I don't want to be rude but I must ask, how much did it all cost?  You see, I want a quadzilla that's already freshly rebuilt like yours.  Just curious how much it takes to do what you did compared to buying a zilla already restored. And I MUST know more about your smart carb.  I don't know how to jet and the smart carb sounds easy enough.  Do they make one for a 250?

First, we didn't end up going with the smart carb. The wait times were getting bad and the confidence was getting low. I won't say they're a gimmick because there are a number of people who have had great success with them, but I just don't feel it was right for the 500. I was disappointed because I personally don't care for jetting Mikuni carbs but we had the OEM carb bored out to 40.5 and that's what is on there. The Zilla is going for a dyno-tune yet and it will get jetted properly at that time. It's kind of sat on the side right now. Might end up switching to a Keihin later on.

As for price and what you should do, there are two ways to view this. You really can't beat building your own machine because then you know for a fact what's there, inside and out, and it's built the way YOU want it. I can tell you that it would take in the neighborhood of $9-$10k to buy this zilla the way it sits simply because there are receipts that total more than that. This doesn't include my time and I'm sure there aren't receipts for absolutely everything included. Some may agree with that and others won't. Now I used to be one of those people who would look at a build like this and think, "That's nuts. I can build one way cheaper". Well, after building a 1989 TRX250R, a 1986 ATC250R, and this 1987 LT500R to this standard, the cost of the build is only going to be determined by what you want out of it. If you seriously want it to be like this, you aren't going to do it cheaper. If you want a $2500 - $5000 zilla, well look around and you'll find them. But they aren't complete fresh builds to this caliber. I'm not patting myself on the back and preaching my abilities by any means. This is all about the amount of money that went into it and that's it. Top notch motors that are completely fresh and every single part either new or reconditioned. It all has a price.