Re: Restoration of my B5 Blue 4Spd Charger 500... Blue Thunder debuts...Finally!

[notabird]

sorry yo hear about the price change Alan. I did look at a hemi car with a 30k paint job plus the resto work on top of that(looked great by the way)I hope you can work something out with the shop.They have restored cars before right? They should have known what was involved.Sounds like they loballed you to get you in the shop and then--suprise!
Brent

[petercharger]

 

[moparstuart]

sorry yo hear about the price change Alan. I did look at a hemi car with a 30k paint job plus the resto work on top of that(looked great by the way)I hope you can work something out with the shop.They have restored cars before right? They should have known what was involved.Sounds like they loballed you to get you in the shop and then--suprise!
Brent

i agree they got you in the door and got the car all apart then figure they had him over a barrel and doubled the price .

[Magnumcharger]

Sorry to hear about your price adjustment Allen.
I've been in both of your positions, and it's usually not an easy thing to manage - for either party. Which is why I do ALL of my own work.
Unfortunately (or not, depending on the person), I have only myself to blame if things don't turn out the way they should, but it definately simplifies matters.

What amazes me about the circumstances of not only your car, but others is - at what point does the restoration go from being a hobby - to being a business?
If it's a hobby...it's got to rank right up there with the most expensive there is. I usually laugh out loud at golfers when they complain about the costs of their annual green fees!

These cars aren't what most people would consider to be daily transportation, and if they were, the insurance cost would be astronomical. So for the most of us, it's either a "fair-weather" vehicle, or an investment.

And as an investment, the margin is getting smaller every day.

[SFRT]

I decided to do my own work after being qouted 11K to replace a front frame rail, an inner fender and the bottom of the rad support.

doing it myself it cost 800 in parts, 600 in materials , 500 bucks for a helper, 700 bucks for a welding machine anda bottle of argon, and about 18 hours of my time( free). the work came out great and you cant even really tell it got replaced. It wouldnt pass some oem judge thing, but more  than good enough for me. I have some welding experience, but not much. It wasnt nearly as difficult as it seemed it would be, it just took patience.

so.......11K vs 2600.00

I suggest everyone just give it a shot themselves. it is not that difficult to do. It just takes a little time and patience.

[moparstuart]

I decided to do my own work after being qouted 11K to replace a front frame rail, an inner fender and the bottom of the rad support.

doing it myself it cost 800 in parts, 600 in materials , 500 bucks for a helper, 700 bucks for a welding machine anda bottle of argon, and about 18 hours of my time( free). the work came out great and you cant even really tell it got replaced. It wouldnt pass some oem judge thing, but more  than good enough for me. I have some welding experience, but not much. It wasnt nearly as difficult as it seemed it would be, it just took patience.

so.......11K vs 2600.00

I suggest everyone just give it a shot themselves. it is not that difficult to do. It just takes a little time and patience.

I am general scared to do it my self that i'm gonna screw something up , but once i do something i get bolder. It usually is easier and comes out better then i thought it would . 

[The70RT]

I decided to do my own work after being qouted 11K to replace a front frame rail, an inner fender and the bottom of the rad support.

doing it myself it cost 800 in parts, 600 in materials , 500 bucks for a helper, 700 bucks for a welding machine anda bottle of argon, and about 18 hours of my time( free). the work came out great and you cant even really tell it got replaced. It wouldnt pass some oem judge thing, but more  than good enough for me. I have some welding experience, but not much. It wasnt nearly as difficult as it seemed it would be, it just took patience.

so.......11K vs 2600.00

I suggest everyone just give it a shot themselves. it is not that difficult to do. It just takes a little time and patience.

I am general scared to do it my self that i'm gonna screw something up , but once i do something i get bolder. It usually is easier and comes out better then i thought it would .

I hear ya. 100K resto by someone else and hopefully it is all good in and it doesn't take moons to get it back or 25K if you do it yourself and it takes moons but the car is safe at your house. You will have to buy equipment but then you will have it.

[69_500]

Any new news to report at this time allen?

[moparstuart]

 

[xs29j8Bullitt]

Any new news to report at this time allen?

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I have been planning to check on the C500 for over two weeks now.  It has become like "going to the dentist", something that you know you have to do but put it off a day at a time...  Most of the visits in the last several months have involved me getting more bad $$$ news... and getting pi$$ed about the situation!

Well, I finally went today... the body shop owner wasn't there so no new bad $$$ news today.  The progress wasn't as much as I had hoped, but it has been worked on... I guess he has a better fish hooked on another line.  There were some new Mopars in the shop, and progress had been made on the ones previously there.

Below are a few new pictures from today...

Allen

[xs29j8Bullitt]

On a more pleasant subject, slow but steady progress is being made on organizing my workshop and completing the electrical system.  A friend & I have been freeing up space with creative storing of bulky items like sheetmetal... hanging them from trusses to make use of "dead" space.  Shelving units will start going up tomorrow...

On the electrical side, I have been getting by with three portable flourescent fixtures... but the first permanent fixtures were powered up last Saturday (see bottom picture).  As floor space is being freed up, access to complete the wiring is getting a LOT better!

Allen

[moparstuart]

shop is looking good alllen

[hemi68charger]

There ya go Allen.... Looking good... I too need to add some lighting in the middle of my garage...

Cheers,
Troy

[PocketThunder]

shop is looking good alllen

WOW.  i dont know if "Shop" is the right term for that awesome space.  Maybe "taj-Garage" or "muscle car palace" would be a better fit.      

[brianz426]

Hi Allen,
Your shop is looking great. I have'nt been on in a while and was very sad to see the $$$$$ problems you're having with the resto shop, I hope it works out for you. Good luck with whatever you decide.
Brian

[moparstuart]

Hi Allen,
Your shop is looking great. I have'nt been on in a while and was very sad to see the $$$$$ problems you're having with the resto shop, I hope it works out for you. Good luck with whatever you decide.
Brian

yes hope it works out , or you find a better / honest place !

[jerry]

sad to put that much money into any rustbucket.

[PocketThunder]

sad to put that much money into any rustbucket.

[BigBlockSam]

sad to put that much money into any rustbucket. Twocents

[moparstuart]

wasnt really a rust bucket , we can show you rust buckets !!!       http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,49624.0.html     look here


  plus it's a 500 aerocar worth every penny to save.

[xs29j8Bullitt]

sad to put that much money into any rustbucket.

Thanks for your heartfelt concern... 

Had I had your wisdom and foresight, I would have bailed out before the scrapmetal prices dropped... now I will have to wait! 

By your exalted standards, almost ALL of my MoPars are rustbuckets or hammered $hyt... Oh well... 

Maybe my 55K mile survivor 1968 Polara & 76K mile Ram 1500 are worth saving... Nah, not rare enough... Crush 'Em too! 

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your survivor class Aerocars...       

Allen

[xs29j8Bullitt]

Ransom Paid, Hostage Released...
The Charger 500 was removed from the body shop today after 51 weeks in captivity... the total ransom (body shop bill) was $19,043.18.  That is right in the middle of the $18,000 to $20,000 written estimate... only the car is not painted, nor body work finished, nor suspension installed, nor....................    BTW, did I mention the original verbal estimate was $16,000 ($6,000 bodywork + $10,000 "show car paint job").  Thats an overrun of $13,043.18 on bodywork... AND it is not finished!  That amount includes about $2300 for paint & related material (some of which was no good due to color match problem) so I guess the overrun was a bit less than $11,000 for the unfinished work.   BTW, ALL of the reproduction sheetmetal was paid for separately... NONE were covered by body shop billing!!!

In an earlier post I estimated $23,000 to $24,000 for the bodyshop to finish the bodywork... but this early intervention has saved thousands of $$$.  At a later date I will tell the story of the Mopar friend that offered the intervention... many thanks to him and his friend who helped rescue the C500.

As I write this the Charger 500 is on it's way to temporary storage a long way from here, but work will resume soon!  Look for my ads soon on eBay, Craigslist, Etc... gotta raise $$$ to complete the C500.  I will be selling mostly E-Body stuff tho........

Below are pictures from today.

Allen

[The70RT]

Sounds pretty crazy. Hope it all works out. This is one reason why I am hesitant on taking mine anywhere. I am slowly working on mine and tring to do most of it. Good luck on the E-Body fund raising program 

[xs29j8Bullitt]

Sounds pretty crazy. Hope it all works out. This is one reason why I am hesitant on taking mine anywhere. I am slowly working on mine and tring to do most of it. Good luck on the E-Body fund raising program 

Thanks, I believe that the situation will quickly improve now that the car has been picked up...

To show how absurd it was, the body shop owner shouted back to the office to hold off totalling the bill because he was asked to install the hood.  Now, looking at the payment receipt it looks like the "hood" was hand written in... could it be that I got four bolts installed for FREE?!? 

Allen

[69bronzeT5]

What do you plan on selling?