You seem to forget that you also have a relatively cheap hobby that has also taught you an awful lot of skills. As they say "priceless" - I'm too old to do that sort of thing now but in my time I have spent hours lying on garage floors at night so you have made me very happy, albeit a bit jealous!
I would be too scared to add up what I have spent on my MG's, however I don't drink, gamble and or smoke. I now have grand kids and also a very understanding wife similar to yours by the sounds of things, admire the honesty in your video, good on ya. Well done, carry on, just make sure you get the family balance right. Don't worry about the cost too much it's a journey with no real destination, your enjoying yourself. What you have learnt has been amazing, and the satisfaction of driving the MG at the end will be so worthwhile. I'm in retirement, you just have to keep the mind active and this is one way of doing it. Your 363 hours will be very very conservative.
Made a comment on your series about halfway through about how enjoyable it was to watch your progress and found it very refreshing that you have shown the ups and the downs during your journey. This video is it worth it ? My answer to that is in monetary terms definitely not but in therapy terms a definate yes. I'm in my seventies still popping down to my workshop most days just going out now to put a new floor in a 34 Ford van I've been restoring from the ground up and already thinking of my next project and fancy taking on a B. Can't wait for your future videos on the trials and tribulations of the paint process, keep em coming young man most enjoyable.
I think we all know that classics are expensive to restore and most of us do it for love not money. Just finished a 68 GT and I stopped counting at 10,000 but the smile on my face is worth it. You’re doing a cracking job, I really enjoy your videos. How many times have you said “who the hell designed that like this”😂. Someone else on here mentioned leaving glass trim alone. Best piece of advice I’ve heard. The rear screen is a real bugger to do but the windscreen is worse. I still haven’t fitted the lower piece of trim to my windscreen😂.
Very good presentation. I like restoring cars and hate selling them. You can only make money as a hobby if you keep them a very long time and keep them nice, but I prefer to just enjoy driving them. There is no better satisfaction for me than fixing things properly. Well done sir.
Hi, I've been following you since the start of your journey with MGBGT, and you are to be commended for the standard of workmanship, don't lose heart, your doing great. My build experiences are with assisting in 2 MGBGT's and mostly motorbikes. I take my hat of to you. Cheers and keep up the work.
Bravo mate heck of a job you are doing , im so glad you mentioned car restoration tv shows , so true they only show what they want you to see , and not the complete job , I am a qualified and licensed mechanic and have restored my share of cars so i appreciate all your efforts , keep up the good work and all the best
Calculate the cost of frivolous and crappy pursuits like beers at the pub into savings. Also sleeping well and having a sense of achievement. Suddenly it makes sense. Maintain it and over time, it will be a better investment than your house. Thank you so much for taking the time to share.
Well I’ve had my BGT since about 1991 ish. I also restored it in my late 20’s doing all the same work you have completed. I can safely say it’s not anyway near been as good an investment as my house ! Or my pension come to think of it. But it’s not about the money. It’s about the enjoyment you get from owning and maintaining something now 50 years old.
Yep i think it's true. it is not only about money or profit, but the journey i think. I recently restored two of my daily cars, a 2005 vw golf van and a 1996 fiat ducato. Cost wise makes no sense at all because they are worth so little. But the joy of having built your car yourself (and the compliment of the MOT guy) outweigh the financial "loss" and the struggles you have on the way to finishing. If you are in to it 🙂
The market is all over the place and £10k is a very optomistic valuation . As l tell everyone , a cars only worth get what someone will pay ! My '66 "-e"type was guaranteed to be a £100k car.....that was 2 years ago . I've just been offered £55k.......think l'll wait a while .......
I have to agree 100% with your comments. My ground up restoration of my 1966 MGB, with many high performance modifications, produced a beautiful car and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I put over 400 hours of my own time into disassembly and re-assembly of the car and paid for professionals to do the body work and paint (I am terrible at body work and paint) along with rebuild of the engine (I lucked out and found some retired racing engine mechanics from Offenhauser Racing who were willing to modify and rebuild the engine). If I am lucky, I will recover about 50% of what I have invested in the car when I decide to sell it. This is a labor of love and the joy of doing the work myself (well, most of the work). Good on you for what you are doing and looking forward to more videos.
Well evaluated, and very true. But DIY on these car projects are great to do. I started such games when I was 16 and at 72 still going albeit a bit slower to get things done. It is a great hobby, becomes a way of life, and you can get far more out of it! I've enjoyed your efforts (I've done an MGB GT some decades ago), and a '73 Porsche 911 is far more of a burden to do, did mine 34 years ago, still have it and it has been a great experience.
Thank you for sharing. I sort of felt your emotions and the journey has been fulsome and interesting. I love the cars but my sort of project has been our house. Lived here since 1978. 2 bedroom bungalow with no proper bathroom or kitchen then. 4 double bed/2 bathroom/huge kitchen now and still not totaly finished. Never will be. And a garage now.
what an inspirational journey and a great example to share with your family, even though it’s not been an easy project. you will always take great pride in the end result . i’m still working on mine but fortunately not as intensive as your project 😅
Interesting altho I ignored the "hours" as I'm now retired and would probably extend the hours by at least to or three times. I think you have worked very hard though, and have really enjoyed watching you work. I haven't got a garage otherwise I would allteady have a B having had three as a teenager in the 70s.
Apologies if I missed it but did you add the cost of the original car into your calculations or the electricity for welding, heating the garage for painting etc? I have restored 8 barn finds in my time and thoroughly enjoyed the process but none of them were worthwhile doing on a financial basis. For me, the pleasure was in bringing a crusty old wreck back to life. All my cars, except 2 that were exported , can be found on the DVLA website as being still on the road. I don’t particularly enjoy driving old cars, so every time I finished one, I sold it to finance the next one. My last, a 1968 Citroen ID19 was bought for 4000€, I spent a year in time and about 5000€ in parts/ paint, then sold it for 13,900€. Who works for 4,900€ a year? Several of my cars were either bought by dealers or later sold onto them. If you want a classic car, then best value for money is to buy one restored by a competent DIYer- the restoration costs of a professional would be £30-40,000 on top of the car cost for any car, so not viable for a car only worth £10 or £20k restored
It was £2500 I have made money buy doing up and selling cars but it’s more for the love of it to be honest it was never to make a living! Just thought it would be interesting for people to see the costs involved if they were considering doing their own!
My wife of 50 years, back in our younger years, was always happy to find me working in my workshop. Where some of her friends always had to go find their husbands in the pub or gambling. There's always a "balancing act" with your relationships, get that right everything will be good. Some good points made H!
Absolutely - vintage vehicles should be restored, and done properly. You can do all your sums before you start but remember the golden rules - it will always take longer than you thought, and, it will always cost more than you thought. Allow 50% more than you have calculated on both counts and then get on with it.
Is it worth it doing up a classic car, if you are on the floor hurting your body at thirty years of age . When one gets older, working on the floor will tell on you in pains . JC 12/11/24
@@JosephClayton-bb6vp interesting opinion. Yes is my very simple answer. Everything could be over at anytime if you think to far ahead you won’t enjoy anything in life!
@HJRgarage Hello HJR . All your work on the MGBGT was the very best, but you need a car lift because it took time for you get over the pain of working on the floor . JC 13/11/24 .
You never go into a restoration for yourself thinking you will make money on it. It is more gratification and satisfaction. This way, you know what is under that nice shiny paint surface and be happy in knowing that all the rust and other problems have been dealt with.
As it’s a MGB GT are you welding in proper seatbelt mounts for inertia belts front and rear? I know the rear seats are technically token seats but kids fit. Gives an even better excuse to keep it apart from the fact it’s a true MG .
I’m £20 grand into a ford 100e rebuild, its still in bits and needs another 5 grand to finish it…as long as the wife doesn’t find out i should be fine…
i am 71 years old and am doing a 1989 mini done cars most of my life doing this one for some thing to do it was just a shell a rotten one at that it has cost me a small fortune it did not have an engine spent over 2 grand on it so in my opinion no not worth doing should have gone to scrap yard but as i said it keeps me going and keeps another mini on the road oh and thats not including building a garage to do it in as we have just moved house
To do a full off frame restoration by a Pro here in the states you better plan on 50k plus! I have a friend that restores cars and he won't take less that 50k and it would be close to a year to get it done. I have less than 6k with no paint on my Spitfire. The car would be worth with a full restoration maybe 12k so I am doing pretty good.
@@HJRgarage Doing all the work yourself saves a ton of $$! Im not done just yet on it but I am starting another project on a 1970 Triumph TR6 sometime soon. You can check the video's out on my channel.
I would up that to $100k plus (SoCal shop labor is a minimum of $125/hour for a reputable shop) and you could be looking at over $500k for a show winning car. Friend of mine has a beautiful show winning car that he has over $600K invested in so far.
You did forget to mention the cost of the power you were using. All your tools are power hungry and at 25 pence PKWh your usage would have cost a fair bit. Great job though. Next time get an E-Type.
Whatever you do, try not to remove the rear glass. You will find that most rubbers you find are not correct, and even if you find the correct one, you will never get the chrome trim in. Ask me how i know!
You seem to forget that you also have a relatively cheap hobby that has also taught you an awful lot of skills. As they say "priceless" - I'm too old to do that sort of thing now but in my time I have spent hours lying on garage floors at night so you have made me very happy, albeit a bit jealous!
@@ianellis5634 thank you ☺️ means a lot to know people get joy from my videos 👍🏻
Many thanks for this breakdown of expenditure, can't wait to to see the video of prepping for paint 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
@@markwrigley9047 thanks mark!! Out Monday 👍🏻
I would be too scared to add up what I have spent on my MG's, however I don't drink, gamble and or smoke. I now have grand kids and also a very understanding wife similar to yours by the sounds of things, admire the honesty in your video, good on ya. Well done, carry on, just make sure you get the family balance right. Don't worry about the cost too much it's a journey with no real destination, your enjoying yourself. What you have learnt has been amazing, and the satisfaction of driving the MG at the end will be so worthwhile. I'm in retirement, you just have to keep the mind active and this is one way of doing it. Your 363 hours will be very very conservative.
@@CrapToCream thanks! 👍🏻👍🏻
Made a comment on your series about halfway through about how enjoyable it was to watch your progress and found it very refreshing that you have shown the ups and the downs during your journey.
This video is it worth it ? My answer to that is in monetary terms definitely not but in therapy terms a definate yes. I'm in my seventies still popping down to my workshop most days just going out now to put a new floor in a 34 Ford van I've been restoring from the ground up and already thinking of my next project and fancy taking on a B. Can't wait for your future videos on the trials and tribulations of the paint process, keep em coming young man most enjoyable.
Thanks!!
I think we all know that classics are expensive to restore and most of us do it for love not money. Just finished a 68 GT and I stopped counting at 10,000 but the smile on my face is worth it. You’re doing a cracking job, I really enjoy your videos. How many times have you said “who the hell designed that like this”😂. Someone else on here mentioned leaving glass trim alone. Best piece of advice I’ve heard. The rear screen is a real bugger to do but the windscreen is worse. I still haven’t fitted the lower piece of trim to my windscreen😂.
@@richardacton1443 yer I don’t intend on removing them!! Thanks 🤩
Very good presentation. I like restoring cars and hate selling them. You can only make money as a hobby if you keep them a very long time and keep them nice, but I prefer to just enjoy driving them. There is no better satisfaction for me than fixing things properly. Well done sir.
Thank you!
Hi, I've been following you since the start of your journey with MGBGT, and you are to be commended for the standard of workmanship, don't lose heart, your doing great. My build experiences are with assisting in 2 MGBGT's and mostly motorbikes. I take my hat of to you. Cheers and keep up the work.
@@williamstewartbuchanan5299 thank you very much 👍🏻
Bravo mate heck of a job you are doing , im so glad you mentioned car restoration tv shows , so true they only show what they want you to see , and not the complete job , I am a qualified and licensed mechanic and have restored my share of cars so i appreciate all your efforts , keep up the good work and all the best
Thanks!!
Calculate the cost of frivolous and crappy pursuits like beers at the pub into savings. Also sleeping well and having a sense of achievement. Suddenly it makes sense. Maintain it and over time, it will be a better investment than your house. Thank you so much for taking the time to share.
@@andremarais2706 no worries! Thanks for taking the time to watch it 👍🏻
Well I’ve had my BGT since about 1991 ish. I also restored it in my late 20’s doing all the same work you have completed. I can safely say it’s not anyway near been as good an investment as my house ! Or my pension come to think of it. But it’s not about the money. It’s about the enjoyment you get from owning and maintaining something now 50 years old.
We love it just done mine mgb gt 1971 nut and bolt bare mettle resto loved every minute…..well done mate 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Thank you 👍🏻👍🏻
Excellent and very inspirational project, enjoyed every video, just about to start a 1275cc round wheelarch mg midget,
@@Solargold1 very nice good luck!
Great video 👍 The reason of DIY restoration is either just as a hobby or to make money.But as a golden rule always buy the best you can afford 😊
@@bigbird2100 true! Thanks 👍🏻
Yep i think it's true. it is not only about money or profit, but the journey i think. I recently restored two of my daily cars, a 2005 vw golf van and a 1996 fiat ducato. Cost wise makes no sense at all because they are worth so little. But the joy of having built your car yourself (and the compliment of the MOT guy) outweigh the financial "loss" and the struggles you have on the way to finishing. If you are in to it 🙂
Exactly! Thanks for watching!
The market is all over the place and £10k is a very optomistic valuation . As l tell everyone , a cars only worth get what someone will pay ! My '66 "-e"type was guaranteed to be a £100k car.....that was 2 years ago . I've just been offered £55k.......think l'll wait a while .......
Yer it was a guess. It’s irrelevant really I’m not selling it
Thank you.
I have to agree 100% with your comments. My ground up restoration of my 1966 MGB, with many high performance modifications, produced a beautiful car and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I put over 400 hours of my own time into disassembly and re-assembly of the car and paid for professionals to do the body work and paint (I am terrible at body work and paint) along with rebuild of the engine (I lucked out and found some retired racing engine mechanics from Offenhauser Racing who were willing to modify and rebuild the engine). If I am lucky, I will recover about 50% of what I have invested in the car when I decide to sell it. This is a labor of love and the joy of doing the work myself (well, most of the work). Good on you for what you are doing and looking forward to more videos.
@@ronkluwe4875 thank you very much! And sounds like a very nice car! This one might also be getting a few upgrades 😉
My first MGB resto cost me 2 relationships, so yeah it does take up a lot of free time..
@@poppydogz 😂 oh dear! That is commitment!
Well evaluated, and very true. But DIY on these car projects are great to do. I started such games when I was 16 and at 72 still going albeit a bit slower to get things done. It is a great hobby, becomes a way of life, and you can get far more out of it! I've enjoyed your efforts (I've done an MGB GT some decades ago), and a '73 Porsche 911 is far more of a burden to do, did mine 34 years ago, still have it and it has been a great experience.
That’s great! Thanks 👍🏻
Thank you for sharing. I sort of felt your emotions and the journey has been fulsome and interesting.
I love the cars but my sort of project has been our house. Lived here since 1978. 2 bedroom bungalow with no proper bathroom or kitchen then.
4 double bed/2 bathroom/huge kitchen now and still not totaly finished. Never will be. And a garage now.
Brilliant! Thanks 👍🏻
what an inspirational journey and a great example to share with your family, even though it’s not been an easy project. you will always take great pride in the end result . i’m still working on mine but fortunately not as intensive as your project 😅
Thank you!
I don’t know where you get your energy from.👍👏🏻
@@boxingday11 haha neither do I! Cheers 👍🏻
Interesting altho I ignored the "hours" as I'm now retired
and would probably extend the hours by at least to or three times.
I think you have worked very hard though, and have really enjoyed watching you work.
I haven't got a garage otherwise I would allteady have a B having had three as a teenager in the 70s.
@@fraserm803 get one 👍🏻 you won’t regret it! Thanks for watching.
Apologies if I missed it but did you add the cost of the original car into your calculations or the electricity for welding, heating the garage for painting etc?
I have restored 8 barn finds in my time and thoroughly enjoyed the process but none of them were worthwhile doing on a financial basis. For me, the pleasure was in bringing a crusty old wreck back to life. All my cars, except 2 that were exported , can be found on the DVLA website as being still on the road. I don’t particularly enjoy driving old cars, so every time I finished one, I sold it to finance the next one. My last, a 1968 Citroen ID19 was bought for 4000€, I spent a year in time and about 5000€ in parts/ paint, then sold it for 13,900€. Who works for 4,900€ a year? Several of my cars were either bought by dealers or later sold onto them. If you want a classic car, then best value for money is to buy one restored by a competent DIYer- the restoration costs of a professional would be £30-40,000 on top of the car cost for any car, so not viable for a car only worth £10 or £20k restored
It was £2500 I have made money buy doing up and selling cars but it’s more for the love of it to be honest it was never to make a living! Just thought it would be interesting for people to see the costs involved if they were considering doing their own!
My wife of 50 years, back in our younger years, was always happy to find me working in my workshop. Where some of her friends always had to go find their husbands in the pub or gambling. There's always a "balancing act" with your relationships, get that right everything will be good. Some good points made H!
Cheers Gazza! Trying my best!
My thoughts are however much you think it's going to cost double it as there's always unforseen costs. 👍
@@stusoldcars4248 yes not a bad way to look at it 👍🏻
Interesting when you see the costs in black and white isn’t it ? At least you know how much work and materials have gone into it 👍🏻
@@theteadrinker-143 exactly, thought it might be useful for people to know!
Absolutely - vintage vehicles should be restored, and done properly. You can do all your sums before you start but remember the golden rules - it will always take longer than you thought, and, it will always cost more than you thought.
Allow 50% more than you have calculated on both counts and then get on with it.
Potentially although I think I did alright in the money front 👍🏻 the next phase after paint is where it’s going to get expensive 😉
Is it worth it doing up a classic car, if you are on the floor hurting your body at thirty years of age . When one gets older, working on the floor will tell on you in pains . JC 12/11/24
@@JosephClayton-bb6vp interesting opinion. Yes is my very simple answer. Everything could be over at anytime if you think to far ahead you won’t enjoy anything in life!
@HJRgarage Hello HJR . All your work on the MGBGT was the very best, but you need a car lift because it took time for you get over the pain of working on the floor . JC 13/11/24 .
You never go into a restoration for yourself thinking you will make money on it. It is more gratification and satisfaction. This way, you know what is under that nice shiny paint surface and be happy in knowing that all the rust and other problems have been dealt with.
@@normanjulian5537 100% unless it’s your business. But yes for DIYer that’s true but it’s still useful to know how much it costs 👍🏻
As it’s a MGB GT are you welding in proper seatbelt mounts for inertia belts front and rear? I know the rear seats are technically token seats but kids fit. Gives an even better excuse to keep it apart from the fact it’s a true MG .
@@jeremytoms5163 it’s already had it done in the past it’s in one of my previous episodes 👍🏻 I re welded them in.
👍
I’m £20 grand into a ford 100e rebuild, its still in bits and needs another 5 grand to finish it…as long as the wife doesn’t find out i should be fine…
@@classiccarrebuilds2771 wow! 😮 that’s a lot of money! Hopefully it’s worth it! Is that from a professional, or have you done it yourself?
@ had the welding done by professionals (twice..) which took nearly 13 grand, the rest was for the usual costs, engine rebuild, rare parts, etc
@@classiccarrebuilds2771 wow! Thats commitment well done 👍🏻👍🏻
i am 71 years old and am doing a 1989 mini done cars most of my life doing this one for some thing to do it was just a shell a rotten one at that it has cost me a small fortune it did not have an engine spent over 2 grand on it so in my opinion no not worth doing should have gone to scrap yard but as i said it keeps me going and keeps another mini on the road oh and thats not including building a garage to do it in as we have just moved house
@@TedJones-z2i that’s great!
To do a full off frame restoration by a Pro here in the states you better plan on 50k plus! I have a friend that restores cars and he won't take less that 50k and it would be close to a year to get it done. I have less than 6k with no paint on my Spitfire. The car would be worth with a full restoration maybe 12k so I am doing pretty good.
Well done!! And that’s an impressive figure! About £38000!
@@HJRgarage Doing all the work yourself saves a ton of $$! Im not done just yet on it but I am starting another project on a 1970 Triumph TR6 sometime soon. You can check the video's out on my channel.
I would up that to $100k plus (SoCal shop labor is a minimum of $125/hour for a reputable shop) and you could be looking at over $500k for a show winning car. Friend of mine has a beautiful show winning car that he has over $600K invested in so far.
@@ronkluwe4875 that’s a lot of money! You lot must earn a lot more over there 😂or less to spend it on!
You don't restore a classic car to make money, the secret is to pretend you never spent very much 😂😂😂
@@robinburn4974 true!!
Restore a classic and save vintage heritage . Simples .
You did forget to mention the cost of the power you were using. All your tools are power hungry and at 25 pence PKWh your usage would have cost a fair bit. Great job though. Next time get an E-Type.
@@Thereishope664 the E type is my dream car but a bit out of my league (at the moment) even for a rust bucket!
Whatever you do, try not to remove the rear glass. You will find that most rubbers you find are not correct, and even if you find the correct one, you will never get the chrome trim in. Ask me how i know!
@@nrw34260 I’m going to keep the glass in I’m not changing the colour 👍🏻
@@HJRgarageI changed mine and no different to doing the front one, simples 😊
wrong you imagineered extra hrs 100 of them
You failed to take your energy costs,