The odd Mustang he has is a 1966 A-code convetible maroon with a black top and I believe its medium blue interior. I wouldnt think that many would be sold with that color combo. Need to check door plate to see specs.

A restoration is tough unless you are intimately familiar with all the tiny details.
I have been looking for a 65 convertible.  Nothing perfect, but I don’t want to pay for somebody else’s efforts spent doing something wrong. Little details are obviously overlooked in every one I look at.

So, be sure his expectations of a restoration and your knowledge of each vehicle are a good match.

I certainly would not do restoration work that requires knowledge of “how it should be” for less than $100 an hour. Just doing mechanical assembly work of the parts on hand could be different and probably less.

MS wrote:

A restoration is tough unless you are intimately familiar with all the tiny details.
I have been looking for a 65 convertible.  Nothing perfect, but I don’t want to pay for somebody else’s efforts spent doing something wrong. Little details are obviously overlooked in every one I look at.

So, be sure his expectations of a restoration and your knowledge of each vehicle are a good match.

I certainly would not do restoration work that requires knowledge of “how it should be” for less than $100 an hour. Just doing mechanical assembly work of the parts on hand could be different and probably less.

Thank you for the response and to everyone else as well. Tomorrow  the owner and I will talk money and will be getting the rotisserie ordered. The owner wants a concourse Restoration  done on the BOSS 302. The convertible obviously isnt since he has different fender exstentions and headlight buckets then stock to match his early 1964 hood. Good thing is he has the stock ones not sure why he doesnt have them mounted to the car since he had them painted with the others so the matched the cars Rangoon Red exterior. What will be interesting is how it will be getting all the parts from the owner that are kinda scattered around the garage and in the passenger compartment. Not necessarily being treated the best like his factory door panels for the convertible.

The owner of the cars also has another one MS. I will keep you posted on the 1966 convertible A code GT Car. Maroon black top with beleive medium blue interior. The owner of the other cars daughter is wanting to sell the car.

The old adage "measure twice, cut once" applies here. I would REALLY think this through first. Twice. Doing a full concourse restoration, if you have never done one, is truly a daunting task. Be really clear on what you and your customer's final goals are in this project. Temper that with what you truly feel are your best skills and experience in attempting this. You don't want to waste your time and his money finding out that you are in over your head. You might do a good job, or not. Only you can decide. I'm not trying to be a downer here, but forewarned is forearmed.
 

Bolted to Floor wrote:

Restoration on multiple cars is a tall order. Are these still coming apart or already going back together? If going back together, was the other stuff done right? Here are some other rambling thoughts.

Will this be a full time job for you? I keep getting around a 1000 hours to restore a Mustang which is about 6 months of work for the 40 hours a week guys. At $50 an hour, is the guy willing to pay around $50k for labor?

If I was the car owner, I would need to provide a list of the things needed to be completed per car. I’m sure the list would expand as the project moved forward. I would expect a realistic schedule for the work to be completed with a ball park estimate for hours. I would want to be able to stop by and check on progress.

Is the owner willing to pay for the time to research the info required for a concourse restoration?

Any parts coming with the car need to be part of an agreed upon inventory to avoid the “I gave you that, no you didn’t” pitfalls.

Good luck.

With all the work needed I will have to make it into a full time job. The owner I dont assume hed have any problems at all dropping 50,000 on any of the cars. Hes already shelled out a 130,000 for one of his 1968 z/28 camaros he has two. And it only had quarters replaced trunk replaced floor pan patch. All parts were old nos. The cars body not front clip is primered and thats it. The thing that the owner didnt like at the shop was the fact it wasnt getting worked on and he was still shelling out 5,000 sometimes more a month. And now that shop isnt working on his car at all due to no employees three of them quit. So the owner is now painter and bodyman again and has one employee that Im sure is doing all the work all the other mustangs that are in there as the two of them know mustangs like the back of their hand as they are concourse judges. They just havent ever worked on a camaro ever in their shops till this one.

Good idea on the I know I gave you that part.... the cars are coming apart completely they all need to be disassembled. The owner has done some work to the cars. And disassembled some of the cars which im not to keen on as never know whats all missing. So that means Ill have to play the reassemble game on the cars first before disassembly can actually begin for real. Both the vert and the Boss will need floor pan work. And the owner is aware he is okay with a full floor pan if needed on any of them. The boss looks to only need a small patch next to the floor support beleive it was passenger side. And also along the sides of the transition pan where the rear seat belt anchor mounts are. Very minior out back. The owner has the Boss floor pan stripped of pretty much all sound deadener and see lots of bare steel and the factory gray slop coat. I was happy to see that the cowl side panel bottom corner I think they are refered to as are in very nice shape no holes. The fender aporons are rusty on where the front and rear peices attach to the shock tower top apron. Some rust through. Also needs minor battery apron patch work done as well. Im pretty sure the owner doesnt mind me spending the time for proper research for the cars as he wants them to be concourse and has spent alot of money already gathering correct parts. Im really curious as to what the quarter panels on the boss are like under all the paint. Right side trunk drop puzzels me sorta as its spotted in a few spots except tying it into the rear trunk brace makes me think it was replaced at sometime which could be right as the quarter obviously has had cover up work done to it. Which I also pointed out the owner he agreed and thought similar with seeing the pick marks from the inside of the trunk. I stated may need quarter panels. But we will know later once the paint has been removed. Paint removal I dont mind but I am debating whether or not to send out the cars to have them acid dipped at the place graveyard cars uses as its the closest to me. Sadly its out of state.

The Rangoon red convertible will be the interesting child as its been painted and will need to be repainted again.  as a previous shop did door skins that look really nice straight but the window gap tapers at the front by where the wing windows go so it need to have material welded in and will have to be repainted. This is right where the door skins mount is spot welded through the gap. I could tell the owner was trying to think of all the stuff he was aware of. He absolutely loved my work I did at the old shop that his one camaro is currently at thats also why he wants me to do the work for him.

Tall order and hats off to you....fingers crossed all goes well

TKOPerformance wrote:

Concourse is really tricky and time consuming.  There are all manner of things on those cars that are date coded (hose clamps, alternators, and a bunch of other stuff you'd NEVER think matters).  I would start by finding people who know more than you do.  The Boss registry, etc. would be a good place.  Be wary of magazine pictures, or anything else not seen in person on a car winning a show. 

 
Thanks for the reply. It should be lots of fun getting into the BOSS I was lucky enough to get to do finally assembly on a 1969 BOSS 302 acapulco blue also got to be the one to fetail the underneath of the car for our local Autorama car show. Not saying I know it all at all far from it. Thank you for reminding me to hop on to the BOSS Registry site as well. Suspension and undercarriage have me a little troubled as ive seen varients in 1970 BOSS 302s for their drive shaft markings. I think its funny owner said concourse but then he had his axle housing powder coated. Same with the backing plates front and rear. They look about like what I installed sheen wise so maybe I can make them work. I hate to redo them since he just got them back from the shop. Hopefully I can get the right anount of flattener agent to be able to match what they look like so I dont have to fix them. Good thing is hes done some of the hard work front control arms upper and lower are original rebuilt units. They have also been blasted brightened back up to a natural finish and then were dipped. It took him forever to find 1970 correct lowers with the jack support points. One huge minus on the BOSS the engine bay engine and misc parts all sprayed in rattle can. I mean atleast take off the original radiator cap.

Last edited by True74yamaha (12/04/2022 9:21 PM)

As others have posted, if you’ve never done this before be very, very careful estimating the cost.  I suggest whatever you think it will cost (remember MS’s rule!), double it, and this could be low.  As I’ve estimated jobs (not car related) it is always better to come in high because that is the number the customer will remember.  And also, as others have mentioned, doing a concours restoration means getting all the little details right, and that takes time. $50k for this effort seems low to me.
Just a thought … maybe take the car to Kindigit Design and then simply charge a 10% premium over their cost. 

Last edited by True74yamaha (12/05/2022 10:33 PM)

Make sure you have a really good business insurance policy.

Quicksilver wrote:

Those are not "projects ", Those are life long career changes! It would be hard to put a firm price on any of the cars until they came back from the media blasting shop. Especially the Boss 302 which might come back as swiss cheese holes. Does this mean your own car will be on hold for a while?

 It doesnt seem likeut will put my car to far back. I really need to seek out and find new employment opportunities out there. To get some better funds for my car. Im at the point now where im debating on buying a new firewall and full floor pan. My floor pan is overall in pretty decent shape minus the drivers side down side is I have great stuff foam in the rockers so I  really need to still remove the floor so I can remove my inner rocker so I can remove the foam. Then sand blast in there to remove all any rust primer the  inside of the rockers. Then I can reinstall the inner rockers. So I have my work cut out for me on my car as well. Hopefully it will  be finished sometime.  Funds would definitely help me out though to finish my car.

6sally6 wrote:

If it was 6sal6.......I would run !! IMHO
6s6

Won't those take a village of people to restore?