The Truth About Buying a Project Car

Step 1) contact your local divorce attorney and ask them how much this project is REALLY going to cost before making an offer

Step 2) make the offer anyways

NEVER expect to to get a return on $$$ spent (notice how I didn't say "investment")

In reply to Colin Wood :

If you aren't doing it for fun, Don't do it.  Do you buy a set of golf clubs to show a profit? Do you stop in at the bar to show a profit?  Does everything have to be about making money or are you allowed to have some fun in your life? 
I worked hard, long hours on the road selling. Racing vintage cars was a hobby. It cost money.  Really serious money, even more than I earned at times which is what credit cards are for.  
 

Later in life when I was going through tough times, my hobby rewarded me by allowing me to keep my home when I had no income or reserves.  

But even that " rate of return"  wasn't about profit.  It was about having something to sell instead of losing a house I had built with my own 2 hands. A house I cherished more than the cars.  

Life isn't always going to be about good times. There are bound to be bumps in the road.  Sometimes Horrible bumps or even detours.  Don't use all of your youth in a vain attempt to "insure" your future.  Stop and smell the roses. 

Over the course of my life time I have come to understand buying the rougher car at half price is not the way to save money on a restoration.

Definitely need to spend more rather than less for a solid start. Rusty bodies can be all fixed, but that MGB example is a great example of a project that can quickly be a money pit. For my MR2 project, I looked at many rusty cars for $500 - $1500 that all were going to require major work to fix right. I ended up getting one for $2,500 that was rust-free other than one front fender with some minor damage. Much cheaper in the long run with the $2,500 example.

james Kepford said:

Over the course of my life time I have come to understand buying the rougher car at half price is not the way to save money on a restoration.

No but it can be a "Time payment"  way to acquire a more expensive car.  
It's not the "flippers" way,  and if profit is your goal  Dont do it. 
 

My XKE V12 roadster race car started out as a $300 purchase.   Whenever I had extra money I would buy  parts or stuff for it.   In the meantime I could work on what I had. 
Actually that's the way I acquired all my "toys"   Since they weren't really marketable I didn't ever feel any pressure to sell them.  Thus sudden demands for braces or college money was met other ways. 

If you throw away the receipts because you really don't want to know, then it is just a very expensive hobby. 

If you pull out your wrenches and a beer and don't have to have it fixed by Monday, it's a rewarding hobby. 

If you are always checking the auction results for the same model you have thinking that putting enough work and money into it will help you catch the low mileage rabbit, it's insanity.  

The time commitment is the first thing to note. Car restorations eat up around 1000 hour if you know what you are doing; that is a six month long full time job.

If your goal is to drive what you are restoring, then don't start building one. Go buy a finished car. Car restoring is for people who like restoring cars for the sake of restoring cars.

There is an irony in that the people who are good at restoring cars probably want nothing to do with the finished car past a few drives and a couple of car shows. They want to time and money back to do the next project.

In reply to NOHOME :

But what if you don't know what you are doing? The fun of restoration for me is to learn something new. Of course it will take longer and cost more. It's for the experience. 

But then again, learning will make you a better mechanic. A better restorer. What is that worth? 

In reply to Snowdoggie :

That would be why you have no interest in the finished good...no challenge left so off it goes so you can escalate.