Total cost for your restoration

[RECHRGD]

Unless your doing a trailer queen, are we really ever done with these cars?  I bought my '68 in 1997 for 5K with a fresh 440 and a straight body.  Two years and another 20K later it was on the road and looking good.  But I've continued spending money every year on upgrades (or downgrades depending how you look at it).  I've put 30K miles on her and had a million dollars worth of fun and memories.  So, no matter how much money I've dumped into the old girl, I'm still ahead.    Bob

[Charger-Bodie]

Mine cost ALOT more than my wife thinks it did...nuff said

[Rolling_Thunder]

I project I will have right around 25K into mine when it is completed...

that includes buying the car for $10,000   

[NYCMille]

An absolute sh*tload... and it ain't going to end anytime soon....

[TUFCAT]

I've put 30K miles on her and had a million dollars worth of fun and memories.  So, no matter how much money I've dumped into the old girl, I'm still ahead.    Bob

Right On!!  Nobody can argue with that (...the fun and memories are priceless)!!

[Dodge Don]

Most of the responses are not....I repeat....NOT restorations but fixer uppers. If you think you can properly "restore a car for $10-$15k all-in you are dreaming in technicolour. 

[400/6/PAC]

I posted a comment when I first became a member that said my car will never be worth what I have spent on it.
Thats ok and I knew that going in.
I am a first timer at this and I think I learned enough to offset the money I could have saved.
I'm at 22k on a car that might bring 18k
I wanted to learn about mopars and I wanted to restore a car, so I just jumped in.
You can save a lot of cash by doing your homework first.
There's no telling how many times I had to go back and redo something.

[rare69]

well, so far and not quite done, about 40,000 in new parts, 20,000 in motor,trany,rearend and 20,000 in metal and body work. all thats left is final paint, and i will put the car together. and i started with a pretty solid car. there seems to be three different category's, 20,000.driver 60,000.nice driver and 100,000.+ very nice driver or show car.

[bull]

$400- purchase of the car
$400- grille
about $3-4 for other parts
If I remember right, $600 for the car that the 383 came out of

minus $300 from the sale of the 318....


So about $4-5k so far.


And I'm budgeting hopefully around $10k to finish it up. That includes sheetmetal, body, paint and a few misc. stuff I need

Not to poop at your party but $10k might be enough for the body alone unless you can do it all yourself. If not I'd figure on spending about twice that on body work and paint, including sheet metal.

[Dans 68]

Interesting thread. Another question would be how many of us have access to a covered shop/garage/carport to do any "restification"? My single car garage is currently full of "stuff", and when it is cleared out will probably house the wifes car. I can only do car work in the driveway, and could not, in any sense, take the car apart for any length of time. I am thus regulated to obtaining a relatively whole specimen that only needs attention in small bursts of my time and in small areas of attention. I do have the funds to get such a car, and probably will very shortly, but would like to hear from fellow acreage deprived Charger owners on how they manage to do it themselves so hampered. $500/month for shop space is too much for my pocketbook (But not a bad price in San Francisco!  ). Maybe I'll start a new thread so all of us land poor  Charger owners can chime in with our success stories. 

Dan

[modmidget]

I paid $4000.00 for my '68 Charger and it had a brand new 318 engine and tranny in it.  I spent $11,000.00 restoring it, but did most of the work myself (except body and paint).

[billssuperbird]

i know it is not a charger. i got all most 35k in my 1970 superbird clone.

[modmidget]

Beautiful car billssuperbird.  I'd love to have it sitting beside my Charger in my garage.

73SEDan400, ya gotta bite the bullet and tell your wife the garage is YOURS.  Then you have to get rid of some of your "stuff" (I have a sign on my garage wall that says "Stuff is junk I keep,  Junk is stuff I throw away").  When we bought our house we had a driveway 12' wide, long enough for two cars.  At the end of the driveway was an old shop.  In 1985 I tore that old shop down and built a 26' x 26' garage with a 12' x 16' storage room on the back of it.  When I built it I made sure the wife understood it was MY garage.  MY place to work on my race cars, MY place to work on & park my Harley, MY DOMAIN.  I did allow her to park her car in here for a while but when we bought the Charger I bought personalized license plates that say "GINS 68".  My wife's nickname is Ginger.  Hey!!! The Charger is her's...... RIGHT?!!!!  Then I backed HER car into the garage and began the restoration.  My plan worked.  The Charger has been in the garage for almost 5 years while her daily driver sits out in the weather with my pickup.    I've been in SF many times and understand your lack of acreage, so ya gotta take control of your garage and move all of HER stuff into the house. 

[SFRT]

well...the last bike I built ended up being around 50K..so..if the R/T costs twice as much.....Im Ok with it. I will have 4 wheels as oppossed to 2....and it will be the only one in town.

[JimsSE]

Not restored...but I have about $2500 total in mine (paid $1925 for it and about $500 or so in parts so I can keep the original parts decent).

That doesn't take into consideration the amount of time I have in it though.  If elbow grease cost $$$ it'd be a different story.  Detailing the engine bay, buffing/cleaning/polishing/waxing the paint, cleaning the inside of lenses, under carraige, etc.

I bet I have at least 1000 hours in detailing.

[keepat]

Price of basket case 68 Charger with no motor or trans but great body!     $15,000

Engine, Transmission, Rearend, & Exhaust                                              $30,000

Paint, Body & Trim                                                                             $11,000

Chassis, Suspension, Brakes, Wheels, & Tires                                          $9,000

Electric, Gauges, & Lights                                                                    $6,000

Interior                                                                                             $4,000

Performance Corner                                                                            $3,000

                                                                             TOTAL                 $78,000              

[ChgrSteve67]

I think I have about 17k in mine so far heading into body and paint work.
Figure I got another 15k to go.

Steve

[Starman417]

About 92k on mine, but about 10 of that is stuff I shouldn't have had to spend if I knew what I was doing.  Made lots of mistakes and paid the price. 

Oh, and I'm still not done yet but I estimate only about another 3k or so to go....but you know how that goes.

[69bronzeT5]

Well I'm saving money by keeping the original interior, not doing anything to the interior

[hemi-hampton]

If you bring some one a Rust Bucket basket case & want a flawless 100 point showcar you can figure $100,000+. LEON.

[TUFCAT]

Leon, you're still the first guy in line to do a car for me (when I'm ready) ....but please - don't charge me the 100 grand, okay? 

[69bronzeT5]

If you bring some one a Rust Bucket basket case & want a flawless 100 point showcar you can figure $100,000+. LEON.

See thats what I dont want. All I want my '69 to be is a driver that looks decent and I can take it to shows once in a while.

[Dodge Don]

If you bring some one a Rust Bucket basket case & want a flawless 100 point showcar you can figure $100,000+. LEON.

See thats what I dont want. All I want my '69 to be is a driver that looks decent and I can take it to shows once in a while.

Then it is not a restoration. Nothing wrong with it....it would be a decent driver. But people tend to mis-use the "restoration" word.

[nakita7]

I've been kicking the idea around about selling my 5 project cars, and just buying a done one or two. This thread pretty well cemented that idea...

[73chgrSE]

My car is in good shape as it is I feel but I took it to my local resto shop recently anyway. When he saw it he said $50K to restore it before he even saw inside and under the car or hood. I'm sure it could be done for less but he's in the business to make money right.