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Old 5 Nov 2012, 23:02 (Ref:3163089)   #1
dtype38
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How much to spend on a classic car restoration?

I'm currently pondering a dilemma and would like your thoughts.

I've got a basically sound and reliable but slightly tatty Mk2 Jaguar which I tried selling recently but no one was prepared to offer reasonable money for it. By that I mean there was plenty of interest, but everyone seemed to be looking at is as a basis for restoration and therefore wanted it dirt cheap. The reasoning seemed to be that restoration work is so expensive these days, that for the finished car to actually be worth more than the cost of restoration, then it had to be dirt cheap to start with.

Well, I wasn't prepared to sell it "dirt cheap" so decided to do a bit of restoration myself with a view to either keeping it or making it saleable at a more sensible price. Having now taken some of it apart, I'm contemplating the work required, and here comes my dilemma... I'm reasonably experienced at working on cars, but also know my limitations (I'd place my restoration skills at "talented amateur"). So, to do A) what I'd call a "proper" job: its going to be extremely time consuming, I'll have to sub the difficult bits out at considerable cost and so will be very expensive too. Do I do B) a "reasonable" job: which is still going to be extremely time consuming but I can do it myself on a "materials only" basis and it'll end up looking good and very sound, but is probably not going to add to its value much more that I'd be spending on it. OR C) I could do a "cosmetic" job which would pain me deeply, but would probably do the same for its value as B) but with a lot less time and money.

What would you do?

Last edited by dtype38; 5 Nov 2012 at 23:07.
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