All cars and projects are different and I am just looking for some general estimated times to re-assemble a car. The car is a 70 Chevelle and has been completely repainted frame off. The body is back on the frame and all body panels are lined up etc. The rest of the car is apart as we took it completely down to go to paint. We will put a brand new motor and transmission in. The motor is completely built with power steering pump water pump AC and everything installed. The transmission is from Art Carr and both the motor and transmission are a direct bolt in.
What will have to be done past the motor and tranny is all assembly including: wiring harnesses, new SS dash and guages, carpet, complete interior re-upholstered by an outside source, console, shifter, AC and heat ducts door panels, head liner, bumpers, etc. The car is a very clean Arizona car and has no rust at all, zero, nada. This is not a 1000 point factroy correct car going to concourse shows for judging but rather just a great driver, resto car.
What I am wonderig is what is an estimated time to reassemble for someone who does this for a living? Is 240 hours a reasonable time? Is 600 hours more like it?
Thanks in advance for the input.

Well, "Overhaulin" does the assembly in about 48hrs. But that's with 20 people or so that know what they're doing and every part and tool on hand. I don't think there would be a way to do a detailed estimate because know one knows what's missing till you need it. If you sat down and did an inventory (assuming you knew every part was the CORRECT part) that in itself could take a week. I'd have to ask, why does it matter. It has to be done and hopefully with care. It will take more time than anyone says. If you're worried about the cost, you have the wrong hobby.

Dave:

Why it's important is that a shop that was doing msot of the work is now saying that they are estimating 600 hours to reassemble. At $50.00/hr this is an unexpected $30,000. Obviously I will pull the car out of there and it will now take me a long time to assemble the car myself. Never mind that I am fearful that I do not have the experience or skill to do it. I am asking everyone's experience here because:

#1. Y'all have done it before.
#2. I want to spearate out the BS factor wiht the shop.

I have about $15,000 tied up in a brand new motor and transmission in the effort to make this an awesome car. The paint is also quite expensive. Thsi project is way bigger than i thought it was going to be and now I have a bunch of money tied up in engine etc. that I will not be able to use for quite awhile.

for 600 hours and 30,000 they better be doing some amazing work. Thats 15 guys for 8 hrs a day for a week straight to reassemble. Seems way out of line to me. Without knowing the specific details of how much work is involved I would estimate it at 240 hrs for a competent shop to reassemble.

I don't think it's too far out of line if you are sitting on an empty shell and frame. That's how I read it. I'm sure they built in a buffer in case something takes too long as well.

Unfortunately, this is about how much an "awesome car" will cost you if someone else is doing the work on the clock. I do what I can, and have been fortunate enough to have a friend who helps when I get lost. He's coming back over (again) this weekend to help sort out some wiring for me. He works for food and drink, and knows I'll be over end of summer to help on his farm throwing hay and squaring him up for winter.

Why not consider a little of both for your reassembly: Have the shop install the rest of the running gear and some of the more technical work that requires a higher level of expertise and tools and then pull the car and do the rest yourself. You can be your own contractor in a sense, farming out certain aspects that your are not comfortable with, with bids for each aspect of course. It sounds like the shop you are working with is keeping the meter running even on reassembly aspects that they are bringing others in to do and this can get very expensive as they are buidling in enough to cover there costs to these "sub contractors".

For me, my shop got my car about to the point where you describe yours. When I trailered it to my garage, it had the freshly detailed running gear installed in the detailed chassis and the newly painted sheet metal all hung and lined up. I then proceeded with everything else I could-called a glass installer for the front and rear glass doing the sides/regulators myself, I put all the latch hardware in, installed the weather stripping and rubber, wired it up using mostly the original but cleaned up wiring, reinstalled the lights, dash bezel, trim and emblems, and put in the sound deadening material. I then got it running, bolted in a seat on the driver's side and drove it to my upholsterer (after phone bids from a couple shops). He installed the headliner and covered all the seats. I did the rest of the interior--carpet, kick panels, sill plates, door panels, rear package shelf, installed the radio and speakers and the interior trim.

Essentially what I saved for myself were the things I could do with a reasonable amount of experience, I used assembly and service manuals and common tools since I don't have $10K worth of SnapOn in the corner, compressor, press, etc. The process took me a couple months working before I went to work, after work and a day a weekend--basically whenever I could make time to do it. I only needed a second set of hand a couple of times--hanging bumpers especially.

BTW, I recommend that if you have not yet, have the paint wet sanded and buffed before you begin to install exterior trim and emblems. Much easier that way.

30K sounds high, I would think around 10k would be more like it.

I have assembled more then a few show cars from scratch, That does seem high, However reassembly usualy involves taking the boxes of parts and reconditioning them as they go back togeather. Example....

The pedals will be sandblasted, primed painted, greased, New bolts. guages cleaned lenses polished, Rubber cleaned, plastics cleaned and or painted. Also think of the suspension, parts will be blasted, pitts filled, Primed, painted assembled. I think what you need to realize is that "Assembly" actually covers the restoration of every small part, nut and bolt that goes back into the car, as well as trouble shooting and getting everything working correctly and adjusted correctly. 600 sounds high, BUT I stress almost every job is always underestimated and then the customer is angry when you go over the estimate by 50-100%. This may be a fair safe estimate.

When we dragged my 70 chevelle home, it was basically a empty tub, except it had the headliner in it. no dash, no wiring, the firewall was just a piece of sheet metal with nothing on it. The glass was in the front and back. I installed 3 dashes, 72 then a 70 finally a monte carlo. I installed a 72 front clip, then changed it to a 70 when I found one. installed the carpet, buckets, wiring, motor tranny etc. I went from a tin can to a driver in 2 1/2 months. I will say I didnt detail it, I just wanted to start driving it. The trick is if your doing it yourself. Make a plan, break it down to systems, brakes,fuel, electrical, heating cooling, drivetrain. etc. after you get one done go to the next. You'll get your car done in no time, and after each system is done, you'll actually see some progress and not get burnt out on it. If you try to do everything at once, you'll be doing things over and over, forgetting things. And try sticking with the plan.
After I got my chevelle on the road, I decided to go with a 4 speed, I have everything for the swap including the pedals in the car. But I just dont feel like taking apart a car I can just jump in and drive.
My elcamino on the other hand has been sitting since november. All I need to do is drop a motor in it, plumb and wire it and she would drive. But I just cant get myself motivated lately. jim

I'm on a frame up on my '65..... started in March '07 and estimate that I will be done in two years. (Maybe faster but that will remain to be seen.)

It is fun, a hobby and it must be nicer than my brother-in-laws Elky when I am done.

If the shop didnt take this car apart and you are bringing them a but load of parts its going to take longer than if they took it apart, took digital pictures of EVERYTHING and had a data base on a computer or laptop in the shop for reference. This is what we did as I had "Wings Auto Art" do a great deal of the techinical work/ body and paint and we did a lot ourselfs. we shared our data base with Wings to save time ( he keeps a complete data base for all the cars he does completly) and it is a time saver. 400 man hours would be a good guess, just my take. Norman:beers:

This is what I had finished on March 18, 2007 and I showed the finished car at CB07. I worked part time on it up until three weeks before the show, when it started to look like I might not get it finished on time I went full time.

I didn't put in the new interior but it was installed in four working days.

7935 It can be fun!:yes:

Just as a guestimate here.....If I had all the parts ready to go out and organized (bolts and everything else included), I could have the car ready to hit the road in 40 hours. I don't see any reason why it can't be done in a week .....5 - 8 hour days. 1 day for each section. Frame and suspension assembly, engine/trans/exhaust, interior, body, clean up and detail. I've assembled frames in less than 4 hours, had an engine/trans/exhaust in and finished in less than an 8 hour day. As long as someone knows what they are doing, should be no big deal. I'm going to do my convertible this way. I think anything more than 100 hours to completion of reassembly is a little much. As of right now, I have about 700 total hours into my 69 Charger. This includes disassembly, hanging sheetmetal, bodywork labor, paint labor, and now reassembly. Most of the time was hanging sheetmetal and bodywork of which is over 500 hours.

Guys:

Thanks for all the input. The shop that is doing the work also did the disassembly. One of the things I worry about is that they are lacking a bit on documentation. They do have some digital pictures but not of the detail that is suggested on an earlier post.
The car will come back from paint completely done and ready for reassembly. All suspension parts are done etc. We do need to drop the rear end out and have it set up for posi. We will also have the shop that does this install a billet yoke so we can use 1350 U joints. Other than that it is pretty much reassembly per factory manuals etc. Makmetalfab has a good point in that there is some additional restoration work to do and I will do much of that. We are using new bolt kits so that will help with the restoration time.
In addition I will take vacation time and work with the shop for the first week. I was thinking me and one other guy should be able to get a significant amount of the assembly work done in that week.
Getting the car to a driveable point in that week would let me get the car home to finish it up if need be.
You know, fear is probably playing a big part here. I have never done a car before and am worried that I do not have the ability to get it done properly. I also want to drive this thing ASAP, especially after the results from the dyno testing :thumbsup:. The motor and tranny bad to the bone and I am now REALLY anxious to put some miles on the car.

Hopfully, it takes less and they bill you for that time, and not what they estimated.