Well that escalated quickly! That’s a really good price considering all that was done. I’m sure it went a lot faster than if you had tackled them individually though.

Yeah taking it down to the bones really is a whole other level. Though, I suppose once you do that there’s not much to scare you any more. Unless it’ll end up being worth more than $100k when you’re done, you do a restoration purely for the love.

Fair enough regarding tools. Like with mechanical work, you’ll only need the expensive stuff if you want to tackle a bigger project or are chasing perfection.

Does everyone tip tow truck drivers? I’ve never heard of that until now and I’ve gotten a dozen or so tows. Never noticed any dirty looks or anything either.

Body work is a whole different discipline. When you start wrenching you have a base set of tools to buy before you can do anything: sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, jacks, drain pans, etc. Body work is the same deal with a completely different set of tools. At this point I still outsource the major body projects as…

Vinyl wrap the floor! Bonus points if you use carbon fiber pattern instead of wood.

Holy crap, I need one of those! The other nice thing about the list is crossing things off. It’s very easy to feel like you’ve gotten nothing done in the past year but that list of crossed off stuff is a huge pat on the back.

A list is a must. Not only is it impossible to prioritize, it’s easy to forget things. Also, when you tackle one thing it’s easier to identify other things that you can take care of at the same time.

We really need a “How much did you spend on a worthless car” thread ‘cause brother, $2,850 is nothing. I recently spent about $8k on parts alone on a car that’s worth roughly that on a good day, and that was just to make it possible and safe to drive. It still needs a $1,200 steering rack, about $500 in brakes, $1,200…

Damn the P2 S60 is a sexy car.

No kidding. I’d be doing a huge happy dance if I cut even after getting to rack up 10k miles!

Exactly. There’s a whole community of folks out there working on S600s in their garage. You’ll probably be harder pressed to find a similar-sized crowd doing the same on Phaetons.

What’re you lookin’ at my gut fer?

So Alfa might be in the market for some new programmers...

I think making friends is your best bet. No advice on how to accomplish this though. I’m still figuring it out for myself.

I could easily have done all of this. I certainly couldn’t have found such an excellent starting point of a car and stopped with the repairs while I was still ahead of the game though. Apparently my team of one needs another member!

I didn’t even mark where the old ones were when I rebuilt the engine and front end on a project car years ago. I threw them back on and eyeballed the tires to “straight enough”. The shop just about had a stroke when they saw how far off everything was. Ah to be young...

Jump on forums and find out what the common causes of death are and how to look out for them. It can tell you if the thing you’re looking at is a $40 fix or a $4,000 fix.

I bought a car specifically for that purpose and still couldn’t fight it. I think in addition to keeping that in mind, you should buy a car you absolutely positively don’t want to keep. Of course at that point, failure isn’t an option...