So, I finally began working on my old 88 and the more I dig around on this thing the more money and time I am looking at putting into it. The car is VERY important to me for various reasons and I want to do what I can to make it look right. I have plans in the future to be able to show it but that is waaaay down the road. First, I just want it to look like the car I know it can look like. I have noticed that it used to be white and then was painted yellow (engine bay id white) and I want to do an entirely different color scheme on it and make sure the car is 100% ready to hit the road. My question is, since I have never done this before, how much money, time and difficulty am I looking at to do a frame off full restoration on it? I am not in too much of a hurry....but is it something I can figure out pretty easily as I go? I want to do this right and I figure that after it sat at a shop and was being picked apart by some retards before we found out what they were doing, that this thing one day looks brand new and sounds like a million dollars...(without costing a million dollars) so.... worth it? difficult? Pricey??? Thanks

 

OK your question is way to broad. Second you can't do a frame off on these cars. well you can but then you would have to weld it back on. And its a waist of time. As to how much it will cost depends on if you're going to have it done by a shop, or if you plan on doing all the work, or what combination of the two, What up grades are you going to do, what it needs, where you get your parts and supplies from.

 

No frame in the traditional sense. Our cars are unibodies.

JamesC

 

Cheap, fast, reliable......pick two.

 

Right, I know, I mean a restoration that takes it down to the bare bones. I want the paint to look like it was painted that way.

 

That's a good question. It all depends on what you plan/need to replace, how much body/paint work you need to do, what you can do yourself, and how much "beer" help you get from your buddies. There are way too many variables that figure in to give a ballpark figure.