Last night I sat down and started to itemize all the parts that I will need to
rebuild the suspension and brakes for my car. I started up a spread sheet that
basically turned into a budget for the restoration of my TR6. The interior
trim, body work and engine rebuild are all estimates. I will perform the labor
except for the machine shop work and a majority of the body/paint work. The
prices are from a recent Moss catalog. The data is organized strange, because
it was cut and pasted from an excel file.
I have a few questions and thoughts for list members:
1) Do these numbers look realistic compared to your actual experiences?
2) What are your thoughts on ways to best reduce the costs of rebuilding a
car?
3) The financial facts of restoring my car are looking bleak to me.
- Is my car going to be worth 9-10K? even if it turns out great?
- I keep thinking that 7K will buy an extremely nice TR4 or TR6.
- I have a garage full of used parts if I purchase another TR6.
4) I am obviously at the crossroads of my TR6 restoration. So far I have spent
much labor and little money. If I proceed there will be no turning back. I
could use some encouragement from anyone who has been there.
5) I feel that scrapping the project is just the easy way out. I would hate to
see my car turned into a parts car.
6) On the positive side, I could be driving and maintaining a nice TR next
summer.
7) Regarding the 4K estimate for autobody work: If I deal with the inner wheel
well repair, outer sill replacement and fender installation myself, there is
hope of getting the car painted for 1.5 to 2K. I'm concerned about squeezing
2K out of the body work, and having an inferior restoration. Mechanical repair
is much more my strength than autobody repair. I have no welding experience to
date.
Thanks for any input that you may have.
John H. in Minneapolis.
FYI
STATUS OF CAR:
Condition: Completely apart. Frame is at the welder getting new IRS sections.
Body: Rust on 3 fenders and both outer sills. (one front ender was replaced
because of a fender bender in past.) The floors and inner sills look good.
Front inner fenders look good except at the top edge were the fenders bolt on.
Rear inner fenders have some surface rust on the top edge. The front and rear
valences have surface rust where they meet the fenders.
Engine: 62K. Locked up from sitting. Needs to be rebuilt.
TR6 RESTORATION COSTS
Welding bid $25
IRS sections $120
Diff support sections $26
por15 $30
Sandblast $150
Paint $100
Welding $350
Shocks $56
Springs $60
Spring Collars $16
Upper shock bushings $12
Lower shock bushings $16
Front suspension kit $90
FrontBearing kit $60
roll bar link pin kits $50
Tie rod end set $25
steering rack boot set $17
roll bar rubber bushing $4
Rear Shocks (have) $0
Springs $70
Rebound Rubber Bumps $24
Rubber Spring collar $16
Poly Bushings for trail arms $52
Rubber Bushings link arms $12
Brake lines $100
brake hose, front $42
brake hose, rear $39
Brake shoes $0
Cylinder Rebuild kits,frt $32
Cylinder Rebuild kits, rear $24
emergency brake cable set $18
fuel lines $20
turn rotors $20
turn drums $20
trany mounts $16
Kit to mount body $80
Exhaust hardware $30
3 fenders, 2 outer sils $1,000
Body work and paint (est.) $4,000
Interior/trim (est.) $1,000
Engine rebuild (est.) $2,000
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Total Cost $9,822
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