How do you guys pay for your "charger project"

[69chargerR/T]

It may not be any of my business but, I'll ask anyway.  I read all the charger restoration projects and I always wonder how everyone pays for them ? I have a middle class income, and I have a 69 charger that needs everything from the doors back like they all do.  I know what the parts cost to fix my car, and I think I could replace all the panels myself (I have never done this kind of work but I think I can do it)  AMD looks to have the best prices, and a good product, but I don't see how I could ever afford to buy all these parts.  My car is a "driver" all the drive train is done, it runs great and looks good from 20 feet. The body is the next step, I see all the time (like 1hotdaytona) redo the whole back of the car, how do you guys do it with the way the economy is today!!!!    Alan   

[bigred68]

 

[greenpigs]

I got a sugar moma!

[Cooter]

You have a valid question and one that everybody at some point HAS to wonder when you see things like HEMI this or Daytona that, so I will give you my own experience..
While pictures don't do a car justice, they also "hide" alot of things as well. NONE of my cars are built to the standards as some right here, but I can say I do ALL OF MY OWN WORK. In YOUR case, the prices of AMD stuff is a concern, but for me, I'm the one asking how much you want for your "old" fenders/hood/deck lid, etc...I have to start  with sh*t nobody else wants in order to make it all happen, therefore, NONE of my cars are "Show cars"...They are however built with VERY little money out of pocket. Some seem to be hung up on the amount of time invested in their projects. This would be a concern in YOUR case as you prolly have to pay someone else to do things I can do myself. If you go into a project like these cars with the idea of making your money back, then IMO, you've lost the battle before it begins. I NEVER even want to know how many hours I have in my cars because it serves no purpose except to depress me. I didn't build them looking to resell them so I couldn't care less.

I built my General Lee for UNDER $7000.00. Now, it could be better sure, but not within MY budget. I also built CHRISTINE, a 1958 Plymouth Basketcase (OR so I'm told) for UNDER $12K. DONE. I built a '68 Dart, with 505 C.I. Stroker back when 500 C.I. on the street was VooDoo. (1995) For UNDER $11K, that runs 6.90's 8th mile...
I also have built a 460 C.I. Ford Maverick, complete with Must. II Front suspension and roll cage, with Narrowed 8.8 Rear with 4.30 Gears although NOT completed, I have only $2000.00 in so far and it's a roller.

The point? If you actually take the time to try and do your own bodywork, paint, interior, etc., You will see that it's NOT rocket science at all. I HAD to learn after sending one of my own cars to the bodyshop when I was 16 Y\O and got it back done incorrectly (Body lines gone etc.).....

It CAN be done cheaply on a budget, but it can't be done AS FAST as some "Plug and Play" people "want" it to be. It took 5 years of my life to get Christine done. Some will invest this kinda time, some just want to "Buy it now"....I've hardly ever been a "buy it now" kinda guy.

The ONLY thing to remember here is, to own one those High dollar looking cars, it usually IS a high dollar car in the end. I don't even try to compete with the guy that clearly has more money to invest in those BRAND NEW repro fenders when I have pieced three old fenders back together.

I am more apt to talk to the guy that has a little rougher looking car that has done all his own work at a show, than the guy that can afford to just pay someone to buy all new sheetmetal for his/her car. It used to be open a catalog to build a Chevy or Ford, now it's Mopar as well if you got the jack...

[triple_green]

go slow...used parts when I can find them. Help from friends......oh yah...I have been going to the same job for 25 years and when I get some OT the charger gets some new stuff.

3X

[Rolling_Thunder]

I am one of those "right place right time" people...         I scored my crate hemi for $2000. I fixed what was wrong with it for another ~$600   

I have taken my sweet time and bought a LOT of good deals...   

[Belgium R/T -68]

For me it's all about priorities, what I mean is that if I want some parts for the cars I have to sacrifice something else. I have choosen
to spend my sparemoney on the cars for a few years instead of going out on bars etc, travelling and the rest.

I will never ever have the money back but I don't care a s**t, you only live once and this is what I want and I don't plan on selling them anyway.

Per

[Beer]

I do not have any kids so that may be a slight adv for me, course no one will be visiting me in the old folks home so I will regret that latter...

I have done mine, one lil side project at a time over the last 5 years...(Motor, engine bay paint, body work here, body work there, final Paint, Seats, Dash, rims/tires).

Bonus's (in my case) seem to be the best bang for the buck in attaining high dollar stuff (like a major body work session in an area, or high $ parts like a forged crank or a set of heads).

[70charginglizard]

no girlfriend. 

[jaak]

My 69 is a long-term project, so I buy this and that over time. Thats one way that helps. Also I started with 2 Chargers, one that was pretty solid, one that was rusty, but had alot of nice parts (good fenders, doors, grill, glass, trim, etc) Anything that needed to be replaced on the good body....just so happen to be ok on the parts car (had to cut out sections of the tail panel and upper right quarter to weld on the other car.

My project is mainly funded from money made from side jobs, etc. Sometimes I work on cars and use that to pay for parts, materials, etc. I have flipped some cars before too, best one was a '99 S10 pickup I bought with a bad trans, bought the truck for 500, fixed it, replaced the tires, front brakes, and detailed it...had 1470 in it when finished, sold it for 3700. Then bought a 72 Charger, did a little work to it, sold it on eBay and made 500-600 bucks.  Selling parts on eBay, Craigslist, etc. Just stuff like that.

On top of that, so far nearly everything thats done to my cars, was done myself... some things could have been done better than others, but I haven't been out any $$$ for labor.

Good luck on your project,
Jason

[ZSmithersCharges]

This is a good thread, once I get into my resto I'll let you know for sure.  But most likely going to be doing exactly what cooter said, maybe some repro parts if I hit a pay day... probably not.

[73ChargerSE]

I'm sure most of the "kids" on the board can attest to the fact that doing this on a college budget, or even high school budget for that matter, is EXTREMELY tough.  I make $100-ish a week.  When a good deal pops up on a car, I usually borrow money from my parents and pay them back when I sell the car, so I guess you could call me a "flipper".  However, it all goes to the greater good of working on the Charger.  For a 20 year old, I've made a decent amount of money on selling cars, but not enough to get rich.  When I sold my '66 Coronet, I had enough capital to get my 400 rebuilt with a few nice parts.  I've done everything but the machine work and short block assembly myself.  Learned how to replace a transmission in the dirt with the car up on jackstands.  Fortunate enough to have concrete now, another thing my Coronet paid for.  All in all it's pretty rough, but it's slow and somewhat steady.  I have no clue how I'm going to pay for interior and body work after the mechanicals are done.  Just my 

[jb666]

It took me 25 years before I was even CLOSE to being able to afford this... There were so many times, in the past, that I wanted to buy something but knew I couldn't afford it in the end..

My job is very demanding, not to mention I've started working a 2nd job (working with a friend), so my lack of time and skill to do the job RIGHT stops me from jumping head first into something like this. I have the space, the tools and the $$ to buy parts, but that doesn't mean the car would look any better by the time I was done hacking it apart.. So I let the professionals do their jobs..

To each his own, and at the end of the day you do what you can afford, and be proud of it. We're all in the same hobby.

[charger_fan_4ever]

I'm in the same boat, my 70 r/t needs "the works" in metal. Sure I could just do patchwork for a year and then bondo and straighten for another 6 months. In the end it would look pretty nice, BUT what happens when in a couple years a little moisture gets in one of the pinholes from the weld and bubbles in the middle of the quarter if i was to put 1/2 quarters, or wherever I've patched ? That means I'll be doing a second restoration to do it right and all the time i put in patching when could have been with the wife ect has all gone out the window. By doing it the cheap way the first time will cost me double if in the first place I would have replaced the whole piece with AMD metal. Over the past 10 years with other cars I've learned that the budget way has always costed double int he end. It my take more time to save the extra money , but when i put the money in the right parts the first time I will have a nice finished product that won't keep me up at night wondering if one of those patches is going to boil out.

I've had my car since June 08. Since then I've bought a AMD full front floor, Footwell panels, full trunk floor, rust free door hinge pillars, rust free door, rust free trunk lid, Amd roof skin, souther fender, nice used finish panel. I still have a long ways to go(full 1/4's, trunk extensions, outer wheelhouses,rear valance,valance corners, tail panel,dutchman panel and probably the deck filler, upper cowl) This is just to get the body done. Then I will need to find a 440 and do the interior, exhaust, suspension,brakes, chroming. Won't be on the road in a couple months thats for sure, but will be worth the wait to have a nice finished product.

With purchase price and parts I have $8k tied up in it. I figure another $13k-15k and it should be on the road. I know for $23k i could not have bought an r/t done the way I want it. Would have probably cost me a minimum of $30k and wouldn't have been the right color ect. We all know even turn key cars are going to require some $$$. I'll be doing the majority of the work myself. My brother has an autobody shop and will be painting it and doing the final block sanding. I didn't have $30k plus to laydown for a toy(wish i did), so about $250 biweekly from my pay is going twoards parts. I try to buy a rust free part instead of new whenever i can, but if its beat and will require 20 hours labour to get it straight its cheaper in the long run to buy a new part thats not going to be full of plastic filler. With full 1/4's available I can't see how its feasible to put on 1/2 quarters and bondo full length, then go and buy sail panels and do the same. Most of the time the sail panels and lower 1/4's are toast. To me buying a new full 1/4 and replacing the whole thing at the factory spotwelds will be less expensive and make a nicer job. A little more dough up front, but well worth it IMO.

As i said I'm doing this full resto with new parts and its going to be around $18k. If i had to pay a body shop for a full resto I'd never be able to do it. Hats off to the guys that can afford six digit resto's on Hemi and sixpack cars. If I was paying for a resto I'd rather just make payments on a turn key car than payments on a credit line to pay a shop.

[nakita7]

Don't forget:

- some people have money to burn
- some are retired
- some have a car business and some of the stuff they buy is through the business
- some are flippers who 'have to sell their 7th Mopar, to finance their other projects' because someone had a gun to their head about a month ago, and they just 'had' to to buy it  
- some just had money put aside
- some are (ex) criminals who don't have to pay taxes like the rest of us...let's not go there  
- some just sold a previous car and are rolling the money into the next one


You just make it happen any way you can. An average Joe will always have a tough time restoring a car simply because it is not in a typical household budget. Just a bit of advice from someone who is pretty good with money...it's still cheaper to buy a done/original car. Let someone else lose the time and money.  Been in this hobby for 25+years and have only seen a handful of people able to restore a car for less than, or for what it's actually worth. Don't like to see someone put $52000 into a car that would only sell for $17,500...but it does keep the economy going!  

[Mike DC]

  
Don't spend no dough on the booty.  

[bull]

go slow...used parts when I can find them. Help from friends......oh yah...I have been going to the same job for 25 years and when I get some OT the charger gets some new stuff.

3X

Except the 25 years at Boeing part. I rarely get overtime but when I do I hit it hard and get all I can. Other than that I try squeezing my regular paycheck for $50-$200 here and there. Sometimes I get lucky and buy things cheap that I can sell for a profit (I know snowboards and Mopar parts so I buy some of those in the summer and flip them). From time to time I'll get part-time jobs or advertise my mole-trapping services. Right now the people I've hired to rebuild my engine and K-frame are busy so that makes my money last longer because they're taking forever. If they had gotten things done when I had hoped (early last summer) I'd be cleaned out right now but as it stands I still have lots left over from last winter's overtime pay. If we get lots of snow this winter I should make enough overtime money to finish my project. Anyway, it's been five years and counting so lots of patience helps too.

[jb666]

I have the utmost amount of respect for you guys that have the skill to do the job RIGHT, but that by no means justifies a job being hacked just because you want to "do it yourself". If you have a toothache, do you see a dentist or do you go put a filling in yourself, in your back room? If you are in legal trouble, do you represent yourself or hire a lawyer? The list goes on and on.. What it comes down to is:

1. If you CAN do it, go for it.
2. If you can pay to have the job done and not take $$ out of your family's mouth in the process, go for it!

So the theory of going up to a "rough car" at a car show vs a mint car at a car show is funny, because there are PLENTY of people out there with flawless rides who have done the work on their own.

And I have two more "how I got the $$ for my restoration" to add to the list above 

1. You saved $$ for 18 years for your daughter(s) to go to college. In that time you scrimped/scraped and DID NOT spend $$ on a car restoration. Daughter A gets a full boat scholorship for 4 years to the school she wants to go to and saves Mom & Dad $28k/Year. 4 Year of college cost 'us' $2400, and that was in books/materials, leaving quite a nice chunk of change left-over.

2. You had 2 family members pass away and a sum of $$ was left to you. Would I trade my car to have them alive again? Sure, but that's not going to happen.. So live life for today, and have no regrets in the meantime!!

You certainly can't take your $$ or toys with you 

I owned a detailing shop for 8 years before getting into my current line of work. People would bring me their cars, panicking about this or that, and I'd be laughing thinking "Wow, these people can't do THAT??". There's no difference.. Skill, supplies, time & material.. They make the world go 'round.

[69chargerR/T]

I'm not looking to build a "show car" that's my car in my sig. pic, it looks good from 20 feet. I don't plan on ever selling my car to make a profit on it. I would just like it to be clean and fairly strait I've been an auto tech. for 30 years, I've done all the work on my car myself, the drive train is all done and the car runs and sounds great This car was redone long before I got it, someone cut the quarters midway and put some metal in and lots of bondo. The bondo is now cracking in the quarters so the car needs quarters. After reading on looking at pics. on this site and others I think I can do the metal work myself. To keep the cost down I was thinking about doing skins on the car, but I don't here good things about skins because all the work they need It does look like it is easier to do the whole quarter, but they are $750 each plus shipping    Then the trunk floor,rear frame rails,rear cross member and so on

  Like I said not looking for a show car, and I think I can do the metal work. As for doing the filler work and getting the fairly strait and ready for someone to paint, I don't know about that I'm guessing I'm looking at around maybe close to $5000 in just parts.  It's just hard to come up with cash these days !!  The only other thing I can think of doing is sell my car and buying one all done and making payments on it. I'm not getting any younger so I don't know if I can spend years redoing this car Then theirs the question of how much I can get for my car  Just throwing all this out there not sure what I'm going to do.    Alan  



   

[skip68]

I just take the parts I need from VegasMike when he is sleeping....        It took about 2 plus years and $28k +/-  just to get where I am now on my car.  I still need more like gears, suregrip, and some other odds and ends but times are bad so it will have to wait.        You just do what you can when you can.   I do some trading too and that works good at times.   Jeff is lucky he lives far away from me or I would have some more parts...       Chuck...........

[Musicman]

Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work,Work....

[69charger2002]

i usually buy a project cheap when i find one, resell it, and use that money for either the next project to sell, or if i've done it a few times already, i take all the money and buy a finished car, or land, or whatever; and start all over again. once in a while i get a steal on one, and i decide to keep it... most of the time i let them go quickly so i don't get attached to it.  when i was 20 i had NOTHING except a pretty thrown together general lee with a 318, 68 interior, and $3800 tied up in... about 300 cars later, here i am..  

lately i have sold off a couple of even my good "keepers" because i live 20 miles away from where i store them, and i get sick of going out there and a battery being dead, a tranny seal now leaks from sitting a while without being driven, etc... that gets OLD, and lets me know i don't need 15 cars in the garage. I feel like a horrible "parent" for letting my babies get something wrong with them just from sitting, so i'm downsizing. Oh yeah having a new Challenger 6 speed to drive every day keeps me away from the old ones a little more now too...

[The70RT]

Sounds like a lot of us are about the same. Work and keep your head up and look for deals. It helps if you have any type of skills to be in the car hobby. If you don't you better have money. ANYONE can do a lot of their own work....but they say they can't because they never try, so they would rather pay for it. I would rather be showing a car that I did not what someone else did. If you can read a manual or have a computer it's all out there to be learned. I am a jack of all trades and a master of NONE. If something breaks I try to fix it myself before I call out a repairman. I have never been given anything or gotten any amount of money from lawsuits, dead uncles, parents, lottery etc. There is deals on Craigslist, newspaper etc all the time on cars and parts....you just gotta look and be there before someone else with the money. Just in the last couple years here is a few examples. I bought 4 nos fenders and two 32 ford windshield frames for 600 and sold them for 3000 on ebay. I bought a Cadillac for 500 from coworker and did nothing to it and sold it on craigslist for 1000. Bought a Buick for 200 replaced the engine and made 2000. I have stripped parts from junkers that I got cheap all my life, then scraped the rest. Was doing some work for others too but that got old. Yeah it's tough but when you want something you gotta do what you gotta do and find a way. 15 years ago I went from no house payment and sold my shack for 14K and bought my new house and now pay over 1400 a month since adding my garage build on to it. At times I thought wouldn't make it....but I keep plugging away. I have only took 2 nice vacations in the last 15 years so money management is a plus

[bull]

It does look like it is easier to do the whole quarter, but they are $750 each plus shipping    Then the trunk floor,rear frame rails,rear cross member and so on

After you drop the first $1,500 it gets a lot easier and your perspective on what's expensive gets more liberal. But by the same token that money doesn't come easy so it doesn't take much for me to get really pi$$ed off when I screw up and spend money on the wrong thing, mess up a part or get ripped off by someone.

[1charger69]

well before i was married i established a car fund....still livin at home, workin during the week and playin in a band and making 2-300 bucks a weekend playing guitar....i would live on the band money and sock my paychecks into my car fund.....fast forward 11 years....married now so paychecks go for bills.....i dont need much big stuff to finish the car but i cant go to Carlisle in July and NOT buy something     ill also buy a couple hundred bucks worth of of old dirty parts.....take them home....clean , repair , paint them....and resell them on ebay ...usually double or triple my investment and keeps my car fund afloat! booooyaaaa!    i do 75% of the car resto myself...i get a certain satisfaction from it too!