Quote:
Originally Posted by 360beast
I'm not talking about their value Alan, I'm saying that people are giving up on older cars too easily or are only seeing the quick buck to be had so loads of perfectly good or salveagable cars are disappearing and soon there won't be many left. I mean how often do you see a 740/760 turbo for sale let alone actually driving around? The 240 is more common and if you take the model range in its entirety when was the last time you saw one that wasn't yours driving around? I used to see 200's weekly a few years ago and now I think I've seen one on the road this year!
I do what I do because I enjoy it and want to see these cars on the roads in years to come 
If you can do the work yourself then costs can be kept to a minimum, I restored my 360 (except for the paint) for less than £1000.
I've got my blue 760 turbo virtually ready for the MOT and it has only cost me a few hundred to do so. It was rotten so has been fully welded, painted underneath and even given a nice coat of rubberised stonechip to give it a factory finish underneath. It has had a full service, polybush spaceship bushes, new brakes all round, manifold gaskets replaced, turbo return seal replaced, cambelt and front oil seals along with V belts and a thorough clean. If you saw the rot on it you would have expected it to go for scrap but that would have been a complete waste of a perfectly good car. |
You and I are of a like mind Luke: we both enjoy doing up old cars (and bikes as well for me), but neither of us particularly account for our time (if I did I'd have to charge £15,000 for the RB!).
In the discussion above people were talking about re-bodying 240s that were too far gone to save. That is well beyond what is rational, indeed I'd say that spending 50 hours on welding a 240 would be pointless as well. 50 hours of skilled work is going to cost £2,500 plus the cost of the panels - it would always make sense to find a better 240 in the first place (in my humble opinion).
It is a good thing that people (like you and I) keep older motor cars going, but it hardly ever makes sense. I enjoy GAM and the RB - but I'd be the first to admit that neither makes much sense apart from the nostalgia (which is everything of course).
:-)