05/28/2026
So you are driving around the back roads with your teenage kid and find an old vehicle and think it would be a cool parent/kid project. Allow me to introduce you to the vehicle that will ruin your retirement. You pay $2500 for a vehicle that you see through rose colored glasses and take it home and blow it completely apart. How bad could it be? And let's mention this too, you have never undertaken a restoration project of this scale. You need 5 things: money, space, time, know-how, and tools/equipment. Without those 5 things, you are doomed at the start. While you take the vehicle apart, you are shocked at how much rust damage you didn't see previously. The frame is broken or the uni-body is so rusty the vehicle is sagging in the middle. Hesitant to throw in the towel and lose your $2500, you call me and ask about what a restoration will cost? Any vehicle that receives a ground up restoration, that means everything is new, rebuilt, reconditioned, will cost in excess of $200,000. I don't beat around the bush about the cost of a professional restoration. Labor adds up quickly. Parts are unbelievably expensive. It's not 1982 anymore. If the vehicle has significant rust damage, the cost goes up because at the end of the restoration, how much of the original vehicle can be used and how much is replaced with reproduction sheet metal? If the car has some significance in your life or family and you have the financial means, those vehicles have a incredible story but along with the money spent, you have to care for the vehicle after the work is finished. I have several customers that their beautifully restored vehicle sits outside in the driveway because they didn't plan for the proper care afterwards. If you have 10 million dollars, a $200,000+ vehicle build won't move your financial needle very much. If you're going to pay as you go, you need $60K to $70K per year to keep the project moving forward. But if you don't have that kind of money, stay away from any project car unless you plan to do the work yourself. A full restoration at home will take about 10 years so getting the vehicle ready for your youngest kids prom night isn't going to happen.
Two bits of advice that I give everyone. First, buy the best vehicle you can afford. At a minimum, this is a running and driving vehicle that does not have significant rust damage, stay away from cars sold new in the rust belt because salt damage is in places that you can't see. Second, buy body and paint work that you can live with. 40 years ago, the most expensive area of the restoration was the driveline. Today, it's body and paint, so if you don't like a certain color, don't buy a car that color and then bring it to me to paint because every paint job snowballs into "well, since we're here, we might as well do X" X = $$$ if you didn't surmise that yet. Sometimes, old vehicle patina can be really cool but you have to accept the vehicle exterior the way it is and put in your mind that you are not restoring the exterior. There is a difference between cool patina and rusted junk, get to know the difference. There is no shortage of old cars and there never will be because fiberglass and steel reproduction bodies are available so there's no urgency to buy "before they run out" There are always more old cars for sale than there are buyers so that's in your favor and as boomers age and die, the market will have a ton of cars for sale. That's not to be a mean-spirited comment, it's just a ebb and flow of the old car hobby. A reproduction body could cost $18,000 but I'll spend $30,000 fixing the rust on your project vehicle. I say it this way, when a vehicle is rusty, we have to fix the car before we can build the car. When you buy a nice car, we skip the fix part and jump right to the build part. Build means lots of different things, wheels, stance, good brakes, quick steering, air conditioning, a fresh interior, or all of the above. If you want to build a car so you can sell it at a profit at Mecum or Barrett-Jackson, that plan is a financial loser 99% of time. Build a car for the enjoyment that it will give you because you are not going to get your money back out of it. As you search for your dream car, keep these three things in mind. You have to look every day, you have to have cash, and you have to be ready to travel at a moments notice. The good deals don't last long. Caution buying from consignment dealers because they don't know the car where as a seller that has owned the car for 35 years can tell you all about it. Inspect any vehicle with your own eyes and if you don't know what you are looking at, take someone with you that does. Do not buy sight unseen. In my experience, third party inspection services will not "see" the things that you or your buddy will see. Whew!
