My guy was putting together an estimate and it started getting pretty expensive so he left it at this:








I expressed my opinion for the last time to my son, (maybe) about putting that kind of cash into an SC. He’s determined to go forward and do it right.

We’ve got almost $60K into the Vette. In retrospect, we would have done a lot of things differently with that build.
At least this is a very reputable $hop.

They had a booth at an HRE Wheels open house

 

That is indeed a lot of cash to invest indeed but just scanning the list it does make sense parts-wise. Completed SC builds with a lot of the very best hardware tend to cost in that ballpark when all is said and done. Depends on what deals on parts are found along the way of course.

A question I have is why not make this a project at home in the garage? The parts, materials and additional as-needed new tool purchases all will cost what they do but doing all this work on his own or with the help of you and/or his brother and others can be very rewarding. He will learn a lot doing most of it as a home project and build on his previous skills.

THEN when the bulk of the work has been completed in the garage it can be taken to this shop where they can finish up the last things, double-check the work, make any final additions or changes required and get into tuning the car.

If it's doable to have the shop handle it all or most of it then it looks to me like they're laying out a sound plan. But some of the fun of these cars is in the building and then getting to experience the final results firsthand.

It all depends on how he and you all may want to go about this project.

The journey of the build in and of itself is something special, I feel : )

 

Hey Khan,

Thanks for chiming in. I was hoping that you would. I was worried that feedback might be negative. I’m sure that we could do it cheaper but he’s is willing to throw that kind of cash at the build to get results that he wants. He’s competing with his big brother’s Corvette build. It should be much cheaper to get a comparable build on an SC as opposed to a Corvette. We’ll see.

In regard to doing it ourselves, I agree that it can be very rewarding. We went into his brother’s Corvette build with that mindset. We did some stuff ourselves, like power steering lines, seals and so other stuff. Our neighbors are into cars and have helped us a lot. But in the end he decided to have pros do it. That’s where we are with the SC build.

It is an interesting thought to buy parts and try to do a lot of the grunt work ourselves, allowing the shop to do the more highly skilled technical work. Good to know that you think that ACG is laying out a sound plan so far.

I agree that the journey of the build in and of itself is something special. His brother’s build was an arduous one. Lots of ups and downs, mostly downs, but it’s pretty good now. We got to be supper close friends with that shop and they took advantage of that and dragged the process out forever. We’re determined to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.

 

Nothing negative here. But around $28k USD is a LOT no matter what. It's a high level shop creating that estimate and labor and time is a big factor... so I'm not surprised at what they're quoting to do it all to a high level of quality and thoroughly. A buddy of mine has been having his 1980 Mercedes restored and resto-modded by a shop for the last few years and the total cost he's spent since he bought it is in that ballpark.

I took about eight years to fully build my SC a bit at a time. I had to make changes a bit at a time and so I learned more and got more tools and parts as I went along. It takes a sizable budget to do it all faster. Also my build was not a common approach and took a lot of creative problem solving and research for... which also adds considerable time even with a good size budget up front.

The thing about him competing with his brother's Corvette build (and having seen your posts of that car's work it IS very impressive and amazing in the final form!) is something I will zero in on.

It shouldn't be about that competition. I know we all sometimes have those feelings and to an extent this can and often does push us to do our own personal best work in whatever area it's about but his brother's Corvette is a one of a kind special machine he built for himself and just the same if he loves this SC chassis this much it should be built on HIS terms and solely for himself to challenge himself.

This was my mindset when building my own SC300. I built my SC into what I wanted for myself and to push myself into the challenge of it. I am totally in awe of so many other folks' SC's, Soarers, Supra MKIII's, Supra MKIV's and many, many, many other classic models! But my own effort was a competition with myself to do something I hadn't done before to the level I did. And to enjoy when it was done : )

Because at the end of the day no matter what it's your son's SC that will have the most meaningful value to him. And that, in the end as I see it, is the only thing that really matters the most.

The amount invested in a big build probably will never be recouped down the road. I have all of my receipts meticulously filed and I don't expect to. But I love the unique final result and to me it was all worth it.

Had I a larger budget in a shorter period of time I'd certainly have loved to do some large parts of the build much faster. And so in that sense since this is available to him and doesn't seem to be at the expense of anything else he has going on in his life I think your son will not have to wait nearly as long to reach the finish line and cross into the enjoyment phase.

I imagine you all went through all manner of technical and fit and finish hurdles to get that chassis overhaul just right. Personally I feel that is the way to go about it regardless the more custom the changes will be since no one else will have your specific overall vision for the car and to the owner it is about more than money and time but a dream to fully realize in the way they truly want to.

But even saying that I still had professionals do some work for me with my build (short block assembly and blueprinting, cylinder head full rebuild, turbo rebuilds, transmission rebuild and upgrading, rear diff rebuilds, driveshaft custom modification, professional powder coating of some parts, interior upholstery, etc.). I feel it's entirely doable and reasonable to source out the jobs that the pros can do best and work on the parts that are doable on one's own.

But the shop handling almost all of it or all of it as a build entirely in their hands can streamline things. Although as I think you have already found out it is not always a guarantee that the whole build will take less time to complete. This has been the case with my friend's '80 Mercedes custom build which after 15 years, two different shops and one guru welding specialist for his chassis is only now almost at the finish line.

Yes, upon looking through the build plan estimate ACG has laid out (and I've never dealt with them or hear of them until reading your thread) I think they're being very thorough. And you did say they have prior experience with building Supra MKIV's and SCs.

As to how long they will actually take to do it I think you would know best since your family has had experience with them.

Again it is a LOT of money upfront to put into a build but at the same time if going with all the best parts SC (and MKIV) builds do tend to add up substantially in any final tally even if you do most of the work yourself.

But that's kind of how it is with custom built cars. It's just one way or another way to achieve the goal and vision of the build and how much one wants to get into themselves.


While I'm sure their work is very good I'm not happy to learn that they dragged out the process unnecessarily. This is currently something I'm dealing with getting my SC's rear seats reupholstered with it taking much, much longer than was initially quoted me but I do think it'll be done soon.

It's difficult the more custom the work on a specific chassis will be, I think.

I'd venture a guess that there will not be any one-off custom made parts or super rare parts needed for your son's SC300 build.

Again all of this boils down to, in my opinion, it not just being a question of whether one person has a sizable shop build budget all upfront vs someone who doesn't... but also the question of whether or not it might make sense to lay out the whole build vision in advance (and with research and notes) to plan on doing some aspects of it oneself with some help while other major aspects are handled by the shop.

(For instance I had never repaired/restored and re-wired an engine harness before I started my build but I knew how to solder electronics. I bought some additional tools, OEM repair terminals an a spare non-rare SC harness to cannibalize wires from and followed a pinout guide and a lot of wiring diagrams for my intended setup. Probably if I had a more common setup planned it would have made more sense to get a harness made from Tweak'd, Wiring Specialties or Panic-Wire. But I learned a lot by doing so! )

 

 

We’ve been considering how to move froward. You, as well as many others on the Corvette forum have expressed similar sentiments. We like the idea of not rushing it and doing what we can ourselves. Two of our neighbors are car guys. They love to help us. Our next door neighbor and his son have done tons of repairs over the years on their own cars as well as ours. They’ve helped us with simple things like brakes, oil changes, belts, power steering and heater hoses, diagnosing and repairing small issues etc. They’ve loved teaching our sons how to wrench on stuff, ever since they were little guys. Our younger across-the-street neighbor has a sick Evo that he’s worked on for years. He auto crosses it often. He placed 4th out of 80 without it being completely dialed in last time. He’s always up to help us out too.

Since my wife works from home and I drive a company provided F150 Lighting, and we have an RX350, Xterra and a Ranger, in addition to my Q50 and his brother’s Corvette for him to drive. He’ll always have plenty of options available to get him to work.

He’s decided to move into my dad’s house with his girlfriend of over two years. A pretty bold move for a 17 yo young man and a 19 yo young woman. My dad is 92 and finally had to move into memory care. They’re doing well, working hard and saving money. She drives an Optima. The added living expenses are going to decimate his build budget-but he’s deemed it to be worth it, to be able to have her move here from Las Vegas and for them to be together. We’ve visited her and her parents there and have hosted them here in San Diego a few times. Turns out-they’re totally normal.

There’s definitely something special about doing what you can yourself and delaying gratification. My son’s have agreed that taking it slow and doing what they can themselves would be a great idea. That was the plan for the Corvette until Covid shut down the high school auto shop. Their cars aren’t going anywhere and will always be there.

Many say that young people are having a tough time with delayed gratification these days. Some of the benefits of delayed gratification:

• Enhances decision-making
• Improves focus and concentration
• Promotes goal achievement
• Increases resilience
• Strengthens impulse control.

We wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment. They both know that their builds costs will never be recouped. They’re fine with that, because they’d never sell them.

I mentioned competition between them. That was something that I alluded to myself. Just speaking of a hypothetical benign sibling rivalry. It was not coming from them. There’re very different from each other, with divergent ideas about their builds and are not driven by competition between them. They’ve got a strong sense of camaraderie, especially now that they’re older. We’ve learned a lot from his brother’s build.

Having said that-plot twist…

It sucked for his older brother to not have his car available, off and on from 16-21 years old while his Corvette was being built. Those are obviously prime driving years for a young man. It just so happened that our guy from the shop that did some work on my car, ACG (mentioned above with all the cool GTRs, Lambos, etc.) has a nice BMW that he offered to sell us. A 2011, manual transmission, 335i. It has some mild mods; VSRF intercooler, upper and lower charge pipes, bootmod3 stage2 tune with software licensed to the VIN, custom M style front bumper, custom tail lights , newly wrapped exterior and interior bits. Plus awesome custom carbon, hood, trunk and mirror caps. He’ll put the cat back on, remove the tune, smog it, take the cat back off and reinstall the tune. That will buy us two years until we have to do it again.

We got the cash @ 0% interest for 12 months. $210 a month minimum payment, no prepayment penalty. That should be easily doable for him. After 12 months, he’ll be 18. We’ll then open a loan for him with me as a co-signer and build his credit score. Hopefully rates are down a bit by then.

That will give him plenty of time to research and plan his build. He can do what he can himself, while having a fun car to toss around in the mean time. Worst case scenario, we’re out a few bucks and he’ll have had some fun.

 

Of course, wing delete with the carbon trunk. Eventually wrap delete and revert to black as well.