I've got a '69 RS thats been sitting patiently in my garage for 9 years now wishing I'd get my lazy butt down there to fix it up. It doesn't need much to be a nice driver, and right now I've got about 6K to play with. I was thinking about sending it to a restoration shop to do some work for me. So I've got a 2 part question. First, do any of you have any shops you can recommend near Atlanta that do good work? Next, here's a list of what I need to do to make it a real nice driver...can anyone ballpark about what I should expect to pay, can it all be done for near 6K?

[ul][*]new door hinges, both sides[*]new window regulators, both sides[*]cowl hood, or maybe just repaint the flat hood[*]the RS headlight doors & the whole system that operates 'em including the reservoir, actuators, hinges, etc etc etc. The previous owner removed it all for weight reduction. [:'(][*]new leaf springs[*]wiring. There's a rats nest of cut & spliced wires all over the place with various problems, I'm thinking it would be easier & cheaper to pull the whole harness & start fresh.[*]New tail light housings[*]Power steering pump is leaking[*]its been in storage off & on for 9 years now, so other gremlins may well show up too.[/ul]
For the stuff I'm aware of that it needs, it looks like the parts are going to total around $2500. Anyone have any clue what labor would cost me for all that?

 

I am doing a complete restoration on my 67 rs that I have had since 1984 still have 1980 tabs in ashtray.Paint, interior, engine rebuild, along with a ton of original parts (4 speed consol w/ gauges) that cost me a small fortune. I also spent about $2500.00 with Rick's First Generation Misc stuff. All together with parts and labor I will be looking at $15,000 to $18,000. I'm going with small time guys that have a good reputation of doing quality work.
I say keep it original as possible, don't throw anything away off that car not even the voltage regualtor, there's guys dying to find small stufflike that and will pay big money to obtain it. These guy's that strip an origanal car and put aftermarket stuff along with crate motors are missing the boat by a mile. This is Just my opinion but I do know it is shared by many.
In your'e case you will just need to get a quote from some shops... see what there hourly rate is!
Always get some feed back from some people who have had work done there.
If you have the money to invest even if it's not a complete restoration you can't go wrong. These cars are sky rocketing in value and there only getting harder to find year after year!

 

I'm rebuilding a 1969 Camaro too. I set aside $5000 to get it all done, plus whatever parts money I get for selling off the old stuff.
If you can do some of the work yourself, you can save a ton of cash!
The labor is 75% of the cost of restoring a car.

It does take a collection of tools and some experience to get this done right.

 

I can't help but think if I can get 1 piece accomplished I'll be psyched up enough to do a good portion of the work myself, leaving the rest of my money available for body work that I know I can't do. Tonight I fixed the most annoying wiring gremlin, when you shut the key off the engine just kept on runnin'...found the problem was with the power lead to my HEI, fixed it, and tried to crank her up to celebrate...no dice, wouldn't start. Its 2:30 in the morning, so I'll deal with that tomorrow, I'm sure its nothing big. Probably just sittin' for too long & needs more starter fluid than I gave her.

But anyway, I know I can do the interior stuff myself. Door hinges and hood with the help of a friend will be relatively easy.Leaf springs shouldn't be too hard, particularly if one of you kind folks on here can tell me where to put a jack stand when you have to remove the axle. Light housings are a no brainer. Weatherstripping is a glue-in process, piece of cake. Then all I really need to hire someone to do is the body work, the headlight doors, remaining electrical gremlins, and maybe even a coat of paint with the money I saved by doin' the rest myself. Now who do I talk to about increasing the length of a day to 32 hours?

 

. Probably just sittin' for too long & needs more starter fluid than I gave her. <===STOP
Not a good idea at all !!good way to blow the rings right out of it. try cleaning the carb out most likely gummed up .

 

Leaf springs shouldn't be too hard, particularly if one of you kind folks on here can tell me where to put a jack stand when you have to remove the axle. Frame rail's

 

Check your timing and carbfor proper adjustment. Might have an issue with that - most common reason for 'run-on' or 'dieseling'. Post up some pictures of your progress when you get a chance.

 

The way it was running after I shut the key offwasn't "dieseling"...it was running after I shut the key off as in "Oh crap, the car won't turn off! What do I do? I dunno man, go ask Adam. Hey Adam, what do I do? I dunno man, call my friend Rick. Hey Rick, what do I do? I dunno, is it dieseling? No, its been runnin' strong for 30 minutes now with the ignition turned off. Is it almost out of gas yet? No, not yet. Okay, go pull the hot lead off your distributor then. Thats all I can think of" Turned out the kill switch the previous owner had installed was screwing with the HEI, so I bypassed that and tested the circuit...everything works fine now...BUT that was a year & a halfago & I just fixed it yesterdayso there's no tellin' what else has gummed up since then. I put a fuel stabilizer in the tank when it went back into storage, but the lines or carb could easily have gotten nasty over time. First thing I was going to do was make sure I'm still getting spark, then if thats a no-go I'll make sure my ignition timing is close and then if it still won't go I'll try cleanin' the carb & fuel lines. I figure I'll save that part until after I'm done playing with sparks so as not to burn my house down.

 

Gotcha. Makes sence now. I used seafoam on a car that sat for a while, worked wonders for the lines and carb.

 

I'm guessing from your list, about 30-40 hours of work. The wiring is a tough call, that could take a lot of labor to do and not knowing how much of a mess you have it's a crap shoot

So a average shop....60-90 dollars labor. I'd say the low end of 2500 up to 3600.

You could most likely do a lot of that work yourself. The regs, tails, PS pump, headlights.

Hinges...do you mean just repinning them or cut the whole hinge off and weld a new one on?