MGB & GT Forum

Assuming complete engine rebuild/update, floors, sills, tires, bonnet, brakes/clutch, paint. More or less the works starting from a complete and unmodified chrome bumper 72-74 MGB.

I think John Twist once said for around $25K he could build a nice $12,500 MGB. Still hold true? Ball park is good enough.

You'd have to define restoration quality a little more specifically.

You can get a reasonable paint job which looks good to most for $2500, or pay 5-8K for a really good paint job.

Bare metal/every nut and bolt restoration or just fix what needs fixing?

Reproduction bumpers/grille/interior or rechrome and source NOS?

Carpeted floors and sills or OE style rubber mats?

$189.00 budget quality top, or OE Coventry?

All the way through the restoration process there are options, and the difference in price between high end and low end could easily hit $15K in differences in quality and authenticity of materials/processes used.

A mostly done at home refurbishment of things needed might be done for 10-15K where a professional shop done nuts and bolts as original restoration could be triple/quadruple that.

I love my 74, but would be happier spending big $ on my 62 as there is a better chance of being less upside down in the end result. It would be hard to get much past the low-mid 20s at the moment for a superbly restored later chrome bumper car.

A big factor is how much work can/will you do yourself. Restoration shops in my area charge $100 an hour. The more you can do, the more you save.

Jim

Boy, Anthony is so spot on! I've tried to do as much of the work as possible myself (plus friends and family assistance - huge!), but I did pay a lot for the engine w/SC, T9 transmission, etc., etc. Bottom line is that it is flat-out expensive to make a really nice, but not perfect, MGB. I'm fine with the fact that the car will be worth far less than the marketplace will bear. I'm building it for me, the way I want it. And isn't that one of the coolest aspects of our hobby? You can build these cars to your own personal taste! Look at Anthony's near perfectly restored very early cars...wonderful! Then look in awe at Dan Masters V8 GT, one of the more remarkably beautiful cars on this site! And all the great cars in between.

So, I guess the essence is, no such thing as a standard restoration, and you'll never get your money back....probably.

In my area, if it is not 50-60K then it is not being done properly...

Never heard that quote before but that is so true......well the resto costs may have gone up but not the value of the finished product. Everyone will say the cost doesn't matter or how they did it themselves and their labor is not to be considered. Some consider a spray can and pop rivets a resto but doesn't sound like what you are describing. If you hire out for quality work, I'd say the 25K is probably very low today.

I admit, there is a lot of room for interpretation here especially if the bodywork was farmed out. A professional body shop being much more expensive than a local craftsman out of work looking for a job.

Perhaps the better question would be "What would you be willing to pay for a complete restoration of your 72/74 MGB " within my stated parameters which was intended as more or less back to factory without any fancy upgrades.

I would think that someone paying $50-$60K to restore a MGB would either have very deep pockets or be completely out of his mind.

A two year rolling renovation, started 10 years ago on my '74, ran around $15K. I couldn't care less about making that money back. I have the car I wanted and the joy derived from it is priceless.

That's funny. I never saw a bodyman, that was any good, that couldn't find a job.

I did all the grunt work to mine including disassembly to a rolling chassis, sills and 1 floor. I paid for middle of the road paint work which has held up very well over 15 years. I chose to personalize it with leather seats and a somewhat non stock interior. I used a dash cap rather than whole dash, some smaller reproduction trim parts, rubber sill covers and mats, reasonable quality carpet, top quality weatherstrips and rubber, coventry roof. I paid for a "hot" engine built by a professional. I renewed the entire brake system and clutch hydraulics.

I didn't touch the trans or diff as they functioned well.

I like the car and it hasn't deteriorated noticeably in 15 years of dry driving.

When I work for myself I don't charge labour.

I'm quite sure I could sell this car to cover my costs, but when you add in probably 200+ hours of knowledgable, skilled labour at pro shop rates I'd be well over 30K 15 years ago.

Getting the final bill as low as possible without compromising the quality of the finished rebuild is important, one way I have found is to cut out rust sections and use them as templates and various shapers to get the new part to fit exactly right,weld in place, a light grind to blend it into the parent metal and its undetectable. This way a badly rotted wing can be repaired perfectly for pounds rather than the £400 plus that an MG heritage replacement can cost, apply that to the whole rusty car (that's all I ever buy to restore) and you save an absolute fortune. My austin morris van for example (see my profile) is a £1500 restoration, with the majority being spent on quality mechanical parts and the cab floor, all the body rot has been replaced as described earlier, at a fraction of the cost. A new wing would have been £250 and I would have needed two, plus two doors, a complete chassis, rear doors a back box replacement in fibreglass as it was at least 30% rotten etc etc. All you need is the time and patience and you will learn these skills and end up with a cheap but well finished, good quality restoration that you can personally be very proud of. Good luck. Chris

Robert -

What is your motivation for a "complete restoration?" If you have an irrational love affair with these car$, $pend! Whatever you pay will make you happy.

If, on the other hand, you desire to flip the car or hope to profit, well, it will be a long time before you will re-coup your investment.

From my most recent experience ('72 roadster, above), with a middle of the road rebuild (note that term - NOT a restoration) best I can hope for is to break even. I did the grunt work myself because I enjoy messing with these cars. I spent $4K on an average paint job. I have perhaps $8K into her.

But, she makes me happy, and perhaps someday I may find the "right" buyer.

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Jim K is a grease-stained wretch

Robert: At least 10K minimun. 50k? That must come with a stay at Happy Valley and include therapy/ counseling. Cheers! WEEEEEEEEEEE!

Bob.

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"Only those who have patience to do simple things perfectly ever acquire the skill to do difficult things easily"
James J. Corbett

Assuming that he is referring to his cost to do the work, and not retail, I would say his is right on the money on both sides of the coin. So, yeah, if you plan on doing a full front-rear and top-bottom restoration, (with you doing most of the labour) its going to run you at least 25k, and if you had to sell a year later you can expect around 50%. The silver lining to this cloud is that for such a project, the car you start with and what you pay for it does not really matter; it washes out in the end. You might save 5k if the starting point requires zero welding, but on average they will all need the same stuff gone over.

On the other hand, you can also get a $500 car running for chump change and drive it for several years and just have fun bombing around on cheap collector car insurance. When your ass drags on the ground from the rusted floors, just find another one.

Pete

Ditto what Anthony has said. My, done at home/done by a reputable engine rebuilder and a few others nut and bolt "refurb" done over 2.5 yrs and completed in 1988, cost $10K+ THEN. My local body shops out in the sticks today want $3500 to paint the car. A $2500+ engine rebuild back then is now at least $3500 or more on average. And parts, well it depends where you buy and what as Anthony has said. In the late 80s, I used a hand drawn, non-computer generated spreadsheet to line out parts and prices from all the usual suspects in our hobby before ordering from anyone, and they still came to more than $7500+ back then. I am just glad I did it then when I was working a well paying job. If I had to replace this car today, I'd be shopping for one already done.