Hi, price level in Sweden is obvious a lot lower than other countries. With those prices I can open up a Dino restoration shop here. Best regards Bjorn
Moral of the story, let someone else restore the car and buy it from them. A fully restored car won't recoup the restoration costs when sold.
For most of us that own Dinos, that's not point of our interest in Jon's thread. Most of us that already have Dinos like to drive them and that means that we want to maintain them, and sometimes that requires undertaking a partial or complete restoration. And, at least at the present time, you are incorrect about recouping restoration costs if/when a Dino is sold. You would be correct with respect to 308s, 360s, 430s, 458s, and 599/612s or what have you, but certainly not with respect to Dinos when auction prices and private sales are ranging between $200,000 to $500,000 or more. But, perhaps you haven't been tracking auction prices for Dinos.
Send me a bare naked Dino body on a dolly, and you will not believe the results... or for that matter, the cost! Regards, Alberto
If we can afford do this on a 2002, and it costs the same to work on as a Dino... Regards, Alberto Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Amazing work, thats going to be quite a car when finished. I completely bare metalled my Dino myself 7 years ago and had a well known Christchurch specialist carry out the paintwork for me.I have to say that that there was very little body correction needed though. The whole job cost me $7500 NZD which included the dismantling,re assembly and re fitting of doors,all glass,chrome etc.I did bumpers, lights etc myself (the simple stuff!) If you are prepared to do all of the hard work stripping yourself, the cost need not be too high. I was lucky that my painter let me use his workshop, equipment and his know how when required while doing my work under his guidance. The paint is faultless and #2688 has won several concours events here in NZ.
x 246 Everyone talks about it but I have not yet seen it. All the Dino's I have ever seen for sale have either needed something or set a world record price.
You all know my 73 Dino I restored. It sold a few months ago from an unsolicited offer. I showed it once at the Del Mar Concours. It was not 100% correct as I changed it to Euro lights, deleted the AC, powder coated the cam covers, tubi exhaust and a few other changes. I signed a non disclosure agreement on the buyer and the price. I can assure you I would of never sold it unless it really was worth it to me. I have never even seen a coupe for sale for anywhere near what I received. I know of two spiders (chairs and flares) that sold for more.
I am probably guilty of being excessively verbose and probably should have just said that I agree with Jon's numbers below. Rust can get out of hand which makes things expensive. Sorry for being long winded or starting controversy
This is one reason why I do my own restoration work. Apart from the fact it's enjoyable, I found the other cars I looked at had so many issues that a car in "requires restoration" condition wouldn't require that much extra work to bring up to a good standard. Not talking pebble but just an excellent sorted driver car with all original type parts. I also found the parked and forgotten cars still had many original parts, like hose clamps, which is nice, and not starting with something out of a swamp or substantially incomplete. Still, time and rust takes it's toll and these are difficult cars to restore so long term owners who have repaired/restored their cars properly are unwilling to sell, as you, Jon and just about everyone here knows. Jon's numbers are ok but don't factor in the cost of a workshop to do the job +$50k if it's not part of your house/business and already full of equipment and tools. (I had to set up, again) Then on top of my own time, several thousand "free" hours per car, no wonder selling would be at a distressed estate sale far into the future, if ever.... Note my goal was to do my own restoration to the standard I wanted, it's not for everyone.
Great thread and appreciate everyone sharing details, particularly as I'm going through a similar restoration (but a different marque). I don't have the courage (yet) to restore my Dino as the scary bit is when all the paint is off and you see exactly what metal work is necessary. Reminder that there are quite a few folks who have restored, or are restoring, their Dinos and have had them quite a long time. Even with the cost of restoration they may still not be underwater. They only have to think about the opportunity cost of all the money tied up in the restoration. If you buy a car to have restored, particularly in this market, then the probability of getting even most of your money back is pretty low unless you hang onto your Dino for a LONG time.
For those of us who have bought a Dino and then played an ACTIVE role in its restoration, one thing which you need to factor in are search/research costs. The amount of time I spent traveling all over the world to dealerships, swap meets, private garages and the like in search of parts or just original cars to photograph was staggering. Add to that the cost of creating things that just weren't available such as labels and silk screens (scanning examples from others, digitally refining the image and then printing them locally). Unless you take your car to a restoration shop (or Jon) that has previously restored multiple examples of your model and therefore knows how things should be done and where to source the right parts and materials, you need to do this work yourself. If you leave this search and research up to someone else, your parts costs will likely go up because you won't get that for free. My $0.02. Cheers..Keith
Keith I totally agree the learning and sourcing curve is amazingly time consuming. I probably have more time in sourcing and re-producing than I have in hands on restoration work. Those hours go by the bucketloads and your brain never stops thinking about the next place to look.
I disagree, at least a little. It all depends upon your buy-in price - if you've owned your Dino for a long time, like many of us have, a top notch restoration could pencil out, especially with some Dinos hitting numbers now well above $300,000, and up to $506,000 - at least for the time being.
Look at a ballpark of 1000 hours of metal work for a good restoration shop to do a full rust abatement, opening up the well documented "traps" in Dino panels and repairing the standard chin scrapes and rear valence quarter panel chunking. Fabricating new pieces, removing lead and re-forming existing metal. The Ferrari designers never thought about the future of moisture collecting in the pocket spaces of the Dino and I'm sure you've read many of the popular 1980's books describing the hidden internal rust areas. All this before any paint has been applied If you don't think you can see any rust when you examine a prospective Dino, think again. You will be surprised when the metal is opened up. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If the market just stays where it is I could do a $200,000 restoration on my '74 GTS and still make money if I sold it. Possibly a decent amount of money. These cars were only $65- $75K back in '01 when I bought mine, which had been "restored" in the mid-90's. I put in another $40,000 or so in 2008 for a partial cosmetic and mechanical year long restoration/refurbishment. But if I did a $200,000 bare metal restoration I would be afraid to drive it because every rock chip and scratch would drive me nuts. The car would end up being a trailer queen. I bought the car to drive, it looks and performs as it should, and I don't worry about paint scratches. How many of those $100-$200,000 restorations continue to be driven and enjoyed? Or are most parked under 5 car covers in a hermetically sealed room? I'd like to know from your experiences. If I had only bought 4 more Dinos for the price of a (then new) 2001 360 spider
After dropping off the first batch of chrome, silver and yellow for plating, I was shocked and I knew it would be expensive. I had also factored in a subsequent batch of each so had held back several of the big chroming tasks which could be put off; the bumpers, window surround, door edge trim. If anyone has not been through this phase in the restoration or is informed on what it costs then this can be appalling. Does anyone else think that plating costs would easily exceed $6,000.00 ?
Does anyone else think that plating costs would easily exceed $6,000.00 ?[/QUOTE] Yes that's more or less the same number I'm operating with including the bumpers. But that's only the chrome. Add another 1500 - 2000 $ for the zink plating if you want it all hand carried and made up to a good standard.....Then add a visit to Henk for interior and you have to down size the kids Christmas gifts. Have fun Peter
I think another point to consider is how long will a body off nut and bolt resto last? Many variables here but assume a dry climate or not driving on winter roads?. My car received a comprehensive resto by a marque expert shop in 1990 and still looks near perfect . ( interior was left original so only improves with age) . So rather than consider the finished cost v market value - think in terms of how many years of quality motoring awaits you on a fresh motor and rust free body.
Top tip If they asked what car is it from ..........say a kit car. The price difference will be staggering.
