Antique car restoration is about restoring the times of a bygone era, not simply about restoring a vehicle. Most restorers consider restoring an classic car to be a labor of love
You have finally located the perfect, classic car of your dreams. Except that it requires just a little bit of work. But, where do you start? After all, the most difficult part of most any car restoration project is limiting the scope of the project and preventing mission creep. Without clear cut goals and budgets at the start, you can easily find yourself in an endless and ongoing relationship with your automobile. Your money will rapidly transfer itself to your car, your time will disappear, and your automobile will never be quite finished - because you'll always find some other slight imperfection to work on and "fix".
There are many ways to approach the restoration of a car. But the best auto restorers do have a set of common traits that separate them from the ones that never seem to finish their restoration jobs.
1. The skill to set down-to-earth goals - It is a truisms that regardless of how much time you take or how much money you pore into your project, you'll never be capable of restoring a classic car to the exact state that it was in when if first came on the market. For one, body paints are developed a lot different now than they were in the past so while you may find it easy to get a color match, you will never be able to get an exact paint ingredient match. Similarly, the formulations of finishing materials such as varnishes, enamels, and the like are simply not the same any more. Likewise, the same is true for many of the other classic car components. So you, as the restorer, have to set realistic goals as to exactly what parts of the car you are going to restore to their original states and what parts of the car you are willing to restore "as close as possible" to their original states.
2. Patience - It may sound self-contradictory, but if you don't have patience, you are not likely to ever finish your auto restoration project. The reason that you require patience is because a major restoration job is never, ever without problems. You discover the fuel gauge is not working and you have to scrounge around for a replacement. Or, the electrical system is suddenly becoming erratic and you lose two weeks time resolving the problem. Without patience, you may well decide to just give up and abandon the project or leave it until another day that never comes.
3. Love of Research - A good restorer, by necessity, has to be a good researcher as well. A car restorer spends much of his time not actively working on the auto, but finding what replacement parts are needed for his classic car and locating them. There are times when you will find yourself literally doing research for an entire day. If you don't love research - or at least like it a lot - you can be sure of many miserable days ahead.
4. Good manual skills - This goes without saying but unless you love working with your hands and have some skills to speak of, you might just as well take your checkbook out and pay someone to restore the car for you, because you'll never get it done yourself.
It seems as though the hobby of restoring classic cars is having a resurgence but before you decide to take the leap yourself and outfit your garage with installation tools, make sure you have the traits that will let you succeed at your new hobby.
Author Resource:-
Carl Phllips writes about car restorations issues such as classic car value and classic car price guide. Please visit his site for additional contributions.
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