Many years ago my brother had his Oldsmobile painted. They had to put inner wheel wells and trunk drop offs plus paint. The bill was a lot making his total investment just over 20k for the complete restoration. He was really worried that the car wasn't worth it. I said "bro, are you having fun?" Yes he was. End of discussion. We do this for the fun!!
It takes 2500-3000 hrs to do a nice Packard that's complete. Engines are avg $2,000/hole. Materials run about $7,500 for everything including consumables and misc sundry items. Top and interior about $20k give or take. Chrome is $20k. So about $75,000 at today's prices for services and supplies, labor at a natl avg hourly rate of $100/ hr. So roughly about $350k in today's money which is probably why I've seen higher prices the last cpl years on that particular car. The one below was one of my lowest priced completes because it was a good car. All in it was $164,800 in restoration, of $175,000 car in 1991. It's a 12 and the engine was near perfect to begin with. It recently sold at an RM sale for $425,000 including the vig. Never restored since I did it way back then. Was it a good lick? Ask the man who owned it
I agree with @49ratfink . Your "free-time" is free. You can spend you free-time playing golf, sitting in a bar, or watching TV...with no expected pay-off for your time. So why would you expect building cars in your free-time to be any different? That's why it's called a hobby.
When you go to work, do you work for free? See what I mean? At some point, there has to be a value figure for your time. Like my comment below, if this stays at the hobby level, then I agree your own free time is free. If you are doing it to make money, flip, or as an investment, then your time really needs to be factored in my opinion.
OK, I agree 100% with this when we said the magic words, "hobby". My comment is in reference to cars being an investment and turning a profit. When you look at it that context, your time needs to be figured in somehow.
Don't quite understand your math. Maybe I am dumb. If you wisely invested that roughly $165,000.00 cost to build the car for 34 years, you would have had a better return on your money. Unless you invested in something like Enron and lost your ***, like my luck would be. Thats also not taking in all the expenses of paying for insurance etc and maintaining the car for 34 years. Even if you did the all the work yourself, that would be working roughly 2900 hours, which is 8 hours a day, for 365 days. Your labor time isn't an investment, your just getting paid back for labor your time spent. I'd rather be sipping Margreta's on the beach. than busting my knuckles and have my money do the work and not me. Don't know where that National average of $100.00 per hour labor came from unless that in 1991 numbers. Sure as hell can't be now numbers. As far as I am concerned, most cars, as an investment is a losing proposition, you can do better investing that money in other conventional ways. You see cars going over the auction block going for way less money, all the time that what it cost to restore/build it. Example: Resto Mods with modern LS powertrain, Art Morrison ch***is etc. Only the super rare, COPO types of cars or super rare vintage cars go for boatloads of money, that are bought by investors, hoping to run it over the auction block next year and hopefully make a profit on their investment. You see the same cars every year, on the auction block. Example Shelby Cobra Mustangs. As far as I am concerned, just about the only way you might make a profit on vintage cars is to buy it already finished, for way less than it cost to restore and maybe it will hopefully appreciate over time. But have to also factor in the expense to keep it for however long you have it. Bill
Hello, In 1965, I tried to order a new 65 El Camino with a 396 motor, a 4 speed and bucket seats. The dealer(s) laughed at me and said “no way…” They all pointed to the SS model and said if I wanted one, put down the cash and it would be delivered. The Z-16 Chevelle was the only model that had bucket seats, too. So, I needed a car to get to college in Northern California and so, I got a new 65 El Camino with a 327 and no bucket seats or 4 speed. But, I did get Positraction. The fun thing was, my El Camino was built in Fremont, which is a few miles North of where I was going to live in a dinky apartment. Back then, there were few people that looked ahead as to a car as an investment. Only those with an excess amount of money and liked hot rod sedans looked ahead. Others, like the high performance cars and wanted to own them, but lacked money as other needs arose. Like living and/or for me, going to college. Sure, I would have liked the El Camino with the factory supplied high performance motor and 4 speed. No need for a sedan since they cannot carry desert motorcycles and are only street driven cars. No one was looking ahead for the cars to appreciate in value. The value was the usage of the cars in daily life and pleasure drives on the weekend or after work/college. We liked all kinds of high performance cars. But, we only were able to buy daily drivers and for me a dual purpose vehicle that could do daily driving and weekend supplied fun. Surfboards were easily put in the back and secured so as not to slide around. Motorcycles were tied down and secured for the long distance weekend travel to the race courses. Who had time to think of cars as an investment. Jnaki Those auctions are outrageous. Overpriced and not worthy to even watch for unusual cars. I can’t even imagine someone’s garage or storage facility, just to say these are “my cars…” But, everyone has their own way to see their lives and “things.” You can’t take it with you…in the end. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
