Car Restoration

Bringing your old car back to life

Car restoration is an art of preserving back an old car into the state of how it looks like when was bought new. Restoration requires skill, precision and personal discipline. It may take a simple car a year or so do be developed.  The patience and know how of a restorer can bring a rusty old car into life again.

Imagine a junky old automobile in the yard would transform into a show type car.  In the oldies, cars were really prone to rust , thus rust control was not their priority at that time but sales and competitiveness.  Thus we can see a lot of oldschool cars look alike.  A Celica Gt is a replica of the pony ford mustang, Toyota SRs and Mitsubishi 1st generation lancers has obvious similarities. That was the time when the car is not a necessity but a business.

American cars made wider and bigger cars while the Japanese settled into the compact and coupe editions.  It was in the mid-eighties when Japans car industry almost had it’s glory.  From the luxury editions like the Toyota crown, Mitsubishi Galants, to the sporty Lancers, SRs , Starlets and colts was selling like cakes.  But all alike they missed the process of how to make them resistant to rust and corrosion. Parts tear all about anywhere during time,colors fading and fabrics are cracking. Too bad we have to really keep them somewhere in the garage to preserve.

Restoration also requires you to look for hard to find parts . If you have the componenst and materials ready, it will be easy to restore a project car.  It is hard to find classic car parts nowadays specially when the car factory has already stopped producing it’s parts.  We should find ways how to make them from fiberglass to metal fabrication. Its good many car parts of the classic era has been standardized so you can place parts of other brands in your collection. A restorer often goes to junk shops and scraps hoping to find parts needed.  Its really to stressful specially a head ache when you want a part and you cannot find anywhere.  Sometimes an analgesic or pain reliever would be helpful.

A do it yourself book may also be a good reference than looking for a copy of your classic car repair manual.  If you can find one maybe its worn out or the price will make your blood pressure go up.  If the repair manual is really that important and you cant fix the car without it, we have no choice, the least is to get one from the swapmeet or oldscholoer selling thread.   But wait, thanks there is a web already and we can find some help also using by the internet.

Who says restoration is an easy job or hobby?  It’s quite an experience when you finished a car.  Mostly you have spent much money, had more dirt in your hand gone to places you haven’t gone before and met a lot of people to ask for all around.

So to all oldschoolers out there restoring their project car, its like going to school having some experiments and examinations passing them is worth restoring a good car back to life.