Restoration Process explained in steps

[Boss1Ray]

I found this local restoration shop's web page.  It describes the restoration process in steps.

While I haven't read them all, for the most part, they sound about right.  

Looks like they tailor towards Chevys - but I still found the information interesting.  

http://www.restoration-us.com/process.html

Ray

 

[MikeGriese]

Not bad, however they miss a lot in the first steps - like bag and tag everything you take off the car. Take photos - lots of them. While part is on the car, once the part is off the car, and an exploded view of how it went together - with fasteners, washers, nuts, clips - whatever held it together. Then put titles on your photos and file them in descriptive folders. You never know when you will get back to putting them back together. If ever.

 

[c9zx]

$98,000 restoration of a Z/28? Oh well, it is his car and his money. Chuck

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

The price he came up with is pretty typical for a ground up rotisserie restore. My friend that does them usually falls between $85,000 - mid $90,000. Usually takes about a year. He tries to have three cars going so when letting primer shrink he can work on something else.

The Camaro people have more rust than Mustang believe it or not. The repo metal is just as bad as the Mustang repo also. Very soft and huge variation in panels fit and size. He once got a quarter panel that the wheel opening was 2" out of location. NPD could not believe it but agreed when they got it back.

I have seen him only use the windshield frame and cowl on Camaro rebuild. He sent the last one to Atlanta to have AMD do the reskin of whole car not just floor. They have all the fixtures to position correctly and they make the metal. They did not do a perfect job but ok. They do Chrysler and Chevy no Mustangs. https://www.amdinstallation.com/

Like I keep saying you cannot do a full restore on any Mustang and make any money, lol. Put $90,000 in and sell for $50,000 if lucky.

His Camaro even a Z-28 with all the factory sheet metal gone is not worth much. Great original cars is the only way to go. Basket cases cost a fortune to fix.

If a shop does a lot of the same car they do not bag it since they are going to replace everything anyway. Bolt kits come packaged telling where they go and GM has much better assembly info than what Osborn publishes for Mustang. Very detailed and great illustrations.

 

[scgamecock]

For 85-90k I think I would be driving a new GT 500 or Z06 Vette.

 

[Mister 4x4]

I don't know... that Camaro's pretty damn snappy - I'd have it. 

Seems like a pretty fair assessment of the restoration costs, maybe even a bit on the 'light' side, to be honest.  I know I have over $45K into mine, and that's just (for lack of better terms) an amateur restomod job.  That also pretty much only covers parts, a few farmed out jobs (sand blasting, body & paint, minor exhaust work), and some tools I had to purchase for various things along the way.  Since I did all my own work, I couldn't factor in 'labor' to the final cost, aside from some fuzzy math I came up awhile back - I figure based on almost 2,000 hours and paying myself a conservative $50/hr (again, paying myself as an amateur - professional labor rates would be much higher), I would have roughly $100K in labor added to the $45K already spent.

Do I have a $145K car?  Oh, Hell No - not by a longshot.  Reality check is that I could probably expect somewhere in the range of $25K (with the right buyer) were I to ever consider selling it - and I'm OK with that, because that's reality after all.

I agree with Mike that there should be more time spent up front cataloguing and documenting the car's condition and everything that comes with it.  I tried to do that, but found that taking too many pictures along the way tended to drag out each process, as well as 'got in the way' of motivation and actually getting something done.  Hey - I'm being honest... having to stop after each step to take a pic tends to take the wind of my sails a little bit each time and makes things take SO much longer to do, which is why I don't have as many pics of various things as I maybe would've liked when it came time to put it all back together.  It's a necessary evil and should be done regardless of how much extra time it'll take.  It may take a little extra time up front, but will actually wind up saving time later in the way of identifying the parts (what the heck is this?!), locating said parts (where did I put it?!), head-scratching (now, where did this go again?).  I remember spending some extra time in each of those categories that could've been eliminated had I been a bit more organized [than I thought I was, anyway].

 

[7173Vert]

For 85-90k I think I would be driving a new GT 500 or Z06 Vette.

Been down this road with the new tech car’s... Wound up selling and coming back to the Classic’s.... To each their own

 

[7173Vert]

My ‘71 J Code Vert Restoration Costs: When you can’t or are not willing to complete certain aspects of a high level restoration yourself ( I know my area’s of expertise and my area’s of those aspects that are best left to qualified professionals...). The following is a breakdown of my costs associated with this restoration... Clearly, body and paint costs were over the top, but the final product speaks for itself.

$70K paint & body & other adjustments as necessary while at the restoration shop ($85/hr labor charge)...

$30K original #’s matching engine rebuild, including overall engine bay major component refurbishment (ie: $750 to have the original radiator re-cord. $2Kfor the correct #’s matching and date coded fully restored Rochester Quadrajet carburetor...) .

$2K Original #’s matching Transmission rebuild

$1.5 K Original 3:25-1 Trac-lok Rear end refurbishment

$3K Vert Top purchase & replacement

$1.5K Seats material purchase & reupholstered 

Approx. $30K in other parts procurement

*** Does not include the actual price I paid to purchase the car... 

I looked after the original vehicle complete disassembly, bagging, cataloguing, Old paint removal, Refurbishment of all parts not replaced with new, Running parts all over the country as required, Complete reassembly of the car... Voila... How to spend a cool $100K+ easily  Note: Costs to restore a car here in Canada and requiring either parts purchased or sent down to the USA, increase the original estimates by 40%... I had to pay this premium extensively for all parts purchased and the original components I sent down to have restored. These cost’s are in Canadian $$ It’s only money...

 

[Boss1Ray]

My ‘71 J Code Vert Restoration Costs:

$70K paint & body & other adjustments as necessary while at the restoration shop. $85/hr labor charge...

$30K engine rebuild, including overall engine bay major component refurbishment (ie: $750 to have the original radiator re-cord...) 

$2K Transmission rebuild

$1.5 K Trac-lok Rear end refurbishment

$3K Vert Top replacement

$1.5K Seats reupholstered 

Approx. $30K inother parts procurement

*** Does not include the actual price I paid to purchase the car... 

I looked after the original vehicle complete disassembly, bagging, cataloguing, Old paint removal, Refurbishment of all parts not replaced with new, Running parts all over the country as required, Complete reassembly of the car... Voila... How to spend a cool $100K+ easily  Note: This is in Canadian $$ It’s only money...

And while it was obviously a pricey endeavor, you saved an EXTREMELY RARE 1971 Mustang convertible.  And IMHO,  YOU did the marque proud in your dedicated efforts to put it back to as close as possible to how it was originally.  KUDOs!

Ray