Hello - I'm fairly new here; haven't posted much. Here is my sad story....
Had a dream to own a '70 or '71 big block 'Cuda for the past 7 years. After saving funds and looking for about 2 years, I finally found a '70 383 Barracuda for sale. The car even originally came with A/C, although the parts for that were missing. The car arrived 4 years ago by commercial transport. I drove it once around the block and then straight into the garage of a highschool autobody shop. Free labor! The car looked and ran rough. No surprise.
Over the next 4 years, the car was sand blasted and all rust cut out and repaired. New fenders, quarter panels, trunk, wheel wells (rear), floors patched, replacement firewall welded in. Then the car was primered and since it was just a shell, they sprayed the motor compartment, trunk, and door jams B5 blue (original color). After 4 long years, I could wait no longer and figured I had already saved a ton of money on body work. At this point I had about $8k in the project which included cost of car purchase and body parts (labor, although done by amateurs, was free). So I decided to send it to a professionial restoration shop, take out a loan, and have it finished. About this time, greed took hold of me and I decided to make it into a hemi Cuda clone with possible thoughts of selling it for profit and then buying a completed 383 or 440 Cuda for myself.
So I took the car into a nearby shop and told them what I wanted. This place is big, 25 employees and I saw plenty of their work. Top quality. Anyway, the bid came in and I darn near had a heart attack. They completely ripped the quality of body work already done (in some situations they were probably correct) and quoted me $32,000 - JUST for the finish bodywork and paint! This doesn't take into account the cost of the engine, suspension, electrical, and interior work. My heart sank like the Titanic. No way I can afford this. The shop at school is through with this car (instructor retires this year) so I can't expect them to finish it and even if they did, there is so much else to be done. The car is a rolling body shell at this point. I don't have the expertise or tools to finish it myself (I don't teach auto mechanics or autobody, just a lowly culinary arts instructor). What to do? My dream is quickly evaporating and I'm almost out of ideas....What would you do?
