Why does it seem I'm going to spend $50,000 to build a $20,000 car??

They always say at the auctions "you can't build'm for what you can buy'm for"

Sooo true!!

Unless your luck is like mine.
4 yrs and $$$$ later, still not finished on a turn key driver

How about 12 years and $40K + ???

REMEMBER: It's a hobby, NOT a business. We are NOT into this to make money. There are lots of expensive hobbies out there. Scuba diving, racing cars, restoring WW II aircraft...

Amen! I know guys who spend $50K a year on golfing and membership dues... and nothing to show for it. At least we end up with something tangible.

What about the boats people buy and for alot more than we spend on the cars.

Funny you should mention golf. When my father-in-law has enjoyed a get-together a bit too much, he becomes argumentative. One of his favorite targets is my car hobby. I always manage to gently shut him down by asking him how much he spends on the average in a year on golf.

Of course he never remembers these conversations the next day. But I forgive him - he's a cool guy.

Thanks guys I'm in a much better mood.Reason I'm whineing is I'm putting an order together to redo my seats.After buying foam and vinyl is a person better off buying an aftermarket seat.I'm not keeping this car orig. by any means and resale is not a concern I'm looking more for comfort.If anyone sugests a aftermaket let me know.

Better to buy a car thats done with some small odds and ends than to buy a car that needs everything.

Hind sight. I bought 2 parts cars about a year into my project and one of them was in better shape than what I started with.Shes all fresh now though,Floors trunk,1\4s,rear panal,iner rear,ect,ect,ect. I have really shapened my welding skills though.

sounds like your making good progress .

I spent 40K, took 3 years, and it was a blast. My golfing suffered and still has but WTF, My car drives far better than I Can!

Whats it worth to walk out in the garage every day and have a smile when you see it. Or all the exitement waiting for summer. Or when that first coat of clear goes on! The first time you turn the key! The first mile you put on after 2 years of cutting welding and grinding. I peek under the cover just about every day! How bout when all the cuts on your hands finally heal. Toss all them receipts in a box and don't look at them till you drive it with color on it.

Funny thing is Tony there are always fresh cuts before the old ones heal. Sometime I get lucky and the newest ones are in the same place as the old ones. Maybe I'm just always clumsy with that one hand/finger/side of my head...

Good day today though. No new injuries. Still got a bit to go on the latest project so I'll have to be extra careful tomorrow.

This sums up my thoughts completely!

One of the reasons I live up here in the cold and snow. Top down weather is about 3.5 months long, so I try to make it count, and I'll NEVER tire of my 'birds. Sold my first two 27 years ago, and I hope to not sell my present two for another 27 years! Impossible to put a price on that.

To me half the fun is looking for parts, finding the right ones, putting everything together, making it run, perform. Its the journey, not the final destination. It wouldnt surprise me once Im completely done to turn around and look for another project. Its something to look forward to after a long meaningless everyday 9-5 business job. If youre fixing up your car purely for resale and to make a profict, forget it, wrong business. Keep track of your dollars, but dont dwell on it or you wont enjoy the process...

I totally agree with WiscBird. It's the trill of the hunt for me. I like the learning curve too. Although sometimes I ask some pretty dumb questions. In the end I get a great deal of satisfaction looking in my pole barn at the projects I've done over the years. This is my 5th project in as many years. I dont't plan on selling any of them. Plus now I have done a "project" for each member of my family.

As a very recent first generation Firebird owner (I'll trailer it--'69 convertible--across the border on Friday), after a hiatus since I sold my last '68 back in 1983, I find the preceding comments in perfect agreement with my sentiments. Over the past 20+ years my 'hobby' car has been a '65 Corvette which I bought dis-assembled, but with many NOS parts still in packages. The restoration 'trip' of painting (lacquer in a suburban garage), re-assembling and now enjoying the car during the summer, covered most of five years (but are they ever really 'finished'?). Cuts, bruises and colour sanding worn finger tips aside, the experience of restoring the car was by far the best part and rivals the enjoyment of finally driving it.

Along the way I have also made many friends and acquaintances of people who shared my interest in the hobby of classic car restoration. But unlike what I'm reading here, Corvette restoration exists along two widely divergent planes: those who actually 'do' and enjoy restoring their car, and those whose main or only interest in restoration is its impact on the car's value and what they can get for it. Very much to the credit of most posters on this board, there seems to be a majority of people here NOT primarily motivated by increasing the car's value, but rather, like myself, interested in the experience of restoration (hunting down that missing part, refinishing and re-installing original pieces, etc).

The 'down' side of this situation, unfortunately, is the still apparent dearth of quality reproductions of many (mostly cosmetic) parts to assist in restoration. Aside from fixations on maintaining absolute 'originality' of parts, an area in which the Corvette commmunity has few peers, the absence of a 'value' focus on restorations has likely slowed industry response in tooling for quality replacement parts. In time, hopefully, this will rectify itself through simple market forces of supply and demand (there were many times more early generation Firebirds and Camaros built than Corvettes).

On a final note, attending the large National Corvette Restorers' Society winter meet many years ago, I stopped to compliment the owner of a near-perfectly restored 1972 LT-1 coupe. When I asked if he had restored the car he replied that he'd 'had it restored' and went on to say at a cost of $15K. I thanked him and left wondering on what basis he would accept an award for the 'restoration', or would the award be better reflective of the depth of his pockets? This is the unfortunate state of the Corvette 'restoration' 'hobby' today...

GMD, good post. One of the reasons that early bird owners don't generally build or restore them with an eye on final value is that they are, and have been, almost never worth what it costs to fix them up on the open market. You'd have to be some kind of an idiot to think you could.

I, personally, get biggest charge out of someone looking it over and seeing what they pick out as the most intersting part to ask about. It's almost always the roll bar that gets the most comments these days.

Well said. I feel the same way...almost dissappointed when I don't have anything to "do" to my Firebird. Believe me, I've asked some dumb questions, and done some even dumber things. I am SO much smarter now regarding our hobby and cars. As far as the money spent; I consider it tuition.

Ya know, the thrill of a really good score will put a smile on your face for YEARS!





... now that your minds went straight into the gutter, I was referring to an awesome PARTS score.

I looked into aftermarket seats for my 68 and 69 Firebirds for a while and ended up buying a set of 4th gen leather power seats for both of them. The front mounting holes will line up and you can cut and weld the rear ones to fit. I took the rear seat cover to a shop and had inserts put into to match the front seats.
Good luck with your project and keep plugging away. Like others here I feel like the building and hunting for parts is half the fun.
Steve

That's really true of the early Corvettes as well. Although big auctions like B-J and the like have had inflationary effect on early Corvette prices (too many bidders with more money than brains--and often even bigger egos), it remains pretty difficult to 'have a car restored' (ie: pay someone else to restore it plus find/supply the parts) and come out even, much less ahead of the game on value. Labour costs are the real killers here and this is where the 'hobby' restorer, who does the restoration his/herself can really win big time, provided the work is of high quality.

Not only does the owner/restorer enjoy the benefit of doing the work itself, with the pitfalls, cuts/bruises as well as the pride accruing from having done a job well, but there will also be a concomitant value increase to the vehicle, which, although not the 'reason' for the restoration, is of some comfort if/when it comes time to sell. This of course is provided you don't factor into the 'costs' of restoration, the value of your own time and labour.

On my own part, I find that my 'blood sweat and tears' expended in restoring my Corvette leads me to unreasonably value the car in emotional terms, but who in the hobby doesn't feel that way? I still find the need for a 'fix' every now and then during the long, cold Ottawa winter and slip out to the garage to lift the car cover and admire the bright red lacquer on fibreglas and dream of the first summer drive... Isn't that what the hobby's all about?

Yes indeed that is what the hobby brings for most of us, I think.
I spent the last couple of days fabbing and installing a panhard bar on my 69. It was a chore, for sure. I'm not as young as I used to be and after two days of climbing in and out from under the car I was beat last night but I got it done. If it works out it will be worth the trouble and mainly I just wanted to see if I could make it work. Probably would detract from the value in most restorer's eye but I'm not building them a car. There is alot of value in self satisfaction and a job accompished.

i did see a 69 rag go for 68k at barret j. that was impressive. i did mine with a lot of trial and error. i like to do my work myself. most buisness would not touch a car if you do some of the work ie body work. I asked around and nobody wanted to paint it so i did what i had to. even with all my work, it still cost me 15k. i learned alot about painting. it was great, but not in my small garage, if there is a next time its a booth for me. i think if you set out to restore a car expect to age faster and have deep pockets if you can not do the work youself.