QuestionDick
Hi, I have a Packard from the 20's that I'm looking to restore. I was going to send it away to a professional restoration shop but they were talking 70 to 100 thousand to restore the car. Now I'm thinking of having one shop do the motor and transmission, another do the body work and another do the interior seats etc. My question to you is how do I find a shop that can handle each step and which do I do first, the motor. then body then the interior. How would you handle it to make certain the restoration is done correctly -
thanks
Ken
AnswerWell, you asked how I would do it! That is a question I can answer, because I have the skills, tools and experience to do the mechanical work myself, so I would remove the engine and transmission from the car, and basically dis-assemble all the bolt-on pieces that attach to the body, but I would not take the body off the frame or take the body apart. Then I would remove the interior and either do the upholstery myself or send it to a professional shop, depending on how complex the upholstery work is - in a 20s car, chances are I could do it myself. I'd clean the body and chassis thoroughly, because I work a lot cheaper than the professional shop I am going to send it to for body restoration. I work free on my own cars, because I enjoy the work, and I have the tools and experience - that is why I'm in the hobby (and I'm also retired!). Then I'd send the body and frame, still together, to a paint and body shop that I know and trust to do a top-notch job. This gives me time to work on the mechanical and electrical parts and get the upholstery done. When the body comes back from the paint and body shop, I reassemble car myself, being VERY careful not to mar the paint and body. This whole process takes years, but I get to control the quality of the work, save some money, and keep myself busy and out of my wife's hair for a couple of years! I also learn something from every car that I do. I also get to buy some wonderful tools and equipment!
(As you may realize if you read my intro on this site, I am not a trained mechanic - I'm an Electrical Engineer and Physicist - so I'm entirely self taught and the above process is the way I learned what I know.)
If you hire everything done, you will be doing what I call a "checkbook" restoration - you will get what you are willing to pay for, but $100,000 is not at all out of line for a decent driving and looking restoration, and I am familiar with restorations that went way over that.
I don't know your objective, but I caution you that you cannot have a car restored by others and hope to profit by selling the result - the car will always be worth less than the cost of restoration, unless you do a major part of the work yourself. If you do that, you won't make any profit either, because you will be so attached to the car that you won't be willing to part with it! (That's why I have so many cars.)
As for making sure the restoration is done "correctly", you will have to have it done by a really top dollar place that is committed to doing the research required to find out exactly what is correct for the car. Unless the car is an untouched original, there will have been things done to the car in the past that will have to be undone. It will have to go to a Packard expert with experience in that particular model or at least similar models/years. A Pebble Beach quality restoration of such a car can easily go above $250,000.
I don't mean to discourage you from having it restored, but I do hope to convince you to do as much of the work yourself that you can do, and to have as a target making the car presentable and driveable, and not neccesarily a top show winner - not unless you want to spend alot more than $100,000.
Post a follow-up question to me if I can help further. This is a great hobby, one I have enjoyed for many, many years - with nice people and a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment - but you have to get your hands dirty!
Dick
