I'm not sure why you would want to go through all of this to put in tired 4th gen seats. If you are going to re-skin and stuff them then OK. The "newest" 4th gen seats are 11 years old and you aren't going to find an inexpensive 2002.

Go to my 3rd gen budget restoration thread. I estimate my total nut to be about $5,000 and that was shopping all of the time, getting lucky finding deals and with the exception of rebuilding the engine, I did everything myself including body/paint.

But, brakes, fuel system, tires were all good. It had all of the pieces. I stumbled upon weatherstripping and a black interior in excellent shape ($175) I stumbled upon leather and re-skinned the seats myself ($260). If I was not lucky, all of those items would have pushed almost $2,000 shopping at the usual suspect locations on-line.

At the end of the day, I repaired/replaced all the little gremlins including hatch pull down, mirror control, power window switches, chipped drivers window glass, turn signal switch, high beam switch, aftermarket cooling fan switch, new A/C system, new rug/headliner/visors etc etc etc. I even used new plastic clips for the interior pieces and front nose. If I touched it and it was questionable, I replaced it. Every run to the hardware store, boneyard or parts store adds up.

My estimate for you is figuring that you aren't going to get lucky finding interior parts in excellent shape or weatherstripping. Also, that you don't have the experience spraying your own vehicle so paint will be at a bare minimum, $1,000 for a short term job and $3,000 for a good job.

You don't even have an engine with which to begin and you need 400 RWHP so you are looking at $3,000 minimum for something which will run for a year (buying a used completed engine). Then the rest of the vehicle must be able to handle the power.

but, it's your money and you will do what you feel is best. I hope you find good deals out there.

 

Total cost estimate is tough to say, but here goes:

5000 for the motor: 4bolt block, edelbrock Al heads, Al intake, Forged bottom end stroker kit, all the goodies.

2100 for the trans and converter.
3000 for interior: All new carpet, new dash, new seats, custom upholstry & install.
6000+ for body and paint: There was rust on this car as it was a Northeast Pa car. It needed a lot of body work to get every panel lined up perfectly as well as every wave and dent out...plus I wanted the paint to be perfect and rejected some items to be re-painted.
2000+ for fully built 10 bolt to include richmond gears, eaton posi, upgraded axle shafts, etc.
700+ for be cool radiator and fan along with wire control, etc.
750+ to have the stock wheels completely restored.
500+ in miscellaneous parts like belts, hoses, fluids,nut bolts...

What you end up with is about 20K which sounds about right. Keep in mind, I went with genuine GM body panels, interior parts, etc. It literally looks like it did the day it rolled of the assembly line...except it has a built motor, trans and rear end. I did mine for sentimental reasons as well, but now I find that 20K could have been used differently. I hardly ever use the car as its either too hot, too cold, or I don't want it scratched, plus it is SO hard to get through emissions, even by cheating.

As Torque said, there are deals, good junkyard parts, some good generic stuff; so you can definitely do it for less than half of what I did.