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

Just to add some more thought provokers to the mix......

You should choose the style of car you genuinely like rather than rationalizing yourself into a style because it's what you think you can afford to the exclusion of other choices. When you mention Track T you're ringing my bell, but as the others (with the exception of Martinsr, who I'm not as familiar with, the other guys have all had T's) have said, they're smallish and best suited for limited, local useage. If that suits, fine. If not, you should broaden your horizons.

What Don says puts a fine point on it, especially the dollars involved. You'll spend the same $ for engine, drive train, wheels, tires, wiring, batt, and all those little necessities, so the difference really comes down to essentially the body and frame being the only place to "save" money.

I'm a little short on time this morning, so basically, for someone with self admitted limited skills (and probably tools) you may be better off buying a very good used rod. (Be careful in today's environ, rat rods are a fad and as such tend to be overpriced for the componentry that's there). If you work within the numbers Don mentioned, for $20k you could get, for instance, a nice Model A rod, or a very nice '46-8 fat fender Ford. (Unless you absolutely have to have a T). That way you can have a car to enjoy, and you can get your learning curve by upgrading to your tastes/needs.

If you're set on the idea of a track T, some left coast alternatives are Superior in Portland; http://www.superiorglassworks.com/ca....php?pageid=25 And Poliform in Ca; http://www.poli-form.com/Gallery/27road.html