Here’s ‘Exactly’ Why Good a Restoration Is NEVER Cheap
TV famous shows why you can get a car restoration done in a less expensive way, but you’re unlikely to ever make money on one.
Scaring you isn’t the goal of Dan Short. As the owner of the Fantomworks restoration shop, Short, (or DRS as many may know him), decided to once and for all explain why good restorations can’t be had at a bargain.
Not all shops are the same. Some shops try and bait you in with low cost of restoration. “Slowly but surely they might start adding on extras,” DRS notes. Specifically, there’s flat rates for the shop, and material flat rates that cover consumables. They might not mention that material rate at first. And they can double up on that flat rate. Meaning they can charge a few hours of labor in something that might take them only an hour.
Part of that effective bait and switch also involves the first half of the restoration. Once your car is in their hands and taken apart, it’s tough to justify not pushing through and finishing the restoration. Gotcha.
For Fantomworks, LS swaps are tremendously popular. They make up a significant amount of their work, and like restorations, these aren’t cheap when done the right way. Done properly, an LS swap is supported by a number of additional parts. Fuel tanks, fuel lines, electronics, driveline components, transmission. Then to support that, suspension, brakes, cooling… It adds up.
Want to show off your pride and joy? Well, you probably don’t want flaking paint and a dingy and dirty engine bay for your new LS. So you’ll be looking at new paint, and potentially even new metal work in the engine bay as well. All of which costs huge chunks of cash.
So now that you’re totally put off doing a restoration, there’s a great rule of thumb from DRS that makes the justification worth while. If the car is genuinely rare, a restoration will usually recoup the money invested. And sometimes more than that. LS swaps are the same – if done correctly LS swaps actually can appreciate in value.
For everything else, there’s sentimental value. DRS puts that value at about 50%. For simple math, if you have $100,000 invested into the car and restoration, it becomes worth while if the car can be valued at $50,000 and not be too much of a gut punch. So the next time that a place gives tyou the promise of a cheap restoration, just remember there’s always a catch.
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