I'm kind of in the same fix. So,to speak. I too, am looking for a small dozer/loader. I want it to mainly clean and maintain fencelines and a few other tasks around the homestead. This may be the wrong way to look at it. But, I look at it as a novelty or "Toy" for big boy so to speak. Now, I've never operated one much. I have ran on a little years ago when I was looking earlier for one. But, and by no means and operator. Yes, it's more cost efficient to hire it done. Or, rent one and do it yourself.
I've never looked into repairing a dozer or loader though. I'm just giving examples so by all means please let me know as I'm looking for advice as well. I'm kind of using figures that I've seen around on these forums. So, they may not be exact.
But, if I bought a dozer/loader for 7,000 then spent 10,000 to have a new U/C put in. I have a pretty good dozer/loader for 17,000. That should last quite a while, using it only 100 hours a year. I compare this to restoring old cars 5,000 for a old car and 10,000-50,000 to restore it. This may not be the correct analogy. But, I could say I rebuilt it. But, I would not do this if I were going to use it for a buisiness. Any thoughts. The ones that I've bee looking at are the JD 350/450 dozer/loader, the Case 350/450 dozer/loader, or the Cat D2, D3, D4, 931,933,941,943.
James