restorations

bigtexmarine26 · January 23, 2006, 09:13:51 AM

Hi everybody! I am brand new to this forum and think it is pretty cool. I am currently in the market for a 69 charger and think i am pretty close to getting one

. However, it is not finished all the way and still needs a couple things on it. i am currently in Iraq but am stationed out of Jacksonville,NC. Just wanted to get some input on places to get one restored around my area that does good work and dont have to mortgage a house to get it done. Also, if there are any places in general that i should stay away from and why. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

Highbanked Hauler · January 23, 2006, 11:36:32 AM

Hey welcome to the site.You got to the right place as there is a ton of information here.By the way,thank you for the job that you are doing for us. Al

bigtexmarine26 · January 23, 2006, 12:01:22 PM

thanks for the support and thanks for the link. that is closer than i thought i would get.

Telvis · January 23, 2006, 06:51:32 PM

Finding a restoration shop is tough. Finding one that won't make you mortgage the house is impossible. Do it yourself and farm out the things you can't do. Even that is an expensive proposition. There's no such thing as an affordable restoration. I think everyone here will confirm that. Whatever you estimate it will cost multiply that by five.

bull · January 23, 2006, 07:28:24 PM

You better get that 2nd mortgage now. I was just given the "real" quote today for the body work and paint on my '68 and he's telling me $19,400 worse case scenario. I'm expecting the actual cost to be pretty close to that. Maybe they can carve $1,000 off that but I doubt it. I think I'm going to have to shop around because I just can't swing it.

694spdRT · January 24, 2006, 12:36:57 AM

Quote from: bull on January 23, 2006, 07:28:24 PM
You better get that 2nd mortgage now. I was just given the "real" quote today for the body work and paint on my '68 and he's telling me $19,400 worse case scenario. I'm expecting the actual cost to be pretty close to that. Maybe they can carve $1,000 off that but I doubt it. I think I'm going to have to shop around because I just can't swing it.

Bull

I thought your car was pretty solid to begin with. What is all in the bid? For that price I hope it includes any body panels needed, disassembly, reassembly, and a show quality finish on everything. I would look for another place.

Mike DC · January 24, 2006, 01:22:11 AM

Hey man, welcome to the site! Yeah, there's a lot of frustration about the costs of restoration in this hobby. It gets us all down sometimes. But there's also a lot of owners here who wouldn't trade their Chargers for anything.

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Con-artists:

The biggest one is the HLPAG used car dealership in Lake Villa, Illinois. Don't even think about it. (This isn't just my personal opinion, it's the opinon of virtually everyone else in the Charger hobby.)

HLPAG is bascially the worse-case scenario. Cars fixed with gallons of bondo just to look good for the sale, very deceptive descriptions & photos, faked paperwork, etc. They prey on enthusiastic novices who want a Charger or a "General Lee" and don't know much about old-car buying.

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Bad News:

Restoration shops are hard to wrestle with.
Basically you are juggling work completion time, the overall quality, and the price. The more you want from one of these areas, the more you have to give up in the others.

Most auto body repair shops don't really want to mess with old musclecars and restorations. They typically can make much more money per hour on modern-car collision repairs. They are really in the business of removing broken parts & installing fresh replacements. But on an old car, they actually have to FIX virtually everything (including the new replacement parts that you pay so much for!). Their workers will usually have the skills to do the work you need, but it's the man-hours that kills your project. They'll charge you thousands of dollars for any decent amount of work, and still cut some corners on the work, and the worst part is that they probably still undercharged you for what they really did.

A shop that is really suited to this kind of work is a dedicated restoration shop. These are scattered around the country. Some are better than others, but any place that knows what they're doing is going to have to be expensive just to stay in business.

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Good news:

The way to enjoy this hobby is to spend more on the initial car and spend less on repairing it. You don't need to buy a $25K Charger to start with, but do yourself a favor and spend at least $10-12K on the basic car if you're not doing your own resto work.

The best thing I could tell you to do is to buy a complete car, and defintiely buy the best Charger body that you can afford. Don't touch any cars with rust holes in the framerails and try not to get too much body rust in the passenger compartment & rockers. The sheetmetal, the fit & finish of everything . . . this is what costs more money, not the mechanical stuff.

Start this project right and you'll be miles ahead of most novices in the old-car hobby. And in the long run it won't even cost you any more money.

.

Drop Top · January 24, 2006, 11:14:18 AM

Mike pretty much hit the nail on the head. I restore cars for a living. I do allot if not mostly Mopars. If it weren't for the fact that I own my house and shop out right. I would have had to do something else along time ago.

Find somebody that will let you drop by at any time during work hours. This way you can see what is going on.

Do as much of the work as possable yourself. This will save countless man hours.

Before you take your car to this person. Check them out and talk to other customers that have used them.

Hourly rates vary allot from place to place. I keep my rates lower then any in my town. But I don't have much overhead. Still the hours add up fast and sometimes it doesn't look like anything gets done.

There is allot of good people with good information on this board if you look in the right forms.

Good Luck with your project and welcome to the board.

parkerswede · January 24, 2006, 11:18:25 AM

BigTex - I am assuming from your "handle" you are from Texas. If so, where? (I am a Texan also). Welcome aboard - sorry you are in the Big Sandbox. Keep your head down.

bigtexmarine26 · January 24, 2006, 02:52:49 PM

yeah, i am from Texas. i am from Rosharon, but nobody usually knows where the hell that is, i am about 45 miles south of Houston by Alvin and Angleton. i am getting orders in august to Ft Worth. closer to home but at least in Texas!!

bull · January 24, 2006, 06:17:39 PM

Quote from: 694spdRT on January 24, 2006, 12:36:57 AM
Quote from: bull on January 23, 2006, 07:28:24 PM
You better get that 2nd mortgage now. I was just given the "real" quote today for the body work and paint on my '68 and he's telling me $19,400 worse case scenario. I'm expecting the actual cost to be pretty close to that. Maybe they can carve $1,000 off that but I doubt it. I think I'm going to have to shop around because I just can't swing it.

Bull

I thought your car was pretty solid to begin with. What is all in the bid? For that price I hope it includes any body panels needed, disassembly, reassembly, and a show quality finish on everything. I would look for another place.

I'm not sure what happened. For the past year they told me they expected it to cost between $10k and $11k for the basic job (outside, engine compartment, trunk and door jams). This guy knows Mopars and has worked on Chargers specifically and he even told me my car is very solid as Chargers go so I figured he would know what to expect. The only real surprise we found is the package tray was damaged and had some pretty thick bondo in it so it will need to be replaced. We also found that the drivers quarter panel took a good hit at one point so it has been drilled and bondoed and the outer wheelhouse is bent but they knew they would have had to replace both lower quarters anyway. I don't see either of those issues as being problematic enough to warrant the added $8k to $9k cost increase. The package tray was figured in at 10 hrs of labor and maybe another 10 extra for a full quarter instead of half. I told another body guy about all these issues and he said it would still be $10k so in regards to this other place, I'm baffled.

PlumBad70 · January 24, 2006, 06:29:10 PM

There are some good body shops out there..The one that did my 70 (Look in the We have paint thread)..Was rea,l real, real, good to me..They cut me a super deal..I had everything and I mean everything replaced..Both quarters, both frame rails, trunk, Rear crossmember, rear valance, valance corners, both outer wheel houses, both floor pans, fixed my torsion mounts, patched front frame rails....all body work, and painted everything..car, jambs, engine bay, trunk...He gave me a super deal, but he has a 70 going in wed. that he said will double or triple what I payed....You just have to keep looking.

Steve