Hello, thank you for having me. I've inherited my late father's 1970 Dodge Challenger and after years of waiting I think it is finally time to start the restoration process. Sadly, it's a project we never got to work on together and "some day" never came. I've learned so much from my dad and I miss him dearly. Having a family of my own now, I hope I can pass some of that knowledge on to my son and daughter and create a lot of great family memories along the way.

I have never restored a car before so I believe that the best course of action is to outsource some of the more difficult steps such as bodywork and paint. While that is being completed, I plan on getting organized back at the shop and rebuilding the engine with the family. I feel that this is a great course of action as it'll allow my family and I to restore the car together without being too overwhelmed.

If you have any recommendations or suggestions I am all ears! At this time, I am just reading through the forums and researching local shops to handle the bodywork and paint. If you have any recommendations in the SW Suburbs of Chicago I would love to hear them.

 

Welcome to the forum,

I guess if I had to come up with advice on restoring a car rather it be a simple paint job or a restoration and you are planning on having it done by a shop, my advice would be to pick the shop carefully. The horror stories about body shops and restoration shops are true. They get the car and money up front and they have the power to take advantage of the situation. Being a former shop owner that did both collision and restoration work I can say that you need to do research on each shop you consider. Reputation is a good place to start, car shows and car clubs are usually a great place to start. You don’t want to give up your car and resources to a guy that’s gonna keep your car for 30 years, and I know of a shop that actually did this! There’s stories of shops that sell the customer cars, don’t buy parts that they say they are going to asking for money without having done work to move the project along.

Something I did when even doing just a paint job was asking for money up front, usually a third of the estimate for doing the job. And yes I would not give a firm price for cars over five years old because you usually find things that add time and expenses to the work. Improperly done previous work, rust etc.. One thing I would suggest is making the understanding that you need to be shown all additional work not covered by the estimate and you also need to understand that some shops will underbid work just to get it in the shop.

When doing large projects we would set up a monthly payment for a certain amount if work is performed, one of the last projects I took on had about 1900 hours of actual work preformed and I was paid for every hour. One thing I did with that client was he provided all parts and he wanted House of Kolor products on his cars so he provided them as needed. He setup an account so he could get them through his business and I would order what I needed.

Something most people don’t realize is that collision shops will make 150 percent on their hourly rate, it’s not uncommon for a good bodyman to produce 60hrs in a 40hr week and restoration jobs is usually an hours pay for an hour worked so this is an obstacle for a shop doing both and the person who is looking for this type of work preformed.

Another thing is that you need to have a budget in mind, the price of labor, parts and the ridiculous costs of materials will have you wondering if you really want to do this and how much you can truly afford.

So do your research and be honest with yourself because it is common for jobs to cost twice or more than the initial estimate.

Well that should be a start, do your research!!!

 

I like to do them in sections....
Paint and body
Drivetrain
Suspension
Wiring
Interior

Get estimates, Enjoy the car a little in between one function and the other.... Love the 1970 Challenger... Sorry no leads in Ill.
Good Luck... Keep us posted... and Welcome...