Just got paint on this thing Wednesday, hope to get a lot of it together next week. I don't know how much less the kit is compared to the finished product, I'm guessing about 3K. Opting out of the full nickeled package was about $300, which I now view as a mistake, I want to get it together for a couple shows this fall but will pull a few parts off this winter to have nickel plated. You may be able to buy the engine seperatly, there is someone offering just the engine on Ebay. I'm not going to bother with trying to get it legal, don't see myself riding a lot outside of shows. And you can quote me on that....................