figuring out budget

[greenmachine]

Hey guys, workin on a rough budget and wanted to get opinions, input. I can do most mechaincal work, parts sourcing, etc. but will have to farm out paint (doing as much sanding and trim/glass removal as I can to save money there). Heres what I am thinkin, again, roughly.

Paint/body, including product, straight'ish body, minor rust. 6500
engine trans, 59k doccumented original 383, minor upgrades, headers, trans rebuild 1000
interior, all green interior column shift car, switch to summit buckets and black interior 1000
tires/wheels 1000
rear end, rebuild with detroit tru-trac and 355's, 1000

so far 10,500 plus 5500 purchase, plus misc. unforseen issues, 2000k. total so far 18k.
sound reasonable or am I high on weed for my glacoma. lol. thanks, erik.

 

[70RR]

Damn, I sure wish Florida would pass that Medical pot stuff I have Eye issues myself...
The cost of a paint job ..They started a thread on what a typical paint should cost just a few days ago....The best one I read said painting is cheap it is the prep that costs so much.
Unless you want some special paint....From what I read $6500 sounds a little high..Costs seem to be all over the place too.
I was at a local Car Show and asked some one that had a newer looking paint job...The shop he recommended has been doing paint for 30 years and the yard was full of late 60's cars and the guy I asked went to H.S. with the paint shop owners in late 60's...I was quoted approx $1700 and from what I saw in his yard looked like a $3000 paint job to me ...I need no body work I know of!!!..Finding a paint shop that the owner is a Mopar guy does not hurt either....Just My $0.02 cents..Rick 70RR

Hey guys, workin on a rough budget and wanted to get opinions, input. I can do most mechaincal work, parts sourcing, etc. but will have to farm out paint (doing as much sanding and trim/glass removal as I can to save money there). Heres what I am thinkin, again, roughly.

Paint/body, including product, straight'ish body, minor rust. 6500
engine trans, 59k doccumented original 383, minor upgrades, headers, trans rebuild 1000
interior, all green interior column shift car, switch to summit buckets and black interior 1000
tires/wheels 1000
rear end, rebuild with detroit tru-trac and 355's, 1000

so far 10,500 plus 5500 purchase, plus misc. unforseen issues, 2000k. total so far 18k.
sound reasonable or am I high on weed for my glacoma. lol. thanks, erik.

 

[daredevil]

Motor, trans looks low. Seems one thing leads to another,upgraded ignition ,stall converter,shift kit, cam, powder coating,ceramic headers etc.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Even if you can do ALL the work youreslf, like the devilish one said, the motor ant trans amount is low. We don't even do any three speed bench jobs for much under a grand for the transmission alone. Parts run in the 600 dollar range.

 

[Dennis H]

Minor interior guestimate on my part? $300. Parts alone? $425.

 

[Donny]

Triple all those numbers, you're then in the ball-park.

 

[Hemi Rebel]

I don't even bother with projections. I keep all receipts for every expenditure in a folder just for the sake of keeping a record in case there are any issues later on down the road. Other than that I just keep saving up and buying what I need/want. Save, spend, buy. Wash, rinse, repeat. eventually it will get done. And done the way I want. Not the way a budget demands it get done. At that point you might as well be one of those resto shops on reality tv trying to get a car done in 2 weeks for X amount. The end result may not be what you really want. JMHO

 

[Bruzilla]

Hey Erik. First off, ever hear of the saying "a fool and his money are easily parted"? The trick to developing a budget, and more importantly sticking to it, is to not be foolish. There's a smart way to do everything you want done to your car, and a foolish way to do it, so just make the right choices and you'll do fine.

Here's the write up I did on getting a 74 Roadrunner back on the road. You might some good tips in there. http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?40022-Project-Pittsbird-Almost-Done

 

[greenmachine]

Thanks guys,

I like to do my best on linning my ducks up before I jump in to a job. Most of those figures were quotes (paint job was the lowest one of a trusted shop, most were 12-14, even for a "driver" paint job). sorry dardevil, forgot to mention the 383 already has a intake, cam, and MSD, no headers yet though. Trans is supposed to be fine, just hasnt been driven in a while (like 5 years min. in a garage), was thinking just a pan drain/filter but who knows right. Donny, Triple all those numbers? even for a driver? Hemi Rebel, I wish I could go that route, but my micro managing side wont allow it. and dumping 40k in to a auto 383, 440 coupe when I can buy finished 440 4spd cars for around that price, takes the wind out of my sales a bit. Again, thanks guys for your input, please keep em coming, and bruzilla I will read that thread, thanks. This is my first mopar muscle car and plan on doing it right and budget minded.

 

[CTMopar]

If you are building it to be your car, it's worth as much or as little as it means to you. I will probably have more into my current car than it's "worth" but it will be what I want and it's mine. I had a friend who bought a very nice 69 GTX. Everywhere he went he got "hey isn't that so and so's car". We all have a budget but don't cut corners because of it. If you need to save a little longer to get Sheumacher or TTI headers instead of generics wait and get quality parts or work.

 

[Hemi Rebel]

I got ya, I didn't mean it to sound like I just throw money at my car willy nilly. I ain't exactly got money falling out of my a hole. The point I wanted to make was I dont have a budget per se, I have a goal. I have a vision of how i want my car to be. I will not let a little thing like money stop me from achieving that goal. That said, its not exactly flowing out of my butt, so there comes my challenge. I charge myself with the task of getting it done within my means of doing so without compromising my goals or vision. I shop around, and I dont want to get ripped off. But im not gonna rip myself off either.

 

[moparstuart]

Hey Erik. First off, ever hear of the saying "a fool and his money are easily parted"? The trick to developing a budget, and more importantly sticking to it, is to not be foolish. There's a smart way to do everything you want done to your car, and a foolish way to do it, so just make the right choices and you'll do fine.

Here's the write up I did on getting a 74 Roadrunner back on the road. You might some good tips in there. http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?40022-Project-Pittsbird-Almost-Done

great advice

 

[Bruzilla]

There are lots of guys in this hobby who feel everything about their car has to be "correct". This attitude has various levels of presence such as every part used must be OEM for that model. Another is painting an interior panel is a sin. Another is the must not be modified in any way. And another is the "I don't care what it costs so long as it is right!" It's these guys, Erik, that you're going to find are your best friends. Why? Because they often totally lose all sense of perspective about what it is they set out to do and one of two things happen: either they wake up one day (or get kicked in the *** by their spouse) and say to themselves "what the Hell was I thinking?" and start trying to get out from under their one-year project that's now going on year five and draining them dry, or they become the guy they hate the most... the guy with the half-assembled car behind the house who refuses to sell it because "I'm gonna fix it someday." Seek out the former of these two as paying a thousand for a complete, built, ready-to-run engine beats the heck out of paying the thousands the seller dumped into his project engine before losing interest. Always spend other peoples' money whenever you can.

In the military we have "mission creep", in defense contracting we have "scope creep", and in this hobby we have "project creep", all of which occur when someone loses sight of what they should and can do. If it's cheaper to replace than to repair, replace, all plastic panels look OEM black after being painted with Duo Matte Black, and every craigslist has lots of used aftermarket bucket seats you can get for a song.

 

[Superfreak]

You definitely need to stay focussed on the plan and goal otherwise any budget can get out of hand, ask me how I know.

 

[tpodwdog]

save yourself some time, money and aggrivation and DUMP THE HEADERS. you dont need them and all they'll do is cause ya grief! use stock manifolds !

 

[CTMopar]

save yourself some time, money and aggrivation and DUMP THE HEADERS. you dont need them and all they'll do is cause ya grief! use stock manifolds !

After going back and forth in my head and weighing what I was going to do with my car and what RPM range it would be in I decided to go with manifolds. I picked up a set of HP manifolds for $225. I saved myself a few hundred $ I can put somewhere else. If I did headers I would have spent the money on good ones. Like some of the people have said plan what you want or need and find a cost effective way to do that. Don't let the budget keep you from being happy.

 

[Dennis H]

If I ever have to replace my Coronet - and I hope it never happens, a finished car will be purchased. Now, I just table upgrades when funds run low. Always making sure it is running is a priority. There are nice well done cars out there for decent money. Caveat Emptor and take your time.

 

[kb67mopar]

The way I approached my project was I set a goal for what I wanted it to be and then decided the only way to get there was to do everything myself, wait for deals and be patient. There are lots of guys in the hobby and on this site that are more then willing to spend gobs of cash for convenience...ie pay a body shop to do the metal replacement, pay a builder to build a complete engine package, buy NEW everything.....and thats is a fast track to a 50k project.

Myself, I have done everything to this point, replaced frame rails, replace trunk sections, replaced parts of quarter panels and sold parts off a parts car to pay for said parts car and more parts....keep a budget, track your purchases and weigh your options. I am getting close to paint and have a total out of pocket expense so far of $4k. And to show for it have a 5.7 hemi, stand alone harness, tuned computer, transmission, rust free chassis, two sets of glass, and window trim, bucket seats (for sale), 2 sets of grille surrounds (1 good, 1 not) and a shed full of extra stuff I probably won't need and can sell after.

You don't have to spend $20k to get a 20k car...just have to spend the time to make up the cash....but there is no free ride.

 

[Bruzilla]

One other thing, and maybe the pro paint & body guys can help out here, do you really save any money by sanding the car and removing trim yourself? I watched the guy who painted my car take that thing apart, and he had all the right tools and the right experience, and he had that car stripped down and built back up in no time... much faster than I could. What would have taken me a weekend he had done in a little over an hour. As for sanding, are there any P&B guys who are going to just slap paint on a customer-sanded body, or are you going to go over it yourself? I suspect the later.

So I'm thinking you're really not going to get much of a better deal by sanding and removing trim yourself. You'll probably be worse off by the time you have to buy trim removal tools, break/damage expensive trim pieces, pay for all the sanding materials, etc.

 

[bigredbird]

$7k for the car and $13k+ for restorations later, I'm still waiting for paint. I want to give the job to one of the two shops in town that work exclusively with old cars and will love 'em up as part of the work, but the best price I've gotten so far is "four to six thousand, depending on what we find." When I told my motor guy that, he thought I said "$46,000" and dropped a wrench on his foot. :icon_lol: