I've got a very basic set up but with all the essential areas covered (diff, brakes, suspension) and I'm up to around $8500. I painted it myself and also did all the work apart from the diff shortening. I still haven't payed for engineering yet which I'm expecting to add an easy $1500+ depending on what he wants me to fix.

The engineering process in vic costs about $500-700 but unless you have done everything under the eye of the engineer, there will be things they will make you change which will cost more $.