Hey LL,
I give you points for creative thinking and certainly wish you GREAT success in any airplane building project. You posted in the RV-4 section, and I've been working on a -4 for a number of years, so here's my opinion. But I'll warn you up front, it may only be worth what you paid for it!
First of all, if someone really wants a -4, these days they can buy a good, used flying one for just about what it cost to build it, or even less. A unfinished "project" airplane would fetch an even lower price. The point being that there's no incentive for someone to pay you a sum of money to build them a fuselage when they can pay someone else for a flying airplane at a price less than the cost to build it.
So the good news for you is that you could probably find an unfinished RV-4 project (or two) for a very reasonable price, provided you look long enough & willing to travel to get it. The bad news is that once you finish it, you're NOT likely gonna be able to sell it and make any money for your labor. Think of building your own plane like this Labor = Free; Education = Priceless
Secondly, if looking to buy an unfinished kit, workmanship can be an issue. Do you know what to look for? Or do you know an experienced RV builder or fellow EAA chapter member who would help you look at candidate projects before you buy? You're best bet might be to find a kit that was purchased a number of years ago but never really started (i.e. New in the Box)
Thirdly, something to consider with your proposed plan is that there are some match-drilled parts between the wing & fuselage sub-kits on a -4. The fuselage F-404 bulkhead (the main wing spar carry-thru) is generally match-drilled to the wing spar AT THE FACTORY and shipped to the builder WITH the wing kit. They do that to insure the correct dihedral angle is set for BOTH wings. Then when you order a fuselage kit, it does not come with the F-404 bulkhead parts, because you should've already got them with your wing. As you build-up the fuselage skeleton in the jig, it is very important to get the spacing correctly set between the F-404 bulkhead and the AFT wing spar carry-thru bulkhead (F-406 I think) so that the dimension will EXACTLY match the dimensions between the MAIN and AFT wing spars from YOUR specific wing. That's hard to do if you're building a fuselage & someone else built the wings across the country, and you're hoping to marry the two together.
Last of all, it's my opinion that the -4 requires quite a bit more fabrication of parts from raw stock, as well as more custom fitting, trimming, & shimming of parts than what is required on the newer RV models which rely more heavily on CNC manufacturing techniques.
The -4 kits are not CNC punched with Van's matched-hole tooling technology. I believe my wing skins DID come pre-punched with "pilot" holes for the rivets, which saves a few hours of lay-out time. But NONE of the fuselage parts or skins were pre-punched. Depending on how you look at it, this can be an advantage for the builder because it gives you a little more flexibility, but it does take more time.
I LOVE the RV-4, I think it has the best lines and looks of ALL the RV models. And it can certainly be built by a persistant 1st-time builder like yourself.
HOWEVER . . .
If I had to do it again, I might build something a bit less ambitious for my 1st time build, especially if I was poor young kid, trying to scrounge up a little money, but very eager to finish and fly my own airplane. Maybe something like a Thatcher CX-4 (or BK-1). You would learn a LOT of skills by doing that; sheet metal skills that would be directly transferrable to an RV project. Because it is a smaller, more simple, and uses pulled rivets, you could finish something like a CX-4 in less time and for less money than you could with an RV project. The beauty of that path is that in a year or two you could have a lovely little plane to fly around to the pancake breakfasts and log hours and enjoy while you were building yourself an awesome RV-4 !!
Best of Luck to you!!
