Bangers and Cash Restoring Classics

[marlinspike]

Anybody watching the new series? It's a bit samey, but most shows of this type are. This week it was a VW Fastback 1600. Bought for £2,400, had it restored at a total cost of £50k. Sold for £22k. Usual story; overpaid and then spent a fortune on a top class rebuild of a car with a ceiling price that any decent restoration would soon outstrip. Car looked great to be fair.

Went to a private collector in Scotland.

 

[zzr1200]

Private production company, as Henry Cole would say:- Nice little tax loss, Mucker.....

 

[zzr1200]

Anybody watching the new series? It's a bit samey, but most shows of this type are. This week it was a VW Fastback 1600. Bought for £2,400, had it restored at a total cost of £50k. Sold for £22k. Usual story; overpaid and then spent a fortune on a top class rebuild of a car with a ceiling price that any decent restoration would soon outstrip. Car looked great to be fair.

View attachment 493762


Went to a private collector in Scotland.

If you take out the labour costs presumably for the body/mechanical repairs, they've done well.

I presume the Upholstery and Chroming costs shown, still include the labour.....

 

[ajlelectronics]

Private production company, as Henry Cole would say:- Nice little tax loss, Mucker.....

Not a nett loss at all, that is the cost of attracting advertisers which pays the bills.

 

[zzr1200]

Not a nett loss at all, that is the cost of attracting advertisers which pays the bills.

Possibly, but I'll take a punt it ends up on the other side of the spreadsheet somehow....

 

[ajlelectronics]

Possibly, but I'll take a punt it ends up on the other side of the spreadsheet somehow....

It is a valid business expense, it isn't something that is taken as a standalone in the business accounts. It's just the same as selling a business van or plant for less than you paid for it or buying TV advertising etc.

 

[marlinspike]

Yes, the costs will be written off so it hasn't cost the production company £50k.

I think the upholstery etc includes labour.
I thought they said the interior wasn't too bad initially but I guess having put so much into it they decided to do a full reupholstering.

It was rusty as anything, really bad - the restorers said it wasn't really worth doing. Took over a year as it was mega welding and parts hard to source. It's great to see economically unviable cars saved but it shows what a money pit it can be if you're not doing the work yourself.

 

[GRW]

To be fair ole Derek said when that series started that they'd lose money - & that virtually no OWNER made money from restoring old cars (but of course the support industry does).

Of course the money is made from the programme, not the vehicle - which indeed its costs will be going through the Production Co's Accounts as an Expense.

I do gasp at just how much they bid to buy these cars, how much they then spend, and how much they lose.
It does mean though that some lucky buyer with the spare cash gets a cracking motor.

 

[RWD3M]

Yes, the costs will be written off so it hasn't cost the production company £50k.

I think the upholstery etc includes labour.
I thought they said the interior wasn't too bad initially but I guess having put so much into it they decided to do a full reupholstering.

It was rusty as anything, really bad - the restorers said it wasn't really worth doing. Took over a year as it was mega welding and parts hard to source. It's great to see economically unviable cars saved but it shows what a money pit it can be if you're not doing the work yourself.

It was actually 3 years!

 

[zzr1200]

To be fair ole Derek said when that series started that they'd lose money - & that virtually no OWNER made money from restoring old cars (but of course the support industry does).

Of course the money is made from the programme, not the vehicle - which indeed its costs will be going through the Production Co's Accounts as an Expense.

I do gasp at just how much they bid to buy these cars, how much they then spend, and how much they lose.
It does mean though that some lucky buyer with the spare cash gets a cracking motor.

I totally agree, to make money from a classic you have to find a very very very rare expensive car, dirt cheap to start with.

My restoration will cost me money and I never get back what it costs me, but it's the time and pleasure of doing it for me....

 

[stichill99]

So how much money does a tv programme like this make? It must be quite a good earner as they continuously lose lot's of money on the restorations and have cameraman/gofer wages to pay. Does B& C get good viewing figures?

 

[marlinspike]

It was actually 3 years!

I had in my head it was 18 months in total but that might have just been one of the catch up visits. They do fit the B and C cars in round other jobs but that must be the longest resto ever on there.

I think they often over pay to start with. Then they sell it at a place where people are hoping for a bargain.

 

[marlinspike]

I totally agree, to make money from a classic you have to find a very very very rare expensive car, dirt cheap to start with.

My restoration will cost me money and I never get back what it costs me, but it's the time and pleasure of doing it for me....

I always think that the labour costs are most of the price on B and C and that's the same if it's a Beetle or a Porsche. There's no point having a rusted out Beetle fully restored unless you're massively emotionally attached to it because you'll never get your money back on re sale whereas you might on a Porsche. Home restos are a labour of love for sure.

 

[GRW]

I totally agree, to make money from a classic you have to find a very very very rare expensive car, dirt cheap to start with.

My restoration will cost me money and I never get back what it costs me, but it's the time and pleasure of doing it for me....

I think it's like the old saying regarding horses.....
"The best way to make a small fortune with them...... is to start with a very big fortune"

 

[Robotstar5]

So how much money does a tv programme like this make? It must be quite a good earner as they continuously lose lot's of money on the restorations and have cameraman/gofer wages to pay. Does B& C get good viewing figures?

I was involved with a production company when they hired 3 industrial robots and I did the programming, the production company was just an office with a phone, absolutely everything else was hired in.

 

[bert]

3 years to restore a fastback? Makes my 6 weeks to replace pretty much every panel and I mean every panel on a beetle seem too fast.

Their labour costs are pretty much spot on for a normal speed resto.

 

[arther dailey]

So , buy the classic you really really want , send it to them so they can buy it , spend silly monies on it ..then buy it back .Sorted

 

[redlig]

So , buy the classic you really really want , send it to them so they can buy it , spend silly monies on it ..then buy it back .Sorted

There just has to be a flaw in that idea but for the life of me I cannot see it.

 

[bricol]

Only car I ever made money one - a 1987 Alfa Romeo 75 TS . .. some silly wooman pulled out in front of me. Insurance eventually paid out market value and let me keep it . . then sold it to the husband of my future partner . . . and she wrote it off colliding with a pregnant deer.

 

[Olderisbetter]

I stopped watching shows where they over pay at auction then spend big money on restoring and make a loss when they resell