How to make the grade in car restoration
Alright. So you have a hankering to restore your dad or mom's 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle (pictured) or
1996 Ford Taurus but know little, if anything, about car restoration since you built models as a young child. SecondChanceGarage lists some basic guidelines on tackling a car restoration project. As the article points out, many would-be restorers underestimate the amount of time, space required, and costs (both financially and to one's sanity), that restoring a vehicle can take.
The steps include:
- Selecting what car you want to restore. Make sure it has some personal fascination. Car restoration is hardly a 'Get Rich Quick' scheme.
- How to find the car. This includes contacting auto clubs.
- How much space you'll need. It'll take a lot more than your two-car garage.
- Required tools. Consider renting many of them, especially if you're a novice.
- Estimating how long a project will take. Just like remodeling a house, it'll always take longer than expected.
- Costs. There's a big difference in the finances required to restore a car just to drivability or for the show circuit.
- Have your family's commitment in the project.
- How close to the "original" model do you want to restore too.
A full discussion on each step can be found at the link. What advice would you offer would-be restorers?
[Source: SecondChanceGarage.com via Business Week]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mal Fuller 5:49PM (3/30/2006)
I don't see any connection between Autoblog's choce of photos and the topic of restoration. For example, Chevelles came with hoods!
Reply
Chris 5:51PM (3/30/2006)
What advice would I offer? Take your original estimates of time and cost and at least double to triple them to be realistic.
Reply
Whydrive 7:51PM (3/30/2006)
Unless you're talking about a 70s Japanese car, cuz we all know they are built perfectly and last forever.
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S1500 9:50AM (3/31/2006)
It's really too bad a paragraph is taken out of the article due to an unavoidable verizon pop-up ad that has no close button.
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