100 went to 300 rust fixing hours

[TH23]

Dear all pros,
Way do these modest body restauration projects always tends to stretch a litle bit to far? Is it because I hate rust! And my litle project was ok in he beginning but now it seems that W&N have made it. The car have all the rust issues that moister from the coupe generates. From the outside it looks good but when you open the can... When buying coupes I think I have learned that their will be rust even if the car looks nice from the outside.
BW
/Tomas

 

[eludvigs]

There is always rust. The quantity and difficulty to repair being the only thing you can hope is LOW!

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

That's allot of time

US calculations brings that to just under 2 months of time for 1 skilled technician. I think that's a little excessive. If the parts are there and the shop has proper equipment then I would think it could be done in much less time. I am not discounting the quality and integrity of the shop performing the work, just wondering if they have an efficiency challenge. Good luck and if you decide to move ahead I hope they are able to get the work done in less time. Even with prices moving up it will be hard to "recoup" those funds-

Peter

 

[TH23]

Hi, I have one pro welder on full time, he knows both mechanics and metal. We need also to correct some old repairs from 30 years ago. But I think I will end up with six weeks, my time not included, for him on the rust and the disassembly almost full time, but then will I end up with a perfect body. I buy almost all repair panels from Wallothnesch. /T

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

It looks like a super place to do a restoration. I also needed help welding in floors which did take 2 full days. The dismantling and reassembly I did myself and I spent countless hours polishing and cleaning every part so the reassembly did go very smoothly. From the picture the body looks pretty good. I would be interested in seeing more detailed pictures of the rusty areas if you get a chance. Please don't misunderstand my earlier comments, I know people who have spent over $100,000.00 on restoration work on a non-CSL e9 and the end result was very nice indeed. Also, if you are enjoying the work that alone can be priceless. On my first e9 I spent about 16 months doing the work. Most of it myself, but not including paint I probably subcontracted 50 hours of work. I was thinking the other day that during the entire restoration I never once was overly frustrated, partly because there was no time limit but mostly because these cars are fascinating!

Keep us updated please

 

[eludvigs]

Totally agree Peter. I'm just happy to know I've seen every nut and bolt on this thing.

I was able to handle a good amount of welding on my own to knock down body shop hours. Shipping it out of the bay area for paint/body saved a good amount on $$$.

 

[TH23]

I rent the place from a friend. Here comes a few pics, before and after.

The car [CSI 3,0 from 1974] was possible to drive two months ago. The paradox with the rust issues is that some places, like front, back and under the car, was spotless but bad on other, like the lower A-post and outer sills. The rust was hidden. We have replaced all door mirrors, both plates in the trunk, all floor panels, outer sills, panels for front and rear sills and a lot of panels in the front that holds the fender etc. I think that the car will be more stable after we have strengthen the major places. The 2,5 mm plate on the right side, that hold the MacPherson, was loose f.e.

I will try to post some pics duringe the work.

/T

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

OK that explains the hours!

Some of those shots are frightening! I can see why its taking so long. I brought my e9, when I first bought it, to a very well respected high end restoration facility down here in Austin, after going through the car I was given an estimate of 50,000 for the restoration. I got along very well with the owner and some of the technicians, they showed me lots of cars hidden away, an M1, and some Jags, just about everything that would make a car nut want to quit his/her job and sweep their floor to be around these works of art. They asked me when I would be back to start and I said "never". They looked puzzled and I said, you said 50K for the restoration but we both know that means just over 100K if I'm lucky, "well, at least he gets it" they said and so my work began

Now on #3 car

 

[Gazz]

This is after 400+ hours, not including paint. It may seem almost impossible that it would take that long but I bet that if you could tally your own hours ( who does? ) just on physical work you would be amazed. Add in searching ebay, wrecking yards, this and other sites for help and research, general running around for materials etc,etc and the hours, days, weeks, months really accumulate. Is it worth it? I've asked myself that and I can't say. I guess if I had applied myself just as much to learning a musical instrument or another language I would be well on the way to proficiency. But hey, I like building stuff. I've built a house, a boat, and now a beautiful car.