Road Runner Nest

The time has finally come for the GTX to begin its journey to resurrection! It's been a long time coming, but the wait will be worth the result. Here is a link to the GTX on Muscle Car Restorations' website so everyone can follow along on the journey.

http://gallery.musclecarrestorations.co ... TX-71-000/

The disassembly phase should be done by the end of Dec. They will then evaluate what they anticipate the sheetmetal needs will be when the car gets back from the dipping tanks and cut off whatever sheetmetal they think they will need from the donor car. There is a considerable wait for the dipping process, so the metal work probably won't start until july. It takes about a month in the tanks and there are 6-7 other cars ahead of it.

That's great Ryan, I know you've been waiting a long time to get it started.
Good luck!

Did they give you a ballpark figure? Did you have to give them a deposit?

It's hard to really tell. It all depends on how much metal work is involved. They pre-bill you for 100 hrs. at a time. Their current shop rate is $70/hr. It will probably be in the neighborhood of 1000 hours invested in this project.

ryangtogtx wrote:It's hard to really tell. It all depends on how much metal work is involved. They pre-bill you for 100 hrs. at a time. Their current shop rate is $70/hr. It will probably be in the neighborhood of 1000 hours invested in this project.

Thats a whole bunch of change.....70 grand

Welcome to the world of a quality restoration on an old rust belt car. If this wasn't a 6bbl car, we would not be spending this kind of money.

I guess that fixing up my 4-bbl GTX isn't worth the effort? Please! The way these cars are disappearing every effort to save them should be made regardless of the size of the carberator.

Every Freakin nut and bolt must be numbers matching on that thing.

Hey Ryan
Is that the original decklid? From the photos, it looks like it's not punched for the wing mounting holes?

Oops, just saw a closeup photo....forget it

71440 gtx wrote:I guess that fixing up my 4-bbl GTX isn't worth the effort? Please! The way these cars are disappearing every effort to save them should be made regardless of the size of the carberator.

I agree, but it is hard to justify the cost of restoring a car in this condition if you would lose 50K on it if you had to sell it. I was being honest about the cost of doing a total resto on a car like this. On a previous thread, someone was bagging on the ridiculous cost of a 4bbl car that was listed on ebay. The particular car had achieved OE silver status. I considered it a reasonably priced car considering the cost to get a car to that level of restoration. To answer the other question, no the block isn't numbers matching. Everything else on the car is original with the exception of the wheels. It originally had 14x6 steelies. Unfortunately not much is salvageable with regard to the interior. This car is going to be restored to original and we are spending the money to do it right. This is not a car that is going to be flipped. If that was the case, I'd slap some bondo in the quarters and call it good. Anyone that has priced out the cost of a reputable shop these days will understand why the prices of cars are escalating. Furthermore, I'm sure everyone knows the price of replacement parts these days has gone through the roof.

that black 71gtx 440 4 bbl on e bay nice

Just as a point of reference, there are over 400 hours of by body guy's time in Project Blue Bird, and I did all the disassembly and helped with a lot of less skilled "dirty work" along the way (probably another 100hours of my time or so). I'm doing the detail work on the suspension and engine, I've done the whole interior, and I'll be doing all the re-assembly with the exception of the headliner, windshield and backlight installs.

Soup to nuts, I'd say 1000 hours is a pretty good ballpark, not to mention $70/hour for high quality resto work isn't out of line either. Figure at least another $1000 in materials (the day I bought the tintable primer, base coat and clear coat was a $600+ purchase alone).

I will say, it looks like your GTX is in good hands, and is definately a car worth restoring.

It's a GTX. That alone makes it worth restoring. They made way fewer of these than Road Runners. I also agree that it's the quality of the restoration. I've seen a four-door '69 B-body in a magazine that was totally restored. Will he ever get his money back? Probably, the car was 100% correct and like a time capsule. Someone will appreciate that. I have a "lousy year" '73, but I'm spending big bucks on her with every paycheck trying to make her better, but I don't intend to sell the car anytime soon. I may never get it back, but I don't even think about that. But something tells me it's not all for nothing.

wow 70K that a lot of money, but if it's a V-code car its worth the money dubble time. goodluck with the resto