Buy a project or no?

[widebody911]

It definitely can be done, but you have to be willing to really commit.

Here's a '55 Westfalia I did a few years ago.



And a 1960 DD panel I did in 2000

And the 1956 ghia I'm working on right now

[tabs]

U need cubic $$$$ Bills, time and patience. It can be fun, fustrating and bank account draining...I'd say your gona need at least 20K to do the job of restoring the car above the $3800.

Go take a look and see..it doesn't cost nothin to look. If the car has alot of rust problems or body work needed pass. Check the Serial on the block and see if it matchs the Vin. Check for the trim parts, gauges etc for completeness of the car. I would also have the $3800 in 100s in your pocket and see if U wana part with them for that car. I once looked at a 68 Hemi Charger a guy wanted 9K for, I couldn't part with the 100's for the car.

Right now I got a friend that bought a 32 5 Window Ford Coupe about 6 months ago...Steel Body...car was running strong...for $28,500 well now he's into it for over 50K and not done...(hes bin able to get alot of stuff done reasonable).

Right now 50s and 60s car are going for the big BUX, so finding a deal is not easy. Five or six years ago it was a different story. So finding a resto project that someone got tired of is probably the best way of finding a deal.

[CJFusco]

I would like to do an early 911 project like this some day: buy a basket case and completely strip it down

[Tishabet]

Originally posted by widebody911
I would respectfully suggest that you get a running, driving, stopping project car and work up from there.

+1

I have restored two cars in my life (I'm 26 years old) and have worked on many, many more.
-73 VW std. Beetle, bought as complete basket case, lots of rust, complete frame-off resto and my first paint job, drove it throughout college.
-1938 Buick touring sedan, bought it in pieces but with very solid body and about 95% of the parts accounted for, wrapping up right now to drive to my wedding in May. Please don't ask me how much $$ I spent at the chromer's

My sage advice to you and every other person who is considering getting into car restoration is this:

Decide, ahead of time, what car you want to restore. Then wait for the right one to show up... in other words, if you take on aproject just because it presents itself, you might not have the same staying power that you would with a "dream car."

Buy the absolute best example you can afford within reason. Just like there is no such thing as a cheap Porsche....

Go into it as a hobby....you're almost always going to come out upside down when restoring a car. Just as in project management, take your estimate for cost and time and multiply both by pi.