I think Joan raised this point in the original thread
A low cost frame is a good start if you want to go down that road and CR has shown what could be a cheap option for pre 65 Legal wheels . Marc FX i think in an early post suggested Triumph motors (ex ebay ) at reasonable cost also.
But even putting my reservations about the diluting of a special era i still dont believe you could build a bike from scratch for under 10k
and at the end of the day you still have a Chinka knock off with
some original parts . I would have to question weather spending 75% of what it would cost to buy an original or build a replica (built from established aftermarket suppliers ) would make good sense
The Frame while being a major component of the bike does not ( particularly in the case of a Mettise ) account for a huge part of the overall build cost. Wallys figures for race ready motors probably are not to far off the mark.
At the end of the day its CRs project and the market will dictate weather or not he can sell any, I suppose owners of genuine Mettises may be a target market for a replacement race frame (to preserve their originals but i think those owners have to much pride and integrity to travel that path .
Now if somone wants to knock out RM 250 / 370 / 400 A B C frames (as they have a tendency to rot in the lower rails ) i think you could have a market