It has been said over and over to buy a restored car vs doing it yourself..

Well, here are the numbers! Upside down, but not really that bad… I'm not upset in the least. It's just interesting to know right down to the dollar. And someday when I sell the car, my tax accountant will be delighted to use the loss and offset some income..

$3,500 = March 2006 purchase price of worn out 1965 Plymouth Satellite, heavily optioned, 361/2bbl w/console shift 727, 2.76 rear end. AC, power windows, tinted glass, bumper guards, dash clock, courtesy light package. Love the car.

$26,698.83 = November 2006 to Now gross total expenses of restoration. I farmed out engine rebuild, tranny rebuild, all body work, and rechroming. Engine upped to 9.4:1. Body got new trunk pan and QP arches, new paint, new glass and new vinyl top. All the parts and pieces I bought. NOTE: I put no value on my own labor for all disassembly and re-assembly, all scraping, priming and POR-15'ing underneath, all my own suspension work, interior, dash, instruments, straighten and polished brightwork, rebuilt power windows, etc, etc (excluding I couldn't find the receipts for rechroming the bumpers, I recall it was about $450 for both0.

$1,440.00 = Income from eBaying leftover parts, trim, stainless, interior, etc.

$28,758.83 - Net cost to date.

vs

$26,500 - Current negotiated "agreed value" insurance policy. I'm thinking it would sell for $2-3k less on the market today.

So for rough purposes my "net loss" is at least $2,238.83, more like $4,000 - excluding 6 years of my labor and rechroming the bumpers....

Whew...! Would I do it again? Probably, yes. The car is awesome, and I'm proud of what I put into it.

Cheers,
- Art


BEFORE:







This kid is now 11 years old…


AFTER:

You just broke the cardinal rule of restoring your car.

NEVER ADD THE RECIEPTS!





*Seriously nice car though!

Yep: I have $57k in my 340 Challenger (so far).

Sheldon

I have over $65K in this... I wish the receipts would have burned up too.

Worth it to know exactly what you have. Beautiful car.

Nice after achievement!! Sometimes when you look at the numbers you forget how long it took to get there, how much more you might have spent if you didnt get deals on parts and services and so on. I always thought it would be kind of a tribute to go through everything I have in my car and post those on a plaque of the items from friends and people met at swap meets On the other side of your realization, thats why I decided to sell my so called dream restoration as the money spent would have made a nice car but in the long run I probably would have sacrificed both of the ones I have now.

Beautiful car. Enjoy it!

That's a sweet looking Satellite! I save all my receipts in a folder. When the car is complete, I might want to know the final tally but I suspect that I won't be in any hurry to add up the numbers.

I am at around $20,000 on my 69 RR

Im afraid to tally!

Im sure some day when its all finished up I'll sit down and add but I don't think I'll share the results.

Its not about the "Money"...its about the "Journey"......the "Satisfaction" of doing it yourself and showing the world what I "Accomplished".....a "Hobby"......I,m saving all the receipts for my Duster..I got a long way to go,but it is "Fun"......remember the word 'Fun"... Drive it and Enjoy it..You Earned It.....

First off, I am sure you would never have started if you felt this was going to be a money making thing - you built the car that YOU wanted !! Kudos to that !!!

I have the shoe box full of reciepts for my 70 Sport Satellite - and have an idea of the amount, however, it was never about that, it was always about DRIVING the car !! And it happened to be the ONLY way I was going to afford to be able to drive it . . . so, owned the car for 13 years, collected parts for 10 years, and took 2 years to totally guy and rebuild the car . . . not even going to THINK what my time is worth ! Especially thinking about searching for parts, working on the car itself, etc . . . as someone else said, it was the JOURNEY of it all, and then the final product of being able to enjoy driving what YOU BUILT !!!

Nothing against buying a done car, certainly a lot less pain that way, but you do have a sort of pride being able to say you built your car yourself !!!

Cheers

Mark

I keep an Excel spreadsheet for anything purchased, helps me to keep track of current total. With doing as much as I can myself, the total is at 50k, I hope to be able to finish for under 60 and that's counting my labor and research time at "0".

I have no problem with the idea except that if I make anything above my cost Uncle Sam will want his take, counting my time for zero because it wasn't paid out, but had I paid out and lost I don't get to claim the loss.

Seems its a lose-lose situation if doing this for money

that's an amazingly small number for where the car was and where it is now. i'm damn impressed!

Where are those guys that insist they can do a full restoration for under 10 grand!!

considering the end results 26500 isn't bad. i did a 65 coronet and i'm very aware of the costs.

Thanks all! You pretty much nailed it with the "don't forget you're doing it for fun" comments - yes, it was never for the money.

I mean, there were some times when the going was tough, keeping a positive attitude constantly solving problems, keep slogging away mid-winter but - it is an accomplishment I will always be proud of, I feel so much emotion for the car, I know it so thoroughly - you can't trade that for money. ...I'm happy to lose $4,000 for that privilege.

And even though when I was done I said "Never again!" .... I went to look at an intact old barn find last week....

I'm picking a cheaper hobby in my next life like polo horses.
Beautiful car, have fun with it!