I got my dad's little log book from him the other day and he said he didn't mind if I posted the info. The totals are: 955 hours of labor $46,254.18 includes EVERYTHING, the initial $1700 for the car and all the parts and materials to restore it These two numbers might seem huge to us average guys but lets put this in perspective. The first day of work on the car was 8/9/08 and it was finished on 4/25/13. So that is an average of only 33 minutes per day if you spread that time out evenly over the 4 years, 8 months, and 17 days from start to finish. He only worked on this car in his spare time when he wasn't working his regular job as a mechanic at the electric company or when he was at home and not working on a car for someone else. The cost is a lot of money but spread it out over time and it's $26.87 per day over the duration of the restoration. He's just an average guy that makes an average salary, however, he's debt-free and since the project took so long (sometimes it sat while he saved money to buy parts!) the cost didn't seem quite so bad. The single most expensive part purchased was the 9" rearend from Currie Enterprises, it cost $3002.10 delivered to his house (that was a tough pill to swallow!). The cheapest parts were the items that were given to him for free from friends like Mr. Big here on the board (thanks Glen). My dad also did a little bit of trading like he rebuilt a transmission for a friend as partial payment for a rechromed front bumper. He also tried very hard to always find good deals or the lowest prices on parts. He does the same thing when he works on a car for someone else. He also did not search for NOS parts, he used reproduction stuff or good used stuff. He also was not concerned at all with any matching numbers which saved lots of money. He could have saved several thousand dollars if he had built the car more stock and used a stock 10-bolt rearend, a mild all iron engine with a non-Stage 1 Q-jet and a stock torque converter. He however decided to build it exactly as he wanted it since he has no plans to ever sell it. If he had to pay himself to restore the car it would have cost $89,229.18 which is way more than the car is worth so it would not have been a wise car to restore if someone couldn't do the work themselves. He called me last week to tell me how much he likes driving the car now with the drag radials. He told me that driving the car makes him very happy and that he would not sell it for any amount of money because this is exactly the car he wants and that if he sold it he would just want to build the exact same car.
Gary (and George), Thanks for sharing that info! I know the car needed extensive rust repair / body work, how many hours did George spend there?
Thanks Rick. I appreciate that. I'll look through the log book and try to get an estimate of how much time was spent on just the rust repairs (replacing the roof, trunk floor and braces, 1/4 panels, lower fenders, rust across the lower windshield, and replacing the section of the interior floor pan).
If you ask me 955 hours is fast for that amount of work. Look at Legendary for example charges 1500 hours to do unibody mustang with no frame or major body work required! DL
this is the first time i looked through this thread and that car is amazing. your dad does some top notch work there.
Thanks Paul. Now he's ready to really start having fun with the car. We drove it down to the Goodguys show two weeks ago so I made a little video of it going through the autocross. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QJQM9Cs6Bms" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
WOW Gary that came out amazing... Way to go at Good Guys, I've got mine coming up in a few weeks (Fathers Day Weekend)... I wanted to do the Auto Cross but I didn't get my brakes converted yet, ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG... Any way, Great Job on the car, it looks Great... .
That vid was something else! Wow! Sure carved it's way around the course, I'd be scared to death of biffin' a cone but he sure was a fine driver with the multi purpose (show, race, autocross) Buick. Can't wait to see the drag vid when it gets captured!
Wow! Ive been off the board for a LONG time and ran across this while searching for something. I couldn't stop and read the whole thread. I'm buying a car that needs finishing and already had your dad on the list to call. Only disappointment on the therad was to read how far backed up he is, but for good reason. He's truly a craftsman. Thanks for posting this!
This really is a great old thread that I found when searching the internet for restoration of 1970 GS-cars. When I read "Kokomo" I thought, hey wait a minute ! "The Hartford frame"-Stage 1 project that I bought a few years ago was ordered by Mann Chevrolet Buick, Flora Indiana west of Kokomo. But it seems to have been sold (dealer trade ?) by Matthews Buick, Marion Indiana east of Kokomo. Even with the emblem long gone it can still be read on the original trunklid. I saw on the sign at the car show that your fathers car was also sold there. Thanks for sharing all the info about this restoration !
