Professional Restoration

[dysuldalleth]

Hi,

Just a quick question - which may be a bit open ended as no two cases are the same but......................

If you were to get a 'professional' to do a a full restoration on a moggie - a 1962 2 door to be precise..........which is mechanically ok, just passed mot but needs a lot of welding, chrome work, re-spray etc etc etc

............. what sort of prices would you be looking at?

Thanks

Dy

[minor65]

Hi

At the moment I am getting my 1965 4 door restored by a 'professional' (see 'kpc's resto' in resto section). The only restoring that is needed underneath is new rear chassis legs. The main work is being done on top i.e new rear wings, p/s/f wing, 4 door bottoms, new a posts and repairs to c posts, respray, wheels painted, new windows seals and seatbelts. All the refitting of interior, brakes, all new chrome fittings, new bumpers and MOT prep will be done by me. All the new parts, panels, chrome, rechroming have amounted to £1200, the labour i.e welding, preparation, respray, undersealing will amount hopefully to around £2100. I would estimate a total of £3500 when finished. I have had the car 10 years and hopefully another 10 years+ so I can't complain.
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[dysuldalleth]

Thank you for that information - it has been very helpful. Its possibly something Im considering because as a DIY job I think mine is just too much for me to do.

Dy.

[bmcecosse]

It's not really possible to put a price on it - unless the COMPLETE list of work to be done, and the condition of the car is well know. If you want it made 'like new' then it's going to cost a LOT of money. And that amount will be WAY over the value of the finished car. It's always better to buy a car that someone else has spent time and money on - unfortunately sad but true. What you can do is take the car along to a well-recommended (ask on here for specifics) Minor fixer - and say to them - I have £500 to spend on the car - what can you do to make the car better for that amount of money? See what they say - and decide if that seems like value for money to you. Once that's done - and you have saved up again, and assuming you were happy with the first lot of work - go back and ask the same question again etc etc - until the car is as you want/can afford it!

[Pyoor_Kate]

just passed mot but needs a lot of welding

Honestly, how long is a piece of string?

It very much depends on what you've got hiding under what you can see. I took what I thought was a fairly sound minor to get a few jobs done and ended up doing a complete restoration of the chassis and much of the rest of the vehicle. The cost of which contained 5 figures, the first of which wasn't a 1.

It's an extreme case, but as it was being done piecemeal and over two goes, it cost more than it would have had we said 'sod it' and ripped out the entire floor / inner wings / etc and started from scratch.

There are a lot of restorers out there who have the ethics of a slime-mould and who'll sell you a shoddy job for 4 figures, and let you run about in a shiny death trap. There are also some really excellent restorers who'll tell it to you like it is, and do a great job - but it ain't cheap. Doing it yourself will always be cheaper (in financial terms) but depending on your skills what you end up with as a final product may - or may not - be worth all that time and effort.

Without a bit more info it's very hard to come up with any kind of idea how much it'd cost, but even with pictures what you find lurking underneath might be more horrifying than what's on top...



DSCF0038 by pyoorkate, on Flickr



DSCF0009 by pyoorkate, on Flickr

[dysuldalleth]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your info - I'm going to have to try and do it myself. Just got very dispondant when I started to strip off the underseal on the car and found it to look like a patch work quilt with all the welded patches on it.

[Pyoor_Kate]

Well - mine was done entirely professionally, but to give you hope - my car was complete scrap, really, when it came down to it.

And this (excuse the cruddy quality) is what she's looking like now:

Untitled by pyoorkate, on Flickr