Saving Tape Media Conversion

Hi. I just received from my brother our father’s collection of 8mm film reels (about 18 pounds worth), which he shot between the early 1940’s and mid 1980’s — most are in color, some b/w. These were transferred to VHS about 15 years ago, and I later transferred all the footage to digital for use in my various family history video projects. Dad spliced many into 7″ reels but hadn’t gotten around to the rest, so there are quite a few small reels as well.
I’m interested in having them transferred directly to digital (DVD). Since I will happily do all the editing, I only want the raw footage — no music, no thumb nails, no titles.
The better film (actually some of the oldest) could merely be cleaned and transferred, but the poorer film could benefit from color restoration. While I can do that to some degree in Final Cut, I assume that direct restoration of the film itself prior to digitization would be superior; however, I’d need to consider the cost.
Since you’re located in Minneapolis, my plan would be to bring over to your studio one or two large reels at a time as my budget allows.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Nick