Pretty simple, as a former President said, "It's the economy stupid!" When the general economy goes south it affects everything but what is affected most is high ticket "luxury" items like collector cars. The reason that restoring one is still very expensive is that individual items like a spoiler, gallon of paint, carpet, etc. is that the cost to make or find a replacement now is about the same or more than it was 3 or so years ago and the cost of someone with a lot of body/paint experience is still about the same. I'm sure there are some bargains out there on labor because demand is down, but most of the really good body/paint guys are staying as busy as they want to be on collision work from insurance companies. So it looks something like this: $7,000 to $8000 for a decent restorable car + $2,000 in parts + $4,000 to $5,000 in body work and paint = 13,000 to $15,000 (in my case quite a bit more) in a car that is now worth maybe $12,000.
When I budgeted my conversion / restoration, I knew that I would have more in it that what it's worth to SOMEONE ELSE, but that's o.k. I didn't build it for someone else, I built it for ME, and I love it. I have no intention of selling it but if and when I do, hopefully the value will be back up and if not, I'll consider the money "lost" as a better investment that going out and buying a new 2011 Regal for $35K, driving a car like anyone else that wants one can buy for a couple of years, then losing 15K to 20K when I sell it. That makes that 4K or 5K I will probably lose on my GN or TTA a "bargain".:biggrin:
Since my GN has been finished I entered it into 3 shows and have received 4 trophies, that is as that say, "priceless".
