Ok guys what is your ratio for this....
Money spent on your build divided by hours spent on it........
Low figures should reflect very labour intensive cost saving builds
High figures will show a more "get it on the road quickly approach"
Mine I'd say I'll spend about 2000 pounds (equivalent) and around 2000 hours....
So I'll start the ball rolling at......
1.00 pound spent/hour spent
Haven't a clue, a lot of the parts i have accumulated have been donated for services, ie me making bits for others who then pay me in usefull
bits...how do you put a price/hour tag on that?:
£5k - 500 hours???, £10 per hour, not much more to spend now, hopefully....
£3648.74p
47mins
Sorry forgot to say i spent 484hrs and 36mins thinking about it and asking other peeps 
I know exactly how many hrs I have spent, but i dare not add it up unless I feel suicidal as a result. That will be done once its registered. I recon
around 500 hrs so far.
Cost, well, thats gotta be somewhere around 4k. Its gone in stuff like hiring skips to clear the garage, building a lean too on the back for more
room, tools, hiring engine cranes - im possibly kidding myself its 4k. It could be more like 5k.
so thats about 8 quid an hr?
moral of the story.....fast cheap builds come from following the book without going to the extent of money saving vs tiome by stripping the sides off
transits to save money.
Longer builds come if you do something too different. Like mine.
I cant believe you spent 2000hrs already Alan! Your garage will have needed two sets of light bulbs in that time! I thought I was being patient but
you are the king of perseverance!
atb
Steve
[Edited on 23/4/03 by stephen_gusterson]
Steve, I was estimating 2 years build at 20 hours per week for 2000 hours...it may go beyond 2 years, and/or may be less than 20 hours per week, but
by the end it won't be far of 2000 hours.
However, I'll bet at least half of that is on tooling, design, moulds and so on......
I must say that when Ron talked about stripping ali off old transits, he was talikng it bit too far.....although I've no doubt some have done
that, buying a sheet is probably the way to go...
The main reason that you and I have/wiill have a lot of time in our cars (as you suggest) is because they are different....
My previous car, the off-road racing buggy took 3 months start to finish, from first idea to the first race.....(no glass fibre, no road legal
stuff)
Still, that first drive will be sooooo good...
[Edited on 23/4/03 by Alan B]
Unfortunately, I've neither kept count of hours or cash, I really don't want to know 
Yeah, I think the first drive might be like first time sex. I just hope the car isnt a bad ride, which may have been the experience of the female half
of the first time sex 
ATB
Steve
BTW Alan - I would have preferred you to say the GRP was the fastest bit and a breeze - would be more encouraging as Im at that stage now. I would
know it was a lie tho!
Anyone wanting to make own GRP for their car rather than buying, if its a std locost, dont EVEN THINK about it. It takes ages, is messy, and is costly
due to the three stage buck/mould/final part stages. My car needs 9 panels and thats essentially 27 stages.
I have my completed boot lid, and have one final rear arch part coming out of the mold Friday. (6 stages completed) In about 3 weeks I will have the
other side, and essentially the car from the rear wheels back will be cosmetically complete!!!!
Then there are the front wings and sills to do.
Its a long slow road
atb
steve
[Edited on 24/4/03 by stephen_gusterson]
quote:
Originally posted by RoadkillUK
Unfortunately, I've neither kept count of hours or cash, I really don't want to know
Steve, any more mould/moulding pics?
I wouldn't want to be suffering alone...
I've totally lost track of the time I've spent,
seeing that I started the build in late 1997. It's only in the past 12 months that I've really got stuck in.
As for the cost, well I've got nearly all receipts. It's just that I haven't had the courage to add them up...
David
I took the decision when I started my car to not record time or cost. I haven't set a budget, and despite it being the first question everyone
asks, I don't know when I'll finish. It's often quite difficult to put an exact price on the cost of a locost, what do you include?
Cost of petrol driving to place to get things? Cost of going to shows? Cost of tools? Where do you stop? Cost of electricity? Anyway, you get my
point.
Kingr
quote:
Originally posted by Alan B
Steve, any more mould/moulding pics?
I wouldn't want to be suffering alone...
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
I've totally lost track of the time I've spent,
seeing that I started the build in late 1997. It's only in the past 12 months that I've really got stuck in.
As for the cost, well I've got nearly all receipts. It's just that I haven't had the courage to add them up...
David
quote:
Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
Your car looks very nicely done so far. I notice you have a yellow nose cone - are you doing the green body like book one cover pic?
Error
Divide by Zero!
quote:
Originally posted by mdc124
Error
Divide by Zero!
I've spent about £300 on the car, and £500 on tools! as for time, me - not enough, my wife - too much f**kin time!
Think its about 100 or so hours, 90 of that cleaning.
Chris
On a different subject.
How many hours are there in seven years?
Cheers
Chris
I dont know ask rory
Syd,
I believe you 100%...no reason not to...
However, I have a friend nearby who has been a composite consultant to the marine industry for 20 years or so...and I believe him 100% too....he says
use PVA....
Can you both be right? of course you can.....there can often be many right ways
Back to this surfacing coat you mention...is that similar to this...
"Duratec Gray Surfacing Primer
Perfect for Plug Finishing and Hiding Repairs
Duratec Surfacing Primer is the best choice for coating your plug or reconditioning your mold.It can be thinned using Fast Lacquer Thinner to be
sprayed through a siphon or HVLP gun minimizing costly sanding steps to remove orange-peel.This surface primer can be applied as heavily as 45 mils to
fill fabric pores on plugs or over repairs. With a higher heat distortion temperature, shrinkage is reduced. This further hides the repair.The gray
primer sands easily and is then buffed to a Class 'A' mirror finish before building the mold. Catalyze with 2% MEKP."
Snipped from fiberglast.com
Chaps,
I'm reckoning on about 2.5 - 3 grand when done. However, if I hadn't have been so compulsive, like buying an incomplete engine/box, think
I'd have saved a couple of quid.
Likewise, bought some ally sheet a couple of weeks ago to make my side panels and gave up trying to bend. Should have scribed it and taken it to the
local vehicle builders and had them do it on their brake press.
Made them from 'glass instead:
Two bits of ally sheet, one flat, one at an angle (to give the mid chassis bend). Two bits of 1" sq ERW (cut to follow ally sheet) and clamped
down. Clay down the seams. Floor polish on ally, grease on clay. Pour in resin (not gelcoat - haven't any!!) leave to set. Lay up matting. Leave
for 24 - 48 hours, remove, trim, finish. Reckoned 1.5 hours a side.
Going to do rear and front side in the same manner, though more complex so will take longer!!
Bonnett and scuttle will be moulded first.
As for time, probably (wildly inaccurate guess of up to 400 hours so far.
ATB
Simon
Simon.
Bending the alu for the sides is absolutly EASY.
You did one of two things wrong (possibly more can go wrong).
1. You used the wrong grade alu. There are lots of hardness grades, and some will fight you. David Jenkins found this out on his rear panel. You need
summat called half hard 3003 grade.
2. You didnt anneal it. If you try and bend virgin sheet more than about a few hundred mils long, its really hard.
So, you get a bar of soap and a blow lamp.
Rub the areas you want to bend with a bar of soap. Heat with the blow lamp until the soap goes brown / black. The soap is acting as an indicator to
tell you temp - if you heat too far you melt the alu - but I recon this takes some doing with a blow torch.
Let it cool down and the alu will be REALLY easy to bend. A synch in fact.
SYD :
In my meagure efforts to make grp I am convinced that PVA is the biggest pain in the arse in the project. You just cant get a mark free finish and
absolutely need to sand and primer surfacer it, so coloured gel cost is out.
HOWEVER
using wax is also a pain. The survey I read on the net from a professional group of 'glass moulders on the net reconed that even with massive
amounts of wax coats, there was a 16% chance of a virgin mould sticking.
The mould apparently ages so that only an occasional waxing is needed - you will know this of course.
However, for me, I am making only one part, so all my moulds will be virgin. I would rather have a part release and have to sand it a bit (will use
primer surfacer anyway) rather than throw away both the part and the mould it shagged.
If I was making several parts I would use wax. As Im not I just swear a lot when putting PVA on and leave the wax in its tin cos wax and pva really
dont work together.
atb
Steve
this was the data I saw syd...
http://winshipmodels.tripod.com/pva_mold_release.htm
whadya think?
quote:
Originally posted by Syd Bridge
.........free radicals.........