New pics: '37 MB Cabriolet restoration

[CBoz]

Two new pics showing the bare wooden frame of the car. A stark reminder of the low-volume nature of these vehicles, and the potential complexity of restoring one (sort of makes me glad my non-classics are unibodies;))

[alsancle]

I think I mentioned this over in the MB thread but the last professional ground up restoration of a 540k Cab "A" ran that I know about ran around 700k. I have personal knowledge of a 100 point restoration of a Cab "A" done in the 80s that ran 300k. That was with the owner doing a lot of work himself. Not cheap to restore!

[CBoz]

I think I mentioned this over in the MB thread but the last professional ground up restoration of a 540k Cab "A" ran that I know about ran around 700k. I have personal knowledge of a 100 point restoration of a Cab "A" done in the 80s that ran 300k. That was with the owner doing a lot of work himself. Not cheap to restore!

... which is why I'm perfectly happy to enjoy this restoration vicariously

[MarrsCars]

I think I mentioned this over in the MB thread but the last professional ground up restoration of a 540k Cab "A" ran that I know about ran around 700k. I have personal knowledge of a 100 point restoration of a Cab "A" done in the 80s that ran 300k. That was with the owner doing a lot of work himself. Not cheap to restore!

Forgive my ignorance but is the cost largely due to sourcing rare original parts, custom building those that do not exist to exact specification, matching original materials, maintaining the standard to which they were built, and so on or is it more a matter of labor hours for extreme hand craftsmanship, or simply both? What else accounts for the great cost? If a shop does the resto, how many years is common, if such terminology is even appropriate for resto of such rare cars?

I did a story on the restoration of the Spanish Royal G4 by the Classic Center and was fascinated how much they replicated the process by which the original vehicle was built, down to using brushes to apply chassis paint to maintain the visible strokes of the original, rather than using a spray gun.