i know i think it sucks a lot of time and money
and it kills motivation. a lot of people notice this. all my time and money goes away, then suddenly i hate that. so i do other things. its a cycle

>>13818362
It can be daunting. Having restored cars in various condition (from simple interior and paint refresh to full rotisserie frame offs) it is a very rewarding experience but not something you can fully plan and budget for. More often than not, it takes far longer and costs far more than expected. However, as I said above, restored cars are truly "built not bought" in the purest sense. Every time I take one of my restos for a ride, I get a huge sense of pride and accomplishment knowing I brought the decrepit cars back to their glory.

Ask anything and Ill answer what I know.

>>13818362
it's easier to do if you make a list, pace yourself, and take one part at a time.

Putting a plastic short ram intake in a Miata isn't considered restoration tho

Monitoring this thread.
Been wanting to do a rotisserie of grandpas '68 Mustang. Poor thing is just sitting in the back garage right now.

>Anon pls restore me
>Anon why don't you ever pay attention to me?
>Anon I want to be driven again!

;_;

With the price of parts, especially as a Canadian, it's really hard not to blow past the vehicle's actual value. Unless the car is very desirable, you'll most likely never see a return on your initial investment let alone all the time you put in. This is why I don't understand /o/'s theory that classic cars are "overpriced because of boomers".

Nowadays, paint and body alone without door skins, quarters, fenders, etc is about $8,000USD in a shop. Take in rebuilding an engine, transmission, front end, interior, wiring, trim, rims/wheels, brakes, suspension, glass, A/C and heat, rear end, trunk and undercarriage cleanup, glass and the hundreds of tiny pieces along with the initial cost of the car and it gets insane. While restoring it, you may also begin to get more and more picky. Lots of guys in my car club start restoring a car to become a driver and then by the end, it's a trailer queen, nut and bolt show car.

So if you're going to restore a car, do so with something that's complete, in fair condition and very desirable.

Always start with the best condition example you can find even if it's stretching your budget. Every thousand dollars spent extra on the purchase are a thousand dollars and a hundred hours of work saved restoring it.

Also whatever you plan for the restoration, expect to spend at least twice as much time and money on it as planned.

>>13818362
TIME AND MONEY

If you don't have it, don't do it.

>>13818362
How to restore a car:
Sell your garbage, rusted POS on CL for like $2k
Search ebay for a nice one that some sucker put $25k into, buy it for $8k

This will work in basically all cases except where the car is a super popular snowflake and sells for like $100k fully restored.

>>13818472
you dont have to actually restore a car to drive it.

See, I'm not restoring my turd gen Trans Am, I'm just fixing all the shit wrong with it so I can drive it again.
Floor pans, rear axle, brakes, extremely basic body and rust repair, spartan racecar nterior.

>>13818542
Needs floors.
Also took the engine out, it's sitting on a stand.

>>13818498
this

I need more of the latter

>>13818705
put the engine back in, make simple floors

I'm monitoring this thread as well now.

I have a '90 300CE Benz I want to do a sort of rolling restoration. I don't think it needs a whole frame-off.

That said it has some rust on certain parts that need addressed but it does run, drive, and is in actually pretty good condition.

My plans currently is to acquire the money needed to get the process rolling, right now it's sitting in my garage not being driven a whole lot. Later down the line I'd absolutely love to try and rig up some sort of twin turbo setup and put in a limited slip diff, as well as some sportier suspension and different wheels.

It has some mechanical issues I could probably fix although I would attempt to rebuild the engine while the car is getting bodywork done as I would love to learn exactly how it's done. A few minor electrical things, a bit of cosmetic work that's probably not...Too bad...Fix the several small-medium rust spots, refresh the paint, and we're rolling...

Hm...

I need to get back out there and work on it. I have strut tower mounts that need to go in and it needs a new accessory belt and likely tensioner. Was also leaking some tranny fluid but then it mysteriously stopped.

Sorry you guys don't care but I too have a restoration plan kind of. I need more time though, not so much money.


Actually, I was talking to someone I was working with at my job and I asked him how he worked 40 hours a week and could still work on stuff like building a polebarn and restoring/building muscle cars and bikes and he just said he comes home from work, then each day works a minimum of three hours. Don't focus on the small things, keep the big picture in mind.

I 'unno it seems obvious but it really spoke to me.