Quote:

More important then money or material things is the determenation to see the project though to the end.
90% of the cars I restore are projects people have given up on





A friend of mine has a '70 Charger project that is in limbo. I met him when he was asking questions about the Charger he had bought, on-line, sight unseen.
He bought the car wanting a project to work on, but he owned almost no tools and din't know much about MOPARs. The Charger was a 500 model 318/auto car that someone swaped in a stock mid '70 440/auto. The car had most of the parts, but everything needed work, and it had alot of hidden rust covered up by bad bodywork.
Anyhow, my friend went out and bought a bunch of tools. Wrench and socket sets, air compressor, spotweld cutters, cut off wheels, blast cabinet, mig welder, etc. Then he dissasembled the car and we had it media blasted to bare metal.
when we got it back it was obvious the car needed almost the entire back of the car replaced. The trunk, sail panels, rear quarters, even the tail panel had rust. Not to mention the pin holes in the roof, lower corners of the fenders and doors, etc.
So, my friend decides to order up all the replacement panels and install them, but he has never welded or done body work before...
Anyhow, after not much success he decides to have a professional bodyman do the metal work.
I'm not sure how exactly how much was spent, but I think easely over $10,000 on metal and body work just to get the car in primer.
While the car body was being repaired, we rebuilt the 440 with 9.5:1 pistons and a mild Hughes cam.
Then my friend got sent off to Iraq.
When he returned, he was having marrage problems, and may get a divorce, so he is afraid the may have to sell the car, but it is still an unpainted basket case that he has way more money into that what it is worth.