Hi Mark:
The answer to the question depends on your skills. If you can do the work
- welding and panel manufacture - yourself then go ahead. You will have
the satisfaction of doing the work and awesome bragging rights if you keep
a photo album. If you must have the work done for you, you will be better
off selling the parts and pieces and using the money as a deposit on
someone else's restoration. Most restored cars - especially the ones where
money was of no consequence - usually sell for far less than the cost of
restoration.
Restoration today is not a very good way of getting a good car. There are
far more cars looking for owners than there are owners who want them. It's
a bit like stray dogs and cats. Find a likely car, have it checked by the
same restoration expert you spoke to before, then take out a bank loan.
You'll be ahead of the game and will ultimately spend less and be driving
sooner.
John McEwen
>A professional restorer checked out my TR2 this morning, and told me
>that it is absolutely at the margin between "restorable at a cost far
>exceeding the value of the finished project," and "basket case."
>Some of this, but not all, is the result of my extensively disassembling the
>
>tub when I was younger and more foolish.
>
>The car is complete, but was seriously rusted. The rust is now gone (I had
>the body dipped a few years back), but the remaining metal will need
>a prodigious amount of aligning, patching, straightening,
>welding-in-of-new-pieces, and so forth.
>
>I already have all the parts to do the job.
>
>Suggestions? Encouragement? Wisdom? Your input will be appreciated.
>
>-Mark
> 1954 TR2 TS2571L (now LO).
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