There are many things to consider before jumping into that restoration project. It is a common site to see half finished projects sold for a fraction of what was spent on them. This article will outline some things that you should consider before you begin a restoration project to help ensure that this doesn’t happen to you.
Purchasing Your Restoration Candidate
- Buy the best car you can afford. What most amateurs do not understand is the inevitable truth that body work is expensive. Paying a few thousand dollars more for a good, mostly rust-free car can often save you more than double that investment in rust repair. If you can’t afford a car that is not a complete rust bucket, then you might want to seriously reconsider if you can afford to restore a car at all.
- Are parts available for this car? When you are looking for a car to restore, do some research to see how many parts are being reproduced for it. If the car is rare or the market is not there for restoration parts, then the car is going to typically be much more difficult and expensive to restore.
- Pay more for a local car. Yes, you can find that perfect restoration candidate on Ebay. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to travel to look at the car in the time frame the auction provides. As such, many people buy these projects without ever seeing them in person. It is too common for a car to be misrepresented and have rust or unprofessional body work covered by primer and filler. Additionally, the shipping costs to get some of these cars home can be as much as the car themselves. If you can find what you are looking for locally, go that route and be willing to pay a little more for it.
- How much is this restoration going to costs? You need to do a cost analysis and try to not let emotion get in your way. Use some of the tips below when estimating your costs and try to get a good understanding of the type of project you are committing to.
Estimate your costs
- Create a plan and stick with it. Before you start your project, you need to determine what kind of car you want to build. Are you customizing it or going to restore it stock? What kind of wheels and tires are going on it? You don’t want to buy those massive disc brakes only to discover that you 15” Rally Wheels won’t fit over them. Chopping the top? No need to buy that new windshield. By formulating a detailed plan, you know where you are going with your restoration and you won’t waste money moving in a different direction. I’ve seen garages littered with billet brackets that wouldn’t fit with the water pump the owner chose and left over parts that weren’t thought out.Most restorations are a long process. Have that plan written down so you can come back to it in a year and decide if some part you are considering purchasing will help you reach your goal. An overall plan is also handy so you can take advantage of deals when they arise and ensure that you aren’t throwing money at parts you won’t use.
- Shipping costs money too. When listing the parts you are going to need to purchase, keep in mind that you will need to have many of them shipped to you. If you are like many do-it-yourselfers, you will be buying a few parts along the way and shipping costs can really add up. Additionally, if you are buying the car online (Ebay, etc), be sure to include the costs of shipping the car home after you buy it. I see a lot of cars re-listed on Ebay because the buyer didn’t understand that it was going to take over a $1,000 to ship that $2,000 rust bucket he just bought.
- Look your project car over real well and decide what parts you can reuse and what needs to be replaced. Make a list of the parts you will need to replace and get prices for them. Take that price list and double it to take into account price fluctuation and any parts you forgot.
- Don’t forget the labor. Find a shop that you trust that you can use on parts of the restoration that you may not have the time/expertise/room to handle (media blasting, rust repair, paint, etc…). Find out their hourly/job rates and try to get estimates on how much time each of these parts of your project will take. Write down their hourly rate and multiply any rough quotes by 50% to account for “unforeseen” circumstances and upgrades that always creep up in these jobs.
- One of main ways of minimizing costs is to do much of the work yourself. If you intend on doing this, don’t forget to estimate the costs of any tools, supplies, and equipment that you may need (sandblasters, blasting cabinet, blast media, welder, engine stand, engine hoist, etc)
Minimizing The Costs
- Do as much of the work as you can. The body shop charges the same hourly rate for welding as they do for taking the doors off your car. Strip it down and re-assemble it yourself to save a considerable amount of money.
- When stripping the car, treat the parts that come off of it like gold. Be careful, don’t damage them, and attempt to recondition and reuse anything that you can. On many restoration jobs, many of these small parts are near impossible to find. If you are restoring something like a 69 Camaro, the parts may be available but the costs of them will add up quickly and strain your budget.
- Tag and Label everything. When you are pulling pieces off of the car, bag them and label the bags. Store them somewhere where they will not get damaged. This will not only make your job much easier during re-assembly, it will also keep you from having to purchase parts that you have but can’t find.
- Tool Rentals is a good way of cutting costs off of your restoration. Your local rental center, home improvement store, or auto parts store are usually good sources of tools that you can rent instead of buying. For example, I recently rented coil spring compressors from Auto Zone for $50. I had the ability to keep them up to 6 months. Once done, I took them back to Auto Zone and was refunded my $50. Doing the math, that comes to FREE, which is much better than actually buying them for $50.When deciding on which tools to purchase and which to rent, try to see what other uses you might have for the tool as well as the rental costs. I purchased a pressurized sandblaster from Harbor Freight for around $100. This is not a professional model, and took some learning and testing to get it to work correctly. However, it will do for my purposes and is cheaper than renting a high-end professional unit for a couple of days.