18 replies to this topic

[cooperd70]

Back to the OP...on the 'does anyone know of a decent welder in the Chelt/Glos area...my brother has a contact...he will get his details and I'll pass them onto you via a pm as soon as 👍👍

[cooperd70]

Brother finally got in touch with the guy in the area and he has just got too much work on at the moment to take anything else on. Hopefully you'll find someone who can help.

[Cooperman]

It does seem as though if you have a quite rusty shell, the cost of paying someone to rebuild it and re-paint it will then exceed the value of the resultant car.

The only way to make it viable is often to do the bodywork, welding, etc, yourself and not everyone has the skills of facilities/equipment to do this.

In such cases it can be more sensible to sell the corroded car and buy one already done.

I bought my 1990 Cooper for £3,000 and I have rebuilt the body, repainted it and done a full engine, gearbox and suspension rebuild, with 10" wheels, S brakes, new suspension, etc. So far it has cost me about £5,500 and it is complete, rust-free and has, effectively, a new engine & gearbox. If I had paid for the bodywork to be done, that would have added around £5,000 to the cost, without the engine/suspension/brakes, etc.

Classic cars are a bit of a 'labour of love' and if I couldn't do virtually everything myself I would be unable to afford one classic Mini, let alone the two I have.

[Homersimpson]

It does seem as though if you have a quite rusty shell, the cost of paying someone to rebuild it and re-paint it will then exceed the value of the resultant car.

The only way to make it viable is often to do the bodywork, welding, etc, yourself and not everyone has the skills of facilities/equipment to do this.

In such cases it can be more sensible to sell the corroded car and buy one already done.

I bought my 1990 Cooper for £3,000 and I have rebuilt the body, repainted it and done a full engine, gearbox and suspension rebuild, with 10" wheels, S brakes, new suspension, etc. So far it has cost me about £5,500 and it is complete, rust-free and has, effectively, a new engine & gearbox. If I had paid for the bodywork to be done, that would have added around £5,000 to the cost, without the engine/suspension/brakes, etc.

Classic cars are a bit of a 'labour of love' and if I couldn't do virtually everything myself I would be unable to afford one classic Mini, let alone the two I have.

I'm in the same boat with my cars, if I didn't do all the work myself I wouldn't be able to afford them.  As the old saying goes if you want to make a small fortune out of classic cars start with a large fortune!