TTR Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 17 hours ago, ABear said: X2! Although, I think the $5.00/hr shop rate for labor is way low, a shop won't stay in business for long charging a customer only $5.00/hr but yet pay mechanics and techs $20-$50 per hr. Last time I had a modern vehicle in a shop, the posted shop labor rate was $160 per hr and that was 10 yrs or a bit more ago. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if shops are charging $250/hr now days as most places can't find enough mechanics that want to work for 1990s wages.. A local tire shop I get tires at, can't find enough mechanics to fill out a 6 day a week business, they now are 5 day a week business and they pay their starting mechanics around $25/hr.. Sorry, meant to say/write $50/hr which would probably be bare minimum for any shop or an individual valuing their time and keeping track of it spent on a project expected to provide “profit”. But my point is more about the hours/time (+ direct expenses) any project will require. Only variation will be how much the person or shop charges or values their time per each of those hours. And my estimated 2000 hrs, i.e. approximately one year’s worth of full-time labor on any “Restoration” is about bare minimum if performed by someone who has previous experience and knowledge, not to mention all the equipment & facilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 A large profit, no. A small profit, sure. The less money and work you put into it the better your profit. But you have to put in enough to make a compelling presentation to some dreamer. I made a little over $4,000 on this stripped out parts car. Lots of cleaned a well photographed parts went all over the world. The Lincoln was a part out. A car similar to what you have shown should turn you about $1,000 to $2,000 with about 10 hours work plus advertising cost. I have been doing that most of my life a couple times a year just for walking around money and hobby needs. One big thing you have going for you is that you knew enough not to post a picture of the car on a trailer. Listen to The Rodeo Song a couple of times and you will get my impression of that. You may notice that Lincoln has a flat tire, but the jack holds it up so it doesn't look as bad as it could. Little things like that make a difference. In general people are very poor at presenting items for sale. Trash and leaves, clutter, all kinds of background distractions take away from the sale. My picture has a clean location and car collectible stuff in the background. The right kind of diversion is what they use in magic tricks. Always remember, the more money you want for something the more the buyer has to think. Price so they don't have to think much. It's hard for them and usually leads to inaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTR Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 (edited) 3 hours ago, 60FlatTop said: A large profit, no. A small profit, sure. The less money and work you put into it the better your profit. But you have to put in enough to make a compelling presentation to some dreamer. I made a little over $4,000 on this stripped out parts car. Lots of cleaned a well photographed parts went all over the world. The Lincoln was a part out. A car similar to what you have shown should turn you about $1,000 to $2,000 with about 10 hours work plus advertising cost. I have been doing that most of my life a couple times a year just for walking around money and hobby needs. One big thing you have going for you is that you knew enough not to post a picture of the car on a trailer. Listen to The Rodeo Song a couple of times and you will get my impression of that. You may notice that Lincoln has a flat tire, but the jack holds it up so it doesn't look as bad as it could. Little things like that make a difference. In general people are very poor at presenting items for sale. Trash and leaves, clutter, all kinds of background distractions take away from the sale. My picture has a clean location and car collectible stuff in the background. The right kind of diversion is what they use in magic tricks. Always remember, the more money you want for something the more the buyer has to think. Price so they don't have to think much. It's hard for them and usually leads to inaction. I thought this topic was about profitability of restoration(s), not educating novices of flipping or speculating on hopeless projects and how to market them. Edited May 17 by TTR (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gungeey Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 When The parts car needs a parts car... it's Double the Money$$ Double the Fun!! 🤪 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Dobbin Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 On 5/16/2024 at 1:52 PM, namc said: How much would it cost to turn it into a hot rod/rat rod project? Project? That's what it is now. Buy a running car for a driveline and spend years getting it to drive, then sell it at a loss. Fun, Fun fun. If it runs and drives, it's a Rat Rod. If not, it's still a project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercman from oz Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 That body looks like a 1933 Ford Victoria. Have you got any shots from the rear? Definitely worth saving. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramaton Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 Good starting point for an old school Hotrod. It is probably beyond a restoration. Hotrod guys would buy this up the way it is no problem. 5 to 7 K. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercman from oz Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 (edited) The 1933 Ford Victoria didn't have an opening trunk, but one was added for the slightly different 1934 Ford Victoria. Edited May 18 by mercman from oz (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Str8-8-Dave Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 (edited) Body by ford, engine by Buick. Someone probably started to make a nifty street rod and gave up. Vertical valve covers were seen on many Buick nailheads, could even be an aluminum 215. No- you can't make money on it but if you have the patience and deep enough pockets you could make a pretty cool street rod and have some fun with it. Edited May 18 by Str8-8-Dave (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark 2 Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 Definitely a Nailhead in the original posters car. The smaller, newer Buick V8s had distributors located in front. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABear Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 On 5/17/2024 at 10:52 AM, TTR said: Sorry, meant to say/write $50/hr which would probably be bare minimum for any shop or an individual valuing their time and keeping track of it spent on a project expected to provide “profit”. But my point is more about the hours/time (+ direct expenses) any project will require. Only variation will be how much the person or shop charges or values their time per each of those hours. And my estimated 2000 hrs, i.e. approximately one year’s worth of full-time labor on any “Restoration” is about bare minimum if performed by someone who has previous experience and knowledge, not to mention all the equipment & facilities. $50/hr now days is a pretty skinny number for a shop to charge, have a brother that does a lot of Home/Auto "general repair" one man shop now, used to charge $25/hr a few yrs back and he used to have several employees.. Was telling me recently he had to bump that to $45/hr plus dropping the extra help and even that is barely scraping by.. Not much profit once you subtract all the costs of business insurance, utilities, ect.. Said he lost a lot of customers that could not afford today's higher costs to repair things. Myself, I would be charging $100+/hr if it was my business, as I know what my time is worth and the hard work he does.. I would help my brother with his business, but his business model wouldn't support paying both of us, let alone have money to build the business bigger. Like I mentioned, most auto repair shops in my area 10 yrs ago had shop rates of $160/hr, if they are not charging more now days, they will be out of business quickly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvey b Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 If you want to sell this car,post it over on the H.A.M.B. and watch the sparks fly,this car is worth a minimum of 10 grand,when was the last time you seen one like it for sale.A lot of negativity on here for anyone new thinking about fixing an old car,this is how it was done back in the day,you jumped in and then thought about it later.It amazes me some of the comments i read on these forums,not everone has to have a 100 point resto. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Schramm Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Easy way to turn $100,00 into $25,000........ restore a vehicle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intimeold Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 In today's world and a car that needs everything; you have a lot of work to do. To make a small fortune, restoring that car or continuing on the street rod theme; start with a large fortune. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAKerry Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 12 hours ago, harvey b said: If you want to sell this car,post it over on the H.A.M.B. and watch the sparks fly,this car is worth a minimum of 10 grand,when was the last time you seen one like it for sale.A lot of negativity on here for anyone new thinking about fixing an old car,this is how it was done back in the day,you jumped in and then thought about it later.It amazes me some of the comments i read on these forums,not everone has to have a 100 point resto. Not necessarily negativity but I can see how it can come across that way. More like realistic. Yes, there are probably enough people out there that would spend in excess of 10k for that to put it on something like hamb. But the reality of it is, no matter how basic you want to be there is easily 25-30k to put into it before its roadworthy. And I am not talking about an extensive restoration. Just basic motor rebuild/new motor, new brakes, lines, fuel system, cooling system and at least to mention a few. At that point you will have basically a rat rod that one would need to sell for 30k plus to make a LITTLE money, considering the time involved in doing all the work yourself one would have to sell it for 60k to make their money back on their time and one would have to sell for 80k to make a decent profit. I will admit I do not know the market for rat rods but I think the 'I did it myself' crowd far outnumbers the 'I bought it crowd' a 60k-80k sale of this type of car has a very limited audience. So all of the 'negative' reactions are properly founded in the phrase "Can I make a profit restoring this car". I agree with the folks that say to sell it now as is, for the greatest profit potential this car presently has. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Braverman Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 You could easily end up with a small fortune after restoring and selling this car. Of course you would have to start with a large fortune. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Deringer Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 20 hours ago, harvey b said: If you want to sell this car,post it over on the H.A.M.B. and watch the sparks fly,this car is worth a minimum of 10 grand,when was the last time you seen one like it for sale.A lot of negativity on here for anyone new thinking about fixing an old car,this is how it was done back in the day,you jumped in and then thought about it later.It amazes me some of the comments i read on these forums,not everone has to have a 100 point resto. I absolutely think it should be restored. The question was, "can I make a profit by restoring and reselling...." Hence my sarcastic answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drhach Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 The OP did say "restore"; it seems like people were just shooting straight. That said, I see so many cars for sale where the seller doesn't bother to take the car off of the trailer for the picture. Apparently just digging a car out of a field and putting it on a trailer adds a ton of value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABear Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 12 minutes ago, drhach said: The OP did say "restore"; it seems like people were just shooting straight. OP also mentioned in first post "Can I make a PROFIT by restoring?". This can be taken multiple ways as one can see by the twists and turns the thread has taken. The hard truthful answer is no. The cost of a restoration will easily exceed the finished products value, in other words, one would have to put more money in to it than what it will ever sell for in restored condition.. From what I have gathered, the OP was wanting to know if they could maximize profit they could get restored vs as is. Hard truthful answer is no. Would it sell for more restored vs as is? Yes, however, they will never be able to sell it at a profit and maximizing the profit was what they were looking for. The cost to restore will be multiples of cost above what it will sell for, so they will take a major LOSS by restoring it. They will maximize their profit by selling "as is" as they have zero, nothing, nada into it as it sits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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