It's A Serios Undertaking
It's a serious undertaking when you restore a car, the biggest
part of it is to be prepared for anything, if your doing it
yourself then make sure that you have a good system for
cataloging the parts that come off of the car that your doing,
and be prepared for the un foreseen, it's a lot of work and a
lot more time, it never a quick venture.
Make sure that you really love the car that your restoring,
because if you don't it will probably get boring and monotonous,
and that is the last thing you want to happen, this is how
people end up with half done projects, and cars that they hate,
be prepared with the money that you'll need to do the project,
and it won't be just a little bit either, it will be a
considerable investment of time and money.
Don't fall in to the old trap of thinking that the car is in
good condition because of what it looks like on the outside,
this can be very deceiving, be sure to look at everything from
the inside out, most cars have a lot of hidden work that's not
seeable from the outside, so be sure to open the trunk and look
at the floor of it, pull up the front carpet just a bit and look
at the main floor board of the car.
On the out side look for bubbles in the paint on the car, this
usually indicates that the paint has rust underneath it, look
real hard at the rocker panels of the car, and around the rear
wheel wells, and always look under the wheel wells at the rear
outer wheel well, open the hood and look at the engine
compartment for rust, and bad wiring, these are tell tail signs
that the car will need a considerable amount of work to make it
drivable.
Id your planning on having a shop do your restoration for you,
then be prepared to give them what they need to restore your
car, as I have said earlier, you will be spending a lot of money
to restore your car, so be prepared, a shop will need parts on a
regular basis until your car is done, and they will need paint
supplies, and a lot of other things, and most shops don't have
the space to store your car if no work is being done, so give
them what they need to build your car.
A restoration of a car that's in good shape will usually take
about 900 hours of work, and if the car is in bad shape it can
take a lot more, but remember that you get what you pay for, if
you want the car done really fast they will need more then one
person working on it, and this will mean that you'll be charged
at the shop's labor rate for each person working on your car, if
you can wait and you have some time to complete the project,
then you will more then likely save some cash.
Most shops will try do restore your car for the best price that
they possibly can right at the first, so bargaining with them to
lower their prices probably won't work with most shops, the
shops don't make a high profit margin on their work and usually
can't afford to be cutting their prices, and in most cases shops
don't do estimates, due to the fact that it's pretty much
impossible to estimate a restoration project because there are
so many variables that enter in to it, it's a lot different from
a collision repair shop.
In a restoration there is no standard for the time that it takes
to perform a certain task, and it is impossible to know what's
rusted or damaged in the car until you start the project, the
shop has to tear in to the car to find all of the defective
areas of it, and this can't be done without bringing the car in
to the shop and putting a man on it, it's never just a matter of
a simple looking at the car, it a matter of locating everything
that has to be done, and it is never an easy job.
Muscle car restoration
Automotive & muscle
car links
Muscle car information