Way low on your estimate to restore-Car for sale below

MIKE'SVO · Post by **MIKE'SVO** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:26 am

Sandy I think you are wayyyy toooo low on your estimate to restore. To do a nice job you are easily looking at $5K plus the purchase of the car.
Just my opinion and hey, what do I know. I've only restored a few FOX bodies in my time.
Mike

Ahhhh, this was in response to the $1500 car for sale below. I may not know FOX bodies and I don't know how to use a PC even more!

Post by **negusm** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:27 pm

"Fixing up" a car just to make it run and/or look passable might be achievable with $1500, probably closer to $2500.

But to really get onto the "restoration" path, I agree, it's going to be $5k-$7k where you redo all the interior pieces, recover the seats, repaint the car, clean up the the engine bay, and so forth.

A truly show quality restoration effort is going to get in the range of $10k+. That's where you do a near complete tear down and rebuild it back up replacing parts that can't be returned to like new condition.

-Mike

n20capri · Post by **n20capri** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:36 pm

I think you guys are throwing the term "restoration" around too lightly...to me, a restoration is a complete tear down of everything! Then it's all re-done to perfection and put back together.

Mike's right but I think his 10k+ estimate is a little low...

which is surprising considering his level of detail with his own car! (When's it gonna be done BTW Mike I'm itching to see new progress pics)

A restoration to me is at minumim a $25,000 project! And that's if your doing alot of the work yourself...Simply getting some stuff from a 50resto and throwing on a paint job isn't a restoration...I'd say that could be considered fixing up.

Sh!t my paint was $4000 along with another $1000 in moldings etc and I'd hardly say it's been restored...I mean don't get me wrong, the car is nice but it's not been restored! If I was at a real car show and said it's been restored...they'd laugh at me...lol

Also, IMO there's no such thing as minor restoration...I'd consider that an oxymoron! lol

Post by **negusm** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:26 pm

I have to disagree with you a bit Mike, to me there are levels of restoration. What you call restoration in your mind appears to be a ground up 100pt restoration. Yes, those are the $25k+ restos that bring the car into perfection again.

However, there are other types of restorations. One that comes to mind is called a "Gentle Restoration". It may entail pretty much a full dissasembly of the car but only the bare minimum is done to clean or refinish parts. Basically the idea is to allow the car to look very presentable but still exhibit its age in a respectable fashion.

But your right in that just buying a bunch of parts from 50Resto and "fixing up" the car is not a restoration.

-Mike

n20capri · Post by **n20capri** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:25 pm

negusm wrote:I have to disagree with you a bit Mike, to me there are levels of restoration. What you call restoration in your mind appears to be a ground up 100pt restoration. Yes, those are the $25k+ restos that bring the car into perfection again.

However, there are other types of restorations. One that comes to mind is called a "Gentle Restoration". It may entail pretty much a full dissasembly of the car but only the bare minimum is done to clean or refinish parts. Basically the idea is to allow the car to look very presentable but still exhibit its age in a respectable fashion.

But your right in that just buying a bunch of parts from 50Resto and "fixing up" the car is not a restoration.

-Mike

I can agree...except that I bet even a "gentle resto" is gonna cost more than 10k...hehe

Post by **negusm** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:49 pm

n20capri wrote:I can agree...except that I bet even a "gentle resto" is gonna cost more than 10k...hehe

There was one guy in the village where I grew up that found a 1964.5 coupe that was 100% original. It was just extremely dirty and dingy from being left in a barn for 20 years. A few dings on it, etc.

Being 100% original, he went the "Gentle Restoration" route and did it himself. He disassembled much of the car and only really cleaned everything. On some parts he did do a bit of painting if the paint was nearly all gone or whatever. I think he did replace the headliner and weatherstripping. For the body he did some paintless dent repair which he was really good at. I bet he hunted down correct hoses and so forth too.

When he was done, he had a really sharp example of a 100% original car. All the paint markings were left in place and so forth.

I really doubt he spent more than $2k (1990 time frame) redoing the whole car.

The reason why I remember the car is that this car was 100% original with a black 289 engine block. For years I'd argue with people that they had the wrong colored engine (blue) in their 64 and 65 cars. That car was further proof I was right.

If you want to piss off somebody with a nicely restored 64.5 or 65 Mustang that has a blue 289 engine block, say really loudly that it's too bad they have the wrong color engine.

-Mike