If You Had To Do It All Over Again.............

[1958300]

My bottomless money pit has been at the shop for almost a year now, and I am already at the point in my budget that the paintwork should be finished. You guessed it! I'm still replacing panels. I'm not too unhappy because the car is one of 28 built, and is probably the only one with the N96 package. So it's not a car I'm going to see on every street corner. Yes, I will probably spend twice what I thought I would, and if it was not a very rare numbers matching car, I probably would have ditched it months ago. I'm still going to have to wait a few years for the car to appreciate to the point that I won't lose money big time if I sell it. Projected finish time is 12 more months, and I'm getting to the point that I probably need to buy a finished car if I am going to live long enough to drive it. So, next time, (after I finish my Barracuda convertible) I will buy a finished car.

[The70RT]

Same as all of the above, I shoulda grabbed a better car when they were reletively cheap.
Instead, I burdeoned myself unnesscessarily re-doing a car that in the long run, needed far more than I had anticipated.
Pictures speak for themselves...

WOW.....you had a lot of work to do. Looks great now No window rust? Thats sweet!

[h76]

Looks like a lot of time and effort has been put into that one.
You have to have lots of time,patience,skill,and of course$$$ to do a good job on a project car.

[Lowprofile]

I would have NEVER sold all the other Chargers I had! 

[Magnumcharger]

Same as all of the above, I shoulda grabbed a better car when they were reletively cheap.
Instead, I burdeoned myself unnesscessarily re-doing a car that in the long run, needed far more than I had anticipated.
Pictures speak for themselves...

WOW.....you had a lot of work to do. Looks great now No window rust? Thats sweet!

Well....not window rust on the top anyway!

[HeavyFuel]

I have had my car for 15 years, and have put a total of 200 miles on it.  The rest of the time it has been sitting around, waiting for me to raise my kids and get the time/money to work on it.  And it was a turn key car, its just that I won't drive a classic car around that is not up to snuff.

It will probably cost me $20-25k to make it the way I want it......right now it's in body shop hell.

If I would have taken about $15k in 1991 and bought a done car, I could have been driving a nice 6-pack 4 speed car around for the last dozen years.

Hell yeah, I would do things different....

[Mefirst]

I should have bought myself a Chevy

[SeattleCharger]

I wouldn't mind having this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Modernized-Muscle-1968-Dodge-Charger-440-R-T-Clone_W0QQitemZ260099696590QQcategoryZ6199QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If I had the dough, I would buy that,  maybe a diff. color, but car has  a lot done and going for it.

[70charger_boy]

[qu :flush:ote author=Mefirst link=topic=26596.msg290750#msg290750 date=1175034208]
I should have bought myself a Chevy are u crazy?  You have one of the nicest charger on the planet

[Troy]

So, next time, (after I finish my Barracuda convertible) I will buy a finished car.

Exactly! Yes, I have four projects and could have just as easily had two "driver" quality cars or one very well done restoration. I bought my Barracuda solely because I could drive it and I was sick of having a garage full of cars that were only good for taking up space and money. I'm going slowly but surely though so I hope these don't turn into retirement projects. My advice, buy a finished or mostly finished car that you can drive right away or - at the very least - buy the cleanest, straightest project with as many good parts as possible.

Troy

[chargerboy69]

I would still do my car. Even though it probably should have been scraped, when you tear them apart and restore them, they become a part of you.