Just wondering how some people do them so fast

[bull]

Restorations, that is. I understand that I'm not the fastest worker in the world, and that some guys do this type of work professionally or semi-professionally, but I just don't understand how a guy can restore a Charger in 6-8 months without A: doing a half-assed job, B: deep, deep pockets and C: a team of helpers. More than once I've seen guys start with a rusted out Charger exoskeleton, pass me and 20 other guys with their project and have the thing on the road less than a year later. It's baffling and, to be honest, a little frustrating. What am I missing?

[Marck]

I know what you mean...
In my case it's a combination of several things, job, finances, ability ( or lack there of ) and family.. Got a 3 year old and another due in 3 weeks..
One thing is for sure, having to save money up for every item drags out the process a lot..

But I still have one of the baddest cars on earth in my garage and that picks me up when I get irritated or depressed about not being able to drive it...

[68blue]

Good question, I think it comes down to time, experience, and money. A lot of my time was waiting on things that I can't do or won't because of my limited skills or lack of a place to do the job.

[J-440]

  Crap I have been working on mine for the last 12 years.  Granted I could have had it finished to bone stock about 9 years ago but the performance level would not be where it is gonna be at now.  I also have not put one penny on a credit card!!

[RallyeMike]

I restored my Rallye in about 1/2 year, and at the same time I spent every weekend April to October running a stock car with my pal at the same time.  It all comes down to making use of your time. Every weeknight would involve coming home and straight to the garage for 4-5 hours of work. It's amazing what you can do when you stop watching TV and leave the beer in the fridge.

On the other hand I have a car that I have been tinkering on for 21 years. It's all about priorities.

[skip68]

I would go with "B"   
Money is a big factor and time.   

[Tilar]

 Crap I have been working on mine for the last 12 years.  Granted I could have had it finished to bone stock about 9 years ago but the performance level would not be where it is gonna be at now.  I also have not put one penny on a credit card!!

While that doesn't make the job faster, to me that one is BIIGGGG. I bought my 68 in Texas in 1986 for $400 and actually had to pay it out. I didn't do anything at all to it till 1999 when I bought all my interior stuff; Seat covers, door panels, everything right down to the felt/whiskers that rub the windows on the door.

10 years later I started buying more things and between 1999 and now I've spent probably 13k+ on things that I know that I'm going to need to do this project. Bad thing on my part is I have a base Charger... 318 with a 3 on the tree. Fairly rare in it's own right and even though I have a 1968 318, I don't have the original drive train and it's not what I want... So I'll build it to what I would have bought back in 68 were I the one with the checkbook. Unless I happen to run across a decent R/T that I might be able to trade mine for, it will end up as an R/T clone with a nice amount of options.

[westcoastdodge]

took me 6 years to do mine,finances are the biggest issue £16000 total (including the car and getting it from ohio to the uk)but is driving now the car was a basket case when i got it

[twodko]

Hey Bull,
Our situations are all different so don't beat yourself up for what you perceive as your resto "taking forever" compared to others. Some have the time, $$$$, space, skills and equipment to finish a car most ricky tic. Others keep plugging away at their cars and, I suspect, many enjoy the process more than the end result especially if they already have a driver. For me and others who have been lucky enough to acquire a rustfree well taken care of driver, it doesn't take long to get it finished and on the road. There are also those situations, like mine, where it was imperative I get the car done while my spouse can still enjoy it.
I'm in awe of and applaud those folks here who are tackling basically a shell and creating
a better car than when it rolled off the factory lot. These people have voodoo going on IMO. Don't get frustrated Bull, your project will be finished when its supposed to be just the way you want it. The genuine offers of help and/or parts gratis or way cheap our membership extend to folks and actually walk the walk is what makes the group here extraordinary. You're good to go Bull............well except for the sheep thing -  that's just weird man! 

[Patronus]

Maybe they dont fu*#k around?

[BBKNARF]

12 years and counting, with 3 kids and a mortgage its tough.

[azfrench]

Dang.  I was hoping to do mine in about 6 mos.  But, then I see some of the quality of restorations and then I figure 6 years may not be bad.  I don't think Im going to bring it back to better than new condition but, I am going to make it what I want since it is only an XP29H car with A/C.  Why not.  Subframe rail connectors, disk brakes, rack and pinion power steering and all kind of upgrades. 


Rick.

[Rolling_Thunder]

6 years for mine - work, college, personal life, and a shoestring budget...        I could have built the car a lot faster if money was no issue...   

[HOTROD]

Money and I can't just leve my son alone he has downs and Cp. . I am building this car for us to in joy !!
4years for me.

[Richard Cranium]

Good question, I think it comes down to time, experience, and money. A lot of my time was waiting on things that I can't do or won't because of my limited skills or lack of a place to do the job.

Being able to afford the project is major, but determination is just as important. I restored cars when I was single when I had all the time in the world, and also when married and my kids were infants & my wife desperately needed my help. In the latter scenario, she allotted me limited time to play after work, which of course was never enough time, so I would just wake up an hour or so early each morning before work to get the job done.

[sixty8charger]

Having the money at the beginning!  That is what makes those 6-8 month builds.  I spent what chunk I had getting the car from WA to NC, then saved.. as I disassembled it, then got it on the rotiserre and did all that, now i have a coated up rolling body with holes in it as i save for the sheet metal.  With my ability and the help of others, I am pretty sure I could have had this car done, no problem in about 6 months.  If I had about 6k right now, I think I would get it done....   thats why i keep debating on selling my bike...  but when I think about it I go ride, and then I forget the idea.  put about 2k miles on it this month... I thought about it very little.

[1969chargerrtse]

Money, end of story.

[Charger-Bodie]

Money, end of story.

If you have the determination and skills withe the equipment to back it up it can be done. My Daytona took two years,but could have been done in 1 but I didn't want to miss my newborn sons first things ,so it took some different scheduling. I went to the shop EVERY Saturday for a long time at 3am so I could get a lot done with no-one bothering me and still be home by noon to spend time with him and the rest of the family. I very often took a nap in those afternoons right along with Seth( 2.5 years old now) It isn't all about money, but money sure works as a good excuse for some people. The way I look at it is by being able to do most of the work I can spend a little more on the parts.

My black 68 took 5 months and was rotis restored . I was at the shop 16 hour aday a lot of the time. I always joke that my wife and I almost had to be reintroduced after that one. I was one determaned tunnel vision guy during that build. And, I can promise you that it was not a rush job hack. It was done quickly and efficiently but notthing was rushed or halfa$$ed!

[70charginglizard]

Ive been working on mine for over 11 years now and that has been with teams of helped at times as well So I'm not sure Bull. Probably lots of money some of these other people have that slip them out so Quickly that what I'm thinking. I personally don't understand that either. I like to take my time at things and concentrate on quality. No hurries here.  

[six-tee-nine]

It depends, I bought my car in 2006 and sadly I havent done jack to it except for totally stripping it apart. Reason for that is raising kids, rebuilding our house, not having a decent shop to store it and so on and on.
So oficially I  havent started my restration yet. But in the past years I saved cash and alot of parts. All the needed sheet metal is available, as is everything to completely restore the interior. Full gasket set all the stuff to fully rebuild the front end are in storage as well.
That means when I get going somwhere early next year I' excpect to push trough the body section including new pain in less than a year. I hope to get around with the engine and the reassembly in another 18 months. Wich is IMO very fast for a workin joe like me. My last full restoration took 5 years but I was still in high school back then. I had waaaaay more time then but extreme shortage of cash. Now its kinda the other way around (not that I'm swimming in the money though now).....

[Back N Black]

Time and money, it took me 5 years to complete my Charger. Time is just as big a factor as money when you are doing 80% of the work yourself. I spent many hours in the garage cleaning, detailing and painting parts when there was no money in the Charger fund. So, for all you single guys with time and no money get cracking on the small projects that cost little money.

[knitz01]

No Heated garage live in Wisconsin only nice 4 mounths of the year, Job Major O.T. thru summer  . Family time 3 kids one due any day. I've made a comitment that when i'm off for a week with baby. the kids want to work on "The General" as my boy said. I told them as long as we stay out of moms hair...  Hope we can and she can handle the new one.... 

[71wrenchhead]

deployments
thats whats killer to me, sucks up all my time, literally ZERO chance of me working on my car from overseas
money isnt too much of an issue, but when i get home, spending time with the wife adn kid is what really matters
i guess if i was single it would be a different story

that, and lost parts, i order them while im gone, my wife tends to put them in places that she forgets exhist  which makes me   
plus, according to my little girl, she already fixed the car with nothing but a railroad spike and a flathead--so we went swimming   

[SFRT]

I did mine in a total of 18 months broken down like this:

1. before I bought the car I saved up a barrel of cash.
2. I rented a shop space and got my tools and supplies on order
3. I bought a POS overpriced car and parked it.
4. looked the car ove,did a huge amount of research, made a plan and bought a bunch of parts all at once
5. took the car apart, found disasters, bought the rest of the parts-yanked the motor-sent it out for shortblock re-do with parts in hand and a goal of what i wanted the engine shop to do.

this took 5 months.

6.told all my clients and my wife: "I wont be around for the next 4 months"

spent those 4 months putting in 10-12 hours a day on the car. solid, every day. tore it down, fixed everything I could with the exception of the rear quarters which I patched. reassembled the car completely,primered it.

total time: 9 months

drove it for a year

that entire year I saved up more cash, since the rear quarters, shitty glass and some other shit was bugging me. figured it would take me another year to save up enough dough,appease the wife etc.

then,luckily, some a-hole rear ended me and a I took advantage of a kind insurance appraiser to pad the estimate enough to fix the rest of the car correctly and paint it. even all new glass.

by this point I no longer had the work space so I struck a deal with a buddy who had a small body shop and we then spent 4 months
taking the whole car down to bare metal, replacing all the sheetmetal aft of the doors and fixing all the crap that was wrong, then painted the car. I went to his shop 3 days a week and did the grunt work.

time: 4 months.

so a total of 13 months off the road over 3 years. the car has been running fine for the last 16 months.


what made it possible was i was able to devote a lot of time to the project myself, and my contacts with really great local mechanic and bodyman who are friends and in my car club.

I also spent a huge amount of money. but i did it all cash.

no way could i do it like that again. it nearly killed me physically. next time around im either going to build something really stripped down with the focus on performance or I'm going to get a 'finished' car and tweak it a little.

but, It was alife long dream to 'build a car' so I did it.

[HANDM]

It took almost 12 years to get my wifes Charger back to her and on the road......9 of those years it just sat while I collected parts.
As others have said, kids, job and mortgage were mor important that the Charger / other Mopars any day.

Once the youngest got to be 9 he started showing serious interest in the cars and was constantly asking when we were gonna be able to drive them.... Needless to say, that lit a fire under my ass to get them ALL running and driving, plus add the fact that my daughter is ready to get her license soon and has stated plainly that she wants to drive the Challenger as her high school car.