geo-smc
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another dreamer
- Thread starter geo-smc
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misterpaul
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It's advertised elsewhere for even more money than the ebay ad but I don't think this one's been advertised before. According to their blog they aren't back in the UK yet.
http://www.thelongdrive.net/
http://www.thelongdrive.net/
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As a matter of interest how much would it cost to modify an 80 [which you already own] to such a standard;
1. If you did the work yourself.
2. If you paid someone?
Frank
1. If you did the work yourself.
2. If you paid someone?
Frank
Dave Docwra
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Frank, a lot more than people would estimate the cost to be..
Frank, I think that this would be an interesting calculation. If we could agree what a sensible hourly rate would be, I might give it a go. Or maybe just have it in hours and you can apply your own costings. There'd bound to be arguments about the final result, but it would give an indication. Of course, each vehicle would be different. Mine didn't have a transmission that worked so there was 4 man days to start with. But if we agreed the sorts of things that would be almost guaranteed. I have a worksheet that I have kept on mine since I got it. It's pretty long! As a very very simple calculation, mine has taken just about every weekend since March this year.
Chris
Chris
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If you were going to build one for yourself, then I think it would come out at about that price. If paying someone to build it for you then add about another £10k. As for selling it at that price, then it is only worth what someone is willing to pay!!
Paul
Paul
Lorin
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Dave Docwra said:
Yep, I agree with that. I'd say, take what you think it will cost and double it
Seriously, I opted to not buy an already 'prepared' truck on the basis that I thought I could get one to the same standard for the 12k most seem to be priced around. Not even close is my experience...... Though admittedly there is a lot of variation in what is described as 'prepared'.
If I could do it all over again, I'd buy one with all the kit and then just service fix what needs doing. It's the kit buying and upgrading that costs the most.
Rob
Well-Known Member
If you are lucky you can get most things used off ebay and online forums. The only new mods that I have put on my truck are the coils and the split charge system, not even the shocks were new.
Eazi awn roof rack: £0 and one bottle of wine with half a tank of fuel
Roof tent: £600 and £10 of diesel
Sliders: less than new ones (this is not a must have)
Bumper, winch and intercooler: £650 and £70 of petrol (this is certainly not essential)
Shocks: £101
Coils: £200 plus fitting as I rounded off a few bolts
Slit charge system: ~£180 including battery, cables, relay and crimp tool
tyres: came with car and 2 spares with 13mm tread cost me about £160 including wheels
snork: came with car
servicing and tools: ~£2000-2500 (including 1 Milner and 2 OEM CVs from Ian)
misc overland/recovery kit: £500
Engel Fridge: £450 and £70 of petrol
As a rough guess I reckon I have spent about 10K to buy an 80 and to get it ready to go to Mongolia with a few extras i did not need, so it can be done. OK I should have spent more money on suspension but did I really need a hydrualic winch and bumper? Obviously about 90% to 95% of the work was done by me and not a mechanic so this saved a few quid as well.
Eazi awn roof rack: £0 and one bottle of wine with half a tank of fuel
Roof tent: £600 and £10 of diesel
Sliders: less than new ones (this is not a must have)
Bumper, winch and intercooler: £650 and £70 of petrol (this is certainly not essential)
Shocks: £101
Coils: £200 plus fitting as I rounded off a few bolts
Slit charge system: ~£180 including battery, cables, relay and crimp tool
tyres: came with car and 2 spares with 13mm tread cost me about £160 including wheels
snork: came with car
servicing and tools: ~£2000-2500 (including 1 Milner and 2 OEM CVs from Ian)
misc overland/recovery kit: £500
Engel Fridge: £450 and £70 of petrol
As a rough guess I reckon I have spent about 10K to buy an 80 and to get it ready to go to Mongolia with a few extras i did not need, so it can be done. OK I should have spent more money on suspension but did I really need a hydrualic winch and bumper? Obviously about 90% to 95% of the work was done by me and not a mechanic so this saved a few quid as well.
Been having a go at this from the worksheet that I kept.
I have thought about all of the things that you would have to do, given what we all know about 80's. I have spent many many hours on mine, doing things that may not be necessary on the basic vehicle that you may get. I think that all I can do is come up with an estimate. Not what I have spent. I had to swap the transmission or example. You couldn't reasonably expect to have to do this. So let's assume that you have a generally decent truck with 100k on the clock, a 94 vintage perhaps with no extras. I'm not sure that I agree with Rob that you can expect to get the bargains that he did but the equipment list is a pretty good one. Can we agree that £4500 might be an anticipated purchase price in current market conditions?
The areas that would need work would be:
Engine
Brakes
Cooling
Axles
Suspension
Transmission
Body
Fuel
Ancillary
Some of this will be replacing service items and some would be preventative changes such as BEBs
This isn't a thread about how to do this, it's just a discussion, so I'm not getting into tiny detail. I can see as a minimum on these areas that using a combination of used, OEM and pattern parts, I have spent at least £1500. That's oils, seals, wiper blades, bearings, springs etc etc I have spent more than that but only because I have had parts that have had to be replaced that I don't consider would be usual. Such as wiper motors. So you can add all that on as a contingency. Window seals, motors, ABS sensors etc.
In terms of hours, which is difficult, I have gone through the jobs and figure that even in a lovely heated garage with a sink and a kettle, there's 100 hours in it. That doesn't even take into account the trips to the motor factor, the local tip, off licence and the butty shack. I have spent way more than this, stripping axles more than once to do other jobs, but if you put this in the air, with all the parts to hand, knowing exactly what you'd replace, then you waste less time. Now you decide what you want to put as an hourly rate. But I think that £25 /hr would be as cheap as you'd hope to pay.
So where are we so far? Not including extras like racks and fridges we're at £8500. This is bottom end as I say, if you found someone who'd do the work. Then you need to factor in all the kit in Rob's list that isn't included in the basic replacement and upgrade to the vehicle. Fitting battery systems, winches etc etc is going to add more hours.
You can see where this is going. Add in decent tyres and spares for the trip and phew, we're easily tipping over the 10k mark. I do think that those spending £20k to get one done have spent too much. OK if you can't do it yourself then what choice do you have? But that is a lot. I do think though, to expect to get your money back having driven 45k miles in it over pretty rough terrain, is a little, well cheeky. It's part of the cost of the trip in my view. Not saying people should give them away, but looking at what Eric wanted for the one that Matt was selling which wanted a full strip and rebuild with parts, it was over priced.
There is part of me that says I'd rather build it myself and not have one that someone has already had their adventure in. But in terms of lying in the rain with skinned knuckles...
Tough call isn't it.
Make of that what you will. Of course you could buy one, change the oil, fill the boot with stuff, grab your passport and credit car and head for the ferry. And probably get there and back OK. It's a cruiser. Personally I would be listening to every single noise, rattle, clunk all the way.
Chris
I have thought about all of the things that you would have to do, given what we all know about 80's. I have spent many many hours on mine, doing things that may not be necessary on the basic vehicle that you may get. I think that all I can do is come up with an estimate. Not what I have spent. I had to swap the transmission or example. You couldn't reasonably expect to have to do this. So let's assume that you have a generally decent truck with 100k on the clock, a 94 vintage perhaps with no extras. I'm not sure that I agree with Rob that you can expect to get the bargains that he did but the equipment list is a pretty good one. Can we agree that £4500 might be an anticipated purchase price in current market conditions?
The areas that would need work would be:
Engine
Brakes
Cooling
Axles
Suspension
Transmission
Body
Fuel
Ancillary
Some of this will be replacing service items and some would be preventative changes such as BEBs
This isn't a thread about how to do this, it's just a discussion, so I'm not getting into tiny detail. I can see as a minimum on these areas that using a combination of used, OEM and pattern parts, I have spent at least £1500. That's oils, seals, wiper blades, bearings, springs etc etc I have spent more than that but only because I have had parts that have had to be replaced that I don't consider would be usual. Such as wiper motors. So you can add all that on as a contingency. Window seals, motors, ABS sensors etc.
In terms of hours, which is difficult, I have gone through the jobs and figure that even in a lovely heated garage with a sink and a kettle, there's 100 hours in it. That doesn't even take into account the trips to the motor factor, the local tip, off licence and the butty shack. I have spent way more than this, stripping axles more than once to do other jobs, but if you put this in the air, with all the parts to hand, knowing exactly what you'd replace, then you waste less time. Now you decide what you want to put as an hourly rate. But I think that £25 /hr would be as cheap as you'd hope to pay.
So where are we so far? Not including extras like racks and fridges we're at £8500. This is bottom end as I say, if you found someone who'd do the work. Then you need to factor in all the kit in Rob's list that isn't included in the basic replacement and upgrade to the vehicle. Fitting battery systems, winches etc etc is going to add more hours.
You can see where this is going. Add in decent tyres and spares for the trip and phew, we're easily tipping over the 10k mark. I do think that those spending £20k to get one done have spent too much. OK if you can't do it yourself then what choice do you have? But that is a lot. I do think though, to expect to get your money back having driven 45k miles in it over pretty rough terrain, is a little, well cheeky. It's part of the cost of the trip in my view. Not saying people should give them away, but looking at what Eric wanted for the one that Matt was selling which wanted a full strip and rebuild with parts, it was over priced.
There is part of me that says I'd rather build it myself and not have one that someone has already had their adventure in. But in terms of lying in the rain with skinned knuckles...
Tough call isn't it.
Make of that what you will. Of course you could buy one, change the oil, fill the boot with stuff, grab your passport and credit car and head for the ferry. And probably get there and back OK. It's a cruiser. Personally I would be listening to every single noise, rattle, clunk all the way.
Chris
Beau
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Just adding to what chris has said, I would much rather build mine if I was planning a trip or at least get ver involved in the makings.
It just gives you that confidence that the truck will make it there and back without any problems and that all those bits and pieces you put in yourself, you know wont fall out.
A 10k Budget is more than enough for a vehicle and prep once you have some spare time and source your parts sensibly.
It just gives you that confidence that the truck will make it there and back without any problems and that all those bits and pieces you put in yourself, you know wont fall out.
A 10k Budget is more than enough for a vehicle and prep once you have some spare time and source your parts sensibly.
Rob
Well-Known Member
The only reason I got those extra bits is because of the price, I got a rack for free so I could justify a roof tent. The winch was too good an opportunity to miss it. Then again I did spend weeks trawling the web to get these deals which is difficult to do if you have a full time job, especially when you need to drop everything to drive up to Preston to get a deal before someone else does.Chris said:
You can save a vast amount of money by not getting 35" tyres, regeared diffs, LR tank, outback drawers, hot water systems, exotic leisure battery system, arb/tjm bumpers, wheel carriers etc.
Totally agree Rob, point I was making is that if you want to cost this in advance, you can't do it based on being able to snaffle a bargain like you did. You have to budget higher and hope to come in lower.
Some things are rare second hand, but some are there for the taking and people don't always grab them. You don't need a rack and a tent. They have hotels now, even in foreign countries. Fuel stations too. But some things are a necessity unless you can get a vehicle that was bought brand new and preserved in a timewarp somewhere, fuelled and ready to roll. There is something to be said for grabbing a much newer base vehicle, possibly a petrol that just doesn't need all this stuff doing to it.
it was a tough lesson when I dealt with the insurance after my fire. I had spent buckets on everything from seals to aerials. In essence the insurance just said, yes, but it's supposed to be in that condition. The fact that you have spent a fortune getting it there makes no difference to us. So when someone sells a prepped vehicle and says £15k because it has had axles rebuilt, new rad, steering damper, all oils and filters etc it's all very nice, but that doesn't actually make it worth more to the tune of what you spent. Does it?
C
Some things are rare second hand, but some are there for the taking and people don't always grab them. You don't need a rack and a tent. They have hotels now, even in foreign countries. Fuel stations too. But some things are a necessity unless you can get a vehicle that was bought brand new and preserved in a timewarp somewhere, fuelled and ready to roll. There is something to be said for grabbing a much newer base vehicle, possibly a petrol that just doesn't need all this stuff doing to it.
it was a tough lesson when I dealt with the insurance after my fire. I had spent buckets on everything from seals to aerials. In essence the insurance just said, yes, but it's supposed to be in that condition. The fact that you have spent a fortune getting it there makes no difference to us. So when someone sells a prepped vehicle and says £15k because it has had axles rebuilt, new rad, steering damper, all oils and filters etc it's all very nice, but that doesn't actually make it worth more to the tune of what you spent. Does it?
C
Andrew Prince
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For me the main cost-saving is the labour side - I do the work because I enjoy it and it's a million miles away from my day job. Of course the cost saving is great too! 
But if there was work that was essential that I couldn't do, or didn't want to do, I would pay someone to do it. That's the cost of ownership. Non-collectible cars are not assets (unless you own Chequered Flag) - the money you spend is an expenditure to keep it doing the job it's supposed to do, not an investment. Once upon a time there used to be things like stocks and property to spend money on if you wanted an investment 
These big price 80s obviously represent an attempt by the "investor" to recover his money - are the vehicles worth it? Only if you really NEED one and you have no other options. My 2c
But if there was work that was essential that I couldn't do, or didn't want to do, I would pay someone to do it. That's the cost of ownership. Non-collectible cars are not assets (unless you own Chequered Flag) - the money you spend is an expenditure to keep it doing the job it's supposed to do, not an investment. Once upon a time there used to be things like stocks and property to spend money on if you wanted an investment These big price 80s obviously represent an attempt by the "investor" to recover his money - are the vehicles worth it? Only if you really NEED one and you have no other options. My 2c
