car restoration

[thinker]

approx. how much does it cost to fully restore an old muscle car?

[VtecMini]

That would surely depend on the age and condition of the car, what car it is and how readily available the parts are.

Your technical knowledge and mechanical aptitude will make a difference on how much you can do yourself and how much you have to pay to have done.

There's also tools to be considered, if you have to splash out on a lot of kit then it's going to be another factor you have to take into consideration.

[thinker]

well for instance, say if u were to pay for a new engine,tires,exhaust, suspension and body paint?

[Egg Nog]

There's a lot of variables here...

What car? What type of engine? Output?

What kind of set-up? Hot rod? Stock restoration?

Just the paint job itself could vary anywhere from $800 - $20,000!

[johnnynumfiv]

My uncle restores chevelles, he usually takes some donor cars and has one car that he adds stuff too , he makes them so they are in perfect condition, and he usually sells them for around 50 grand.
But it depends on much in depth you go into the restoration.

well for instance, say if u were to pay for a new engine,tires,exhaust, suspension and body paint?

that isn't really a restoration but a 350 v-8 can go for around 3 grand or more. then another couple grand for the tires exhaust and suspension. Then as eggnog said paint can be expensive.

[Guibo]

Also have to consider how much rust repair is involved. If you pick up a really bad one, it could cost you a small fortune just to get the body and paint right. And it's pretty much the rust (and whether the car's been in a major accident) that separates a parts car from a restoration candidate. Best to have a specialist get it up on a lift and inspect everything underneath.

[NAZCA C2]

All depends on what car and what type of condition you want to restore it to. Older and more rare cars are obviously going to be more difficult to restore. If you want to restore a car to factory original condition the cost can be many thousands of $$$. If you want to restore a car just to have fun with it you could get by with a few thousand $$$.

[Falcon500]

That would surely depend on the age and condition of the car, what car it is and how readily available the parts are.

Your technical knowledge and mechanical aptitude will make a difference on how much you can do yourself and how much you have to pay to have done.

There's also tools to be considered, if you have to splash out on a lot of kit then it's going to be another factor you have to take into consideration.

All true my father done almost all the work on his car (other the the gearbox rebuild) on both his red and grey studebakers....it can also seriously depend on what the car is...the stdebaker v8 ceased being produced by 65 and cost half as much again as a more common v8 say a chev or a ford....also parts had to be sorced else where like the pistons are holden 25s v8 pistons and the carbiretto was a ford autolight which was replaced by a holley (the origonal 8 honda motorbike carbies had serious problems with seals perishing) also someother problems we encounterd was the borg warner t-10 gearbox we sourced from a mustang (studebakers also used them) had problems with jumping out of gear....it wouldent of been a problem but its hard to source parts for them so we switched to a ford single rail...which saw service untill 86 here...to complete this conversion we also had to use a falcon 6 cylender driveshaft and we also used a holden clutch set up so we could maintian it going through the floor rather then on a pivot...its the weak point of the car not that it see much hard work...also the dana 44 diff was replaced with a ford 9" and the origonal studebaker drums where found lacking and the studebaker discs where hard to srouce and not as big as the for failane items we decided to use...also incidently the same stud pattern of the studebaker....the exaust is a custon bend which my father copied the diagrams of and borrowed a pipe bender from a plumber and the muffler are also a home design....
We could of gone diffrent route to this (we could of had everything sourced and reconditioned) but the cost didnt exactly justify it...we went cheaper and in many cases improved it.....
Doing your own body and spray work reduces the cost considrably...as with engine building....the interior had to be done professianly as neither me or my father has experiance or acsess to and industrail sewing machine but even with doing thing practically and as much as we couldmuter the build cost still went into tens of thousands (easy 25,000+)

[ace]

approx. how much does it cost to fully restore an old muscle car?

Taking account my years in the trade (14 or so), my general rule to estimate the cost of a restoration, is to ad all the costs you can come up with, to the estimates you get from shop's you are thinking of getting to do the work you cant do yourself, and ad 1/2 as much agene some times more, and you might come close.

[Bruce Russell]

That would surely depend on the age and condition of the car, what car it is and how readily available the parts are.

Your technical knowledge and mechanical aptitude will make a difference on how much you can do yourself and how much you have to pay to have done.

There's also tools to be considered, if you have to splash out on a lot of kit then it's going to be another factor you have to take into consideration.

The cost on an average frame off restoration would be between $10,000. and $20,000.

[speednine]

All true my father done almost all the work on his car (other the the gearbox rebuild) on both his red and grey studebakers....it can also seriously depend on what the car is...the stdebaker v8 ceased being produced by 65 and cost half as much again as a more common v8 say a chev or a ford....also parts had to be sorced else where like the pistons are holden 25s v8 pistons and the carbiretto was a ford autolight which was replaced by a holley (the origonal 8 honda motorbike carbies had serious problems with seals perishing) also someother problems we encounterd was the borg warner t-10 gearbox we sourced from a mustang (studebakers also used them) had problems with jumping out of gear....it wouldent of been a problem but its hard to source parts for them so we switched to a ford single rail...which saw service untill 86 here...to complete this conversion we also had to use a falcon 6 cylender driveshaft and we also used a holden clutch set up so we could maintian it going through the floor rather then on a pivot...its the weak point of the car not that it see much hard work...also the dana 44 diff was replaced with a ford 9" and the origonal studebaker drums where found lacking and the studebaker discs where hard to srouce and not as big as the for failane items we decided to use...also incidently the same stud pattern of the studebaker....the exaust is a custon bend which my father copied the diagrams of and borrowed a pipe bender from a plumber and the muffler are also a home design....
We could of gone diffrent route to this (we could of had everything sourced and reconditioned) but the cost didnt exactly justify it...we went cheaper and in many cases improved it.....
Doing your own body and spray work reduces the cost considrably...as with engine building....the interior had to be done professianly as neither me or my father has experiance or acsess to and industrail sewing machine but even with doing thing practically and as much as we couldmuter the build cost still went into tens of thousands (easy 25,000+)

A little bit of grammar goes a long way. That was hard to read.

[johnnynumfiv]

The cost on an average frame off restoration would be between $10,000. and $20,000.

I recently took part in a frame off restoration to showroom condition, and the total was around 55 grand just in parts.

[Speedy007]

i work in a body shop that does mostly insurance claims, but we have done several restorations. ussually for a body only restoration we'll start the bill at $15,000-$20,000(and this goes for allmost all shops in the area).

[johnnynumfiv]

i work in a body shop that does mostly insurance claims, but we have done several restorations. ussually for a body only restoration we'll start the bill at $15,000-$20,000(and this goes for allmost all shops in the area).

Do you guys find that it's worth it to do restorations? The shop I work at does all insurance work, and we find that it's not worth the time and effort to do in shop restorations because it just takes way to long.

[jcp123]

To restore a CLASSIC (old has such a negative connotation) muscle car, as others have said, varies so greatly it's not even funny. We spent about $30.000 to restore our '67 Mustang convertible, while I spent less than $5.000 on my own Mustang. Theoretically, it can be done even more cheaply than that. And if you want to do a complete teardown and rebuild that can easily exceed $100.000.