Im interested in a frame off restoration of an 80's model Ford pickup, whats the cost?

Question

I have an 82 Ford F150 that I'm intersted in restoring.
It's a standard cab with an 8' bed.
I'm capable of doing most labor myself, as I am a mechanic, but I'de prefer to outsource the body work, and I'm having difficulty getting a quote: There is a dent in the passenger side door, both rear wheel wells are rusted out, as are the panels at the bottom rear of the box, and the tailgate has "pit rust".
I'm interested in what price is fair for these repairs as well as having the vehicle sanded down, reprimed, and repainted to a factory or better quality.
Also, I'de like to know about having the frame, front I-beams, and rear axle sandblasted bare, and either painted, powder coated, or "rhino-lined"

Answer 1

CEE -- I would rather see you buy a new truck. Yours is not a collectable and not worth all this fixin. A rough estimate depending on whether you want the engine redone. ..Estimate at $15,000 to $20,000.
When you start taking apart the more you will see that has to be fixed.

Answer 2

The rough rule of thumb for restoring classic, collectible cars is:
Check the value of similar, restored vehicles, and add 10% to 50%.
In other words, if a restored vehicle would be worth $50,000 in restored condition, it will probably cost $55,000 to $75,000 to have someone else restore it.
Check the blue book value for an '82 Ford F150 pickup. First of all, it's going to be cheaper to simply find an original '82 F150 in "cream puff" condition than to restore yours, or to have it restored.
Here's my suggestion: check the cab for rust. If it's rust-free, or has repairable rust, find a replacement bed in good shape and junk the old one.
That just saved you several thousand dollars.
With a decent cab and a decent bed, you're just looking at a relatively simple paint job.
As for powdercoating the frame and suspension components, I wouldn't bother on an '82 unless you're replacing the suspension components anyway.
Restoring a pickup is probably the easiest restoration; beds are cheap to replace, and the cab is fairly simple- very little if any carpeting, replacement seats are easy to find (JC Whitney), Ford doesn't change truck body styling as often as cars, so things like dash instruments should be easy to get.
If you want to make an interesting vehicle, replace the old rusted steel bed with a nice hardwood flat bed. Flat bed kits are available from a number of sources, the ones that provide the metal parts while you supply the wood are relatively affordable.
Really, if restoring cars and trucks was affordable, a lot more people would be interested in having it done, but it's not economical unless you have a real classic and do the majority of the work yourself, and even then the return on investment isn't that great.

Answer 3

You are in the $5K range to do this professionally. You'll need to find some grass roots guy through the grape vine that has a small home setting shop.

There are some half cocked shops that will make it look new after they cover everyhting up with body putty and just cut off the rust and spot weld new metal on panels in place but this is temporary and after a few Winters and rain the work will show, badly.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Interesting.

Answer 5

It's a restoration. There is no answer to this question. Take whatever amount you think it is going to cost, mulitply that by 2, then set aside a little extra just in case. You'll use all of it.

Answer 6

Go to Lowe's and get a welder for a couple thousand dollars. It's really easy to do the body work yourself after some practice.