Originally posted by topgeek
Anybody out there done that and kept track of costs? Thanks
Probably thousands of people.

Welcome aboard.

It all depends on how you do it and what your commitment and skill sets are. While you'll hear all manner of "low buck" tales, the reality is it's hard to do a '32 cheap. It's the most popular hot rod platform so the prices are bid up. If you were very, very, very diligent, got lucky, and had a totally uninformed seller, you could find '32 body and chassis stuff cheap............now back to the real world. Anyone who's done one, and really kept track of the parts costs (not counting labor), it's real easy to hit $30k for a collection of middle of the road quality parts with a decent quality glass body. Junk quality bodies cost less initially, but usually extract more cost in making them useable, or in grief cost. Same with ready made frames, and, quite frankly most other parts. You've chosen one of the more costly engines too, be glad you didn't think you wanted a hemi! For example; you can do a mild mannered, fairly well dressed out small block Chev (probably the most economical V8 engine) for around $3k, or a "good running" take out with a bomb can rebuild for $7-800.00. The best you could probably do on a decent take out flathead with a bomb can rebuild is $1500-2000. To fully go through and dress out one of those would look more like $5-6k on the low end. Yeah, again you'll have guys give you war stories about cheapo deals, and if they're being honest, those are lucky strokes. I'm just talking about average here.

Same thing for everything else on the car. The nicer you want it the more it costs. Good paint work is more expensive than junk paint work. Ditto interior. It's all about choices and priorities and your quality standards and perceptions.

If you shop around and be patient, you can often find a decent glass bodied '32 roadster, with a neat flathead, and the other things you're talking about, for around $25k already done. Yup! That's less than the cost of just the parts to build one! That's how it works.

As you've stated, research is the key. The more you learn the better at it you get......................and the less likely you are to make costly mistakes. Just remember, any genius, cost saving idea you come up with has most likely been tried by someone else..............and many times didn't work the way they thought it would. That's life ain't it?