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Curious for Opinions Here - What Percentage of Project Cars Actually Get Completed?

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Love the raised storage.
Asking $9,000 Oh boy...
"I know what I got. That's a rare car. I saw one sell for $90,000 on Barrett Jackson. Just like this one, but restored, and it was a '70 440 six pack Charger. Basically almost the same. Someone will make a lot of money when they restore this." - owner of this rotten shell parked behind the tractor shed since the 80's, probably.
 
If you're lucky they will throw in the culvert pipe to sweeten the deal.
 
I would consider a project car done when it is running, driving and everything works. We all tinker and replace parts but that isn't unfinished.
My 69 GTX was started Apr 2016 and finished in June 2017. I am still tinkering with stuff lol. But I consider it done.

I would guess started projects get finished 60% of the time.
Rusty, yard art that "will be fixed up someday" has a 95% chance of never being started.
 
That rusty "Road Runner" is listed at $9000?
I really mean it when I state that I wouldn't give $90 for it. I am absolutely serious.
1974 is the third worst year. The 1976 Volare could be packaged as a "Road Runner" even with a pathetic 90 HP slant six, that is much worse.
THIS turd though....There is nothing of value to pull from it to use on other cars. There is too much rust to deal with anyway.
 
Looks like someone already got the hood.
Might have buckets, slap stick and rallye cluster.
$650...maybe.
 
"It will get done!" You don't have to keep reminding every 6 months?

Geez Wizz!
 
I think a lot of people overestimate their skill set and grossly underestimate the time and expense involved in taking a project to the finish line. Starting with something like that $9000 Road Runner posted above makes it even worse. I would guess that maybe 10% of hobbyists actually finish project builds. The rest gather dust or get sold to another dreamer, only to repeat the cycle…
 
Continue to be awed by the number of classics and muscle cars I see ‘done’ at all the shows. I don’t go to that many anymore; I have 3 or 4 now a year that I make the effort to attend. However, others my car buds and I come across out taking a ride, time permitting, we’ll go in to spend an hour or two. Having friends in AZ and FL, went to a few shows when visiting them. Seems in just the last few years, TONS from churches to bars host car shows! Some monthly and a couple have them weekly around my area! List goes on, more body shops have coffee & cars events. It is a lot of fun chatting with these folks about their stories. If this hobby is waning, call me surprised.
 
I think a lot of people overestimate their skill set and grossly underestimate the time and expense involved in taking a project to the finish line. Starting with something like that $9000 Road Runner posted above makes it even worse. I would guess that maybe 10% of hobbyists actually finish project builds. The rest gather dust or get sold to another dreamer, only to repeat the cycle…
Shortly after I acquired my fifth GTX, I ran into a guy who had just spent $4000 on the shell of a '69 Road Runner that had been rotting in a field. No engine or transmission, no fender tag. He asked what I thought it would take to get his car to the level of mine, which was a fairly consistent local show winner. I had purchased the car "done," but had still spent a couple hundred hours on engine compartment detailing, and a few thousand bucks on parts upgrades to get it closer to original.

The guy was in a state of shock when I told him the previous owner had given me $50k worth of receipts for parts and outside shop work, and that a dozen individuals had donated probably 1000 hours of free labor to put the car together as a charity project. I asked him if he could do body and paint work, and when he said no, he realized his project was going to overwhelm him.

My friend who did my truck maintenance had pulled a '67 GTX out of a field a few years earlier. Sam was a skilled mechanic, a lifetime Mopar guy, and could do body work. The only stuff he farmed out was machine shop work, paint, and fabrication of quarter panels. He still had nearly $50K in the car, but he completed it in under two years, and later sold it for $80K. Guys with his skill level and commitment probably complete close to 100%.
 
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I don't know how anyone with out the tools...time and talent to finish one themselves could afford to pay someone else to do everything...

Mine strap me financially during a build and I do 90% of everything...

Being upside down going in the door because you overpaid for junk doesn't help...

The most expensive car I bought as a project was the 65 Bel II with a lot of spare parts with it...

Next was the 69 Dart with a second 69 GTS parts car...

The 72 Duster was next and was bought right with a 225/904 7 1/4" drivetrain...

My 70 Satellite and a 68 Coronet 440 H/T were bought together and then I sold the 68 for what I paid for both...

The 65 Coronet was a basket case and was only good for what I used it for...but it came with a few good extra parts and had a 4.11 742 Clutch pak pig in it...

I hate to say that Kern's right but I also wouldn't have paid 90.00 for that heap pictured above...

The majority of money spent on my cars came from hustling other old cars and parting them out...

There is usually nothing left but a rusted hulk when I strip them and then sell everything I can...
 
Oooooh…now I remember that one that I didn’t finish.

Copied this from the random picture thread
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Just convinced my kid not to buy that Volkswagen vanagon that he claimed he was going to buy and restore.
 
Wish I had a dollar for every for sale ad I've seen featuring a car that's been "back yard back halfed", that involves cutting everything out but nothing else.

Those cars might actually be worth something had they done nothing to them.
That reminds me... a buddy looked at the rust in my trunk floor a couple of weeks ago and said "Why don't you just back-half it." He was joking when he said that (well, half-joking... probably...). Knowing how much work it takes to replace rotten floor panels has me thinking that a backyard back-half might not be such a bad idea sometimes.
 
I like where I fit in the chain; doing the part of the job that most can't handle

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