Ontario Canada restoration shops.

I have no illusions on how this works nor looking for a silver bullet. I'm mainly trying to find a shop that has a good reputation and isn't $130 an hour. After that its basically a coin flip, whatever my budget is, it can easily run out depending what is found. I got no deadlines so time isn't an issue. I'm building a driver and not a show car so I got that going for me also. If I Can get the car back for 30k or under that would be a great day imo. Anything over that, and my wife is going to have to start selling more houses to help lol.

I'm hoping to get a few shops that seem good, and then I'll trailer the car out to them myself and let them have a look. I won't get any hard numbers, but being stripped, they should have an idea of where to start and estimate surprises.

Sounds like you’ve got a firm grasp on reality.

It’s probably going to be tough to find a shop with a great reputation at a low shop rate. If you were a shop owner with a good reputation, would you charge $85 or something closer to $130? If shops with good reputations can charge $130, why would you discount your work for much less?

Just have your wife sell a home out here on the west coast and she will make a ~$45k commission on one sale based on the average price a detached home sells for. Half that value if she’s only the listing or buying agent.