Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[gillberry]

my other half rang me at work this afternoon to say he had taken the Amazon to be looked at for a respray etc and was pleased with the price of 7k to 10K and has booked it in for the end of october and we will get her back in march, you can see why i was a bit speachless (which does not happen often) no doubt he will be on here soon with all the details so then you can all try convince me that all will be well

[Rick]

ooo bet you're glad (not) that you picked the phone up!

Does the bodywork need much doing before the painting can begin?

R
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[john-saab]

[gillberry]

Its a bare metal full ghange of colour respray with some known rust bubbles sorted . The 10k side of figures is a ballpark worst scenario just in case more rust is found when she is stripped back to bare metal .

As for the body being as rotten as they come and rebuilding from the ground up at todays labour rates a car in that condition would be £20-30k . In the workshop there is a 30's tourer with an an ash frame and an estimate of £40-60k for a full rebuild .

[ukdave2002]

Ouch !! its a lot of money, but its also an awful lot of work, It cost me £1600 to just get the Morris 8 bodyshell stripped down to bare metal and ELPO'd. Your workshop will have all the dismantling and re-assmbly on top as well as painting it!!

For that money make sure it is ELPO'd it will get paint into places Volvo never did!!


Dave

[gillberry]

I must be missing something here a bare metal respray with a change of colour so that all the car becomes the new colour all rust removed and holes either welded with new metal or lead loaded necessary parts replaced with new where possible , wheels refurbished , new headling , new window rubbers . The figure quoted was £10k worst scenario depending on wether there is any hidden rust .

This is the disreputable dealers website and having been down there and seen there work in progress well what do I know . Thats why I'm paying someone to do the work as they have a covered workshop with all the tools needed to complete the job .

[edit - RJ]

This is the basket case in question and would you believe it actually has mot until next january . And when I viewed I looked underneath to check it was solid , well I will be going to specsavers next month I obviously need some bi focals .












Now as this forum has a lot of very knowledgable gentleman before we actually spend this money here and the other bit of money that we are going to spend having the interior retrimmed (to make her as close to new as we can get her) What sort of figures from your experience would be realistic ?

Or if you guys who have the really nice looking cars actually added up what you have spent over the years getting your cars in the condition they are in are you talking pennies or pounds ?

We are just spending out in one go .

This was all typed out after seeing another post on here which by the time I'd finished typing I found had been removed .

[gillberry]

Sorry for the rant but we know it is a lot of money to be spending but having looked into this and for all we are having done the only way we could get away with paying less than £5k would be to do a half hearted job where rust etc would be showing thru after a couple of years . We will be taking pics of the progress and at the end will be ending up with a car that is like new and as mentioned we are spending all our money in one go rather than over umpteen years to get our result .

[victor 101]

You must really like the old girl to be spending 10k on her. I would keep it as a good honest workhorse and tidy it up. If you get it done you will probably be worrying about it all the time, and it would be a shame if that spoilt your enjoyment of it.

[Scotty]

[Rick]

I think *good* Amazon estates are becoming a fairly rare breed, and if you're planning to hang onto it for some time then why not splash out and get it spot-on.

As to the costs, well I'm in the middle of a resto project being undertaken by someone else, and the vast majority of the cost has gone in labour time. I would have saved myself a bomb if I'd done it here, but the thing is - would I ever have had time to actually do it, or at least do it in a reasonable timeframe and to a standard worthy of the £outlay?

I agree, I think a full resto long-term will be a better bet than a half-ar*ed job that needs re-doing in a few years' time.

What I would say is:

- agree a top figure for the completed job, and get in writing what the 'completed job' actually means, ie driving away, all bodywork re-metalled, painted and so on. Also check that this top estimate isn't just labour costs, but the whole shooting match, inc parts (although estimating parts costs will be a bit vague as there is bound to be some unexpected expense in this department).

- visit regularly, photograph everything as it gets done, and if you don't like how something has been done, tell them it wants re-doing correctly (and don't let them re-invoice you a second time for the same piece of work).

- make sure you get a detailed breakdown of how the hours have been spent, and question any task that seems to have a curiously-high number of hours allocated to it.

If you can do some of the donkey work yourself (ie dis-assembly and then later re-assembly) then thats a good way of cutting down the amount of labour that the resto shop put into the car. Although this might not work in all restoration scenarios, it is one way of keeping the costs in check.

Keep us updated with how it all goes!

Rick
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[Giggles]

Hi Simon & Jayne,
I have to admit to taking a sharp intake of breathe when I first saw the quote, but then when you think about how much time, skill and materials (paint etc) required, I wouldn't say that was too far out. I've heard stories of people paying large sums of money to have a Hot Rod or Kustom built, which would include the full bare metal respray.

A friend had his '68 Camaro done by SID in Great Yarmouth a few years back, he's never said how much it cost him but it does still look blinking good. He made regular trips up to Yarmouth to check the progress on the car and has a load of photographs to record what they did. He has also gone on to win several cups for "best paint" and "top car" at shows.

You both work hard and after the past couple of years that you've both had, why not treat yourselves (and the car) to something special? A lovely cruise round the Med would cost about that.
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[Brian M]

Simon and Jayne

I must firstly say that it is your money and you can do whatever you like, and of course, as an Amazon owner, I am delighted that you are so enthusiastic about yours that you want to preserve it probably for the rest of time.

BUT, the advice always given to classic car purchasers is to buy the best you can afford, and I wonder if there is a cheaper way to achieve the perfect Amazon.

I cannot find the details of the concourse Amazon estate that was sold a couple of years ago to be able to confirm the price but I seem to recall that is was in the region of £12k. On this car you would find it very difficult to spend anything on it as it was perfect in every respect.

There is a low mileage very good condition Amazon Estate with an asking price of £8k for sale here, http://www.thornfalconclassics.com/SalesDetail.aspx?id=111 that could be a better starting point. I have not seen this car so it would still need a full inspection - to use your words: "with your glasses on this time!"

Rick's comment about getting a "completed job price" is a good one, but on every quote I ever have seen there is a clause that covers the unforeseen expenses that cannot be estimated until the vehicle is totally dismantled.

One final thought - have you got an alternative price from an Amazon specialist? The restorers you have selected (not sure why the link has been removed) will not have the detailed knowledge of how best to repair an Amazon, nor the experience of which spares are the most cost effective.

You have one such expert near you - Brian Gue at Amazonia near Eye, Suffolk Tel : 01379871651. I have to declare an interest - Brian rebuilt my car as his show car before I bought it in 2001, and I have since seen several other Amazons he has restored and I have been very impressed with the standard he achieves.

The final decision is obviously up to you, but you did ask for comments and suggestions.
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Brian
1970 Volvo Amazon and 1978 Safari 15-4 Caravan
Classic Safari Forum: www.classicsafaris.co.uk

[gillberry]

The reason we have decided to use a professional restorer is that we don't have the skill or the tools to achieve the result we are after which is an as new Amazon estate . We know we could but a better example than we have but it won't be in the colour we want or ours . We may have only had ours since Jan this year but Gracie is now part of the family . Before we bought her the engine was rebuilt with an unleaded head and Rob at Amazon cars commented on what a lovely engine she was when he uprated the suspension for us . So mechanically she is fine and dandy .
Bodywise well we knew paint was peeling when we bought her so a respray was on the cards (only peeling due to being not prepped properly ) the interior again we knew at somepoint we would that done .
Since Jan having been driving her round and enjoying her she is such a practical car that considering the classics we have both had over the years Gracie is superb and we use her like an everday car (even been down to the tip with her fully loaded and a trailer on the back ) .
A dream both of us have always had would be to have our classic like new and now we have found one that we both like that is what we are going to do including a complete colour change inside and out and an interior retrim . When finished she will still be used regularly including towing our caravan but most impotantly she will be ours how we want her .

The specialist restorer has been going for over 20yrs and is local to us so we can pop up and take pics on a regular basis . I'm especially looking forward to seeing her bare and exactly what rust there is (should'nt be alot ) . As previously mentioned where it is too small a hole or area to weld they lead load . The colour change means they will also be spraying the interior and the door shuts and under the bonnet . There are a couple of areas that we know will need welding (minor bits) but other than that she will hopefully be fine . When I popped in the other day to see the guy there was a moggy minor outside with accident damage waiting to be done and inside there were a Rolls silver cloud for a body and mechanical resto and 3 pre war cars that in their current state of rebuild I have no idea what makes . 1 of these pre war cars was looking at a £40-60k rebuild . The £10k figure was worst scenario depending what rust is hidden and that included all parts , labour and vat .

Our Gracie is a good solid everyday car obviously needing tlc (as does any classic) but rather than spend the same sort of figures on the resto over many years to come but without achieving the desired result , we have decided to bite the bullet .

[lowdrag]

Er, wouldn't this be somewhat cheaper?

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-car-page.php/carno/59370

[gillberry]

That one sold for £5k on ebay but as previously mentioned the whole point of going thru the process of the resto is to get the car we want , colour and spec nice though that one is it is not a colour we like .