Quote:
Originally Posted by BBBluey
Am I way out of the park in thinking $10K will get it looking and running nice?
My guesstimate is ~$5K in body work & ~$3K for interior and ~$2K in motor/misc expenses. Again, not show car or street racer but respectable and dependable.
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You're so far off it's not funny. I'm not trying to be mean or belittle your dream or desires. You asked for fair and honest opinions and that's what you're getting on here. Nobody is flaming you or the car... we're just "experienced" and know what the heck happens and what things cost and probably understand your expectations even better than you do.
#1 --- Paint alone is your total "thinking" budget for "decent". There WILL be rust repair which could eat that budget alone.
#2 --- Each time you touch one thing - it makes the thing next to it look way worse than it looked prior.
#3 --- Please don't start this project. You just have no idea what you're taking on and it's going to be nothing but a heartache for you.
#4 --- The fact that you want "respectable and dependable" doesn't lower the price of parts or labor vs wanting show quality. Parts is parts. My guesstimate of 50K was based on doing a baseline paint job - motor refresh - tranny and running gear looked at and minimal "bringing it up to road worthy"... and a replacement interior from one of the suppliers not a custom interior. I'm talking about just re-doing the seats and door panels and factory replacement carpet.
Once you paint this - the bumpers and trim will all look really really bad - and you WILL be talked in to fixing that as well - since you're paying labor to remove and replace these parts for paint "anyway".
#5 --- If you wanted it to be "pro-touring" like the cars on here... now you're looking at $150K to 200K or more.
#6 --- Probably the average amount of hours spent re-doing one of these cars from the ground up is 1500.... you can do the math for the rate in your area. But if you're getting paid $40 an hour - and the labor rate in your area is $65 and hour -- you can also do that math for how long it's going to take you to pay the bill.
#7 --- No tools - no skills... and you have to pay to have it worked on. Please just enjoy reading about the builds here and live vicariously. When you do have extra money --- Read "Investing 102"
https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=34700 on Lateral-G and then when you're near retirement - you'll be a millionaire and can afford to do one of these dream cars for yourself.
You can not do a car in this condition and have it be anything "respectable" for $10K.... you could probably get SOME dependability going for that... and if you decide to do this car -- go for dependability FIRST.... and pretty LAST. Maybe you could find a buddy that will paint it in his garage... and the materials alone are going to run you a grand and it's most likely going to look pretty Earl Scheibish meaning... you really just wasted your money because you'll never be happy with it.
BEFORE you buy the car ---- ask the seller if he'd be willing to go with you and drive it to a couple shops in your area and discuss what you are thinking about and your budget and time frame. PLEASE DO THIS BEFORE BUYING.... it will really open your eyes.
MAKE SURE to really look around the shop and the other projects going on - and what you're looking for is how much (or how little) the projects in that shop appear to have been there a very long time (how much dust and disarray the parts are in). Is the trunk and interior area just full of parts and boxes? In other words the car is nothing but a storage area... Is the area around the car a working area or does it look like nobody has moved anything around there for months - maybe years....
Here's what happens ------ THE BID to do the work you agreed upon --- is doubled by what is found once work actually begins. I'm not saying this is dishonest -- but rather -- there's really no way to tell what the car "IS" until they begin to work on it. NOW --- since you were scratching to start with --- you're really screwed because work has commenced -- and you were already scraping to come up with the bid money - and that's now doubled... and your car just became the next car that sits there for months which turns into years as you loose your desire and realize there's no way to pay the bill ---- OH --- and you're now being billed $600 per month "storage fee"..... on top the bill you owe. Think about that --- that's $7200 per year for it to just sit there collecting dust.