restoration costs?

[ToXIc]

now i'm not like some of you lucky guyz out there that have the tools, space and skills to do a restoration. so i'm wondering what have the others paid for a good restoration.

please rate by percentage the amount of:

rust

body damage

thoroughness

please dont include replacement parts interior/exterior

i'm just trying to get an idea how much i may have to shell out...

[DougN]

Unfortunately, you've put too many variables to give any reasonable chance of an accurate estimate. You best bet is to take your car to a few specialists in your area to see what they would charge for what you want done.

What is considered a "good restoration" by one, is likely different for another. For my personal standards, a "good" full restoration will cost $20K+ depending on the condition of the car I would be starting with. For me, to do the same car to a "good" driver restoration will cost $10K+. Both assume that I would be farming out at least 95% of the work.

[Zak's Z]

Im right in the middle of a costly restoration. I got my 72 and it looked great from 10 feet away. turns out it needed a frame rail weld...thats all. once that got started, it needed new floors too. So i had new floors and rails put in, at a cost of $2,200.00 CAD plus i think 700 for floors rails and outer rockers.

Then I might as well paint it since everyting is already out of the car. That cost me 2 summers of thorough paint stripping and brazing and grinding and sand blasting until finally she's down to bare metal. I spent several hundred on rentals and supplies.

Now its in for prep and paint, and that will cost at least 4,000...these are 'friend' prices. Im assuming it will be like 7k at least because theres a lot of little things that need attention.

I might as well take the motor apart to see whats going on while its out of the car. I still have to do suspension - new bushings all around and a huge cleaning, brake/fuel lines, new carpet, then all the little interior things and such.

The car cost me 2300.00 but I figure when its done Ill have an extra 10k easy into it. Doug is about right because I should have a 'good' driver at that point.

Im not very skilled either, but Ive done everything I possibly can myself to both learn and save money. If I had to farm this whole job out, I would have had to pay someone for the one to two hundred hours ive put in already.

[Carl Beck]

"Restore" to put back in original condition, aka "as it left the factory"

Give me the car - and you would have at least $35,000.00 in labor (and I'm cheap labor). That would be to take the car apart, send the shell out to a good bodyshop for body and paint. Send the engine out for a rebuild, tranny out for a rebuild etc. Then the labor to put the car back together to OEM spec.' and standards.

In addition to the labor - you would need about $40,000.00 for parts and services like machine shops, electroplating, engine and tranny rebuild facilities, body shop etc. That would include the labor needed to find the parts in the first place.

Take the car to any serious Restoration Shop - and you would have to give them a retainer for at least $50K before they would put the car in their shop.

If on the other hand you are really thinking about "refreshing" a 240-Z that is in good condition to begin with - - you might get away with as little as $20K plus the cost of the car and necessary parts, perhaps another $15K..

The bottom line is - it would be financially silly to pay someone to restore a 240-Z for you - far less expensive to simply buy a restored car. You can still find #2 condition cars for $25K to $30K today.

FWIW,

Carl B.

[Zak's Z]

Carl makes me feel like I need to spend more!

...okay, I probly spent $1500 on tools I never had before (but I dont incluse that because I will have those for years)...and I spent at least 3,000 on parts for it already (interior, this and that, etc.). Youre making it very difficult to downlpay this Carl.

If my wife reads this, theres going to be a basement full of Datsun parts for sale on Ebay and a freshly painted shell with a for sale sign on it in the driveway.

[Zak's Z]

But seriously...all kidding aside, that was well put Carl. I think I remember my first words of advice on this site from yourself and others. This will cost money, and I will get what I pay for.

[ToXIc]

man.... dosent look good....

if we were only soo lucky to have our cars overhauled by chip!

[Zak's Z]

man.... dosent look good....

if we were only soo lucky to have our cars overhauled by chip!

Don't let me scare you off. My car was a trainwreck painted with 5 coats and an inch of filler to make it look good. I could have gotten away with 3k to give it a paintjob to clean it up...but I'd still have all the problems underneath.

I knew going in this was going to get ugly. But, I have a whole new set of tools. I actually learned quite a bit about cars now. Ive met some great people on this site - and even met a few in person. I went from being able to read and search for answers to being able to actually to the work myself (to an extent i admit).

And seriously some of the best time I've spent all last summer was working on the Z with friends, drinking a cold beer picking sand out of my teeth and changing the band-aids on my knuckles. good times....

[ktm]

If my wife reads this' date=' theres going to be a basement full of Datsun parts for sale on Ebay and a freshly painted shell with a for sale sign on it in the driveway.[/quote']

No kidding! My wife keeps asking for my itemized budget and I keep telling her I lost it (not to mention I stopped keeping track once I broke $10k). In all honesty, I am around $12k to $14k into my car and that does NOT include body, paint or wheels. It's all engine, drivetrain, suspension, and interior work, and I did all the work myself.

[fuzze]

hey Zak , fellow refresher here , I like to think of costs in such a way as what I am doing is , by doing most if not all the work on our 71z we are investing in ourselves in the form of hands on education . We believe to truly appreciate and understand how our car functions , we need to do the methodical tear down ,refresh and rebuild so that when the z gets back on the road the joy of bleeding knuckles and sore arms from scraping and the like is time that is spent in the most positive way . I might add that '' we '' is my wife and our two teenage son's , 13 and soon to be 16 . This family affair is one of the most positive things that we have done together , so to us if 10 0r 15 k is the bottom line to do this project it is money spent in the right direction . My younger son can't wait to finish this one so that he can start one of his own ! Seems a small price to pay for this kind of education . I'll post a couple pic's of the students at work .My reply may be a little off track , but I just want to share our perspective of what a resto costs . have fun with your refresh as really that is what it should be all about .

Chris

[xray]

Chris,

I like that chalkboard...particularly the question from "Mom"--Will it be easy?

If we actually took the time to answer that question thoughtfully and honestly I wager we'd never get involved in the project! It's the optimism of "Sure, it can't be THAT bad" that gets us into it and powers us exactly to the Point of No Return. Then, we realize "oh, I guess it's pretty bad....so what? It's only money!" and we keep on going.

The real question for me is "Why do we do it again?"

Steve

(on the hunt for the next project)

[EScanlon]

Without trying to be overly sentimental....

Fuzze:

If you were to spend $30,000 on your "restoration"/"refreshing", and it took you 3 years to get it done (an average). And in those 3 years, presuming 45 weekends per year at a total of 10 hours per weekend, plus an additional 8 hours during the week (very light estimates of the time you would actually spend) you would have:

[45 * (10+8)]*3] = 2430 total hours or $12.35 per hour.

Then if you factor in the memories, experience and flat-out enjoyment of working with your two boys.....and it suddenly looks ....VERY INEXPENSIVE and CHEAP at THREE TIMES THE PRICE.

FWIW

E