I have been contimplating a home grown frame off restoration on my gs....since I have found water problems from the cowl area....i am doing the floor pans..and have also a core support job on it.....the car has an excelent body and chrome and interior...the car was sitting for 6 years before i took ownership...frame seems solid with much of the usual flaky buildup...and the body mounts seem cracked and extra dry .....might as well go all the way.... my main question is has anybody logged the amount of average hours it takes for a frame off resto....???? .....want 2 see how many years it will take me... not including paint.....and it would be my first frame off....
take everything you know about the car into careful consideration. Do a full inspection of everything. Look in every nook and cranny you can find. Write everything down down on a clean sheet of lined paper. Add up everything that needs to be done and itemize the time it should take for each task. Then, carefully take that piece of paper and grasp it with both hands, crumble it up into a tiny ball and file it in the round file! How much time it's going to take depends on a lot of factors. Most of these are unknown. Where are you going to find rust? It shows up where you least expect it. How perfect will you want the car? That may change throughout the project. How much time will you have? How much money will you have to spend? When you subcontract things out, how long will they take? How long will the parts take to arrive? I think any easy answer will be inaccurate.
Frank, I've done a few of these in my lifetime. In my opinion, to do a correct and thorough restoration on a "A-body" will run somewhere around 700 man hours. Sound like eternity doesn't it? Don't let it scare you though. You will be surprised at how quickly the hours add up even when you are working alone. Let's be realistic. If you can spend a minimum of 10 solid hours working in a week it will take between 1 1/2 and 2 years. Not too scarey. Good Luck and we'll all be here if you need us!
I should of expected that..... :laugh: :laugh: BILL.....thats what I'm thinking of myself ...about 10 hours a week and maybe a bit less...since i work 7 days a week.... :Smarty: knock 3 hours off .....I already stripped interior and both doors and 1 fender off :Brow: btw...the body/frame bushings scare me... ou:
Frank, Just a little helpful advice. Every single bolt, washer, bracket, wire, and other parts should be bagged and labled. Even before you start cleaning things. You should also have a camera on hand to take pictures of everything before and during disassembly. Catagorize your parts and store them so you will be able to identify specific areas when you need them. Now get busy!!
Camera??? yes...digi camera for pics ....for pics 2 use on the board here for help.... and video camera for me....so i can play it backwards in slow slow motion ..when its time 2 put it back 2gether..:beer btw....my advantage is that the body,chrome and interior are in excelent shape...basicly no body work needed....just maybe have it sanded down ready for paint....the motor & trans have only 60k miles... runnin good....maybe if i get tempted I send the motor out pass state line and visit J.W...a boost of 70hp wouldnt hurt......I wonder if he has a payment plan with low %% :Brow:
Every vehicle takes a different amount of time, depending on the vehicles condition of course. Most of the restorer's that I have come in contact with, figure around 1000 hours for a complete restoration,(read that as COMPLETE!, body, suspension, mechanical, electrical, EVERYTHING!) obviously the vehicles' condition has EVEYTHING to do with the time frame during a retoration, but... I am talking about profesional restorers, not part time hobbiest's. You have to be realistic, not only do you have to figure the time that it takes to do a job, but also if the funds are avalible when a part is needed, this can easily add years to a restoration if you "have to wait" before ordering an expensive part or component. Not tyring to discourage you but... there is a lot of unfinished "restorations in the classifieds.
Frank, Just to prove my point above, look at the pic below of my RF body mount. Looks just fine right? In reality the area where it was spot welded to the passengers foot area was rusted to where it wasn't going to hold anything. The bottom of the mount where it sits on the two body bushings was rusted to paper thin. I removed the mount and called out west to find one. They said sure we got em. $175.00 but we're so backed up it'll be 2 months before we can cut one off. I ended up repairing it, good as new and welding it back on. Point is all that work and fabrication took a lot more hours than expected. I didn't add it up but there was probably 16 hours in it. All the damage was totally hidden. By the way, the body bushings are easy, just make sure they send you the right amount. A skylark uses more than a chevelle.
It will cost you double of what it is worth! And take 2 years of your life.And if you have never done this ..than you will never complete this! :jd:
John, Did you know that I paid for almost twice the amount of time you talk about for a partially completed rolling chassis from an already disassembled car? No parts, no mechanicals, no engine, no transportation, no chrome, no brite work, no electrical. Just the installation of two NOS quarters, standard repair of the doors, slight rework and repaint of an already restored frame and body and suspension parts, and an unfinished, unbuffed paint job. What do you think?
mine will be at the 2 year mark in May. The frame/suspension is done.Now if my bodyman will quit thinking he`s Picasso,and finish the !@#$ thing! Heres the rolling frame
the body as of 2 weeks ago.I`ll be a very happy camper when my home office is free of car parts,re-done dash,bumpers,and boxes of NOS parts
Larry, Yes, I have read about your unfortunate experience(as I'm sure most have :ball: ) obviously "things" did not go as intended at the first restoration shop that you went with. I hope that it goes better at TSP(for your sake), many other's have thrown up thier hands in disgust and sold the unfinished project, before finishing the restoration. I, on the other hand pefer to perform my own restorations, everything from rebuilding the suspension, building the engine, body & paint will be done by me! The money that I would have to pay someone else has bought a garage full of shop equipment for me to use, body rotiserie, plasma cutter, mig welder, cabinet blaster, among some of the items that I have bought! I have performed several "partial restorations" on club members cars as well as a "frame off" on one of my '70 Stage-1's. I hear so many stories about shops keeping cars for years, that I wanted to control when my car was done! Besides that, it seems like whatever I do decide to "farm out" comes back have ass'd or the price went up considerably from the quote. Out of curioustity what kind of hour total did JW figure to finish your car?
Larry, Unlike some, I do not have a job where I can check "the board" every 15 min., and had other things to do this evening, since my cars will be at the Buick events this year I had a little work to do.(still better then just writing a check!)
some pics of what 6 years of sitting will/can do here is the gs...the body is almost perfect...but not when it sits for 6 years. this is the problem area......the Cowling thingy drivers side.. this is what its done to the floors but only the front....the rear areas are solid nice.. these are the patch floor panels....these are from goodmark,but I got them off ebay for about $20 cheaper.....these are very very perfect fitting and I thought all I had 2 do was a core support project...well,surprise-surprise 2 me...cheep tin and rivets ugly uh? other side ................................ attention 462cid aka Chris Blair.....you have competition.. :laugh:
I would go for it! I never did a full frame off till last year. Did 2 last year. Used a camera to document all. Then used zip lock bags with each being labeled as to what they were for. The 66 Riv we did last fall was covered deep in undercoating. We scraped for 6 days on it alone. The frame had about 6 days in it counting blasting, sanding and assembling. Engine took a couple of days to detail. Bead blasted all the stuff we could. Waiting on parts is a pain too. Sanded the underside and primed. Sanded and painted with base/clear. Mainly me and another guy did most of the work. Averaging 10 hour days, 6 days a week. The top side of the car looked great already. We only did the complete frame, body underside, core support, inner fenders, cowl, tail lights and grill. This took 2.5 months for he and I. We are slow!! Don't you think?
i figure 8-10 hours a week....since i work 12 hrs 7 days a week... 2day i have 2 pick up my air compressor .....then i have 2 find a rotiserie thing for the body...i would hate 2 make one ......thank God my neighbor is good with welding...I wonder if they rent em...
