NIGEL's 1968 LL1 383
Moderator: Moderators
charger nigel
Well done Nigel, absolute top car, has to be one of the best in the club, a 68 you can be very proud of. The colour and combo is factory and what a pretty Charger you have. My only issue is to add the wheel lip mouldings and maybe a set of exhaust tips. Otherwise I think you have a really great car and you have set a benchmark for other regular guys to restore their cars. Simlply a wonderfull 68 Charger, hope its at next years MoparEurtoNats!!! Just enjoy driving the damn thing, well done!
You have done what most of us would love to be capable of Nige. It's great to see someone turn their hand to all aspects of restoration. Admittedly it helps when your garage is the size of John Lewis
but even so I bet it's been a rollercoaster challenge.
Glad it stayed the original colour. Are you going for the side trim again?
The best bit is still to come in my opinion Nigel - I've loved putting hundreds of miles on mine. A surprisingly satisfying car to drive.

Glad it stayed the original colour. Are you going for the side trim again?
The best bit is still to come in my opinion Nigel - I've loved putting hundreds of miles on mine. A surprisingly satisfying car to drive.
Glad you all like the finished article.
To give you some idea, restoration costs have been around £8000 but only £80 has been spent for outside labour. Everything else has been done by my myself with a little help from my son (he got all the dirty jobs like undersealing the underside of the car). All the paint, fillers, abrasives etc came to about £1250 - no wonder there's no such thing as a cheap paint job these days!
It’s not perfect, for instance the bumpers could do with a re-chrome, door handles are pitted and the brakes suck, but for what’s been spent it’s a good result.
To give you some idea, restoration costs have been around £8000 but only £80 has been spent for outside labour. Everything else has been done by my myself with a little help from my son (he got all the dirty jobs like undersealing the underside of the car). All the paint, fillers, abrasives etc came to about £1250 - no wonder there's no such thing as a cheap paint job these days!
It’s not perfect, for instance the bumpers could do with a re-chrome, door handles are pitted and the brakes suck, but for what’s been spent it’s a good result.
Great to have a little breakdown of the costs Nigel, I spent about £4,500 on body, paint and parts, that was doing all the work myself as well. Considering the amount of work that was needed on your Charger, I think you've done well and keeping that colour combo was, in my view the best thing you could do, it looks excellent. 

We all know that the most expensive part of any restoratation are the labour costs................................so when you take that into consideration, the costs go "SKY HIGH", and that is forgotten by all the "DIY RESTO BOY`S"
.....................................................................allow, say£50 per hour labour cost and add that to the material costs and "HEY PRESTO" we are now in the £20k + bracket
Nice car though







Nice car though




I`M PROUD TO BE AN ENGLISHMAN.......WITH A `68 GTX
As Mick says "if you do it yourself you don't have to add the labour cost", hense the 4-8K comparisons ......DOHR.RUNNER wrote:We all know that the most expensive part of any restoratation are the labour costs................................so when you take that into consideration, the costs go "SKY HIGH", and that is forgotten by all the "DIY RESTO BOY`S"![]()
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.....................................................................allow, say£50 per hour labour cost and add that to the material costs and "HEY PRESTO" we are now in the £20k + bracket
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It's only "SKY HIGH" if someone else does it.
Most of us "DIY RESTO BOYS" can't afford someone else to do it..... thats why "HEY PRESTO" we do it ourselves to keep the cost down.

I mean ........ £15K+ on Labour

You're right on 1 thing though ...... Nice Car Nige

Of All The Senses, The Common One Is The Most Rare !!
MMA/750
MMA/750
[quote="R.RUNNER"]We all know that the most expensive part of any restoratation are the labour costs................................so when you take that into consideration, the costs go "SKY HIGH", and that is forgotten by all the "DIY RESTO BOY`S"
.....................................................................allow, say£50 per hour labour cost and add that to the material costs and "HEY PRESTO" we are now in the £20k + bracket
I think you'd better do your sums again Mr R, at £40 an hour, together with paint and parts. mine worked out at £105,000!
Bargain!






I think you'd better do your sums again Mr R, at £40 an hour, together with paint and parts. mine worked out at £105,000!
Bargain!
