Firewall fwd kit cheaper to buy separately?

[alpinelakespilot2000]

I've been trying to determine whether the firewall forward kit is a good deal or not. I've put every thing that is listed on the Van's website for an RV7 0-320 constant speed on a spread sheet and I looked up the prices for each item. The only things I did not find the prices for were hardware bags 607, 608, 611, and 613, plus a few bags of rivets. When I totaled up the parts individually they only came to 4426.54, whereas Van's charges $4600 for the whole FWF Kit. Perhaps there's some expensive ($157 worth of) hardware in those 4 bags I couldn't find the prices for, but has anyone else found the FWF kit not to be much of a deal? I must be missing something, but is it really as cheap (or cheaper) to buy the items individually?

[RudiGreyling]

I asked the same question a while back, just do a search.

The conclusion I came to was that it was worth it, sure it may have done it cheaper, but then I had to run around and buy all components from everywhere, if it didn't fit right then it was my problem.

Anycase this is my first airplane build, I wanted to stay close to what the designer intended, not enough experience to make my own calls on design issues yet.

Regards
Rudi

[TX7A]

Steve,

I did what you did....priced out everything individually. My numbers looked about like yours; a little less than $200 difference.
It seems to be a good deal in not having to buy everything separaely. Be aware that your plane needs to be setup for the FWF kit as Van's intended it.

Sam

[yakdriver]

Plus it is packed in sub kits with instructions. Just pull out the subkit like the battery box and everything is there and you go to work. The time savings alone is worth $200. Don

[ptrotter]

As far as I can tell, the cost of the kit is pretty close to the sum of all the individual parts. For those items like parts bags that are not listed in the catalog, Van's will give you the price if you ask. I went the other way and ordered the part individually, including the parts bags. I did so because I eliminated several items that I bought elsewhere like Lord mounts and a different oil cooler. If you remove items from the kit, Van's only credits you with 75% of the item cost so you end up paying 25% for an item you didn't get. If you delete a couple of cheap items, it doesn't matter, but if you delete expensive items, you will end up paying more. I just asked Van's for a packing list for the FWF kit and they emailed it to me. I then removed the items I didn't want, and asked them to price the remainder, then ordered that. I did this for both my finish kit and FWF kit. Van's doesn't seem to have any issue with doing this.

[RV7ator]

The kit is a good start, but you probably will want to deviate as you go along. Store up the undesirables, then make a one-swell-foop return of all at .90 on the $. Cheaper than your time. Two things to consider off the top of my head (not hair loss!): the heat valve isn't all cres. Bad, bad. A guy in UT offers one. One of the oil cooler lines (can't recall if it's the go-innus or go-outus) interferes with the Jo...- foreign- governor cable bracket. (You need a custom hose with a 45 fitting and 45 nipple on the case.) I liked the longer length of the -9 throttle cable than the supplied -7. The Odyssey battery and box I bought separately on line at considerable savings. And so on. I piece-mealed two -7s because my FWF was just a tad different than standard; you'd be surprised how far ripple effects spread downstream if you roll your own. No regrets, though. FWF takes an age, so you've plenty of time to tweak without extending the calendar, but UPS and their ilk will be somewhat enrichened by more frequent orders.

John Siebold

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Thanks for the replies. As mentioned above, one of the big concerns I have is the fact that Van's apparently doesn't give full credit for the parts deleted even though they seem to be charging full price in the total kit price. Even in the posts above there seems to be reports of either a 90% refund or only a 75% refund. (Maybe it's 75% if you delete from the package and 90% if you buy the whole package and just return parts you don't use later?) I'll have to clarify that with Van's. I do have a couple big items I know I don't want: the $350 wiring harness (will just go with Stein's package) and the throttle and mixturre controls. Right there I'd lose quite a bit if Van's isn't going to give full credit for the deletions.

On the other hand, having Van's instructions might be worth some extra money. Does anyone know, will they give the instructions out if you don't buy the complete FWF kit from them?

Thanks again.

[jcoloccia]

One thing to consider. If you order seperately from seperate suppliers, shipping and handling costs can quickly add up and eat away at the difference.

I went through the same thing when I first ordered my Avery tool kit. Seperately, I could save a couple of hundred bucks. By the time I added up all the different estimated S&H charges, the Avery kit was a pretty good deal.

[keen9a]

Originally Posted by alpinelakespilot2000

Does anyone know, will they give the instructions out if you don't buy the complete FWF kit from them?

You can buy just the FWF instructions. The part number is DOC FWF COMPLETE

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Thanks John. I'm not talking about buying from separate suppliers. Of course you'd be correct that shipping charges would add up in that case. I'm talking about either buying all the parts from Van's as a kit, or all the parts from Van's individually. The prices seems to be the same (or even a little cheaper) when buying them individually from Van's, even if you did it all in one order.

In my case, I order often enough from Van's that I could just add the FWF parts (as I need them) along with other orders or, better yet, just go pick up all the FWF parts purchased individually when I go to pick up my finish kit next week.