Has anyone developed a cost breakdown spreadsheet between the base and complete kits? I have recently ordered a base kit and am considering changing it to a complete kit. Any thoughts or comments appreciated.
My reply 1/12/2021
New to all this and my first FFR build. I want to thank you guys for the quick replies, all good advise. I do want to end up with a 99% new part car and I have good part sources at hand. What I'm trying to figure out and I would guess others would too is what does the additional $7000 get you from FFR over the base kit and is it worth it. I'm on a tight budget and don't mind outsourcing for the cost savings.
Last edited by Iceboat-Bob; 01-12-2021 at 08:19 AM.
Has anyone developed a cost breakdown spreadsheet between the base and complete kits? I have recently ordered a base kit and am considering changing it to a complete kit. Any thoughts or comments appreciated.
Iceboat,
Do you want to have refurbished parts on your car?
Do you want to work with all new parts?
Is cost your most important issue?
I did a complete kit with all new parts and spent right at $45,000.00 to complete my car.
Now I'm driving a 100% new MK-4 so what path you take is really your decision.
My car likely cost me a good bit more because it was NOT a standard build.
It would be hard to come up with an accurate price, done either way. There are so many variables between builds whether a base, or complete. So much depends on what the builder wants in the end, and how much they are willing to spend.
I see fellows who have bought complete kits, complain that they made so many changes, they would have been better off buying a base kit, and using the extra $$ they would have saved, purchasing the stuff they actually wanted. With a base kit, you also have a choice of what you buy, and how much you pay for it. Your not stuck using what the kit came with. You can upgrade, and/or change lots of things, brake setup, suspension components, etc. There is a growing range of aftermarket items available for our cars to choose from. With a base kit, you can still have an all new build, if you want to, or, use a donor, or, a bit of both as I did.
On the other hand, if your planning a fairly standard build, as FFR intended, the complete kit comes with much of what you will need. This is especially helpful if your local parts shop is poorly stocked, or not close at hand, or, you don't want to have to order, and wait for it. You also know the items it came with, will fit, (most of the time..lol). There could also be significant time savings with a complete, being you won't need to run around to find items, as you normally would with a base kit.
Like AC Bill stated...there are so many different variable it really would be difficult to put down an hard comparison numbers. So many things depend on mods, powertrain set up, suspension etc and how you plan to use the car.
I had a basic kit but ended up putting 98% new parts on it anyways. When ever I had a used part that I thought I could make work (ie rear calipers) the time and money I spent refurbished it I found I was better off buying new anyways (which generally happened). If you can make use of the parts that come with a complete kit great but do your research...you may end up upgrading a lot of these as you go along so you might lose any initial cost savings by going this route.
Again a lot will depend on what your intended purpose is and if you can stick to a plan. Once you fall down that rabbit hole things start to snowball pretty quickly. And there are lots of members here that are more than helpful enough to help you spend additional coin that you thought you had left over....
Just my cent and a half....for what its worth
My last 4 kits were base, due to cost. This time around hopefully can swing the complete kit, add my eng/ trans / rear and wheels and good to go. No sourcing parts and everything is new and ready to install, best of luck, eithere way you will have a great car
Bad thing is it takes loads of research, experimentation, rounding up all those parts, and getting the parts to do what you want them to do - sometimes you eventually discover that a particular part is not going to do what you thought it was going to do, in spite of painstaking research and development.
I personally like it (and probably wouldn't do it any other way), but it isn't for everyone and is not the fast easy way to complete the build in a timely manner.
New to all this and my first FFR build. I want to thank you guys for the quick replies, all good advise. I do want to end up with a 99% new part car and I have good part sources at hand. What I'm trying to figure out and I would guess others would too is what does the additional $7000 get you from FFR over the base kit and is it worth it. I'm on a tight budget and don't mind outsourcing for the cost savings.
What I'm trying to figure out and I would guess others would too is what does the additional $7000 get you from FFR over the base kit and is it worth it. I'm on a tight budget and don't mind outsourcing for the cost savings.
I've always described it as this:
The base kit is the frame, body and a pallet of parts.
The complete kit includes about two more pallets of parts - that you're going to need sooner or later, depending on how fast you build.
Base kit worked great for me - I didn't need all those parts sitting in my way while my OCD was causing me to (slowly) go through every individual piece of the build and make sure it was exactly as I wanted.
But that took years, and is still somewhat of an ongoing project.
Here is how I looked at it after researching, assuming new parts. The complete kit is best if you are looking to build a car that is substantially similar to the FFR complete kit setup. That means carpets, dash style/layout, seats, etc. mostly interior stuff. If you are looking to do a car that is pretty different from the standard build you may want to do the base kit.
I went with the base kit, but now I wish I would have saved up a bit longer and just gone with the complete kit. I'm sure I will spend more going the base kit route than I would have spent on the complete kit. This is primarily due to 1) I've ordered parts that don't work or require modifications to work 2) shipping and 3) gas money driving to the hardware store 50 billion times to get a bolt/nut/washer.
I'm not very far in my build yet, but so far I've found that everything from FFR has gone together reasonably easy. Parts from vendors have been hit or miss.
A cost spreadsheet? Absolutely not! My wife might get ahold of it and I've used this build as an excuse to purchased a lot of tools and equipment, the vast majority of which is absolutely not required, but nice to have. There is no way that total is getting recorded. I don't even want to know what it is. (I have a tool addiction problem.) LOL
But really, probably all of us debated the same with our kits. Here's my thought process on my decision to buy the full kit.
This way everything is new, everything fits, everything is there (fasteners, hardware, bushings, etc.).
FFR gives incredible support and I'm not out in a junk yard hunting down another rusty component, or buying something twice.
I don't have to tell the guy at Autozone the make, year, model, paint code, etc. to buy a bushing.
Any savings is eventually negligible and gets lost as a relatively small percentage of the total build anyway.
I get a credit for parts I don't need or want.
Last edited by RBachman; 01-12-2021 at 02:41 PM.
FFR MKIV ordered 12 July 2019. IRS, Wilwood Brakes, 18" Wheels w/MT tires, power steering, EFI, Heat. 347 Dart w/TKO-600 by Mike Forte, Holley FI, MSD coil and CD box. All new, no donor build.
Here is a side-by-side from the two listings on Factory Five's website. You can start to put $$ values to the items you would need to buy separately and see what that looks like.
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Originally Posted by Iceboat-Bob
