Online Article: Upside Down on Your Car Investment

Always keep your goal in mind when spending to restore your car. Will you make your money back, or is the investment more for the sake of your driving experience than your pocketbook? Here's some sage advice from Auction Editor Andy Reid.

http://classicmotorsports.net/articles/upside-down/

Mental note: Must not try any serious restoration on my recently acquired '72 Chevy pickup. Shouldn't get too far out of hand as I bought it for the patina look...

Those C-10 Trucks are pretty cool. I can see them bringing decent money someday. Not to add fuel to your fire!

Ahhhh... my exp was restoring a 1970 SCJ powered Mach 1.... I estimated about $8500 (1990 $s) by the time I was finished (early 1994) it had cost me nearly $16000

Joe Gearin wrote: Those C-10 Trucks are pretty cool. I can see them bringing decent money someday. Not to add fuel to your fire!

I can always wait until they actually command serious money then.

I know a bit about Fiats and I discussed with Andy the wisdom of professionally restoring an inexpensive car to high standards and expecting anywhere close to a break-even return at auction. If you keep the car for ten years, then $20k for something vintage, perfect and reliable is fair enough. In ten years it will increase to that level and you will have had some fun. On the other hand $20k restoration on an XKE is money well invested. The other plan would be to do the work yourself and just buy the best parts as happens to many Fiats and then the end value is close to cost. They also rebuild the mechanicals and drive them. I would say that Andy misjudged the market value of the Fiat Spider on the west coast where they are rather common and less valued than on the east coast or in Europe.

Cheers Ron

Not real misjudged, just caught myself going too far. I knew I was upside down the minute I started to source a perfect condition early dash replacement. When I sent to the paint shop I just decided to bring the car up to the level it deserved.

I can say it is the nicest early 124 AS in the U.S. and that the new owner, the person who bought it from the guy who bought it at the auction loves it.

On a plus side, the 66 Volvo 1800S I have is coming along nicely and will be worth more when I am done than I have spent on it. I bought it very well and the car looks amazing and will likely also be one of the nicer ones in the U.S.

Andy: I like the 1800S.
Did you see what NADA values ($17K) are for Spiders? I would love to believe it but I have yet to see more than $15K for the best examples or for top appraisals. Cheers Ron

Jay Leno says "if you're making money fixing up cars, you're doing it wrong."

I'm willing to bet if I sold the GT6 I would lose money based on what it cost to restore it.

Oh well. I never restored it to sell. So this one is personal ;)

I spent last weekend going around to body shops to get estimates for painting my son's 80 spitfire. Very few would even consider it, more interested in insurance fueled repair work. One shop, with a 911 in the paint booth, was very honest. To figure out if a car should be restored: If the cost for the paint job and work would probably be more than the cost of the best, same model, car I could find for sale on line, don't do it.

My son, 25 and a new college grad, worked on the car and want this one done. Who am I to argue with that? It's passion driving him (and other gear heads).

Plan B might be teach him how to paint.

If a hobby (recreation) becomes a business (work), is it fun any more?

mike

If you're thinking of painting a car and you aren't planning on making it a show car, I'd consider MAACO.
I know some folks say they're cheesy, but I've seen several cars done by them that were surprisingly good. And one has been around a while so the job seems to be holding up.
Several guys in our club had their race cars done by MAACO.
If you clean and prep your car ahead of time and maybe do some of the critical taping, it might work out.

http://www.maaco.com/

SkinnyG wrote: Jay Leno says "if you're making money fixing up cars, you're doing it wrong."

A related saying I've heard is "The only way to make money restoring cars is to restore someone else's cars."

"If you're thinking of painting a car and you aren't planning on making it a show car, I'd consider MAACO"

One of the body shops suggested them too. I used them years ago with good for the price results but the local one is long gone. Nearest one is an hour away, might be worth at least a call.

thanks mike

Those GT6 tend to be attractive cool. I can see them providing good funds someday.

Amazingly, I think my g/f could sell her 1800ES for more than she's put into it over the years. She bought it fairly well and most of the work we've put into it has been as much labor as it has been parts themselves. Getting the M41 for the manual conversion for $200 (with an engine attached) helped a bit. The DIY restored engine bay really did wonders for giving the car a certain "wow factor" and IMHO increased the value as well.

Paint and body seems to be the most costly of a restoraion, at least in my limited experience. What I did was find a guy that paints on the side. Local clubs usually know of a few around. In my case, the guy I chose was a professional painter at a local dealer body shop and paints classics and customs on the side. Was reasonable priced too. Like Andre, I didn't restore my Opel GT to sell. Too much family history with the car. But didn't get too deep into $$, I can sell it for more than it cost me to restore. And it seems to be a car that is coming into its own and going up in value, at least somewhat. But paint was the only thing I farmed out, I did everything else myself and reused everything I could. Paint was half the cost of the restoration. Plan on a similar process with my next project because it will be for sale when I finish it. It's an 1963 MG Midget MK I. I know not valuble so plan on keeping expenses down on it and don't plan on making money off it. Hopefully breakeven or come close though.

My hope with my crusty 1800ES is to do a race-car restoration to it. The rust and interior are too far gone to be restorable and even be anywhere near a break-even point with regards to value - even if I do all of the work myself. However, I think I can get the car into presentable condition for a race car where the interior would be stripped out anyway and it would only need to pass the "50-50" rule.

I admit the odds are great I'll fail miserably, but the car is too straight for me not to try.