A Beginners Guide To Classic Car Restoration

A beginners guide to class car restoration is a basic guide through the restoration process from the eyes of the beginner. The process can get to be very difficult and sometimes even frustrating, but the rewards are great for those who finish the process.

This is just a basic look at the steps in the process through the eyes of a beginner. Obviously if you don’t have the car hat you want to restore you’ll need to locate a car and then buy it.

Now for the steps in the process; you are going to start by studying the car that you want to restore. Classic car restoration begins with you acquiring a car to restore, and this requires a lot of studying you just can’t know to much about the car that your looking to buy.

Study The Car:
Make sure that you get books and magazines related to classic cars and the restoration of them. My first choice would be Hemmings Motor News Hemmings is an outstanding publication, and every person planning to restore a car should have a copy of it; or a subscription to it.

If your planning to restore the car to factoryor better condition you will need to know how the numbers on the car work. I suggest that you lean all you can about the particular car that you want to restore. It’s impossible to know to much about it.

Remember the more that you know about the car; the less of a chance will will have to get ripped off. All I can say is learn, learn, and learn some more. Know your numbers, know the options that the car came with, know the paint codes, and interior codes, know the available engine options.

Study The Parts:
Classic car parts for certain cars can be very hard to find. There are in between years that they don’t have an after market for yet. There are rare cars that are just hard to find parts for in general. You should pay attention not to making one of these cars your first restoration project.

Shop For The Car:
This is truly one of the best parts of the process; but do not let the excitement cause you to make a decision that you will regret. The only way that you can do this is to study the car.

You have got to know that some people will do anything to pedal a car, some people just don’t care about their reputation, or the person buying the car.

Make sure that you don’t under buy the car. What I mean by under buy the car is that you should make sure that you have evaluated your skill level, and don’t buy a car that you can’t complete because you can’t do the work on it.

If you can’t do the work make sure that you know somebody who can. Or you should plan to have the money to farm the work out to a shop.

I would suggest that if your not a very knowledgeable metal man that you don’t by a car that has a lot of rust to repair.

The best rule is to keep it simple; yes you will pay a bit more for a car that is in good condition, but it will save you a world of pain.

Inspect The Car:
This is the step where you put all of that learning that you have done to a use. First of all you should inspect the car to make sure that it is what the seller has represented it to be. You can put your new found knowledge of the numbers to a good use now.

Make sure that everything is there, and your not going to be left looking for parts that are near impossible to find.

Don’t get me wrong most parts are out there to be found if you have the time and money to spend.

If this is to be a factory stock restoration you need to be sure that the original parts are there. Such as the engine, transmission, rear end, and interior parts.

Remember if your trying to save money on the car, you should not be looking for perfection in everything. Just make sure that it’s all there.

Take Pictures:
You should always take pictures of the cars that your looking at. It is never a good idea to buy the first one that you find; sometimes taking your time will get you a better deal on the car.

Look at a few, and take a lot of pictures of the, get to know the cars during the hunting process.

You should evaluate the pictures and take the car that is in the best condition, and at the best price.

Buy The Car:
This is the fun part of the process, it’s the part where you buy your car. If you have done your research properly you should have nothing to worry about here.

You should know how much you can spend; you should know where you can find the parts for the car, and you should know if the car has it’s original parts still on it.

If you have chosen the right car this is where the fun begins.

Bring The Car Home:
Now that you have bought the car, you can load it on your trailer and bring it home to start the work on it.

You should have a garage to work on the car in because it will take a long time to complete the work, and it is imperative that you store the car out of the weather.