F8 Hemi Charger 500 reassembly

[moparchris]

Can I blame the moisture in my pants on lemonade?  Good Lord man, that car is turning out FANTASTIC!!  I met with Carl last summer in Vancouver and went and looked at this car when it was being refinished after the wrong color was applied.  You guys are doing just an incredible job.  I have been trying to get my Hemi 500 ready for the drive up to Vegas so we could have multiple hemi 500's up there, but I may be to embarassed to park next to Carl!!   

[Magnumcharger]

A few more pictures...after all, it's Saturday night!! (And I ain't gotta life!)

The steering column was the recipient of a fair amount of effort. Like everything else in this restoration, it deserved to be done to the maximum level. And so it is...

[Magnumcharger]

A couple more...

[sixpack71]

Update.....it RUNS!!!!!!

[Magnumcharger]

A few more pics...time is running out for the big debut...so the push is on to finalize the build!

[Magnumcharger]

A few interior components...

[Magnumcharger]

Grille assembly installed!

[RAC95054]

A truely phenominal restoration.      She's lookin' awsome!  It would be interesting to know the breakdown of costs/labor involved, just so the rest of us have an idea should we ever take on such thorough restoration.

[Magnumcharger]

A truely phenominal restoration.      She's lookin' awsome!  It would be interesting to know the breakdown of costs/labor involved, just so the rest of us have an idea should we ever take on such thorough restoration.

[Brock Samson]

     

[69bronzeT5]

Damn that looks awesome! It might or might not of been posted but whens the big debut?

[PocketThunder]

A truely phenominal restoration.      She's lookin' awsome!  It would be interesting to know the breakdown of costs/labor involved, just so the rest of us have an idea should we ever take on such thorough restoration.

I'll say more than 6 digits and less than 175k..?..??     am i close?

[Aero426]

It would be interesting to know the breakdown of costs/labor involved, just so the rest of us have an idea should we ever take on such thorough restoration.

Dollars cubed is what you are looking at.   For most of us (me included) it's just unaffordable.  If you had two guys working on this car full time at a very conservative $50 hr body shop rate,  over a two month period of 640 billable hours, you've got over $32,000 in labor alone.   Doesn't count materials, paint, parts - anything, just man hours.   Assuming the car was complete to start with, and you had EVERYTHING you needed, running up a $50,000 bill on a car like this would be easy.    My feeling is this car goes well above and beyond that.

There is an A12 lift off hood car that was done by a local high end shop.    The car owner waved the surrender flag at $194,000 on the bill.    And he had kept the K-frame and suspension to do himself. 

[sixpack71]

Thanks Robin

For those wondering WHERE it will first be shown....Vegas Mopar's At The Strip....in FOUR days....
I have one or two days left to finish it

This very car was a BARE painted SHELL  2 1/2 months ago!    It was dropped off at my shop after Christmas and photos were posted. I didn't start assembling it til mid January because I was finishing up a 68 Barracuda Formula S 340 convertible.
I rebuilt/detailed alot of the components when the car was in the bodyshop. 

Magnumcharger has more pictures.....

[Ghoste]

Man that's nice.  Since typically pictures never do a car like that justice, I hope to see it in person before it goes into cacooned hibernation.  That is some beautiful beautiful work. 

[69_500]

Darn it all to heck. I'm not going to be there for its big debut. For the first time in 4 years I won't be at the Mopars at the Strip show. Just too darn much money for travel expenses to be able to justify it to my wife. Are you guys going to have the car at Carlisle, or the nationals? I'm still in for those two shows for sure. Hope to get a chance to oogle the car in person one of these days.

[RAC95054]

There is an A12 lift off hood car that was done by a local high end shop.    The car owner waved the surrender flag at $194,000 on the bill.    And he had kept the K-frame and suspension to do himself. 

That is just sick.    I can't even imagine spending that kind of money.  I figured this Hemi C500 would be worth a big dollar one, being that the car is so rare, and I know it was in the $100K range.  But $194K for an A12 car?  And it wasn't even finished??  That is insanity cubed. Yikes.

[69_500]

I'll just say one thing about the A12 cars though. When they are properly restored, they are some very valuable cars. Its not unheard of for one of them that is restored to top notch status to command a figure of $200K, that is at least last year. In todays market things might be different. Same thing goes for Daytona's that were restored. To me its not about how much it cost to restore a car, its about doing things right. Many times if you go the OE route of a restoration you will come up on the short end of the stick value wise once its all said and done. Even if you bought the car dirt cheap 30 years ago, its easy to sink 50% more into a car during a restoration than the car will be worth once the restoration is done.

[Magnumcharger]

Just an idea of where this car came from...the starting point, if you will.

[69bronzeT5]

I have one or two days left to finish it

By the looks of things...it looks like it will be done in time

[sixpack71]

After another All niter it is DONE...Drove it out of my shop at 530 this AM.....
RoadTested and tire burnout all is good.
Car is loaded and on the way to Vegas Mopar Show!

2 1/2 months to assemble.

Gene.....where are you?

[hemigeno]

After another All niter it is DONE...Drove it out of my shop at 530 this AM.....
RoadTested and tire burnout all is good.
Car is loaded and on the way to Vegas Mopar Show!

2 1/2 months to assemble.

Gene.....where are you?

Still waiting after 18 months for my car to be painted...   

Wish I could see the car's debut- it looks awesome!

[Aero426]

Cars like this 500 and the A12 I quoted truly become labors of love when taken to this level of restoration.    When you look at the level of detail, even the plating of the bolts and hardware, the time spent on mundane things like the steering column, it's incredible.   

If the owner were to sell the car in the short term,  the new buyer gets the gold class restoration at a heavy discount.    I'd guess this one will stick around in the collection for a long time. 

[Magnumcharger]

Now that this Hemi Charger 500 is officially completed, I'll be waiting (like the patient dog at the door) for pictures of it in Vegas to arrive in my email dog-dish.
Meanwhile...I've got a few pictures that need to be posted.
Some of the completed product.
....here they come:

[Magnumcharger]

More of the addictive pictures: