I am amazed sometimes at how much personal time, effort and money X owners spend on super poor condition project cars.
It seems in many cases the owner never even comes close to doing a professional job (not saying in this case) due to skill level, work commitment, etc. I wonder if those owners would be better off spending their "workshop" time at a second job. They can use the accumulated capital to send their X off to a professional X restoration shop. I'd bet they'd put in less total hours then if they did the restoration themselves, get a higher quality restoration, have fewer headaches, have it "finished," and have a professionally restored car with a higher resale value then if they did it themselves.
Just my observation.
RJH - I do not know your background. If you run a restoration shop, then I can understand your viewpoint. However, many shops charge 3x per hour what a normal working man makes, so that a person might need to work a second job for 20-30 hours per week for a year to be able to afford a 'restoration' or even a refresh.
When I see the prices to have a professional restoration bandied about at $15k or $20k, or more, then I am happy to putter around in my garage and have a nice hobby. As for resale value? These are 3 decade old cheap mass-produced cars. A perfect one could fetch a very nice price. There are not very many perfect ones around, and the price to bring a mediocre one to a perfect level pretty much negates the investment.
I am okay with my work not being at a professional level. Many of us are not aiming for that lofty a goal. When I am done in another few months, or 6 months, or a year, I will have a decent driving, reliable, comfortable, fun car in which I will have invested less than $5000 including the purchase of the original basket case. That would be around half or less of what I would have spent to buy a car in good condition.
My time I spend doing it? Check with folks that do woodworking, or model trains, or... For some of us, this is a hobby, not meant to be a massive undertaking or a pursuit of perfection. Some of the folks here on this site are vastly talented individuals, and yours truly is not among that number. However, when this project is done, I won't have to explain all of the work I paid for, or which shops did which jobs for me. I will instead be able to point with pride at my imperfect, rough around the edges, knockabout little baby Ferrari, and know that this one was saved from the crusher and will live on as a legacy to its original owner (who passed away a couple months ago) and me. The time I spend in my garage is meditative.
I have the means and funds to buy a near-perfect car. I could easily pay someone else to do the work. But that to me would be like paying someone else to put together a jigsaw puzzle for me. Where's the fun in that?