Re: Considering

Posted by Larry51 On 2011/6/26 7:44:50

After reading all the posts on 'When deciding what to buy . . .' I think almost everything is covered there in terms of reasons for and against. I'd agree with everything said, and some points are more pertinent than others, especially about buying the 'best' that you can afford. With that type of buy, most of the dollars have already been spent, and so there tends to be some increased value in the purchase (- like hundreds of hours of labour for no cost).

This '50 Coupe looks like it needs quite a lot of work, and only a really good inspection will tell you what is needed.
As a starting point, $3k initially seems OK provided no rust present. Personally I like that model, like the idea of spending many hours making it beautiful, but would not expect to make money on it if doing a good restoration.

That didn't worry me greatly in regard to my own Packard resto. For me it is as much the 'journey' as the 'destination'. Just like doing the work very much. If you do most of the work yourself I think it could cost you approximately the following amounts for a really good resto to around #3: $5k chroming, $4k paint, $2k new interior and carpet etc, $2-3k if engine needs a rebuild / rebore, $2-4k various mechanical items, and add more if any panelbeating is needed. Then if there is rust to repair it's low cost and long hours if you can do it yourself, or very high cost for someone else to do it. $5-10k can easily be spent on rust removal. But for a #2 the work would have to be first-rate and look original, not home-done. Hours used would be very high with no compromise on quality of work.

So in total, with all labour down to you, that's about $15k to !8k with your labour and no rust. Could climb to well above $25k if there's even moderate rust in floors and other areas, and someone else repairs it instead of doing the repairs yourself..

Sorry if that's a bit of a shock, but those costs are from my experience with my full resto on a moderately rusty '51 Coupe, and with almost everything needing to be done (like interior / paint / most chrome). I'd say you could double that figure if you have others do all the labour.