How much is too much to spend on restoring this 70 Charger?

[dspaulding70]

I am at a crossroads and do not know what to do.  I thought I would get some feedback from my peers before making a final decision.

Quick story - I have the first car I ever owned; a 70 Charger 500 (Original motor was replaced before I got is so this is not a number matching vehicle.  I have replaced the floorpans, carpet, wheels, tires, suspension, etc. but I have gone as far as I can as a weekend warrior with limited automotive knowledge.  I have about $7k in it so far and it has been sitting in my garage for over two years now under cover because I just cannot make a committment of what to do next.  If I decide not to invest in the restoration, I would probably sell it and look for something else.

If I plan to keep it, I wanted to get a rebuilt 440 HP, 727 transmission and rear end replaced; change breaks to 4 wheel disk, complete restoration of the body and a good (but not show quality) paint job.  I want something I am not afraid to take on the road and heaven for bid, get caught in a rainstorm.

So, here is the million dollar (or in my case, the $20-30k) question.  Am I making a mistake spending this kind of money on making this Charger 500 into a clone RT?  I do not have plans to ever sell it but you never know what the future holds.  I will have to get a loan to do all of this work but I need to do something now.  My wife has been extremely patient but I need to either s*** or get off the pot.

See attached picture to see what it looks like right now.

Please give me some comments.

[Brock Samson]

my budget was $ 14 K back in '84 when i started,.. i suspect i've spent approx $ 25-30  K to date... the biggest single costs were the $ 10 K paint in '89 and $8 K in the engine and  drivetrain '97-'99 these prices need to be adjusted concidering the years they were spent.. i also spent 500 bucks each for two parts cars in the mid '80s that today would be easy $5K cars today...
my rule of thumb is triple all your estimates.. including time and aggravation.. 

[moparguy01]

If you look at automotive restoration as a money making venture, and your not doing the work yourself, you will always loose money and be disappointed. Its just the nature of the beast.

The market is soft right now, cars are dropping in price alittle bit. I personally dont thinking putting 20k into a 70 charger is a waste of money, but I also do all my own work and restore cars for a living, so I guess I'm biased.

[hemi-hampton]

Doesn't look bad now, Whats wrong with the paint? Any rust? LEON.

[dspaulding70]

Yes.  Lots of rust in the back window area, bottoms of wheel wells and the taillight area.  Also has numerous dings along the sides due to my lovely children in the garage.

[41husk]

Never get your first car again if you sell it.  I would think there are many good times, you have to equate sentimental Value as well.

[Harlow]

From that picture it looks pretty decent right now. Maybe you should just get a drivetrain together pretty cheap (maybe a small block) and just start driving it and enjoying it, then start saving/deciding what your next move is.

[69charger2002]

If you look at automotive restoration as a money making venture, and your not doing the work yourself, you will always loose money and be disappointed. Its just the nature of the beast.

The market is soft right now, cars are dropping in price alittle bit. I personally dont thinking putting 20k into a 70 charger is a waste of money, but I also do all my own work and restore cars for a living, so I guess I'm biased.

perfectly said
trav

[Daytona R/T SE]

Looks to me like you live in a neighorhood filled with $500K+  Homes....unless you took out an ARM to buy that place and you're in it way over your head, you ain't hurting for money...throw $40K at your car, get it done and enjoy it 

[70charger_boy]

I wish my car looked like that.  It's up to you, but I agree with everyone above.  The market is soft right now, so whatever you put into it you won't get back for along time.  Just drive it. Who cares about a big block or disc brakes or rust.  Just have fun

[68charger383]

Car looks nice to drive as it is. Plus, who says you have to do it all in the next six months. Buy the brake kits this year. Start looking for your motor, tranny and rear. When you get them, you'll need to rebuild them anyway. Bascially, take your time and do the upgrades over time. The last thing is the paint. Hopefully, by then, the kids will be older and less of a risk with their bikes and only a risk to take it out on a joy ride.

The bigger question is with a car that looks like that, you have not driven it for two years? A rusty dutchman panel and a few side dents might keep you out of a few stuffy concourse shows, but not cruise nights or a weekend cruise around town!

[Big Lebowski]

I spent $22,000 in 1998 dollars for mine. I'm not sure what that would be in 2007 dollars, but I paid $7000 for body & paint, now pro shops want $20,000 to paint a car with lots of expensive metal work...new qtrs., trunk floor, etc...

[Finn]

lol I remeber I had it figured out that I could get my 68 "legally" driving for just above 2,000...

ahh so young...so naive 

As of this point I probably have more than 8 grand into it not including the price of the car...
and Ive got at least 5,000 more in parts (on the "want" list WITH discount codes) anddddd the price of paint.
I still think its totally worth it.

[ChargerSG]

Keep the car, like many said before you wont get back you first car, i have put more than 30k in my 500 with 318 in it ok its numbermatching

[Mike DC]

 
If you want an R/T clone then most of those costs are not really in flux.  Either you pay for the already-restored clone (big $$$) or you pay for the drivetrain separately (big $$$), but the money is big either way.  I'm saying that getting a $10K drivetrain will basically cost you the same $10K whether you ultimately put it into this Charger or you get another car. 

The only question here is buying an already-done R/T clone and trying to come out ahead over the costs of doing it with this car.  That partly depends on how picky you are about the final product.  If you're picky you may end up redoing half the work on the new car anyway.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From a do-it-yourself-er point of view, the pic of the car doesn't look like it really needs another $30k to my eyes.  I could picture dumping $10-15K into the body & paintwork if you pay someone for pretty good work, but after that I don't see another $15-20K just to make a cruiser out of it.  (At least not by my definition of "cruiser" anyway.)

Beware that if you aim too high for the bodywork results you'll end up too scared to drive the car when you're done.  I'm not saying to bondo over the major rust problems or anything, but I'm saying think hard about how big a deal it is to have some pitted chrome trim or a few parking-lot dings that aren't perfect.  Owning a #2 condition car can be a lot more rewarding than owning a #1 condition car.  The best way to do that is to get the sheetmetal work done without ANY compromise, but then don't sweat the block sanding & finishing paintwork & trim pieces after that quite as much. 

[suntech]

You say it is your first car, and you want to keep it. That says it all. Put in it what it is worth to you, and what you can afford. I would´nt loose any sleep from putting 20 k in it.
If you are comfortable about putting in the cash to get it done right, you do it. if not , keep the car, and wait til you are ready.

[Charger_Fan]

This thread is 8 months old...I wonder what the decision was?

I know I'd have a very hard time selling that car, especially if it was my first car.

[Chatt69chgr]

You say you have $7k in the car right now.  Frankly, that's not a whole lot of money.  And you say you have kids.  Also, it appears that you will have to have most of the work done by others.  But the car obviously has sentimental value.  I would stailize the car and put it in a storage unit and forget about it for the next 20 years.  Then I would go out a buy me a new Challenger this fall.  You can finance that and drive it every day.  20 years from now, you will still have the Challenger and you will have a really neat old Charger sitting in a storage unit to play with.  If you sell it now, you will regret it for the rest of your life.

[GL0169]

I SOLD MY FIRST CAR-A 1970 DODGE CHARGER  VERY CLEAN ALMOST NEW - I KICK MY SELF EVERY DAY FOR SELLING IT -BUT I NOW HAVE A 1969 DODGE CHARGER -KEEP IT AND DRIVE  IT DAILY YOU WILL HAVE MORE FUN - AND IF IT RAINS JUST TELL MOTHER NATURE - YOU WANT SOME COME GET SOME- YOU CANT STOP A MOPAR

[dpm68]

Mine needs an exponential amount of work to it compared to yours, and I would not sell mine - ever. Okay, maybe if I was offered a ridiculous, too good to be true price...

[Dan T]

I say keep your car. So it's not an R/T. Who cares? So many people told me I was crazt to restore my '69 Dart because it was "only" a 273 car..but you know what, if I had sold it, I would have been kicking myself forever!
Finish the mechancal work, and enjoy it!!

[Charger_Fan]

I SOLD MY FIRST CAR-A 1970 DODGE CHARGER  VERY CLEAN ALMOST NEW - I KICK MY SELF EVERY DAY FOR SELLING IT -BUT I NOW HAVE A 1969 DODGE CHARGER -KEEP IT AND DRIVE  IT DAILY YOU WILL HAVE MORE FUN - AND IF IT RAINS JUST TELL MOTHER NATURE - YOU WANT SOME COME GET SOME- YOU CANT STOP A MOPAR

Dude, you've gotta do us a favor...





















thank you.

[hemi-hampton]

DSPAULDING70, One of the last things you said was you gotta Sh*t or get off the Pot. SO, After all these months what did you decide to do? LEON.

[CHRGR SE]

Screw the budget.    Start buying parts.

[dspaulding70]

Wow....I forgot that I posted this topic so many months ago......Here's the update.

I decided to go for it!  The body work is almost complete and the two guys in the body shop are fantastic.  They come up to the shop on weekends on their own time. (helps that I gave them the old 318, tranny and rear end)  They practically have taken the car to a frame up restoration.  New taillight panel, right rear quarter, donor deck lid and passenger door.  Everything else was in great shape.

They welded screw holes in the engine bay that did not belong, re-welded many previous sh*ty welds when the floorpans were originally replaced and seem sealed everything.   This looks like it just came off the factory assembly line for painting.  Car will be getting a nice gloss metallic dodge silver paint job in about a week and a half including all underbody and trunk.  Everything else gets power coated or painted black.

The donor 8 3/4 rear end housing has been refinished and looks like I just bought it off of a showroom.  The donor 440 magnum from the 69 superbee has been completely rebuilt.  Engine is being assembled and will be installed in about 3-4 weeks.  The Wilwood disk brakes arrived yesterday.  The firm feel steering box, sway bar, torsion bars and leaf springs are ready for install. 

This has been the most exciting project.  I cannot believe how much fun I have had going to the shop almost daily.  Wife thinks I am nuts.  Firends think I am the luckiest man alive.

These shop guys are such gearheads and they act like this car is their own.  They brag daily about the project.  I will post some pictures once I figure out how to reduce the size of the files to fit.

Thanks to all of you that revived this post.   

[Charger_Fan]

This has been the most exciting project.  I cannot believe how much fun I have had going to the shop almost daily.  Wife thinks I am nuts.  Firends think I am the luckiest man alive.

That right there says it all.
Glad to hear you've renewed the love affair with your Charger & can't wait for some pics!

[GT]

Dude - post some progress pics !!!