WIX Archives

Re: Restoration Costs

Posted by bdk on Thu Jan 22, 2004 01:54:24 PM

In reply top Restoration Costs posted by Mike Henniger on Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:27:03 PM

My opinion: It is almost always less expensive to buy something already finished than to restore a derelict, let alone a wreck (assuming value remains stable). This is true for every hobby I have ever been involved in at least!

If you do it yourself, hangar/storage fees over the years it takes, the specialized tooling required, and the cost of your own time will be enormous. You would most likely be better off saving up the hangar rent and parts budget you would have spent (plus all the surprises bound to be uncovered) until you can afford to pay cash for what you want already flying. This is especially true when the project drags on due to home purchase, matrimony, and other things you seldom think about the effects of until after they actually happen...(personal experience here folks- not complaining though!).

If you pay a shop to do it, you have to pay for their overhead, insurance, employees, and their profit. It is far less expensive to let some other guy pay for all that and then buy it when he gets bored with it or runs into financial troubles (usually brought about by his aviation habit exceeding his income).

To answer your question directly though, I would guess that the cost of retrieving an aircraft would be only a small fraction of the final restoration cost (5-10%). Even to purchase a decent Mustang project (not a recovered wreck) for $500k sounds like a bargain compared to the market value, but when you spend nearly $100k for just an overhauled engine, the costs add up quickly. If you look at something like the FHC P-39 (or the P-39 recently completed by Yanks), it has taken many years in a professional shop, at shop rates, with multiple technicians working on it at any one time.

You have to have a love for the aircraft AND an enormous disposable income because it is unlikely you will make money this way anytime soon (again, my opinion).

: Today I was thinking about the cost of restoration/rebuild
: of various warbird types. It is not the final all totale
: d cost of a restoration, but the comparison between the co
: st of obtaining and airframe and restoring that airframe.
:
: Let's take an example of obtaining a P-40 (or some similar
: type) in a relatively intact condition (i.e. not missing
: any large components like a wings) with years of exposure
: damage and lets say the original crash damage from a locat
: ion like Russia (or where ever for that matter). What wou
: ld be the relative cost (%) of obtaining (retrieval, shipp
: ing, fees, etc.) that airframe compared to the total cost
: of the restoration including the previous costs plus the a
: ssociated restoration costs? I guess what I am asking is
: which costs more, the retrieval or restoration? Also, how
: do thoses costs compare?

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