What I'm trying to say is that I get asked aot to do this car or that car, for which as I am doing it in my spare time as I work full time elsewhere its not possible to do many. At the moment they ha e been relatively cheap restorations because I haven't been relying on it to earn a living, I've picked the projects that interested me enough from the car being of interest, Richards Fulvia saloon for example, or the deal was a nice one for all, as in with Tim where he gets his car done and I get his track prepped clio, everyone wins.
The point I was trying to convey was that if I took the leap and did these cars full time then the costs and therefore bills would get much more real. As I would be then relying on it as an income then it would be a for profit basis rather than just covering costs and doing jobs that interested me.
The insurance was an example that I would have to be paying near £10,000 a year to cover the eventuality of theft/fire/damage of any customers cars or indeed the loss of the building/business. That would be a cost to me which would need to be factored into any jobs done, likewise the monthly costs to me of rent and travel etc would need to be covered by the work being done, based on how long the car was being worked on.
Whether the car (or whatever it is) belongs to one or a hundred people would make no difference to me as a business owner, it wouldn't drop my overheads any.
The bill for a restoration can only be based on what it costs the business owner to carry out the work which of course includes all the overheads plus making a living from it.
I used the example of this sud to point out that if I went full time then I estimate 3 months of 40 hour weeks isn't unreal to assume needed to take the car apart back to a completely bare shell, weld repair any and all areas rather than skim over the visual parts then paint it all in the way I do. You then have the task of rebuilding the whole car. Doing it as a sole source of income I said I wouldn't take it on for less than £10,000 which I think on reflection would pay me below minimum wage because of the costs listed, which are in no way a full list which is bound to expand. Price up all the little fasteners that get replaced, nuts and bolts, sealants, weld materials, primers. The list of consumables you get through is endless, all needs paying for.
As has already been said to make a living from it and to allow time to do it thoroughly it would need to be way more money, which prices me out of the job as if you were spending 15 to 20k on this car you'd expect to have better facilities like a spray booth for example.
Don't also get hooked up on it being silly to spend that money on a sud worth less than the build costs, the price would be very similar if I was to do an integrale in the same way. OK the costs would be slightly more due to the complexity of the car in stripping and rebuilding, but the time taken on welding and painting is not that different if it's a sud, an integrale, a marina
or a 105 GTV. Metal is metal.
There is a list growing of people asking me the same thing mate...maybe time to reconsider !