At 06:14 PM 3/18/89 -0500, you wrote:
>Greetings all,
>
>I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have (in boxes) a 59 +4 4str that I have
>wanted to restore for years. The problem is when I do even rough
>estimates on how much it will cost it is well over 12-15k. This is
>equal to or greater than the value of the poor vehicle....
>Sell the parts and buy a restored vehicle. This option makes financial
>sense. Here's the hard part, the Mog belonged to my Grandfather and of
>course there is emotional attachment to the little red car. The groups
>thoughts would be helpful.
JJS,
1. You can't really equate money to semintal value or pride.
2. I can't think of too many cars that you can restore for less
than they are worth.
That said, I'll expound on the second statment first. I have over 1741
hours in the restoration of my 65 Morgan, over 1000 hrs in the restoration
of my 75 Bricklin (no where near finished) and a couple of more cars to go.
Now, looking at my Morgan, 1740 hr * $20/hr = $35,000 in LABOR alone. Next
instead or reworking many parts, a restorer will simply replace the part.
That cost is passed on to you. I spent about $8,000 in parts to restore
the car. So now you are looking about about $43,000 for my car. Which
by the way just won a National AACA 1st place, in addition to 1st in class
at the Morgan Nationals and numerous other awards. Now the good news,
it is appraised for $25,000. A nice net loss of at least $18,000, at
least on paper.
You can't play with any car if you are looking at strickly dollars!!!!
You play with them because you love them, it keeps you off the streets,
and it is cheaper than some other hobbies - like chasing women. :)
There is an old adage, "If you have to ask how much, then you can't afford
it". If you are going to farm out the work on the car, you will NEVER
recoop your investment. Now if you are filthy rich and $100,000 is a
night on the town, then what's $50,000 to restore your car - pocket change.
Now comes the semintal part. I've had my Morgan since I was 19 or about
30 years. Having said that I put $8,000 into the restoration and the
original cost of the car, I have a total of about $10,000 in her. But
how much would I sell her for? You won't get my attention until you
exceed $100,000. Now this was my car. If you talk about my Dad's '48
TR1800 that I have many fond memories of working on with him (luckily
he is still alive and we still play with that one - he's 75) and going
on runs and stuff when I was a kid, again you'd better have a fat wallet!!
It's been said to most of us and about most of use, "they got to be crazy
to play with those old car"! YUP!!!! And I'm damn proud of it.
So forget about the money, restore the car, and keep the memories. They
can't be bought.
Once nice thing about this hobby, is that the more work you do yourself,
the cheaper the final product is. While this is the case with a lot of
things, not too many of us will build our house. We need a roof over our
head to start with. But you already have the car, don't need it since it
is in boxes already. So go for it.
Just my $2. I think I rambled more that $.02
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
71 Saab Sonett III 75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire
www.team.net/www/morgan bricklin.shel.olsy-na.com/bi
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