Can afford or can't afford doesn't come into the equation of what a car sells for. I can see from many responses, Dan's especially, that they've never spent a dime at a body or restoration shop having body and paint done in the past 5 years with $1000/gallon paint. Scouring Craiglist and know values, give me a f'n break.... for what scams.
Restoring a car these days isn't for the faint at heart. I bent the door back on my Bird last October when the car dropped into reverse and pinned me to my pop machine. What started as a repair and paint blending on one side and trying to match the 36 year old paint turned into a $24,000 Cdn job with me doing almost 1/2 that work + parts. Then I couldn't live with the new to old difference, we pulled the car apart and stripped it to bare metal and did body and paint on the entire thing. Another $35,000 to the paint shop and I'm still bolting it back together right now. 60 grand... in the blink of an eye.
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2016 to 2019 I put $168K Cdn into my Bee that's been mine since 1979 and my Father's before me. All the restoration shop did was a LOT of metal replacement (the entire floor, rear frame rails and passenger front) and then body and paint on the bare shell. I gutted it prior to sending nothing but a shell to them. Darn near $10,000 was paint supplies alone for House of Kolor material. $6000 more was the stainless trim being sent out for polish and all door glass parts being rechromed at the same place that the Guild uses for all of their stuff. I rebuilt and or restored EVERY part on the car except the seats. I'd done them in '88 and were still mint. EVERY bolt on the car was touched. I'd be lucky to get a 1/3rd of that for the car IF I was ever to sell it. That'll be up to my Son if it happens, third generation behind the wheel..
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