how much would restoration cost for this charger?

[mtr]

http://www.californiamopars.com/72charger.shtml

If you were to give this to a restoration place that does restorations, how much (ballpark) do you think it would cost? $20k? $30k? $40k?

[eddytheb]

The average restoration takes between 1000 and 1500 hours in just labor, I have done my share over the years. Parts are extra and each shop has different rates for labor my shop was $65.00 per hour. I have done a few lately that were documented to the tee, everything was recorded down to the last nut and I truly believe if some one tells you they can do a restoration for under $45,000 there lying or have no clue what there talking about. I read all the stories on here of the guys that do most the work them self's and my hats off to them there's nothing better than doing it your self and if you ask them what its worth they will most likely tell you with out really knowing the time they have into there cars and didn't put a hourly figure on there labor. I find that most people get in way over there heads when they want to have all the work done at a restoration shop and that leads to a lot of the horror stories we read. The shops are just as bad and in most cases worst, they get in way over there heads they don't understand what it takes and how demanding the car owners can be and have the right to be. When your restoring some ones dream car and you are the one that has to make some spaghetti strainer into a dream car you better know what you are in for. A big percent of the shops that try to be restoration shops are nothing more than collision shops that think it would be cool to do and have a cool car around but sell the job way to short. I shut down the restoration side of my shop and am only doing my cars for the time being and I got a sweet 68 charger that's in great shape I am fighting guys off that want the car. I know even doing it my self in my 7000 sq foot shop with every tool any one would ever need I will have over 1000 hours and most likely 20k into this car. Some of our best customers have been guys that have done it before and realy know whats involved. If you have any questions I will be more than willing to talk.

[Rolling_Thunder]

I agree - to do a complete restoration for less than $45,000 is close to impossible -

[68charger383]

It also pops the question, if you can't do alot of the work yourself, it might be cheaper to buy one done or 80-90% of the way. It costs more to buy it, but in the long run it might be cheaper.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,39757.0.html

[eddytheb]

Good point and its true done cars can be a better choice sometimes. Lately I have been doing more inspections than ever, guys pay me to go look the car over before they buy  and haul it back or even have it shipped to the shop to be looked over. I have looked at cars all over the country, sometimes its costly but it can save you from buying a real turd.  Find someone you can trust to look it over first if its out of state hire some one.     
Best thing to do is know your budget right now and what you can afford every week to fix or do what you want to the car up front. Don't spend money you done have or can't afford unless you plan to get loan for the car / project. We have customers that finance there builds and that works fine if they do it right they get the loan for a set amount most often more than projected and that money is put in a separate account that we draw from. The customer makes his payments and the shop doesn't have to wait for funds. We bill every week for the work done and most often all the customer has to do is make his loan payment just like if he bought the wife a new car.
Here's something to think about, lets say you want to do a really cool car like the one you are looking at and you don't know what its worth to have that the way you want it. Look at the new cars that are out there for sale today like the new challenger. If a really cool new car that anyone can own, is cool but not as cool as what you think your car could be cost $45,000.00 new or that new suv cost $53,000.00 how do you think you can rebuild a car for anything less and have something way cooler and just the way you want it.

[NHCharger]

to make some spaghetti strainer into a dream car

Now that's funny.
You don't mention how far you want to go with the restoration. Trailer queen, nice driver.
I agree with the others. 1000 hours @ 50./hr adds up fast. Never mind cost of parts. Look at a Y.O. catalog and check out the prices for new seat covers . Price for parts add up fast with Mopars.
Except for paint and any major engine work I have done all the work on my Chargers. I have no idea how many hours I have into them but do know i could never afford to farm this work out.

[The70RT]

If you start with a solid car you can expect to spend at least 15K on parts & materials. If you do most yourself you can cut the 45k resto price in half.

[eddytheb]

I can still remember the first time I used that saying, we had striped a guys car and had all the blasting done to see what we were really in for and he stopped by to see his car. He asked were his car was I said its right here on the rotisserie and got the dear in the head lights look and with out thinking I said it looks like a spaghetti strainer and almost got punched.

[hemi-hampton]

I'll have to agree with eddytheb, Sounds like he pretty much said what I wanted to say & sumed it up pretty good & accurate. Also depends on what degree of Resto you want, Daily Driver, local Burger King winner or Mopar Nationals 100 point over restored showcar or OEM factory flawed original type resto? The Price range will vary depending on what you want & what you start with.   LEON.

[terrible one]

Boy that is some money we are talking. It's almost unreal! this is exactly why I didn't even bother tearing my car down or patching the rust, etc. Spaghetti strainer. . . I like that one 

[runninhorn]

how much did he quote you on the car? I talked to that guy about that same car too, seemed really nice, but kinda firm.

[skip68]

I'd say it depends on the level of restoration.  To make it a nice clean driver I would guess about $18k-$20k.   

[69_500]

For the prices of the cars listed on the same page, I'd rather go for the HEMI 68 RR. Even though its not numbers matching, it is a real HEMI car, and for $89K wouldn't be a bad deal. Looks nice enough to call it good for now, and just drive it and enjoy. If you consider buying the other car, and then dropping a good $35-45K for a restoration you wouldn't be that much behind, and for a car that wouldn't be in the same ball park wise for value. This all depends though on if your the type that looks at these cars as an investment, or just one that they really like. I like my car for what it is, and could care less about its value. Don't care if the car is only worth $1,000 in 20 years its what I like.

[Magnumcharger]

I have to agree with you. A minimum of 45K might get you a basic restoration. Often times it's more.
I once had a 1968 Coronet R/T in my shop. Yeah, I wanted to do restorations, but the learning curve goes both ways.
After media blasting the whole car, a speghetti strainer would have been an apt description.
It's good that I hadn't quoted for more than the blasting at the time, even though I lost my shirt on that one.
I dropped the shop labor rate to half to keep the job, but didn't get to finish it anyway. I did get to rebuild the front frame rails, and replace almost all the sheetmetal from the windows down.

Sometimes people (customers) are far too unrealistic with what they expect to spend on a car. In this case, even though he had brought the car all the way from North Carolina, it was still a rustbucket.
After it left my shop, it did the rounds to a lot of other shops in town, to similar results.
Bottom line...you get exactly what you pay for. There is no free ride.

[hutch]

What do you want to do with the car?  If you want a toy, then spend the money to just get it drivable and safe first and enjoy it. You can work on the car for the rest of your life.  If you want to get it ready for a car show in 12 months then you can spend tons of money. If you want to make it a hobby and a toy then dont worry about how much it will cost. All you need to worry about is what will it cost for me to get it on the road and am I willing to work on it off an on till it becomes the car I want.

I got news for you. Once you start working on a dream car the work never ends no matter how nice the car is to other people. It will never be done as long as you want a different rear end, better heads,  ect..

it never ends.  But its fun.

[Nacho-RT74]

I juts can say I'm not agree with everything you quoted, althought I'm not experienced with USA quotes beside prices listed on websites about parts, but as far what I have learnt on this website, you are overpriced the restoration quotes.

Of course everything depends on what of the job makes by yourself and what on the job pay to be make it, beside the lever of resto you dream to get

Body job is not that rough couple of dents, but by now not visible rust

Interior resto is around $3K.

New springs.

If engine needs rebuilt ( that could it be no necesary ) how much is the quote you can get up there ?

If I had this car down here in Venezuela, I would say will take get a resto similar to my car maybe on $7-9K ( of couse making part of the job by myself, like interior, electricity and engine ), and will get a better job since mine is patched... that one wouldn't be patched.

Of course I'm not talking a rotiserie resto.

[Mike DC]

 
If you're not already stuck on a specific car for sentimental reasons, then just get the best condition car you can afford right out of the gate.  Especially with the sheetmetal/fit/finish of things if not the mechanical stuff. 

I don't care if you have to take out a loan for the purchase and then pay interest on it for years --- It's STILL a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for a real shop resto in most cases. 


You don't have to like every option & color & piece of trim about the basic starting point.  But it's totally unrewarding to pay someone to move a car way up the charts on the overall quality of the item.  You're much better off just buying an item with nearly the quality you want to begin with, and then altering the specifics of it as you need to.  (Repaints, motor, suspension, etc.)