Hi Scotty,
a few years ago I hired a shop to restore my 1970 ford Galaxie (1st car 16th birthday gift from favorite aunt). the shop was bankrupt in 6 months and the upfront payment that paid was gone. I'm glad got the car back with most of its parts. missing all a/c and carburetor. between then and now I had the 390FE rebuilt and the C-6 transmission. the old shop did some rust repair but in my opinion damaged the body the welds are horrible. I found a new shop who has been in business since the 70's. the only issue that im questioning is the final amount of 70k this amount comes without seeing the car. Is that too much?
I do builds like that at my shop. A lot of people are surprised by the end costs, but restoration is incredibly expensive. I'd say $70k is in the ballpark considering the condition of the vehicle. I think sometimes I make some of the guys/gals here think I'm crazy when I throw out numbers like that, but custom restoration really is a genuinely expensive prospect. I've done a lot of resto's that ran six figures...though they are usually your more iconic cars and have been doing nothing but sitting and falling apart for decades and need, literally, everything.
Anyway, sorry to ramble but to answer your question I believe your quote is accurate based on what you described.
Automobile restoration is incredibly labor-intensive, let alone the cost of materials. I could see it costing that much for a really good job, especially if the car was in rough condition to begin with.
