i was wondering if anyone could give me a guess on how much it would cost if i stripped my 914 down to a rolling chasis. then have it sand or bead blasted, then primed and painted and sprayed with por 15 on known rust areas. thanks

lets see,
If you do it right, and there is normal amounts of rust....

close to 10k.
Then you need all new rubber, new interior, new motor etc...

It really depends on the base condition of the car.
They all have rust, how much does your car have?
show some pics, let us know where you live (regional pricing and retuable shops)

Rich

It's going to vary wildly based on exactly how you proceed, how much work you do yourself, and where you're located (fill in your Location under My Controls).

You can do nearly all of the prep yourself with no special tools. POR-15 can be easily brushed on, no need to spray. You can chemically strip paint yourself, too. A rough primer coat can be rattle-can'd on, and sanded (yourself). Then, it's just down to having a pro spray the thing, and that's the part that varies wildly on location (and the quality of the shop). $1K to $5K is literally the range for a complete respray.

$10k? You might be able to pull it off for something close to that *if* you don't rebuild a motor and transaxle, *if* you do 90% of the work yourself including paint, bodywork and rust repair and *if* you have pristine parts already on the car so you don't have to replace even half of them. Add up the cost of all of the parts that you know you will want to replace and I think you;ll find the cost of the parts alone worth at least $10k.

My tub alone cost more than that to acid dip, rust rpair and paint. Way more. I didn't do it myself, and I drug it across country needlessly (who knew until the fat lady was tuning up), but $10k still wouldn't have gotten it done even if that hadn't been the case.

Really, it's a question that can't be answered with the information provided. bOnly you can really answer it. You know what you'll want to have done and what you can do yourself and what's good on your car now and what isn't, etc...

THat was the long answer. The short answer is... afuchnlotacash!

lol thanks for the help. i think i may just build by 914 up with the parts i want then when thats done tear it apart and do a full resto of the body.

The real question is are you a do-it-yourselfer or a pull-out-my-walleter. And do you like the look of jackstands for over a year?

I am a do-it-myselfer, and I am on a pretty tight budget.
So far I probably have ~$600 in tools that I bought specifically for my 914. (welder, angle grinder, good jack and many jackstands, sawzall, blades, wire brushes, POR-15, etc.) My welder was a christmas present, and that took a big chunk of the money out. :-)

I got stainless steel hard fuel lines for the tunnel, RD battery tray kit, the front trunk from a california cut-up car and several flat peices of steel for welding into the rusty parts of my car (once the rust had been cut out), and some other sunderies that I am forgetting about. Lets call that $500.

Tomorrow I will finish my Hell Hole repair. Hopefully soon I will finish my front trunk repair. I have about $1100 invested into the car, and have been working on it when I have the time for 9 months. It will take another year at least before it is on the road.

I plan on doing everything myself, and believe that I can complete the project with about $3000 more (being frugal, reusing all I can, and doing all I can myeslf... This budget includes painting. It does not include hot-rodding the engine (which I hope to do at some point with a Raby kit - +~5000.)

So, without the raby engine rebuild, I could have my car very presentable for ~4000. With the rebuild. BAM. ~$10K.

This is doing _all_ the labor myself.

The best part is knowing once all the work is done, that I will have a car I could probably sell for $5k-$7K. Here on the east coast, if I don't do the engine (and don't count my labor hours as money), I could make a very slight profit on the car if I flipped it after completing it. But the profit would not be high enough to make me want to do so.

Unless I wanted to build anouther. After all, I'd have all the crap in tool needed to do it at that point. :-) And to be honest, I am having a blast rebuilding my car.

Zach

take what ever you can afford then triple it, this is a good rule of thumb when it comes to planning your project's budget (including filling it with gas!).

It all depends on what quality you're looking for. If you can settle for less it'll be cheaper, top quality will cost more. Here's how it works best, you decide how much you can spend and you'll get what you can for that price. It may sound a bit harsh, but the range of cost options really does run from $1k to $20k just for paint! From what I've seen, for a decent paint job, earmark $6k.

Media blasting () will probably run you between $1k-$2k.

im a hand on guy. i think the only thing i wouldnt even attempt is the welding for the rust repair, and the paint, but disassembling, stripping the paint, priming, sanding and all wrench work im willing to do.

Check out Patrick Motorsports's web site. The one shown there ran over $50000 and then the guy purchased a Raby motor to finish it off. The stuff dreams are made of.......

I believe I said 10k for the body/paint...
If you cant get that done for 10k, keep shopping.
Figure 4-5k for a nice paint job.
4-5k for the metal work and prep.

You can get a paint job that is reasonable for under 3k, but it may not be show quality...
the materails alone (If quality paint is sourced) can run close to 1k for all the paint, sandpaper, bondo etc...
the metal work can get pricey, there is really only one place to buy replacement metal parts for the car, so you pay premium for those...versus Ford parts...

You should be able to bring any car back from the grave for under 10k, if it is farther gone than that, you should buy a car for 10k that is in great shape...its more enjoyable to drive them....

I look at it this way...if a perfect example of a 914/4 can be purchased for 10k, that is how much you need to budget for a restoration...otherwise buy a car that is done, sell what you have and save some money and time...
Given that, we put a car back on the road that was given up for dead on the East Coast...total cost was under 2k...the paint is far from perfect, and the motor was never opened up...just cleaned up..but four rolls of mig wire and a few months of metal work...

Rich

plan on $10k for paint and body.

Now start pricing all those new parts you're going to put back on your $10k tub. Save your reciepts and report back. If it's less than $20k I'll buy lunch.

r towle -

You got it right.

Bringing them back is what it's all about.

Take a look at my project.

more than one that is already done. lots more. nice part is, you have a car you can drive. putting one back together, whether to cc or a rough driver, is an interesting experience. is that "experience" worth $10k+? i dunno sometimes.

k

This car?


Then some fool bought it and the wrecked it!




John

i dont believe my car is on verge of death. actually i can not really find alot of rust except for alittle in the trunk and under the battery tray. but i dont know what lies under paint or any bondo that could be on the car. that why i would like to get the entire car down to bare metal. i also agree bringing a car back from the dead and having the experience of doing it with your own hands is well worth it.

hijack, sorry. that car got totaled? how did i miss that? whahappa? that was/is a nice car. i had no idea there was that kind of money poured into it. ZOIKS!!(x2)

k

You have to be careful here. Taking a car down to bare metal is a BIG job, and it can easily take years, as well as big money, to complete such a restoration. There's almost certain to be some bondo in the car, as they commonly left the factory that way. If the paint is in good shape now, I'd clean up the small amount of rust you know about, do some simple tapping tests on the structural bits (longs, hell hole), and otherwise leave it alone.

Spend time and money instead of things like top-drawer suspension, a perfect transmission, interior work, etc.

If the paint is bad, and needs redoing, then the choice is harder.