Hi all- I have a 1986 Dodge ram pickup I would like to do a full restoration on. Interior, paint, etc. Does anyone recommend any shops in the northeast? thanks.
I have to agree with Scott on this as well. Do all the work yourself and then stand back and be extremely proud of your work after it is finished. It is so much fun and you learn so many different skills as well. JMHO!
Restoring a vehicle sounds great IF, you have the space to do it, proper tools and the talent/patience needed to end up with something respectable. Or, even to put it back together...... Not everyone has the skills to do a restore. His friend sounds like one of them. Which is fine. Anyone can tear apart a vehicle, but then what?
Having repainted dads 85 3/4 ton dodge, including new doors, fenders, gender aprons, tailgate, and her side panels add well as his current 96 Cummins turbo diesel with similar repairs, I can say if you have to hire it out, the sentimental value needs to be there. Estimate $2500 If you do it yourself, or $25,000 If you hire it out
I realize that not everybody has the proper tools to refurbish a vehicle. I know that personally because I didn't when I started refurbishing an old '96 Geo Metro. It looked like somebody used it in a demolition derby. The only section that was not dented up was the driver's front fender. Everything else was a hugely dented issues. And not know anything about auto body work, I tackled it with "I want to learn how to do this" attitude. Even the inside was trashed. So every part of that car was reworked, inside and out. And it can't out very nicely.
Now one would wonder, why a '96 Geo Metro? And that is an excellent question too. It was my son's wife's sister's car that she abandoned after trashing it and I just wanted to try my hand at reworking it just to see if I could. Here is a semi-before and after picture.
Here are a couple pictures of the efforts. I wish I had taken before anything was worked, but this is as far back as I taken.
This is the final. As you can see, not bad for a first vehicle reworked. And the inside was completely redone as well including everything. I even removed the dash to be able to fix everything that was broken. Once finished, it honestly looked like new. So if I can do it, anybody can. Don't discount your abilities. You can do and learn how to do more then you think! JMHO
