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MG MGA - Restoration costs

Hello all. This may seem to be a dumb question, but I am beginning to restore a 1959 MGA that I recently purchased. The car is in decent shape and needs some work, is not rusted out and needs most of the rubber items on the vehicle replaced. My question is to anyone who has restored an MGA, the cost of restoration. I can do alot of the work myself, with the exception of fully rebuilding the engine and tranny.

Thanks,
Don Rosales

Don,
If you're doing a full restoration, I recommend that you examine the frame under the doors. While the vehicle may not appear to be rusted, this is a prime rust area and you don't need the dissappointment of completing a restoration only to find that the structure is no longer sound. I can't give final pricing, but some here can.
Good luck.
mike parker

cost far exceeds value,even if you do it yourself
but i dont resore cars for value.everyone has a hobby
and no hobby is cheap.dont worry,its a fun ride.once you remove just the rubber parts you will see that other part needs to be refurbished,and since im replacing that i might as well.......
enjoy! cc
c.callaway

Depends entirely on how extensive. Maybe all you want is a paint job, some new wire wheels, and an interior kit. Depending on the quality of the paint job and how much of the work you do yourself, you may end up spending only a few thousand bucks.

But say you're taking the interior out and you notice that your floorboards are rotted. And you take them out and notice the frame looks a little dodgy. So you take the body off, and it wants to fold up because your sills are in far worse shape than you thought. And now that the body's off, you have clear access to a whole bunch of stuff that you might as well clean up while you're at it. You end up tearing down this slippery slope at high speed, and at the bottom is a bank account that's a lot smaller than you originally intended.

And if you intend from the beginning to take the whole thing apart, powdercoating the frame, suspension bits, etc, rechroming everything, rebuilding the drive train (might as well, since you've got the body off :-), you are talking serious, serious money. The kind of money that your spouse (and I speak from experience here) will not let you forget about for a while.

Bottom line: it is, with 100% certainty, going to cost more than you think, possibly a lot more. A top-quality frame-up restoration can take north of 700 hours of labor to complete. And that's just the labor; even if you do all the work yourself, you'll also pay a lot for parts. You will have to be pretty hard-assed with yourself about what you want done and what flaws you're willing to live with.

A possible alternative: unless your car has a lot of sentimental value, you may well be better off buying someone's already-restored car, particularly if you need to perform major restoration on yours.
Mark Lambert

I agree with the previous arguments, though have to add that's a lot of fun doing it yourself. MGAs are very easy to work on and to understand.

Looking into the costs is no more than common sense, make sure you can oversee what you're going to do.

Good Luck !
Koen
Don Rosales

Don,

I have recently received some restoration pricing that you could find interesting. Email me and I will copy you.

Dan
Dan Barton

I'm not sure that the cost of restoring an MGA *far* exceeds the value anymore. Probably will exceed the value is a safe assumption, but the value of cars from the 50s through 70s has been going up lately as the people who remember those cars from their youth reach midlife crisis age. Ironically, the value of "horseless carriage" type cars has been declining slightly as many of the owners of those vehicles pass away and younger purchasers want cars modern enough to hold their own in present day traffic. (Personally, I'd love to have an old Stoddard Dayton like my Grandfather's first car.) I'd never restore an MGA with the idea of selling it for a profit, but your restoration may in the course of 5 to 10 years turn out to be a reasonable investment if done well.
David Breneman

I hear Mark loud and clear.I went down that slippery slope too. I was just going to replace a rod bearing, and one thing lead to another.I have not regreted it but would I do another? No way. I never added it up as my wife wanted to spend the same sum on furniture. Gary
gary starr

Don,
I am nearing the end of my coupe "do it yourself" frame off, nut and bolt restoration and have kept detailed records. When I say "do it yourself" I mean disassembly, paint removal, patch panel welding, upholstery, painting, etc, etc. Doing all the work my self, I have spent over $9000 so far. This includes some engine and transmission parts, but not a rebuild. That was done defore I stopped driving the car. Since labor is, by far, the most expensive thing...and I have virtually none of that in my rolled up cost, you could easily double, perhaps triple, this figure is you have it done. I have hundreds, perhaps several thousand, hours in this project. That does not include tools either. Plus, I still need about $1000 for paint material. As I said, I'm doing the paint work (labor) myself. As others have said, it will depend on what end result you are looking for. If you're interested I could e-mail you a document that breaks out where the money was spent. However, to paraphrase a certain commercial, "enjoyment of doing it? Priceless!"

Regards,
GTF
G T Foster

Don,

I spent a bit more than GTF, and would be happy to share the breakout of costs which I kept in an Excel file. Did just about all the work myself, except for the body blasting. No one should expect to make a profit, and one is lucky to break even if that is the goal. I did it for the fun.

Tom
Tom Balutis

Don, Make an estimate, (err on the high side) then double it! Then double it again, and you will be in the ballpark. Once you start, there is no turning back. There is no way to justify the expense, just tell your self "I don't care about the cost, I just want to do it." If you can't do that, then sell it to someone who can. It's a shame to see these cars in the back of garages slowly wasting away.
Ed Bell

The costs listed here are pretty much what i have found also. i took everything off the frame and have been slowly building it back up and acquiring tools along the way. like others i have recorded the cost of every purchase broken down by services (towing, powder coating, etc), tools, and car parts. i just finished painting it myself (yahoo!) and have a roling chassis with a rebuilt engine and gearbox and have invested over 24k over the past 4 years. this includes a great collection of tools. this amount is high compared to the other prices here but my rule of thumb is that if i bought something as a result of restoring the car it goes in the spread sheet. i didnt include tasty beverages though... i cant even speculate as to how much time i have put in to it. if i can make a recommendation as someone who has done this all of once, it would be to keep a checklist and an organized approach to doing a restoration. with a project as big as this it is hard to keep motivated all the time and tracking your progress helps show you ground covered as well and giving you a logical approach to moving forward. oh, a digital camera is by far the best tool for someone taking apart a car. i cant imagine doing somthing like this without it. i have over 550 MB of pictures so far that i refer to all the time. good luck! doug
doug

3x the finished value...about $60K.

Sell what you have a buy restored. Regardless how expensive the restored car is you'll be paying, at most, 50 cents on the dollar invested for the restoration. Plus you'll have your car now and not 10 years from now when you finally get around to finishing it.

Oh, and if your looking for that alone time with your car (you know the ol' working on it and fixing things to get that "wow, I did it" feeling) you'll still have plenty of down time for repairs on your newly purchased and already restored car.

Good luck!
B Kesman

Don, I think this has to do with your stage of life and other priorities. I started my '58, which was all dissambled and re-painted, thinking I would be driving it in a couple years after putting it back together. It even came with lots of purchased parts. That was in 1996. I learned that the body work was done so poorly that it was useless and needed to be completely stripped, blasted, and re-formed. That was very expensive. But the mechanical parts have been fun to do and worth the satisifcation of completing a bit of the project every now and then. I am now more satisfied to have a project that will carry into retirement when I have more time to drive and maintain it. I probably only get about one evening a month to work on it now.
Good luck,
HJ
Harley

Cost to rebuild MGA engine: expensive. Cost to rebuild tranny: expensive. Cost to rebuild body: expensive. Cost to overhaul brakes and suspension: expensive. Satisfaction derived from restoring and driving an MGA: PRICELESS
Glenn

Not including the purchase price of my 56 A, my frame-off restoration costs are at about $15,000 US and I'm not done yet (interior and finishing parts still to come). It's been all work, no fun and if I had to do it again, I'd give the money to Gary's wife to spend on furniture.
Bobby

By the way, lest my earlier note seem too pessimistic: I've owned my MGA for a little over 20 years, it's got lots of sentimental value, and I am very happy with the results of the restoration. Even if I could have used the money to buy Gary and his wife (and their neighbors) a houseful of furniture instead. You just have to go in with your eyes wide open. I'll never get that money back, but as a number of people have noted, "driving your MGA? Priceless."
Mark Lambert

Lots of warnings about how expensive it is to restore a car. That depends on you--what you're willing to do and what you want to farm out. To me--all the enjoyment was in the doing--I spent about 13K total from basket case with siezed engine to sweet car. The body looked pretty good until I started paint removal--the whole thing was covered in bondo...I turned it over to a pro who did an excellent job for about 8K. I know my limitations, and one of them is patience doing body work. I spent about another 5 grand getting the engine going, brakes overhauled, tires, rewiring and a new interior. I didn't do a frame off resto, as it ws going to be a driver, not some flower pot to be trailered to shows. I replaced what I had to--fabricated as much as I could myself and didn't cut any corners. I adapted aftermarket parts, such as fuel pump and a single 12v battery, where it didn't show. Now the car is finished--it sits under a car cover on one side of the garage and I seldom drive it--as all the enjoyment for me was in the doing. If you want a car to drive--then maybe you want to just keep it as is and use it--only replace that which needs replacing. If the drivetrain is still OK, maybe you'd just as soon clean it up and use it. If you want to do a frame-off full bore, everything's new again restoration--you'll be pumping a lot of money into a car that will probably never return near what you've put into it. If you're looking to restore it and turn a profit--stop right now--sell it and get yourself a nice sixties Mustang. You can restore it much more cheaply and the value will be more than the sum total of your efforts.
R. L Carleen

I did a complete frame up in the last 18 months, using pros for things beyond me (such as engine rebuild, major body work & paint) and have a spreadsheet of parts & labor. Parts alone, at about 10% discount from Moss and others came to almost $10K. I put in over 300 hours myself. All in all, I'd say my MKII cost me just over $25K in "outside" costs, and I started with a decent, non-driver in my garage. Keep in mind that I'm in NY City area, and most outside labor cost me around $80/hr. But, as Glenn said, the results are "priceless". Every part was sandblasted and primed in acid-etching primer and 11 coats of paint later the car looks great! The engine rebuild is holding fine at around 50 miles on it (OK, I had to undo some mistakes from the guy who rebuilt the engine & carbs, but who's perfect?, and I expect it to continue that way.

Now if the weather would only cooperate, I can start enjoying it again, for the first time since 1973! I've posted more details at http://home.mindspring.com/~kdoris/mga/.

- Ken
Ken Doris

I don't know how much mine will cost. I know it is not a "for profit" enterprise. You have to treat it as an entertainment cost, so much a month allowance. That way, 10 years later it doesn't seem so bad.
Art

This has been said before, but I'll say it again.
SHOP WISELY, with the emphasis on quality.Dont set an artifical budget then look to fill that price line.
As they say "the quality is remenbered long after the price is forgotten" One other point, do you want the car to drive and enjoy, or are you looking for a hobby to fill up your time, and years.
WCW

This thread was discussed between 18/04/2005 and 24/04/2005

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