Realistic Build Costs?

[Papa]

I had the same questions about cost before ordering my kit and what I did was spend about three months planning and refining my build. The kit pricing with/without options from Factory Five is easy to determine right from their web site. Then, add in transportation costs on top of that. Next I started pricing the drive train. I ordered the rear end from Factory five, so I just needed to figure out the engine and transmission cost. I decided to buy a turn-key package from BluePrint Engines, so that price was also pretty well understood. I then called a painter and got a rough quote from him to do the body and paint work. During my research, I identified several items I knew I wanted to do that differed from the FF kit; FFMetal battery box, etc. and I listed all of those options and their prices. Finally, I took the total of all of those and added 10% for nuts/bolts, tools, etc. and that was my "realistic" budget number that I used to decide if building the car worked for me and my situation. Once the decision was made, I filed that data and will likely never actually tally the real cost of building the car. I know that it will be more than what I could have bought a finished car for and I don't care. Once the car is done, I'll need an appraisal for the insurance, but other than that I will consider this expense as "entertainment" and leave it at that.