Author Topic: General estimation cost?  (Read 3257 times)

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Offline Paxter

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General estimation cost?
« on: June 15, 2009, 10:46:51 PM »
Ok so Im looking to buy a brown 78 Trans Am.  The interior is all original and the only thing that needs work is the seats. What I want to do to the car is this.  I want to get a new paintjob from brown to black, and it is going to need some new decals (SE decals)
I also want to rebuild the engine and the tranny.  Right now rebuilding the engine and tranny are top priority.  The engine is a 403 with about 91k miles on it.

So roughly how much would all of this cost me?

-Rebuild Engine
-Rebuild Transmission
-Paint Job (Brown to Black)
-New Decals (SE)
------------------------------------
Total?

Thank you
Kyle - 21
Owner of a 1978 Brown T/A
#'s 403 brought back to life 12-21-09
---------------------
Army Infantry- 101st (Air Assault)
HHC 3BCT/101

Offline Rick

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2009, 10:58:26 PM »
The only items you're likely to get hard and fairly accurate numbers for are the decals.  The transmission might be a pretty solid number too, depending on it's current condition.  The engine and paint job number can vary all over the map.

Engine "rebuilds" can run the gamut from the generic shops through some of the jobs Mr. P-body has done for customers with specific HP and torque goals.  You can save yourself some significant $$ by doing the labor yourself, but the machining costs and parts costs vary all over the map depending on the condition of the core and the level of performance you want.

The paint job liikewise will vary in cost depending on how much rot there is, and whether you want it patched with metal or will tolerate varying quantities of bondo.  If you're happy with an insurance-repaint suitable for a daily driver you'll come away much cheaper than a show quality black finish.

Those aren't the answers you were hoping for, but realize that the numbers folks will post are going to be different because of the position of the work in the spectrum of what's possible.

Offline Paxter

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2009, 11:11:57 PM »
As for performance on the engine..I'd want more HP, and as for the paint job, well there is absolutely no rust on the car and zero rot, we lifted it on a hoist and everything.  The car has been kept in a garage for the last 12-15 years.
Kyle - 21
Owner of a 1978 Brown T/A
#'s 403 brought back to life 12-21-09
---------------------
Army Infantry- 101st (Air Assault)
HHC 3BCT/101

Offline Kevin

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2009, 08:57:45 AM »
As for performance on the engine..I'd want more HP, and as for the paint job, well there is absolutely no rust on the car and zero rot, we lifted it on a hoist and everything.  The car has been kept in a garage for the last 12-15 years.

Yeah, but see we can't just give you a number for that stuff because they vary so much. As for decals look at Phoenixgraphix.com for your SE decal kit. If I were you to save some money you could start getting that old paint off if you are ready to send it to paint right now. I sanded mine down myself then let my paint guy just shoot the outside, inside, replace the weatherstripping with new stuff, and all that jazz. So, call around town and get some estimates for everything then post them here and I'm sure the guys can give you an idea if it's reasonable or not. Also, post some pictures  of the car if you can, that will help them too. Good luck with everything man, be sure to post what you find out.
1978 Pontiac Firebird Formula

Offline 81charcoalturbo

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2009, 11:08:32 AM »
 A good quality "BLACK" paint job including all the prep work is going to cost between $7000.00 and $10,000.00.  The door jams, trunk and weatherstripping will all have to be done since you're doing a color change.
 Make sure you hire a VERY reputable paint shop and ask to see some previous "BLACK" paint jobs that they have done.  Black is the hardest color to make look good, it shows EVERY flaw !

 Talk to Brett @ T/A Specialties to see if he is still doing paint work.  He did my 1981 S.E. and it turned out good.

 The S.E. decal kit with individual stripes is the ONLY way to go, don't use a stripe roll kit.  I think the deluxe kits run around $400.00 to $500.00, again talk to Brett he can save you money on the kit.

Offline Kevin

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2009, 03:39:12 PM »
I really don't think that $7,000 to $10,000 is a good range man. Maybe for a show car or whatever, but for a good paint job it's probably like $3,000 to $5,500. 7 to 10 is a bit ridiculous to be honest for what he probably wants to do. Just because you spend a ton of money doesn't "always" guarantee the best outcome. I mean, to me at least $7,000 seems a bit overboard to be honest. Again, let's see some pictures of the car, I want to see. Call around town and talk to them. Ask to see the work they did and go from there. By the way, is this like a driver, a show car, weekend driver or what? I drive my car everyday so there's no sense in spending "$7,000" on my car. I spent like $3,750" on mine including spraying the interior, jams, trunk everything. It's no show car quality job, but it looks damn good cruising around. Consider this for a second here. All right, so when you're driving your car, how close do cars get to you like 5 feet around there? So, even if the paint has some mistakes like mine does, although they take a real eye to notice, 95% of the drivers on the road will NOT notice it. So, if you want to spend the $10,000 on it, then that's fine if you must have it perfect or whatever, but I mean, all you're doing is spending a lot of money on something where most people won't be able to say "Yeah that looks like he spent 10 grand on." Either way, people will see a 10 grand paint job car versus my 3700  paint job and they will say, "Yeah those are some bad a$$ cars." You know what I'm getting at here? If you're a perfectionist and have the cash to throw at a car like that haha, then go ahead, but I would sure look around before I did that.
1978 Pontiac Firebird Formula

Offline Rick

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2009, 04:56:14 PM »
If you want to see what kind of work a particular shop does, you have to SEE the car in person.   Pics don't do it because the resolution of what you get with a digital camera via the web hides way too many imperfections.  Don't spend any serious $$ based on a set of digital pics.

Offline Kevin

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2009, 05:15:37 PM »
That's true Rick, of course you should see it in person.
1978 Pontiac Firebird Formula

Offline kjkjkcjkcj

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #8 on: June 16, 2009, 07:12:54 PM »
well i just rebuilt my motor and it was 1500 for them to machine everything but the heads and that also included a stock rebuild kit, which had pistons, rings and all the gaskets. so say about 2100 with a valve job and misc other stuff for the motor.  then depending on the cond of the body id leave aside prob 5000 for the paint and decals.  and i have no idea for the transmission to ball park id just say 1000. idk though because i have a 4 speed. this is a pretty hard question for us because there are SOOO many different ways you can go. but for a stock nothing crazy rebuild and with no hidden problems in the motor or trans your prob lookin between 8000-9000 to do everything you want. but i could safely say that number could go UP or DOWN.  i mean i spent 4000 on my motor when i was all done with her. and hearing from others on this cite that isn't very much.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2009, 07:14:52 PM by kjkjkcjkcj »
-1979 Trans Am Ws6, W72 400, holley 650, #62 heads (toy)
-Silverado 1500 (daily driver)

Offline kjkjkcjkcj

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2009, 07:17:43 PM »
i also built my motor up though its no longer stock. everyone is right though the KEY thing is doin easy laboy stuff yourself.  like strippingthe paint on the car and taking all the things like the lights and flares off.  and putting the motor together yourself
-1979 Trans Am Ws6, W72 400, holley 650, #62 heads (toy)
-Silverado 1500 (daily driver)

Offline Kevin

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2009, 07:44:47 PM »
Right. I stripped the car inside and out myself to save BIG TIME on labor costs. It was all ready to go. Headlights and grilles were all out, no interior (which is saving Michael a lot of time on mine). Do what you can to save big on labor costs!
1978 Pontiac Firebird Formula

Offline jphillips3333

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2009, 07:55:59 PM »
Rough estimate ....
Engine - 800-3500.  Is it to get it running or are we hopping it up.
Transmission - 1000-1500
Paint - 2000-3000
Decals - 550

You need to decide how much of it you're doing yourself as well...

[quote author=Paxter link=topic=16339.msg171299#msg171299 date=1245120411
-Rebuild Engine
-Rebuild Transmission
-Paint Job (Brown to Black)
-New Decals (SE)
------------------------------------
[/quote]
John

                                 1 of 1107                     1 of 37,015                    1 of 1817

Offline Paxter

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #12 on: June 17, 2009, 11:14:42 AM »
Thank you for all the replies!
The guy I'm buying it from does do paint jobs and he said he can repaint it black for me for about $1500.  I also asked to see some of his cars, and judging by that he does pretty good work.  As for the engine work, I have a friend whos father owns a shop where they rebuild engines, so hopefully I can get a deal through them.  The engine has no problems, it sounds good, it just needs to be rebuilt.  The car has about 91k miles on it  and has been in storage for about15-20 years.  The interior is all original and looks great, it still has all the emblems in it and everything.  I'll try to post some pictures later today.  The only thing that I'm not a fan of is when it was repainted brown in like 95' they decided to leave all of the decals off...and its brown. 

Right now the price is $8900 and I'm just deciding if I really want to go through with it.  The car has absolutely no rust on it.  We even had it up on a hoist and couldn't find anything.  Im thinking the price is a good one considering it has no rust on anywhere and its all original.  It even has the 8 track player in it.  Actually it also has different rims on it...why take off the snowflake rims...I dont know.  But either way they still look good.  The last thing that I'd do to the car is buy the snowflake rims when everything else is done.

But again I'll post some pics later today.
Kyle - 21
Owner of a 1978 Brown T/A
#'s 403 brought back to life 12-21-09
---------------------
Army Infantry- 101st (Air Assault)
HHC 3BCT/101

Offline kjkjkcjkcj

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #13 on: June 17, 2009, 11:22:07 AM »
yeah id love to see some photos. it sounds like a great buy.
-1979 Trans Am Ws6, W72 400, holley 650, #62 heads (toy)
-Silverado 1500 (daily driver)

Offline Hitman

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Re: General estimation cost?
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2009, 11:42:08 PM »
So roughly how much would all of this cost me?

-Rebuild Engine
-Rebuild Transmission
-Paint Job (Brown to Black)
-New Decals (SE)
------------------------------------
Total?


Here are some rough estimates for work to be done around here:

-Rebuild Engine - $3,500 (Stock rebuild)
-Rebuild Transmission - -$700
-Paint Job (Brown to Black) - $4,500 (does not include new stuff needed like grilles, emblems, and weatherstripping)
-New Decals (SE) - $485 (Pre-formed stripes) $289 (Roll stripes)
------------------------------------
Total? - $9,185 (roughly)
Brett Campbell
"Hitman"
www.78ta.com
1978 Trans Am