I've been building cars, HotRods, 4X4s, Jeeps, street rods, street machines, trucks etc. all my life! I've owned 3 repair/build shops, so I had a good idea what it would take to build our buggy & how long!
My wife wanted to know how long it would take & I told her 3-4 months & it would be on the road! WRONG!!!
It took 19 months!
However, I don't think you are ever done building your buggy! There is always something to change or upgrade!
IMO... though the basics of building a vehicle are essentially the same, for some reason building a buggy is more FUN FUN FUN & much more satisfying!
Our buggy Xena has been extremely dependable & other than a broken throttle cable & a couple very minor things, she has been pretty much trouble free for 8 years & 65,000 miles of FUN FUN FUN driving adventures.
We've driven her in the sand dunes at Pismo Beach/Oceano, CA & out in the Mojave Desert & the Anza Borrego Desert! We've run her on freeways at 70-80 mph & in heavy "stop & go" city traffic in downtown Los Angeles! We've cruised out through the countryside & had many off-road adventures & some were quite technical, but we still made it thru faster & smoother than a Jeep or 4X4!
I've owned all kinds of vehicles, but none of them, though some of them were really nice & trick, attracted as much attention as Xena & though some of them had gobs of horsepower, they still weren't as much FUN FUN FUN to drive as the buggy!
So... I guess what I learned... was that I should have built a F/G buggy many many years ago!!!
Have FUN FUN FUN... the 'Maniac