Paid to restore a car.... Questions.

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Backtobasics

Backtobasics

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Full disclosure: It's a 1965 Mustang.

Beyond that, someone I went to school with has decided to buy a 1965 Mustang he found while working in the insurance business. Inline 6, automatic car. Exterior shots from what I see show a sunfaded finish, minimal rust. He says it needs driver floor pan, but supposedly no other major rust through.

Not sure if he wants to keep the 6 (has headers? haha), or go to small v8. I am thinking the plan so far is to strip the body, straighten, and paint. Color unknown, currently burgundy. Maybe pull straight 6 and detail, rebuild carb, etc. Run through fuel system and brakes for safety, and let him have a cruiser.

What do you guys who do body work on the side charge? Per hour or job?
I am by no means a pro, but have sprayed several flip cars, done base coat / clear coat on my Typhoon, and have the majority of the necessary tools. I feel comfortable it is within my abilities to bring this thing back to a nice runner.
 
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Those little 6s in the Mustangs were really good motors very tough little motors and will last a long time.

Does the car have any rot in it in the quarter panels?

The floor pans are out there at a lot of vendors and are good and match up with the original.

I had a 66 and it looked really good till we stripped the paint. Someone screwed the quarters on and had to fix that, but all the panels are out there.

Are you looking to charger by the hour or by the job?
 
CoronetRTguy said:
Are you looking to charger by the hour or by the job?
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I think that's what he's wanting opinions on. How are the other members that do work on the side like this charging for their labor time?

I know that a good friend of mine did a '68 Charger for a guy and he bid it by the job. The thing that burned him was he bid the job and between bidding it and bringing it to him the owner had the car media blasted. This brought out a lot of issues hidden under the paint that you couldn't see before. He ended up doing a lot more work than he originally thought it was. The guy was understanding as he wanted it done right but he still never made enough to cover his time. I know now he only bids by the hour.

There's another guy local that doesn't do final body work or shoot paint but he will disassemble, cut and fit metal, and reassemble and he charges by the hour also. Of course he's retired and I think he only charges $15-$20 an hour for something to do.
 
To hire me to strip the trim, strip the paint, replace the front floor with patch pans, straighten the body and paint the car including jambs, then reassemble the trim would be close to $8000. More if he wants an "exotic" paint used.

Looks nice like it is, but......

George
 
know what your labor and shop rates are and give a true by teh hour cost so the owner can "stop" restoring when the money runs out. also allows you to do a quality job first and worry less about hitting your budget
 
Another thing I know a few guys around me do is make the owner pay as they go or the work stops. You work 40 hours, you bill it, he pays or it gets put in the corner. Seems to be a decent way to prevent you from getting it done and the owner not having the money or complaining and trying to get it for cheaper once it's done. Make sure he knows up front the reality of paint and body work and that he doesn't think this is a "good buddy" deal expecting a show car for the price of a Maaco special.

Is the owner mechanical at all? Can he do any of the disassembly himself to save the costs of you doing it? If he wants to do it right then he should consider having someone blasting it instead of paying you to strip it. Then you can see everything and give him a lot better estimate of what's there and what needs to be done. That old paint can hide a lot and it would probably be cheaper in the long run.
 
I know my friend who owned a resto shop would charge 65. per hour (10 years ago), however he also had alot of overhead cost with his shop such as insurance, employee wages, etc..
 
This is the way a lot of cars end up sitting in primier in peoples back yards.

The magazine quality place down the street from me charger $5000 for "just" a paint job
that includes pulling the windshields but no other trim.

There's a guy that works part time for a friend of mine that charges $1800 for just a pint job, and he has a really good reputation. That's paint and prep, but no body work.

By the hour and pay as you go are probably the best advice...but that also opens up..."why did it take you 4 hours to patch a quarter sized hole?"

I've seen a LOT of 64-66 mustangs with "thick paint" like that one looks to have, and most had absolutely horrendous backyard style surprises underneath.
In the 80s, people were churning out "restored" first gen mustangs at the rate of about one per 20 houses up in Ohio.

"Charger"...instead of "charges"...ha ha...must be predisposed to end that word that way...I even noticed it was done in a previous post and tried not to do it...
 
YY1 said:
"Charger"...instead of "charges"...ha ha...must be predisposed to end that word that way...I even noticed it was done in a previous post and tried not to do it...
Click to expand...

Hahaha I was texting about a Charger when I was typing. I had a guys wife telling me about their Charger and she is giving me a better price then the husband haha.

Yeah I would write up a contract on the car so that way you dont get burned and really I dont care how good of a friend is if they dont sign I dont do anything, same with family.

Mustangs are really known for bondo specials. I also or at least it looks like it in the pictures to have fender flares, does it have the wheel lip still left?

I know with my Vette guys are wanting a project they can do and then get mad at my price because it needs paint. They say body shops will paint and prep the car for $4000 and I reply I thought you were doing the car and wanted a project, if painting scares you that much maybe you should take up sewing.

I could take this car and blend the paint in and buff it and they would think it had an all over paint job that would look like a show car.

I would say set a price for week to week or at the end of the month, if that is not met, the car sits in your garage until paid and then I would take the title in hand to insure he will pay.

Charging by the hour is tricky when guys don't know how long something takes, a small spot could take longer then a big spot.

Shops in my area are charging 15 and hour and paint can be had for 1500 to 10,000 depending on what you want.

Oh and check the inter fenders and shock towers they rust really bad there. Also under the drivers side window at the cowel and around the vent another big time problem area for mustangs.
 
Check that thing out completly they rust around the spring mounts,torque boxes,cowel,window recesses,quarters all can be repaired if you have that ability but the time and costs may outweigh the worth of the car,figure your labor per hour and they buy materials and yes make up a contract so you have a leg to stand on in case you get stiffed. I personally don't touch anything that ain't got my name on the title been burned before.
 
The car arrives today around lunch time. We are going to give it a thorough check over. Owner is not terribly mechanical, nor does he have a TON of time, he is mobile (US) insurance adjuster. I imagine he would be willing to spend some time when he is in town. As I understand it, he is mostly looking for something cool to drive when he is in town. My instinct at this point is to do a brake and fuel and ignition tune up so it is safe to drive. I am guessing his expectation on body work is a basic base coat, clear coat, with complete polished trim, etc. It is not going to be a RIDDLER award car by any means. Nice cruiser. Underhood will probably get a basic clean up, paint, regasket the engine, rebuild the carb, and little detail items. More after the car gets here.
 
The only bad thing is "basic" can turn to "catastrophe" in a split second. I wouldn't even begin ballparking that thing until it's blasted, and there's no point in putting paint on top of what's there. Strip the trim and take it down to Eudora. They have a blast booth you can rent by the hour, day, week, or whatever. There's still a ton of prep work in disassembly, stripping, sanding, blocking, priming, edging, and everything that goes with a paint job. Have fun with it. It'll be good to see another old car running locally. Seems like nobody has them out right now.
 
When my Cuda was getting done 4yrs ago it was $35/hr and pay as we go. That way its not so much "sticker shock" at the end of the project for the owner & gives the tech the cash flow he needs. That way everyone is on the same page. Not staying current w/payments? No work. Its as simple as that!!! It looks like you have a nice project. Personally I like the cars original & stock. Good luck....
 
I've been restoring a 65 stang vert for a number of years for my wife, as time permits. I probably have 800 hours into it, while it looked good at first glance, there was rust everywhere. You probably don't have the wet climate I do in the Pacific Northwest but beware of rust, these cars aren't called rustangs without reason. I've replaced almost every single bit of sheet metal on it :banghead:

Most of the re-pop sheet metal is total crap and needs to be reworked, so it's a lot more than just out with the old in with the new.
 
I have a friend at work that just had his 65 ragtop redone by CJ-Pony in Pennsylvania.Every peice on the car was replaced,also with a crate DART engine.He spent lots of money on it,but it,s been his dream car and he saved his lifetime just to build it right.I,m sure they carry lots of replacement parts at CJ-Pony.for years we had Speacialty Interest Mustang/Ford parts up here,but now the old man has retired and the son has put all on e-bay now:banghead:.Quite a few old Ford and Mercury items still in original boxes.
 
I should have pictures this afternoon when I bring the camera to work. I spent 2 hours with the pressure washer on Saturday. Overall, pretty impressed. It will need some work in rear quarters, but does not appear (I won't say positively) to need full quarters, but one patch, passenger lower quarter, and one patch, drivers, higher up along wheel well. Both front fenders appear to be pretty good, and 1 small spot on each door, but again, overall pretty solid. Underhood was greasy and crusty, but cleaned up pretty well. I don't see any major scary stuff under hood. The 200 has headers on it, to full duals with some generic turbo mufflers and tail pipes! The rear panel between lights does appear to have some filler.
Oddly, it seems to have a reverse of Mopar A body door syndrome. The latch on driver door has cracks around it, instead of the post itself, but that can be fixed. He paid 1900 and got new carpet and new front seat covers. I am going to work on brakes and fuel first, and get it running, and stopping (no brakes was interesting). He comes in to town in a few weeks to hammer out the rest of the details.
 
What is the paint code on it?

Also did you check the date code to see if it is a 65 and not a 64 1/2?
 
No disrespect on this-because I have a 65 and a 66 fastback-but Mustangs are notorious for rust,I believe you will find more rust than you think,only because I have seen too many of these.I would NOT give any ballpark prices until I blast it or strip it.Good Luck.They are nice rides once they are finished.
 
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