What does it cost?

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I have owned my 69 for 11 years and have been restoring it for 9 years. I have a room full of parts not counting whats in the car now. The price tag counting the purchase price of the car is staggering! Receipts for some 60K, but if this is your dream car and you never intend on selling it (which you will loose 60% of your investment not counting labor if you do) whats the price on your life's enjoyment. This car is what my family and I want, if I bought one finished and spent half,... whats under the shiny paint, or inside the pro built engine, or inside the newly covered interior etc. Get my point? So I say, if you can waite a few years and have a steady income to finance the project, and paying the home bills, and putting food on the table and clothes to wear for your family, GO FOR IT! If you have to set budget for the car, then do that. Don't let the long term dollar stop you. Don't be one of those guy who grows old saying I wish I had done that. Just my two cents....

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AdamR said:
I refuse to keep track of what I put in to my cars. It takes the fun out of it.
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Yup!

Life's too short. If your missing mortgage payments - that's one thing.

But I've never heard someone in the last days of their time say "damn I'm glad I saved that extra few K and didn't take that trip/buy that car/ etc"

It's a hobby. For fun. There are certain cars that may (may) return an investment on a rebuild. But don't plan on it. Build it. Drive it. Enjoy it.
 
You do it for the love of the hobby and the fellowship of friends. This is my third car i have built, but this is the first Mopar. Other than Music and home audio this is my only hobby.
 
great discussion, I learned some time ago that if I payed somebody else to do something on one of my cars I sometimes didn't get what I was paying for. So I slowly learned how to do motor, paint and so on. It ended up being very satisfying to do it myself and it keeps the cost down.
 
They way I look at it people spend big bucks on new cars that depreciate pretty quickly.
So what if you dump $50,000 into a $20,000 car as long as you keep it nice it will never go under that and over time only gain.

If we were all looking for the best bang for the buck we would all be driving C5 vettes.
 
mrdrmr said:
great discussion, I learned some time ago that if I payed somebody else to do something on one of my cars I sometimes didn't get what I was paying for. So I slowly learned how to do motor, paint and so on. It ended up being very satisfying to do it myself and it keeps the cost down.
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I agree. I am very picky about how stuff is done. I remember a co worker got a local shop to minitub his falcon, i saw that they pop riveted it all together, and was like damn, that **** needs to be welded. I made it up in my mind to learn how to do everything i can myself, or really pick who i can trust for the stuff i cannot do myself.
 
SSVDP said:
Thanks for the post. This is a very important lesson for anyone into vintage cars. It is too esy to get upside down on any vintage car, yes even our A-bodies.
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I didn`t pay as much for most stuff as you did. about a 7 yr build, searching the internet for usable parts. not show quality but not too far away. worse thing left are my door handles. will it never end?! have probably $32,500 in it. biggest mistake was trading a hi 11 second / 92 GMC shortbed for it. yes I could build 2 chevys for 32,500, I did ! But hey, everyone and their brother have a chevy ! their like flies on horseshi- !
 
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famous bob said:
I didn`t pay as much for most stuff as you did. about a 7 yr build, searching the internet for usable parts. not show quality but not too far away. worse thing left are my door handles. will it never end?! have probably $32,500 in it. biggest mistake was trading a hi 11 second / 92 GMC shortbed for it. yes I could build 2 chevys for 32,500, I did ! But hey, everyone and their brother have a chevy ! their like flies on horseshi- !
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Dodge pickup or ram van handles work. Bought some years ago for a 69 charger buildup. Very common from 1967 to 1993
 
Very interesting read. I have spent my life buying tools, now replacing worn out tools. As a ticketed auto mechanic i quit my job and moved my source of income home. Nearly 3 years later and still busy.

A customer wanted a repower,and various work done. The hours rack up fast. So it was all of 6 weeks,and i gave owner every oppurtunity to jump in and get dirty to save money. Nope. Every nut and bolt was me.

To those of you that are paying a shop,the labour will eat most of your money.so find one that does quality work and doesent let it sit in a corner for months on end.

In my case i worked seven days and charged for 5 at 6 hours a day. Regardless hours spent. Good progress days were 10 hours. My shop is a single bay. So i have to keep moving to keep income.

I love what i do, i learn every day and share what i can with those that want to know.
My 65 will be a budget build, but in the end it should be a clean solid car.

Keeping records of parts for insurance and warranty is a good idea, and proof you actually spent the bucks.
 
Thanks for your post today, Tooljunkie.
It gave me a chuckle when I re-read my original post to this thread from 2012.
My original estimate of $15K went out the window once I had it soda blasted and saw the severely dimpled right rear quarter.
It's been in 'paint prison' now since December. Hope to have it paroled in about another month.
As these things go, the build direction has taken several turns - each one toward a better car but costing more $$$.
Was originally going to use the 727, but now have a manual-shift, reverse-pattern 200-4R with lock-up 2800-stall converter.
Also now considering aftermarket front & rear suspension and another 100+ horses out of the 360.
 
It's interesting that nobody really in this entire post feels like you actually could make money doing a restore with these old school A bodies, but I think you probably could do it if you wanted to, if that was your end game.

It would take a numbers matching big block, 4 speed, possibly a convertible and of course doing a lot of the work yourself, but the rare ones do fetch a pretty good rate at sale. I'm not saying that's the way anyone should go, just saying that it doesn't seem like anyone really thinks that way in this post.

I'm just starting down my road, spent 5K for my non matching, 340 '71 swinger, have put 1600 into the suspension and the motor so far, with more to spend just to get it driving safely down the road. The paint on it is passable for now, but I would like to put my own spin on it at some point so that will mean more cash, but what it's worth really isn't one of the things I considered when buying it.

I think I agree with the one statement someone said "Drive the difference out of it". That seems to be the most fitting of all of that I read though.

Absolutely great post though, I enjoyed reading everyone's journey.
 
This post is one of the best I've read on FABO!
The cost of a restoration depends how much you are willing to spend on your project. I spent alot on my 1965 Dart Charger and was satisfied with the result. I didn't cut any corners at all. Profit or not, it was worth everything for me!
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Whewwww, sure glad I'm not anybody's wife. :-D

My Cuda's receipt folder, after over 21 years, is nearly six inches thick. I've never added them all up ... and never intend to. LOL I'd have to guess though that my numbers and Tony's are very close at around $40K.

It's all right though. I never intend to sell it and couldn't care less what anybody might think it's "worth." It's worth millions to me, and the fact I did most of it myself adds a lot to that.
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You keep your reciepts??
I dont. I throw them away, i dont want to know.
 
At the risk of sounding anal, when I started my 73 Duster project I created a Microsoft Access database to accumulate parts information - individual part, OEM part number, SKU's and pricing for up to 3 different vendors and so on. All this info rolls up into a multitude of reports for me such as shopping lists, budget reports etc etc. At present I have accumulated records for 307 different parts. I have found this to be extremely helpful to me as I am up in Canada and do pretty much all of my shopping online in the US. Why try to remember something when I can look it up with a few mouse clicks. Without this database and FABO of course, my head would have exploded by now.

Anyway, I am getting pretty close to finishing up my car (finished?? really??) and I'm closing in on about $37,000 and that's with the anemic Canadian Dollar but no body work Thank God.

Having said all that, I don't lose any sleep over it. When I'm behind the wheel it's absolutely the last thing on my mind!
 
Dusterdenovo said:
At the risk of sounding anal, when I started my 73 Duster project I created a Microsoft Access database to accumulate parts information - individual part, OEM part number, SKU's and pricing for up to 3 different vendors and so on. All this info rolls up into a multitude of reports for me such as shopping lists, budget reports etc etc. At present I have accumulated records for 307 different parts. I have found this to be extremely helpful to me as I am up in Canada and do pretty much all of my shopping online in the US. Why try to remember something when I can look it up with a few mouse clicks. Without this database and FABO of course, my head would have exploded by now.

Anyway, I am getting pretty close to finishing up my car (finished?? really??) and I'm closing in on about $37,000 and that's with the anemic Canadian Dollar but no body work Thank God.

Having said all that, I don't lose any sleep over it. When I'm behind the wheel it's absolutely the last thing on my mind!
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It don't take long $$$$ I threw my budget ceiling away. Love my 69 Fish.......No stopping now.
 
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moparmat2000 said:
You keep your reciepts??
I dont. I throw them away, i dont want to know.
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I was / am an executive assistant by trade. Not only do I keep records and notes on most everything, I can find 'em too :D. But if you reread my earlier post Matt, you'll see I don't wanna know either even though it's now been another five years since I wrote it.
The word "worth" has its own meaning to all of us, and that's what's important at the end of the day and keeps us all coming back for the next drive.
 
I hear ya. I tend to keep reciepts for everything in nice neat folders, but the project cars. I do most if not all of my buying and selling and get payment and send payment thru paypal, so unless i did something on the computer like a digital accounting spreadsheet to keep track of what i paid for something , or got paid for selling something i honestly couldent keep up.

The last big buy i got was a cache of 69 cuda parts off a local facebook trader i was really only interested in the fenders, valance, and header panel with smashed grill pieces for the 69 notch i have , however rather than pick thru it in somebodies shop, i bought the entire lot of parts for $700 knowing the fenders were worth at least that much. I kept what i needed from the lot , sold the rest and ended up with $850. So the parts i kept were free at this point and i made $150, and still have some pieces left over.

I am always buying parts at the boneyard that i need for my projects, but on those trips, i am also looking for parts i can resell to pay for what i bought. Case in point, i bought big brake rotors and caliper brackets off a 1978 magnum for the M body brake setup i bought prior for $100 for my sons 69 barracuda. Rotors ran me $20 each, and caliper brackets were $10. So $50. I also got some really nice headlight trim parts and turn signal lenses off the 78 magnum to resell. Junkyard guy said $20 on that stuff. A B body guy offered me $50 for the headlight trims, and $45 for the signal lenses, so my parts were now free, and i had some extra money from the magnum parts sale to buy more stuff.

I do this at the junkyard for 2 reasons it pays for my trip, and puts parts back out there that somone can use, otherwise they would eventually be destroyed. So TBH, i really dont know what i spend, because i sell too. I'm hoping in the end its a zero sum game after the smoke clears.
 
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This thread was only a couple months old when I joined FABO. I had bought my 75 Duster a few years earlier, but didn't have much done at that point. I was a little concerned by some of the amounts I saw people spending to build their cars, as I knew that my budget would not allow it. I had started other project cars over the years, but never completed one. I was determined to 'finish' a build. I wasn't looking to do anything crazy, just a nice drive-able restoration. I did almost all of it myself (with some help) including rebuilding motor and trans and painting. No machine shop work or 'go-fast' parts, just basic replacement parts where needed. I did not add up what I spent through the build, but took notes and saved receipts... figuring someday I would total it up and come back to this thread with it. Well, had a little time to do that recently... While never done, the car is complete and on the road for about $10K. Build link is in my signature. Here's the car and cost details:
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Nice slanty it's refreshing to see one restored instead of just having a V8 shoved in it I don't save receipts that part scares me
 
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moparmat2000 said:
I don't save receipts that part scares me
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Scared me too. I was initially holding onto them in case I needed to take something back. Did need a few for that. I had a bunch crammed in a drawer of my tool box till there were too many. Was also ripping off end flaps/part numbers -had a box full till I was done. Amazing how it adds up, I mean its just 'little stuff'... LOL
 
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