Sounds like some bending of the truth right there...

Well, I'm glad the cars are in a museum. Sounds like a trip to North Dakota will be in the works to see the cars!

It says they are in a Pontiac museum in North Dakota... Any one know of that one? I tried to google it, but couldn't find anything.

Did you really find the 00004 car? It must have been a 326HO. The 350s weren't until 68'

Do you remeber what the firewall tag said?

On the 00001 car - firewall tag wall "show 1"
On the 00002 car - firewall tag was "show 4"

My guess is that Show 1-5 were the "magnificent five" firebirds. A OHC 6, 326, 326HO, 400 and 400HO

Vin #3 is a Blue 326 as well.....Im working on getting that one too . 6 cylinder firebirds would also have a vin #1 as they were built at a different plant,much like the camaros ,having vin #1 for both norwood ,and Van Nuys.

PS - we are not going to see the whole story tonight - it is listed as "Part 1".

Yes, it's showing part 1 tonight and part 2 next week. Very anxious to see the cars. Looks like they brought someone in to head up the restoration.

427king-- Interesting that #3 is around. Do you know how it's optioned? Is it a 326 2 barrel coupe or convertible?

Well, my worst fears were taken care of the easy way - neither Richard nor Aaron much to do with the restorations. They brought in an expert for OKC. Interesting that I had never heard of that place before.

Was it this one? Muscle Car Restoration OKC

I was nervous when I noted NO GM restorations under their belt.

I did note that the one subframe looked way to glossy when it was done.

Finally, did I hear Richard say something about Firebirds "predating" Camaros at the top of the show? And we get our cliffhanger drama at the very end - two Gas Monkey employees are going to be gone by the end of this build.

So what did everyone think?

Yeah, he did say they did say that they predated the camaro's early on... I also read a few articles that quoted the same. Cars were built in December of 66'. I'm guessing about 6 months after the camaro?

I did get nervous when a saw the convertible in the background with Rally II wheels on it, but looks like they did put correct wire hub caps back on.

I have photos of these cars from the early to mid 80s I need to dig up.

I would have liked to heard and seen more on the restoration rather than watching Richard and Aron take driving lessons. At least they are trying to preserve the cars.

Same thought here. I realized later we really did not get to see a whole lot of the cars themselves or the work that was being done to them. At the end of this 1st show, we jumped from the convertible being painted and having the subframe reattached to the chrome header piece struggle and then trying to start it. While the only thing about the coupe were discussions about it still having metal work going on. Even "Overhauling" shows more details.

Another late thought was the implications of the funding. So they were saying that it would most likely take $325 K to get both cars restored at the beginning of the show and probably more? And the notion during the "negotiation" with the guy representing the museum client that the cars would be worth $300 or 400 K as is.

I agree, it was frustrating that we didn't get to see more of the actual work. I missed the last 15min. cause the youngest had a nightmare- but ya gotta have priorities.

So it looks like they got to where they were trying to start the vert, that was a huge fast forward from when I saw them just putting down the red primer. So I guess they are just looking for a deeper red? Does anyone know specifically which formula red paint that was? looked to red to be Solar.

Looks like they did not do much prep to the subframe and control arms. They looked really bad for a concours restoration. Looks like they may have just wired brushed it and coated it with por15. It had a pretty rough texture.

'67 red is called Regimental Red. Solar Red is '68.

For a guy that supposedly ran his own high end resto shop, the new guy seemed clueless when they couldn't get the trunk pan in.

Oh, I'll just whack off that rear quarter.... What a doofus!

Overall, I'd give the episode a 3 out of 10.

At least they didn't hype the "barn find" angle. That was pre-show, over the top advertising.

The $325K figure to restore both cars was ridiculous, unless that's in "Hollywood" money. Maybe it is, as a Hollywood studio will pay $50,000 to someone for a $3000 minivan so they can film it for 20 seconds, then blow it up.

These cars shouldn't cost more than $50K each to restore, and even that would be a high level restoration. There's nothing unusual about them, no special one-off parts, no "less than 100 made" parts, no hard-to-find Ram Air, transmission, or missing engine parts, they're standard 1967 Firebirds, with the only value being their data plates and history.

I don't have any idea what they have to pay for labor there but here the cheapest is 35.00 hr. They will have at least 500-600 hrs in each restoration. When you are paying for labor and a project manager I can see that adding up pretty quickly.

Take 500 hours * $40.00 hr = $20,000 (500 hrs of project manager) @ 50 hr= $25000 , they are real close to 45000- 50000 in labor alone

I saw an interesting point from a parallel discussion over at PY that demonstrates my fear about them using a Mustang restoration specialist - the red oxide primer.

While the red oxide is indeed a key element on every '69 and '70 Mustang resto I have come across on the "Inter-Web", somebody at PY pointed out GM did not start using it on the assembly line until 1970.

I was also wondering if they had used POR 15 on the subframe.

They also painted several of the under carriage parts black that were suppose to be bare metal or resemble bare metal color if this was a concours restoration.

For example the rear end and rear leaf springs and coil springs were all black. That is what I did to mine so I'm not judging but since there was a concours restoration professional there, seems they may have put it back correct.

Paid $70k for the cars, so lets say $100K each for parts and labor, that's still only $270K
Fuzzy math to create unnessesary TV drama.

I had a high end shop do the body on my car, blasted it, replaced a quarter, driver side floor, complete mock up and painted inside out and underneath, powdercoated frame and it was less than 15K.
The needed Resto and new interior parts were about 5k, built a RAV block stroked to 428 with ported 48 heads and dual Carters, new Autogear M22, SS exhaust, long branch manifolds, 17" Year One Rally's with Nitto tires.
Got about $40K actual in the entire car, but other than the body it's mostly my labor.

No way in hell it should cost them that much to restore those cars in that time frame, even with overtime pay.
Like Stealth said, nothing fancy or hard to find is required. Stock rebuild on everything just a lot of correct detailing.

I think 100K for a restoration is realistic. I just went though it and I easily have +50K just in my restoration with me doing most of the work. It is about as close to concours as you can get. I had a body shop do my body work and show quality paint. They charged me cheap labor but I still have 18000 in it plus I had to create them a website for their business.

When I was researching restoration cost and how to budget I ran across a high end restoration shop that actually posted a document to help with the budget. I pulled a cost list off and posted here to see how things cost in a shop.

Items that we do really save money compared to a shop doing everything. For instance a complete mechanical restoration from their list is between 25000-55000. A concurs paint job is 20000- 30000. A lot of body work 15000-2000.

This list brakes it down pretty well. Very en-lighting.

[censored]
going by that I need to raise my rates.

If you want to know were this list came from it was from Precision Restorations in St Louis MO.
http://www.precisioncarrestoration.com/

If I'm not mistaken it was $325K up front and another $325k if they make the deadline. Otherwise the $10k/day penalty would come out of the remaining $325k.

So who is the expert guy? Anyone have info on him and his business

I posted what I thought was the shop last night (back a page or 2)

Huh? Is there another thread on this?

Back a couple pages on this thread.

https://firstgenfirebird.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=287398#Post287398

Jason Aker - Worldwide Muscle Cars, Oklahoma City

As you'd expect, 7 pages and growing with another weeks episode to go. We need to let them know "we're watching and rating you"

If nothing else this build an GMG will give our FGF's a couple weeks in the spotlight instead of always overshadowed by the Camaro and the Mustang's 50th.

And maybe our firebird values will rise with these crazy numbers.

Interesting. The "Interweb" lists them as a used car lot. Their website is pretty much a worthless placeholder with links. Nothing about services or restorations. Hmmmm.

If they weren't completely on the other side of OKC from me (about 50 miles) I would go check the place out.

This was the first time I'd seen this show. It amazes me what passes for entertainment these days! Really, how many shots of the front of the building do we need to see? And why do they need razor wire on their fence?
I don't think there was more than 15 or 20-minutes of actual coverage of the firebirds. The rest of the show was just B.S. Though I did get a chuckle when they were trying to get the convertible chrome header moulding to fit!

Why not try and save some of the original sheet metal instead of using Chinese junk.

Did you notice them flipping thru the stack of invoices from NPD?

60 day deadline. To source and do a "real" concours restoration with NOS parts would take closer to a year, maybe longer.
Faster/cheaper to do an import resto.

swfirebird (or perhaps anyone that followed this more closely), can you clarify something for me?

These two cars were sold on E-Bay a couple years ago for around $30K, correct?

Then the guy we saw at the beginning of the "Fast n Loud" show sold them the guys on the TV show for $70K, correct?

Just trying to figure out why I am reading that these cars sold for $350K (perhaps this was in the show somewhere, I couldn't make through all the drama and contrived plot twists to hear all the dialogue).

And what the deal about them losing $10K a day if they don't meet their deadline?

Richard sold the cars to a "buyer" who is opening a Pontiac Museum for $350k plus $350k in restoration costs. To add to the fake reality drama they have a 60 day deadline and lose 10k of the restoration costs for each day they miss the 60 day deadline…to be continued nest week. Again, I find it hard to believe anything on these reality car shows. Most is made up for T.V. Also the show is on reruns so you should be able to catch it again.

Sorry, I think it was $325 up front and $325 when the cars were done.

Ok, so that's where this so-called $325K comes from. Thank you for clarifying that!

So the cars sold on E-Bay for $30K, then the next owner sold them on camera for $70K, now the "Fast n Loud" guys are restoring them for an upfront price of $325K, then will get another $325K if they meet the deadline. The cars are still only worth what they say they're worth. The guy that owns the museum is doing this for the publicity, hence the outrageous prices for both the resto and the final price.

Can't understand these resto costs, but I guess that's how shops stay in business, and owners of those shops continue to buy classic cars with their profits. I spoke to a resto shop owner out here a couple years ago, and he basically said the only reason resto prices are 10 times higher now than they were 20 years ago is because the prices of cars are 10 times higher. They use the same paint, same techniques, and the same equipment they used in the late 1990's as they do today. I guess that's the reason he now owns 15 classic cars, ranging from Shelbys to GTO's, and he drives a new Z06 Corvette. Keep lining their pockets I guess.

True story : A guy here bought a 64 GTO and wanted it fully restored by a well-known shop. They did the resto, but then the owner decided AFTER it was done that he had the "custom" bug, so he told the shop to do a pearl paint job, lower the car, 20" wheels, etc. The shop isn't complaining, they get to charge him for all this resto work all over again. The car owner said he wanted it done for the Detroit custom auto show, which was only 3 months away. The shop owner said that's impossible, he only has 4 employees, and they are working on two other GTO's at the moment. The car owner said money was no object, what would it take to get his 64 GTO done in 3 months. The shop owner said he'd have to literally close his shop down, and just work on his 64 GTO. The car owner said, "Then do it, I'll pay all costs."

So they did. They closed literally their shop and worked 12 hours a day on the 64 GTO. That meant the GTO owner not only paid for the re-re restoration of his car, but also paid for the shop owner to close his shop to all business for 3 months. When it was all said and done, the car cost over $500K to this GTO owner. But money was no object, he got what he wanted.