What is the Cost to Restore a Car?

What Factors Determine Cost?

Just like the infamous lawyer response goes, it depends. Different factors will determine your final cost of restoration. What level of restoration finish are you aiming for? Concours, a showroom level finish, or something more modest? The final cost depends on where you take the car to get the work done, whether you’re replacing or rebuilding certain major components, and who’s doing the labour. If you’re fortunate enough to find a gem that’s been in storage or an existing project where someone lost interest or can’t finish, this could cost tens of thousands of dollars less than a rust-infested build-from-scratch. 

We’ll do our best to provide an answer to the cost of restoring a car and help set your expectations for your restoration project. We will cover the average cost of restoring a car from our own experience, while also including some external sources to get a better idea of total project cost that we don’t always have, like car acquisition cost. Hopefully our predictions on car restoration prices motivates you, because this can be such a fun, exciting, and rewarding experience! Remember these are just estimates and every project will be unique, but hopefully you get a ballpark idea from this guide.

Research and Preference

There are often different motives for restoring a vehicle. Are you looking to flip the vehicle, has this been a dream car of yours since you were a teen, or is this a sentimental family project? This will often determine what car you’re looking to restore. If the car is more common, like a Triumph or MGB, often your acquisition cost will be much lower ($1,000 – $8,000). More common also typically means wider availability of parts and mechanics who know what they’re doing. Higher sought-after and often more rare vehicles, like a Jaguar E-Type (or XKE for North Americans), will come with a matching price tag, $19,000 – $90,000. 

Come up with a plan, and do some quick research on where the market is at because it’s always changing. Some cars always seem to be hot like the 1967 Jaguar E-Type, 1991 Acura  NSX, 1970 Datsun 240, 1966 Ford Mustang, or 1972 Pontiac GTO. Many of those may be out of reach for the average project seeker, but like most things, it’s more about the journey than the destination. Having a project car is better than never having one at all. 

Project Car Acquisition Costs

Like we mentioned earlier, depending on the initial condition of the car, this could wind up being the largest project expense or the smallest. Try to avoid rust at all costs as body fabrication work can add tons of $$ in labour expense. A decent restoration starting point for a car would be $2,500 – $6,000. The lower end would refer to the car not being driveable, but still having good bones. The higher end would be a running car, but possibly in need of tuning, interior/exterior work or some missing detail pieces. 

Restoration Preparation Costs

This cost will deviate drastically from a hobbyist project if your goal is showroom car quality. The cost, labour, and attention to detail when stripping down the car to its bare frame can really add up. Replacing rusted out sections, correcting warped metal, cleaning and replacing smaller components etc. can exceed $20,000. If the bones [structure/frame/body] are good and you’re not going the showroom car route, prep costs can be as low a $800 (transport, cleaning, documentation).

Rotisserie Restoration or Frame-off Restoration

A guide to car restoration costs wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a rotisserie restoration or a “Frame-off” restoration. A rotisserie restoration involves a complete strip down of all components (suspension, brakes, drivetrain, engine, steering assembly, and accessories). The car is then put literally on a vehicle rotisserie and spun around to inspect, repair, clean, and eventually paint everything required. This is completed for any showroom quality restoration. A rotisserie restoration probably won’t be on your list as a hobbyist, but it will help to explain the large price discrepancy.

Parts & Labour Costs

Again, with a showroom car, often a significant number of parts will need to be replaced or completely rebuilt and finished to achieve near factory-looking condition. Other times, in both a casual project or a showroom endeavour, sourcing parts can be difficult. At BMC, we deal primarily with British car parts, so we’re familiar with the difficulty in sourcing or manufacturing parts no longer made. Classic American parts are more readily available and you shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding most of them and purchasing them for a reasonable price. 

There is the question of “Original” vs “Replaced” and this matters more for certain parts. Try to avoid purchasing a vehicle that doesn’t have matching chassis, engine, and gearbox numbers. Especially for British cars, this is important for resale value. These are also components you don’t want to replace, but rebuild/restore and clean. Other components like bumpers, seats, the steering wheel, hard tops, wheel/rims, dash are also desired for originality. Minor parts like seals, levers, exhaust, are not as crucial for originality. Do note that in most cases you should try to preserve originality not just for collectors sake, but because the quality of material and build are usually significantly better than new these days. For the casual restoration project, it’s really up to you.

Pro Tip: Parts imported from the US or UK, for classic or collectible cars are duty-free! It can be a hassle dealing with it at customs yourself, but we’ve got a pretty good system worked out so let us know if we can help! 

Labor Costs

This can also be a major expense – are you doing the work yourself? Shops, like us at BMC Motorworks, specialize in repair, restoration, replacement of parts on classic cars if you’re not doing the labour work yourself. Try to find a shop that has experience with your Make and Model of car. You do not want a mechanic that hasn’t dealt with classic cars as this can end up costing more in labour and extending the project time. In some cases this can lead to an inferior job that requires it being redone.

Expect to pay around $130/hr, sometimes more depending on what their speciality is. Peace of mind is often unrated in this industry. Time is valuable and so is knowing it’s done right. While labour cost varies, expect to pay around $18,000 – $60,000 for a full restoration job.

Painting / Finishing  Costs

Most restorations will require a fresh coat of paint and this is the stage when the project really comes to life. As if the finished paint work takes the glory for all the work done on the inside. It can be a real work of art, especially when done right. Sometimes a paint job can either make or break a restoration job. Showroom cars and Concours condition vehicles have the complete strip down to bare metal and are painted inside and out. This can add a significant amount of money. Our 1972 Jaguar E-Type had the full treatment done and the results were amazing. But the price tag? $21,000. And it shows. The beautiful Opalescent Green paint job is absolutely stunning. 

The cost comes from stripping and sanding it down, shrinking and expanding the metal where applicable and minimally using body fillers to ensure every surface and curve is perfect. Then a complete wet sand and polish to finite details. This takes time, precision, and experience. Trust us, you can tell the difference between a $5,000 and $25,000 paint job. 

Pro Tip: Do some research and find out what the original factory colours were. If you don’t know, you can often find databases online. Sometimes cars were only manufactured with certain interior exterior combinations available so this could give you a hint.

Factory accurate paint jobs are a nice feature for any restoration project adding to your project’s story. This isn’t always possible because some colours have changed due to paint ingredients being altered for environmental reasons. The right colour is always the one that best represents that model in either your eyes or the target customer.

Overall Restoration Costs

Hopefully this was informative and useful for you in answering what it costs to restore a car! If you were paying attention, the answer is…it still depends! How much work needs to be done and what level of restoration will satisfy you? In any case, you should be able to have a rough idea of your own project now. 

In our experience the average project ranges from $60,000 – $120,000. Yes, that’s a big gap, but now you know why! It’s a fun journey that we hope you’ll take on one day. These are often long term projects, so you don’t need to have all the money up front. Talk to your local shop; they should be willing to work with you on payment plans and deals, especially if you commit to a whole project with them. With all restoration projects we do at BMC, we document every step of the way with photographs. We now also provide you with a full photoshoot and ICBC specified Collector’s Car photos (which are required in order to insure it in British Columbia on Collector’s plates). 

Summary of What it Costs to Restore a Car

• What car (make/model) are you choosing?
• What is the starting condition?
• What’s the desired finished condition?
• Who’s doing the work (you, a shop, or hybrid)?
• Timeline of project

Cost to Restore a Car Summary Breakdown

Thanks again for taking the time to read our guide on what it costs to restore a car.