Quote:
Originally Posted by evilzee28
To be honest I don't think that things have chnaged that much, it's just that more people are now becoming aware of more unfinished PT cars coming up for sale, as the PT scene grows. The more people that get involved, then the more people are likely to drop out. It's all about percentages really. I've been restoring top end cars for close on 30 years & have found that car builders fall into 3 main categories. The rich ones that money is no object, no parts are too expensive & they are constantly pushing the envelope to be "top dog" in the show arena or on track.
The second type is the one that have the skills to do most of the work themselves & just need a shop like ours to finish things off for them. They budget accordingly & have a clear goal as to what they want within their budget. They go as far as they can by carrying out their own build & then take it to a shop to be finished, which normally includes painting & general build up, leaving the final finish & detailiing to the customer.
The third type of builder though are the ones that haven't fully prepared a plan of attack for the restoration. Unfortunately, these guys have a vision that far exceeds their personal car building skills & a bank balance that doesn't match their dreams. They see all of the "must have" parts being fitted to cars on forums & magazines & tend to follow the trend by buying them.When their lack of car building skills hits home, it comes to a point where they haven't the budget to finish the car by professionals as they've spent their money on unnescessary parts.
My own '69 Camaro is a case in point, the guy I bought it from stripped it to a bare shell, ripping out everything down to the last nut & bolt. He then proceeded to buy parts for it, but rather than just buy the essentials like body panels at that point, so that the rebuild could start, he went out & bought all of the "must have" parts, that he didn't need. By the time he'd finished buying all of the parts, he couldn't afford to have the bodywork done by a professional, as he'd spent all of his money on stuff that he didn't need at that point. Had he just got the essentials to get the car to paint stage, in the time it would take to get it into paint, he would have been able to save the money to buy the "must have" bits. 'Cos the car was just sitting there, with a small fortune of parts sitting in his garage, unable to progress any further, he became disillusioned with it & put it up for sale. This is probably why so many cars are left unfinished, due to poor planning & an unrealistic opinion of how much the car is gonna cost to rebuild
Cheers......Nige
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That's some good insight.