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Advice Needed

Scoots45

Member
Local time
11:55 AM
Joined
Jan 24, 2017
Messages
10
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9
Location
N. Illinois
Thinking I took on more than I can handle. I have a 70 Roadrunner 383 auto in FK5 with FK5 interior that needs rear frame rails, trunk pan, rear window repaired, and quarter skins. Engine and trans are not original I have the fender tag and it doesn't have any rare options. My questions are..

1. Wondering if the car is worth restoration
2. Can anyone recommend a shop around Illinois to do at least the frame rails
 
The only worth of anything in my books is personal enjoyment......If that is what you want than build it.....
 
Judging from your question it sounds like your more interested in it's final value than it being something you desire? Myself I don't care whether it's an R/T, 500, AAR, Hemi or a Sixpack... just whether or not it's the car I want. This is a question only you can answer.
 
Build the car! Frame rails seems like a daunting task but I don’t think it’s all that difficult. If you’re not confident have a shop do it. I’m sure any race shop or custom shop. Rad rides by Troy comes to mind in Illinois, I don’t think you need a resto shop for this job. Find a donor car rip the rails out and bring them to your installer.
 
Its still a RR. The value will depend on the quality of workmanship. And Whether its worth doing or not is dependent on your sweat equity. If you can't do a good portion of the work yourself and do it half decent then the outside labor will far exceed the final value. But if you can do a lot yourself then a) you have something to be proud of and b) something that will probably return your investment - the dollar part - not the sweat equity part!
 
what it comes down to is if you can do a majority of the work yourself???
if not,Punt and go find a better starting point even if it costs you more
as that will be your most economical way to getting to your goal.
 
Thinking I took on more than I can handle. I have a 70 Roadrunner 383 auto in FK5 with FK5 interior that needs rear frame rails, trunk pan, rear window repaired, and quarter skins. Engine and trans are not original I have the fender tag and it doesn't have any rare options. My questions are..

1. Wondering if the car is worth restoration
2. Can anyone recommend a shop around Illinois to do at least the frame rails

Depends on what you will be happy owning/driving. If you did it all, put it back close to original, real clean, no rust, no Bondo, fresh interior, but not concourse, you have about a $35k car. Without seeing your car, I presume you may end up spending more than that, factoring in the price of the car too. If you are good with spending more than the final value of the car, go for it. If not, will you be happy with the car if you spend/do less?

Since I'm not married to my cars (I had these things when they were damn near new in the '70s, so this is not a all consuming passion for me now), I base my decisions on value, not passion. I recently purchased a '70 Super Bee. I know what they are worth today. My formula for what I want the car to be in the end is Purchase Price + Work = Final Value +/- 10%. So, I wanted a '70 Super Bee, worth $40k on the high end. I bought a $16k car that I estimate will cost me $24k to make it what I want. Worst case, I'll be in for $44k, $4k over the car's estimated value. Works for me. Understand though, this is my last resto, so I wanted cool, and I want to make it nice, but within my means.

You need your formula on what works for you. Good luck.
 
If your building it to in hopes one day recoups or make money on the car, forget it. If your not doing all the work yourself it is always a loose loose situation.

IF your building it for yourself, don’t worry about it. It’s ether spend 50k to 70k on that killer hot rod or spend a little less, and I mean only a little less, on the car of your dreams built the way you want it.

Your car your way!
 
it’s a hard question to answer without seeing the car and also knowing your skill level as for mechanics welding and so on. Rear frame rails trunk pan and body parts you can find.the parts are not cheap one bit and you will never get your money back out of it if your just looking to flip it if it’s something you have always wanted have a blast and make it your own
 
I was at this shop in LaSalle, IL about 6 years ago. They have a nice set up and only work on Mopars as far as I know. Not that I would hire somebody to rebuild your whole car because you would be upside down real fast, but they might know somebody that could help you with the rails.

https://bluestarperformance.com/
 
My first full resto I should of not even started on it, but I did learn all my skills doing it. So I took it as my test carto refine my skills. And it was a ford lol so now when I'm doing my mopars i have some experience under my belt and know what it all involves. Ford took 23 panels and 2500 hours to restore all myself except for machine work. It all depends on what your willing to take on. But once you start you have to keep with it .
 
You'll never get your money out if it.
BUT, 70 RR are the best looking of the RR.
If you don't restore it hopefully somebody else will.

I have a 70 Coronet that I'm going to have $35k+ in. Lovely car but I doubt I'd ever get half of that out it.

My basic rule of thumb is that you can get half your money back. Moparz are money pits
 
The other responses are right. Forget about resale value, there is little doubt that you will have more into just about any of these cars than they are "worth". You have to do it because you want to do it. Unless you have a Hemi car or a 1 of 2 car, this is not a game to get into for the money. Restore or sell the car because that's what you want to do....period
 
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