[Zeke]

I budgeted 1000 hours for most simple restorations that were straight forward and not trashed. Think early Corvette or Mustang. Off frame.

Once you've taken the car apart, done all the preliminay work, reassembled for fit and then paint, you know the car well enough to put it back together rather quickly. The only disadvantage I see in the 100 hour "estimate" is that you didn't get the benefit of the earlier work.

I'd say you and your friend the shop owner should agree that the both of you can do this in 5 days flat. It will take you the whole 7 or so in my mind even when you think you can do it in 5.

Now, if this is an off hours type of thing, just remember how long it takes to get into the zone where you are producing each session. If you were thinking of working on the car for 3 hours at a time, that's 33.3 days. For 2, it's half. In that case, I'd give it a month.

That's how it works around here.