Thoughts on Doing a New build In my Garage

[gasflaphoodfan95]

Hi there. Its been some time since I left the scene, and I have came up with this crazy restoration idea since then. There is a red painted 81 5 speed manual car that is rotting behind a office building for 7 years. the guy wants to to sell it to me for about 7k and is a mess. my thoughts were to buy the car mainly for parts and its identity title vin plates etc. Then figure out the cost of buying virutally a whole new car dissabmled from DMC Huston out of as many nos parts as possible. with some liberties like stage II and EFI. Basically everything from underbody to doorpanel would be nos or rebuilt. I would be hoping to sell the "donor" red car as parts to give back the cost of the new parts a little. I am hoping all said and done from donor car purchase to all parts hopefully aim around under 40k. I have experience in these cars and could do most of the work myself.

Any thoughts.?

regards,
Jason.

[Dangermouse]

Have a read through this.

http://www.projectvixen.com

It may be inspiring.

[gasflaphoodfan95]

Have a read through this.

http://www.projectvixen.com

It may be inspiring.

Yes I have. I have even seen the video.

[David T]

Yes I have. I have even seen the video.

From an economic viewpoint what you want to do is nuts. If you want a project that is another thing. You can buy a good runner and make it perfect for a lot less than $40K but of course it won't have a lot of NOS parts but who cares? Nothing wrong with original parts as long as they are not aged out or worn out like panels, trim, etc.

[Silverbullet]

"the cost of buying virutally a whole new car dissabmled from DMC Huston"

Has anybody ever added this up??? My guess is it would be a whole lot.... I mean if I was to buy my Corvette from the Chevy Dealer in parts, it would be a half a million....

Craig

[Morpheus]

i'm guessing this would cost a mint.

[Delorean Industries]

I have completed this analysis post price increase. With our manufacturing capabilities and sources it is cheaper for us to make the components from scratch compared to piece by piece from a DMC NOS stock pile. IE the clutch hardline is 54.54 from DMC. We make this in stainless at a fraction of the cost.

[Project Vixen]

Have a read through this.

http://www.projectvixen.com

It may be inspiring.

Thanks!

Hmmm... A good rule of thumb might be The Rule of Pi. Figure out everything you think you'll need and all of the associated costs -- then multiply that by 3.14159 to get a close estimate of actual completion costs. So if you figure $40,000 -- the actual cost would likely be $125,663.60. My gut tells me it would probably be very close to that to buy all of those parts NOS.

That number does include sales tax, which helps make it more simple. ;-)

But in all seriousness, I think you could do a very presentable Stage II/EFI car -- even out of a basket case -- for $40k, but you will need to reuse/recondition as much as possible to do so. That's also assuming that you do all of your own labor.

[gasflaphoodfan95]

Thanks!

Hmmm... A good rule of thumb might be The Rule of Pi. Figure out everything you think you'll need and all of the associated costs -- then multiply that by 3.14159 to get a close estimate of actual completion costs. So if you figure $40,000 -- the actual cost would likely be $125,663.60. My gut tells me it would probably be very close to that to buy all of those parts NOS.

That number does include sales tax, which helps make it more simple. ;-)

But in all seriousness, I think you could do a very presentable Stage II/EFI car -- even out of a basket case -- for $40k, but you will need to reuse/recondition as much as possible to do so. That's also assuming that you do all of your own labor.

That woud be my second option restoring as much as I can.
My goal is to restore this car to a high level possibly removing the frame and making a nice Stage 2 efi performance car possibly as nice as a new build with every nook and cranny cleaned for under 40k. also this will be my first delorean but I was really close to Jeff K's cars. also here is what the car looks like as of a week ago.

my third option would be to consult DPI I highly admire their work.

[David T]

That woud be my second option restoring as much as I can.
My goal is to restore this car to a high level possibly removing the frame and making a nice Stage 2 efi performance car possibly as nice as a new build with every nook and cranny cleaned for under 40k. also this will be my first delorean but I was really close to Jeff K's cars. also here is what the car looks like as of a week ago.

my third option would be to consult DPI I highly admire their work.

What you are thinking of doing is very close to making a perfect concours car. I suggest you get the Millenium Concours manual and try to follow it. It does not require NOS parts meaning you can restore, clean, and rebuild many parts, replacing things that age or wear like rubber seals, gaskets, hoses, etc. The first step I would recommend is to try to get the car running as much and as well as possible so you can see what needs to be done before taking it all apart. Just keep in mind the better the car you start out with the faster, cheaper and easier it will be to make a nice one.