[rocky]

Hey everyone quick question.I hope you can help me make up my mind.I have a bone stock 89RS with an auto.It was a freebie.Should I build that or: I have seen on this site and on CMC a car (I believe it was a 95 Z28) That has some work done to it 13x,xxx miles on it for $5000.You probably know what car it is.The only problem is it will cost $17 - $1900 to ship cause the car is literally across the country (Car is at Cali. coast and I am at Va. coast).I have not done any math to see if I would come out ahead any if I buy versus build to get mine close to what this is. Future plans are keep auto xing,finish hpde's and finish building on my way to CMC.Thanks for your input.
Mitch if you see this I wish I could take you up on your offer about sending it too you to make it CMC legal.But Texas is pretty far too.

[StanIROCZ]

Just to pile on what everyone else said..

Generally buying a finished/near finished car will always be cheaper.

Some exceptions (some of which others have already mentioned):
A) If the previous owner did crappy work that you have to undo then re-do. Some examples: not legal cage, cutting corners causing expensive stuff to break (engine build), tedious little f-ups on expensive parts (hackage). After the education that Alan, FRRAX, and Corner-Carvers has given me I cringe at some of the cages that I've seen. If you build it you know what's in it.

B ) Misleading information in the description (getting hosed). If you build it you know what's in it.

C) If you are overly particular and want things done YOUR WAY and won't be happy with the way someone else did it. In this case last case you are stuck spending $$ anyways. For me, little shit bothers me and I want to do it my way because I think I can do it better, and I enjoy doing it. But I always underestimate how much time and money it takes to do things and at this point in time I have no life because I took too much on. Life requires a balance that I don't really have. How much time do you have to dedicate to building a car?

Are you a car guy or a racer or a little bit of both? More one or the other? Does the car matter to you or do you just want to race? Or is racing not that important but you want to have a cool car to do it in?