork stage' here : www.vwoneonone.co.uk & look in modifications, mine is the kermit green cabrio (now deep black :D )

Depending on my engine and some other things I may upgrade, I will have between $15,000 - $18,000 when completed.

Wow that is a lot of work... Mine is in bad shape but not much rust.... had it sitting for the last 3 years and someone took the wheels, crapy old centerlines. I was going to replace them anyway. I have lots of work to do. have just started. Here is a pic of what it looked like 2 years ago when i parked it there. Looks much worse now. :(

inside of my 73 1303

i used to keep a list of the money i was spending (spreadsheet). after i saw it hit $12,000 CAN i stopped writing stuff down. that was a couple years ago. i now need to get the car appraised, so i guess i'm going to scare myself silly this weekend. and the car still needs paint.

well if you look at as a hobbie/entertainment then it is not that bad that you have spent that much on your car. Look at new cars I sell Chevy's the adverage price is 26k and everyone comes and buys a new one every 3 to 4 years.... so If you look at how much they spend on just transportation our "hobbie" is cheap...

Hello-

ok so.... how much did you spend on your T3?

Um, well, by the time the new engine is built (goes from 220hp 2615cc to 350hp 3203cc), the tranny is upgraded (goes from 923 gearbox to heavily-fortified 923 gearbox), and the front suspension is redone (I hate twin trailing arms), I'll be somewhere around $25000-30000.

But, compared to a 7-series BMW or something, which is a decent modern equivalent to what my car is, that's still cheap :-).

Take care,

I will not say a number....but for what I have spent up until now I could have bought a nice 911 and I am not talking about an older one. A nice 993 should have been cheaper as my GL bug.

The other reason why I do not want to give out a number is that my wife can actually read it and then I am screwed.

Alex

HAHA. I'm probably in the 15K range. It'll be over 20 when finished.

It also has to do with people performing their own labor. All my money is in parts, I do all the work myself. An example would be that one person could spend $2,500 more because they paid to have their car painted and I will paint my car myself. If I were to include all my labor as if I had to pay someone the total price of my car would be over $25,000. Alex has all of us beat he spends some serious cash on hi-end upgraded parts. Good thing I'm keeping my car mostly stock.

^^ yup, if you don't do as much as you can, your project will get expensive really quick. my knuckles, and arms are always scraped or cut.

$20k or so to date. probably $25k when done. GOD.:eek: but it will be more fun than anything else in the price range and a one of a kind. can't beat spending your money on that. better than drugs. :D

I guess I'm the low baller, cheap SOB in the crowd....

I have about $6,800 into my stealth GL so far and will have about $8500 into it when finished and painted. I call it a stealth GL because it won't look that much different from any other nice bug until you look under the skin and realize it is almost all Porsche except the body/pan. I want to keep the cost down and don't want it too flashy or it will get stolen....

Here's the major items: (approximate $$)
$3500 for a fairly stout 2.0L type4 with 911 cooling and dual 40mm Dellortos
$350 for parts to fab the header and ceramic coating
$550 for N/A 944 brakes all around (includes machine work/stainless hoses/caliper kits/hard lines/master cylinder)
$450 for a 902 5 speed, includes clutch and shifter (I just machined a sweet aluminum shift knob from some scrap)
$550 for set 912 steel wheels/hubcaps/new tires (includes a 356 Porsche 4.5" wheel for the spare tire)
$250 for a pair of 911sc seats for the front
$350 for gages, NOS 914 tach, 912 speedo, 5 more VDO gages and senders including CHT on each cylinder head
$600 for suspension, I narrowed the front beam my self, HD shocks, CB dropped spindles, front adjusters, 944 26mm rear torsion bars, 944 rear sway bar, custom front sway bar, new bushings/bearings

The rest is all the other little stuff that really adds up quick.

I expect paint/body work to be about $800. I used to be able to paint a car for about $400... those days are long gone!

Tunes will be about $350.

I do all my own work except engine machine work like heads/crank balancing/rod rebuilding etc.

It's about 2/3 done after 2.5 years of on/off work due to other projects. My wife's getting pissed....

Oh yeah, when finished it will be about $2500 over budget!!!
ken

You also have to realize that I have a split. Parts for it are very expensive and the restoration cost a lot too.

Also......this is my dream car. Let's say I spent 40000$ US on it....it is still a lot cheaper than a new 911 and I can say I build it to the specs I wanted. I can not do everything on my car but I do as much as I can.


Alex

I will do all work to my car, what I don't know how to do I will learn myself. No one will molest my car.

Heres a real bargain then ......
 

1303 2.4 turbo injection type 4 engine. 901 gear box , 944 brakes, FFSR. 2" wide wings ( STEEL) . All parts are new or recon various body mods .too much to list. All parts sand blasted and two packed. 89.9 % complete . as seen in the last issue of total vw (readers rides ) will break or sell complete £ 2500

Currently advertised on a UK Forum.

This car has been 10 years in the making, loads of subtle well executed body mods. I'm halfway between buying it and talking the guy out of selling it :D ......felt like i was stealing it from him

Sad to see him almost giving it away :(

If he is selling it then he is probably lost intrest in it. I would say buy it.

just over £15k in mine.. and still more to do.. (thats just over $24k US)
biggest lump sum was £2.5 for bodywork.. the rest is parts as i do all the work myself.

i could have done it a lot cheaper.. i could also have spent over 3 times that.. and im not talking about getting someone to do the work for me.. parts choice is a massive factor.

this question is like asking how long a piece of string is really.

It is all realtive if you think about it. I have a friend that bought a chopper from West Coast Choppers and payed $75k US for it. That to me is crazy but he will think i am crazy for spending $30k on my bug....

ahh yes

74 super: $230
t4: $250
recaro seats out of honda crx: $27.50
17's with ventus rubber: $600
and if i get enough money in time, suspension: $250

I dont know. I dont want to know.

But, let's look at it...

$200 for the car
$400 +/- for the MaXX struts
$600 for wheels (tires were free)

Then there's bodywork, paint, interior, instrumentation, various carbon fiber parts, etc etc...

Not to mention the first pair of rotors I bought when I had empi's, the Topline disk kit, and the old weld-a-struts I had. Oh, and there's engine parts also! And various parts that I had to re-buy, like crappy bumpers, trip pieces, etc.

You get the picture...

I had a thought on the cost of our cars.... I sell cars for a living... I had a customer come in the other day with a 1999 Suburban that he had payed 32k for when he bought it He still owed 10k on it and it was worth 5k ....

So not it is not bad to think of investing the kind of money it takes to have a kick *** GL bug.... at least when we are done, not that we ever are, It is better than when we started...

Most people end up spending 25k on a car and in 5 years paying for it and when they are done it is not as nice as when they bought it. We on the other had will take the other way at it. We start out with a car that is pretty bad off under 1k starting price most of time and then spend 5 years and 20k + and end up with a kick *** car.

So I am giving all of you justification for spending as much money as it takes to build the GL bug of your dreams. :) after all it is just money!

At least its not a 914. Check out this guys project

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...hreadid=114837

OH MY GOD. First I should state I had no budget, just a dream to build a fast GL VW. As the bills piled up I avoided doing the math. This thread got me to thinking about how much I had already spent . Now remember, except for the original body there isn't an original part left on this car. Every nut, bolt, wire etc. has (will be) been replaced. There's a 2.6L engine ready to be installed, a Berg 5 speed (with Quaif LSD), Porsche brakes, the works. Pretty much all the parts have been purchased, only the stereo and gauges remain. All the metal work is complete, but the body work and paint still remain. As well, the interior (to be leather) and wiring still will need to be completed. So, the total to date, which includes shipping costs, duty on overseas purchases, body work, other service like media blasting and acid dipping, powder coating and of course parts: $51,866.72 Cdn. HOLY ****. I had no idea. :silly: I reckon there is still another 10~15 K to complete the project. I'm still in shock.

WHOA !

I don't want to think about what I have spent to date. I have all of the parts I need to convert to a GL .. the brakes, wheels, tires, swaybars, seats, gauges, stripped interior.

This has been a 12 year journey for me (working on the car off and on) and I figure it will take that much more time. Still have to decide on a 5 speed and get an engine combo worked out. I'm basing it on LN's 100mm Birals and their 'Porkies' heads.

The bad thing is its not a onetime hit to the wallet ... :eek: .. lots of small hits and it takes time to recover !

I guess this is a sickness :silly: No one said building a GL would be cheap.

Sandeep

Think of it this way:

It is money well spent!!!!

I refuse to do the math......I know it would be more than I think anyways.


:D
Alex

Yes Alex it is money well spent. I would much rather spend money on my project than have a lot of other stuff... to me it is a hobby/art and being creative to come up with a car you can truely be proud of. Not to mention smoke the doors off of most 50k sports cars :)

My Ghia isn't really GL but then again it isn't Cal or restored, its sort of a personal thing I have going. But anyway I have about 17K into it and another 15K to go. I job out the major work though.

Ron

I just bought a 64 bug today for $3k but it is well worth the price... Now i have something to drive as i do my 73 1303 super monster car....

http://utwired.engr.utexas.edu/dan/vwbug/

At least it is a good start for a second GL bug... OH no here I go... one to drive and one to race :D :D