I had a T-type that was originally a Chicago car. Two years after bringing it to Florida, the body and floors rusted out so badly, it was beyond repair. I got the idea to take a non-rusted 84 regal that I bought in Ocala, and put the turbo parts in it. I found a nice, solid 84 regal and purchased it for $800. I then gutted both cars and put all the turbo parts in the non-rusted body. It doesn't sound hard because the bodies are the same. In fact, the bodies and the frame are the only thing that are same. I had to switch every mechanical part, the dash, wiring, even the electrical harness that runs to the rear of the car. The Turbo car has an electrical fuel pump and the regal had a carb. Once I accomplished this , I converted the car from a bench seat to buckets by stealing the floor brackets from my T-type. I then had the car painted with a Dupont base coat/clear coat paint job and had the car wet sanded and buffed. Since the car was original paint and had no rust, they took it down to bare metal first. I spent $3600 on the paint work.
It is now beautiful, as Brian from G bodyparts can attest to, since I emailed him some pictures. I am really proud of it because I did 90% of the work by myself, with ordinary hand tools. I don't even have a compressor. I finished the project in 4 months, start to finish.
Now, I have a problem. The car is vin as a regular N/A regal. I have about $17,000 into the project, counting the parts I took from my T-type. That is with me doing the work. I paid to have a appraisal done and it came in as being worth $22,000. I saved all my reciepts. A N/A regal is probably worth $2000 max. The only way any insurance company will insure it for anything close to the appraisal value I had done($22,000), is if I get collector car insurance. I wanted to drive the car to work. I already have a 87 GN that is strictly a show car. Now I have two show turbo regals. It looks like my only choice is to go out a buy a junker to run to work, and save the car I just finished, for the weekends. I know I can't change the world, but this really sucks. I can't publish what I think of insurance companies right now because it would probably get me thrown off this site. All that hard work..... There is something wrong with this world.
Any advice would be appreciated.
It is now beautiful, as Brian from G bodyparts can attest to, since I emailed him some pictures. I am really proud of it because I did 90% of the work by myself, with ordinary hand tools. I don't even have a compressor. I finished the project in 4 months, start to finish.
Now, I have a problem. The car is vin as a regular N/A regal. I have about $17,000 into the project, counting the parts I took from my T-type. That is with me doing the work. I paid to have a appraisal done and it came in as being worth $22,000. I saved all my reciepts. A N/A regal is probably worth $2000 max. The only way any insurance company will insure it for anything close to the appraisal value I had done($22,000), is if I get collector car insurance. I wanted to drive the car to work. I already have a 87 GN that is strictly a show car. Now I have two show turbo regals. It looks like my only choice is to go out a buy a junker to run to work, and save the car I just finished, for the weekends. I know I can't change the world, but this really sucks. I can't publish what I think of insurance companies right now because it would probably get me thrown off this site. All that hard work..... There is something wrong with this world.
Any advice would be appreciated.
