Conover Motor Sports build, 1990 ITA Civic EX Sedan
- Thread starter Xian
- Start date
20CiviC02Si
New member
Great build! What has the cost been so far?
JLawton
New member
20CiviC02Si
New member
I know i can't afford it! LOL! I'm just trying to get an idea how much cash i need to set aside in order to build a car, if i cannot find one already built.
Would depend on how much you have to "farm" out. Even doing literally everything myself, for example, I will be well over $10,000 of purchases in my new car build:
Shell--$400.00
Seat--$1,100.00
Steel for cage-$200.00
Paint and primer--$500.00
Sand for sand blaster:$100.00
Body work supplies--$1,000.00
Machine Shop work--$1,300.00
Quaife--$1,300.00
Transponder--$325.00 (used)
Cage padding--$100.00
Belts--$100.00
Window net--$50.00
Windshield--$120.00
Butyl Kit--$20.00
Struts--$1,200.00
Springs (custom rate rear coil overs and standard front coil-overs)--$600.00
Sway bar--$150.00
Bushings--$200.00
Kill Switch and wiring--$100.00
Fire Extinguisher (halon hand held)--$120.00
Gas tank--$120.00
Aeroquip--$500.00
Accusump--$175.00
Dump tanks--$75.00
Fenders--$150.00
Air Dam--$35.00
Brakes--150.00
Radiator--400.00
Fan--$150.00
Etc., etc. etc.
(I do all my own bending, welding, body work, painting, sand blasting motorwork, tranny work, assembly and wrenching. Shop facilities are $100.00 per month) and I have a year into the new car). All other parts are new but are spare stock purchased at fle markets, ebay, NOS OEM houses, dealers, etc. and are not listed.
Can go on and on...
Shell--$400.00
Seat--$1,100.00
Steel for cage-$200.00
Paint and primer--$500.00
Sand for sand blaster:$100.00
Body work supplies--$1,000.00
Machine Shop work--$1,300.00
Quaife--$1,300.00
Transponder--$325.00 (used)
Cage padding--$100.00
Belts--$100.00
Window net--$50.00
Windshield--$120.00
Butyl Kit--$20.00
Struts--$1,200.00
Springs (custom rate rear coil overs and standard front coil-overs)--$600.00
Sway bar--$150.00
Bushings--$200.00
Kill Switch and wiring--$100.00
Fire Extinguisher (halon hand held)--$120.00
Gas tank--$120.00
Aeroquip--$500.00
Accusump--$175.00
Dump tanks--$75.00
Fenders--$150.00
Air Dam--$35.00
Brakes--150.00
Radiator--400.00
Fan--$150.00
Etc., etc. etc.
(I do all my own bending, welding, body work, painting, sand blasting motorwork, tranny work, assembly and wrenching. Shop facilities are $100.00 per month) and I have a year into the new car). All other parts are new but are spare stock purchased at fle markets, ebay, NOS OEM houses, dealers, etc. and are not listed.
Can go on and on...
Streetwise guy
New member
I made the horrible mistake of adding up my Neon build, which still needs lsd and revalving of the shocks, plus a proper IT build on the motor, plus that 4:12 gearset, and paint......The only thing that made me happy was if I left out the stuff I had laying around, I didn't quite hit ten grand. And as always, counting my labor as free.
There was a better prepped CRX on this site a while ago for $8500.
There was a better prepped CRX on this site a while ago for $8500.I think what everyone is saying is to either buy a built car and go from there or go into this expecting to spend more than you'd like 
To farm out and duplicate my build "from scratch", you'd be looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $20k. If you have some of the expensive parts already (like I did) or can do some of the work (which I'm going to do), then that figure will be lower.
Take a look at the classifieds and buy something there for pennies on the dollar. That's what I did for my first car... then I reached a point where I wanted the car 100% the way I wanted it AND I wanted something that had never been built. The result is what you see in this thread...
To farm out and duplicate my build "from scratch", you'd be looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $20k. If you have some of the expensive parts already (like I did) or can do some of the work (which I'm going to do), then that figure will be lower. Take a look at the classifieds and buy something there for pennies on the dollar. That's what I did for my first car... then I reached a point where I wanted the car 100% the way I wanted it AND I wanted something that had never been built. The result is what you see in this thread...
20CiviC02Si
New member
Yeah i currently have my eye on a 1988 CRX Si ITA car for sale in my area. He wants $6500 for it, which is reasonable, now by the time i save up that kind of cash it'll be February. Sucks having a car payment on top of trying to save up. That and overtime has been dead, normally i can get well over 24 hours worth of overtime a pay period. That'll pick up again in January, i'll be able to work as much overtime as i want!
So with some will power and available overtime i'll be able to pull this off. Hopefully he doesn't sell the car by then! LOL!
So with some will power and available overtime i'll be able to pull this off. Hopefully he doesn't sell the car by then! LOL!
iambhooper
New member
and $400 for a "shell" can be generous... that $ all depends on what you build.
example, want to build a:
ITA Integra RS... $1000 for a donor
Miata... $1000-5000 and depending on model plus $1000 for a hard top.
ITA CRX.... about $800-1200
ITS RX7... probably around $500
ITS Z car ?
Any other popular builds that I'm missing?
these are all ball park figures
JLawton
New member
And you do realize that the cost of the car is jack shit compared to the expense of running it?? This past season I spent three times what I actually paid for the car.
spnkzss
New member
Personally, I think that is a little conservative. I'd believe $20k in labor. LOL I stopped counting around $10k last year. I'm not saying that number doubled by any means, but I just stopped counting cause I was depressed. BUT, I did count up all my labor and it came in around 300 hours. At 300 hours your looking at around $20k at just $65/hour. Now you may be able to get that number down quite a bit since you are paying someone to do an entire car. Let's say you pay someone $10k to build you a car top to bottom, plus parts. My $10k did not include cage labor or any real paint labor/material, my suspension or any safety equipment as I stole it from my old racecar, and my motor wasn't a full cost adventure. Now I know some of that could be included in the $10k labor but still.
I don't know, maybe I'm looking at this all wrong. I'm trying to break it out in an hourly rate and maybe that's not the way to do it. Do racecar builders charge by the car like $5k or something for the whole deal? I couldn't imagine they do as you look at pepole like Piper who charge $3500 just for a cage.
BTW, 1.) I'm talking about a 10/10th build like Christians, and 2.) Mine was not a 10/10th build.
BTW2, I only pick on Christian because if it were only $20k, not for him to replicate, but to pay someone to replicate that beautiful piece for you, I'm doing my stuff really wrong.
Edit: BTW3, I have had 4 parts cars, 2 of which turned into racecars, and paid $50/each for 4 and $250 for 1 at an auction cause I REALLY needed it at the time. Not saying that is typical, or expected (especially for a Civc), but it happens, you just need to stop looking for it, then it happens.
You can view the build in my sig, just not on this site so be forwarned.
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You're probably right... I don't really want to add up the receipts either but I will if someone really, truly wants to know. :rj:
Christian, who'd rather be ig'nant.
