Thread: Better kit / Company for the beginning builder???

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Welcome to the forum, and to hot rodding. Breakout your credit card and lots of band aids.

All of the things the guys said above are very true. I don't know anything about the CCR kits, but I do know quite a bit about Total Performance. I have been dealing with them for probably 25 years, and like Mickey and his company a lot. That being said, they are not perfect. Shipping can be slow sometimes, especially on bigger items (my Son waited 2 months or more for his chopped '32 grille shell/radiator setup.) but it is certainly not horrible by any means.

Here is my take on TP. They have recognized a niche' in the marketplace, and have addressed that need very well for many many years. He knows what works and what doesn't, and has built a very large business around one very small segment of the hobby........ie, T Buckets. That says something very important, he must be doing something right.

What he has done is put together a "kit" (and yes, we do hate that word sometimes) that virtually any person with very limited tools and skills can put together in their home garage. You can buy the car in almost any stage of completion, so that you essentially bolt it together, no welding or fabricating necessary. That is a big selling point, and has enabled hundreds of rodders, who might never have been able to build one themselves, to enjoy the hobby.

We have a TP kit sitting on our shop floor, and as soon as my Son gets his move completed (yeah, the whole family moved at the same time ) he is going to get back on it. My other Son and I put it together as a Xmas gift for him, and we were super surprised how easily the darned thing went together. Every part just sort of bolts into place. We built a new frame for it, simply because we could, and we like to build them, but the TP frame is really fine. We had it sitting up on wheels in about 4 days, which is really amazing to us, as we always take much longer than that.

Resale value is something that the guys mentioned, and they are right. You will never recoup the money you put into one. The pile of parts you see in the picture below is $ 10,000.00, and that doesn't include the initial cost of body, frame, and front and rear suspension. He still has much money to spend on things like paint, hoses, lines, steering wheel, etc. At the end, he will probably have close to $ 20 K in it, and if he sells will probably get $ 8- $10 if lucky. However, we never build a car with resale in mind as we never sell them, so that doesn't matter for us.

Bottom line, if you want a fun car to have a blast in, a T bucket is a great entry level car. It can also be beyond entry level. I would recommend one to anyone in your situation, because of the ease of actually getting a running, driving car under you without the usual hassles involved. JMO.

Here are some pictures of the one we have.

Don