Buying Fuse Kit Section by Section???

Has anyone ever compared the kit price vs. all the parts in that particular kit purchased individually. I am sure there is a bit of a kit discount. In the interest of not shelling out $15K all at once for the fuse kit, I was considering buying a few sections at a time. I am building slow, and paying as I go. No rush here and a free and clear aircraft when I am complete.

My thought is rather than have downtime while saving for the next kit, keep building a few sections at a time. This would keep the process moving forward. Who knows, Vans might not even allow it.

I know there are some parts needed early for fitting (i.e. main gear) that will not be actually installed until later. There would also be a ton of little things (hardawre and such) that I would need to count quantities for.

I am going to send Vans an email tomorrow, but I was curious if anyone has already completed this exercise.

Thanks!

Will be interesting to see what you turn up...

Shipping may eat your lunch though.

Very possible

It would take some careful planing to keep the shipping in check. For example, ordering all skins in one order regardless of when I need them.

I would guess at least 50% more.

Seansull said:

Has anyone ever compared the kit price vs. all the parts in that particular kit purchased individually.

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When I was laid off a few years ago, you can imagine where the build fell on the list of priorities for expenditures. Since I had plenty of time available when not interviewing and job hunting, I wanted to keep my self busy.

I had just received the finishing kit, so I was already quite a ways through the build. I did part out some of the FWF kit for two reasons. The first was that there were some items I wanted to replace with other vendor's products. The second reason is that on the RV-10 the first few steps are easier to perform in advance before the engine is hung.

I went through the excercise and priced all the items in the inventory list that are on the "list" on Van's site. You won't be able to get pricing for 100% of the items unless you call Van's. None of the parts bags are detailed or is priicing available online. Also, in looking for things for friends several big ticket items like the RV-10 door shells and the cowl aren't listed online either.

I wasn't able to do a complete comparison, but my gut feel is that you are going to pay a 10%-20% premium for the parts. However, the real penalty is shipping and crating charges. I can easily see that costing an extra couple grand on a fuselage or wing kit.

While I understand not wanting debt, financing the kit for the period of the buld may be less expensive than ordering piece meal. First Pyrority will provide a construction loan and are pretty easy to work with.

Wow this is weird timing, I just asked Van's that question this weekend and had a conversation with one of their support people about it yesterday. For the benefit of all, here is the initial response I got from Van's:

Ordering individual pieces is possible, but it will make it significantly more
expensive. The kit prices are heavily discounted from the individual part
prices, precisely to encourage people not to pick their way through kits like
this.

It costs us a lot more to process orders made that way, as we have set up
the kits to get the parts out of the door as efficiently as possible. You can get
credit later for deleting parts you have from an airframe kit, but the credit will
be less than what you paid for them.

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In response to this, I asked about the components that aren't listed in online webstore and how I go about ordering/pricing those. They responded with this:

Not all parts are on the web list, and some may be on a lead time (eg, the F-
1004 center section parts normally take a few weeks).

The easiest way is probably to make a list of the parts you want (text, excel
or similar) and email that to the parts dept. They can then give you the
relevant prices and any lead times.

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So, you can absolutely order your fuse kit piecemeal, but you'll pay "significantly" more for it. Due to a recent marriage and refinancing of my house, I've blown through what meager fuselage savings I had, so I'm definitely going to be doing some of the fuse kit in this way while I save up for the rest.

Also, as somebody mentioned above, shipping will go up dramatically. They have to crate the parts, which would need non-standard (for Van's) crating. Plus the shipping companies put a premium on out-sized parts. I had to replace an HS rear spar; as I recall the cost was reasonable but the shipping was nearly $200. Better if all those outsize parts arrive in a single package.