You're absolutely right! I buried $120K in my 365GT2+2 in 1990, that was just parts, mechanical rebuild, body, paint and trim. I dismantled and reassembled the car myself. I doubt if you'd do the same again today under $200K, even if you could locate the parts. I sold the car for $118K in 1991, go figure.
Not at all surprised. I spent $60k from 1989-1997 on restoring my 308 GTB. The only thing we didn't touch was the engine. Today the same work would be well north of $100k. Said it many, many times- DON'T look for the cheapest car out there. Look for the very BEST and be prepared to pay a small premium if necessary. MUCH cheaper ownership proposition in the long term.
Unless you are doing it for enjoyment, I strongly suggest that you don't. You "pay to play" with these things.
the urraco ha scost me 30k to restore and i have my own labour, sure its expensive and the end result would be a nice expensive car, but where do find a urraco like mine?
I dare say you couldn't find one. Relatively rare cars and I can't remember the last time I saw one. Even at $30k plus initial buy price, do you think you are in front economically? I suspect not; but I know that you are not doing it for the money. Been there, done that more than once etc...
so it's probably worth whatever it costs if you really want one. yeah...cost doesn't matter...if they're unobtainable in good nick, and you really want one, then what's the cost matter?
exactly, and when we have worked out what we have actually done to the mechanicals it would have cost me 25-30k just for the motor, it was in such good condition the previous doofus forgot to put a head gasket on and used silastic instead. now its a dream come true, and the money, who cares, i collect, i dont sell, and for whats gone in this thing even lambo would be happy
Agree. What I was trying to illustrate was that if it doesn't stack up with "free" labour, it will never work paying full fare. In other words you do it for the love, never the $
I can vouch for that - part way through the second repaint of my 1750GTV Alfa that I've owned for 17 years. Don't want to sell it, so the cost is relatively irrelevant. I've probably spent upwards of 30k on it over that time and you could buy a very nice one for that and have change left over...At least it's not as frightening as investing in a rebuild of something like an old pommie sedan from the 1950s - that's really a labour of love...
that would qualify you for the lunatic asylum Andrew I absolutely love the 1750, and am still kicking myself for not buying an excellent example for $5k back in '81 and it had a full set of triple laced Borranis including the spare !!
My car has got the original style Momo wheels, but I've only got 4 of them, would really like 1 or 2 spares. I'm very tempted by the replica GTA wheels now available too...
Spotted black 328? cnr North Rd & East Boundary Rd in Bentleigh East last night about 6:30pm, anyone from here number plate started with a D nice looking machine
Not a Ferrari spot as such, but yesterday a Mercedes M-Class with the rego 1ASS-355 entertained me more than is probably reasonable
spent the morning with this Testarossa, what a sexual looking and sounding (aftermarket exhaust) car!!!! More pics to come.... Image Unavailable, Please Login
unusual to see double high rise mirrors... cars only had drivers side from factory, and most people fitted two late specs if doing anything. Funny story... way back when these cars were new, I had a early spec car come in as a new customer complaining of bad brakes. He didn't say anything about getting the mirrors done recently... but it turned out the mirror conversion was done "a bit rough", and they had drilled a hole clean through the brake booster hose in the A pillar to pass the mirror control wires through!!
