Getting Started: The Revised Plan and Budget

Revising the Plan

After stripping the car, it was obvious that the body was in such poor shape that the original plan was not an option. Not only did the bottom 8 inches of the car have stage IV cancer, whoever did the previous bodywork had to be smoking crack at the time. To be fair, the guy who applied the body filler was a master sculptor. In some places, the stuff was 2 inches thick.

At a minimum, the car needed the following:

Under deck lid panel

Firewall

Clearly, this car was not worth repairing. Completing all of the repairs above would only get the car to a point where it would be worth turning into a street rod.

My choices at this point were to admit my mistake and sell off parts, put the car back together and try to unload it on an even bigger fool, or do the necessary repairs and pretend I knew the car was a mess when I bought it.

I decided to rescue the car even though it was a “poster child” for the automotive patch panel industry. If I had it to do over again, I would have parted-out the car and pretended that was my original plan.

Although the body needed almost total restoration, the repairs could be classified as “rough-in” bodywork because the majority of it wouldn’t be visible. Most body shops don’t like to do this type of work because it is messy, takes up a lot of space and is unpredictable. And, shops that do specialize in restoration work charge anywhere from $30 to over $90 per hour.

Since I wasn’t willing to spend $100,000 (or a lot more), I decided to do the repairs myself.

The Budget

Based on the condition of the car after disassembly and stripping, I developed a budget based on the necessary body repairs, the chassis I wanted to use and the components I wanted in the completed car.

Click here to see a spreadsheet of the budget.

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