JPS vs. Vintage Deluxe Kits

Looking into purchasing either a VS or JPS deluxe kit in the near future and was wondering if anyone has experiences that they would share of either.

Price wise they are within $200.00 but it looks to me like VS gives you a little more (like wheels) and also does a little more up front (like drill all the holes for the decos and such).

I have purchased an assembly manual from JPS, and to be truthful, find it to be a little lacking. Will call Vintage today to see if they offer one as well.

Also, both kits come with the body already installed on the pan - how much dissembling will I need to do for painting?

Thanks.

Correction - meant to say rolling kits not deluxe.

Bill, Wish I could help you, but I bought a turnkey. I think most VS/JPS owners either go turn-key or a true roller. Maybe you could call Kirk (VS) and John (JPS) and see if they can put you in contact with a recent Kit buyer, That's where you will find some answers. Hopefully someone is lurking on this forum and will help with good info.

As far as quality of the JPS & VS product? I have a VS that I am extremely happy with in quality, and VS support. You will find many on this forum that agree with my opinion. Same goes with John at JPS. His customers are equally satisfied and the cars are well built. And IM carries a Platinum level of reputation and price, ha-ha... easy George, I'm just being giddy.

If I lived in SoCal, I'd be tempted to check out JPS and get a face to face with John Steele.... the temptation comes from staring at John Leaders photos (see registry) of his 2 month old black and tan JPS. I think John (Leader) was able to oversee every aspect of his build, and knew exactly what he wanted, and probably set the bar for standards and expectations a notch higher. Living close enough, he ended up with a car just as he visualized it... John Steele did a knock out job on that car.

I live in Okra-homa City, and so my build experience and choice of builders was based on the builders reputation and accessibility. At the time (18 months ago) JPS wasn't taking as high of a profile as they do now. Their Web Presence wasn't as big, and they were a little hard to contact sometimes... I think that certainly isn't the case now, and they enjoy & have earned a solid reputation with the majority of members of this forum. I think now, that JPS has always built good cars, but their communications were needing a little jump start. I would think ordering long distance would be a good thing with them now. My individual experience with Kirk Duncan at VS has been a total pleasure... from ordering, adjustments during the build, meeting my timeline, delivery, quality of build, service/parts on two minor glitches in the past 15 months, to just a nice rapport with a very likeable, honest, and good guy.. Kirk. I talked to Henry several times at IM... I wanted a new Speedster or 59 Vert D from IM so bad I went to bed with his price sheets on the night stand. I could have afforded it, but in the end I went VS after assessing my needs/expectations/and willingness to pay a bit more and wait 6=8 months for the bang. Some day I may go for an IM Speedster still. we will see. You do know that IM offers a "coach" roller in varying stages?

Bottom line on quality.... ? The great thing is that you can't go wrong with these 3 builders.... cool, eh?

Jim (Dub U Tub under the member files)

There is of course another option to ponder: have Parts Obsolete build one of their terrific "Outlaw" Coupes using a real 356 Porsche as the platform. This way when asked if it is real or not you can say achtung.

Go to partsobsolete dot com, click on "Outlaws," also click on "Cars for Sale" -- an owner has a Outlaw 356 coupe for sale, n-i-c-e, very reasonable, but perhaps not for everyone.

I bought a rolling kit from Kirk at Vintage and had it painted there as well. (Very nice job.) You can order it in any stage of completion. I wanted to finish the car and install the engine myself so if I ran into any problems I would know how to fix it. If I had it to do over again I would have him do the wiring,lighting,gauges as well, as it is a PITA to figure out. The supplied directions leave a lot to be desired. But the final product turned out fantastic. Just dont be in a hurry and all will turn out fine. Kirks customer service is fantastic which made up for the poop electrical schematic.

Bill,
Talk to Kirk from Vintage Speedsters. I suggest you visit their place and get a tour. You'll feel very comfortable with their product once you get a chance to see the operation.
Good luck,
Tony aka speedy57tub

Take a closer look at Vintage speedster's web site! You will see that they also pre-drill holes and assemble door mech's as well. Also the price is about $1000 different unless JPS is running a special that I don't know about ($8900-vintage vs $9950-JPS)


I have not purchased one either and are still comparing so if someone else has other information please respond.

I would add that I don't think you will have to do any disassembly if the car is not hung. Hung meaning headlamps in, windshield bolted down.

(Message Edited 10/23/2002 2:40:07 PM)

I'm just starting on building my Speedster and am still researching the differences between JPS and Vintange.

I got build manuals from both vendors. They seem to be almost identical (really, like the same photo copied sheets). The JPS manual frame shortening part is marked up and a little bit different. Also, the JPS manual seems to have a page on Lowering the Front end which the Vintange manual seems to be missing. Both manuals seem to be a little out of order around this section.

I'm trying to take lots of pictures as I build and will hopefully have an entire site once I'm done. The start is at www.chriskate.net/speedster/index.html.

Just for kicks you can see other things I've done in my spare time:
www.chriskate.net/jeep/index.html
www.chriskate.net/gocart/index.html

Hopefully my speedster site will end up as long as the Jeep Adventures ;)