Good first Restoration

C

cptzippy

New member
? up front: What would be a good first restoration project

that is lower in cost to get in to?





Facing medical retirement from the Army and may go out to the

country to get low cost of living while I finish my

doctorate. So I'm think of doing a car restoration. My

parents did lots of MG's, Triumphs, Mini's as well as the '66

Mustang that was my first car and a '62 Chevy P/U that I did

a lot of work on. I've gotten back into turning my own

wrenches with my XJS and have the bug again.



Not wealthy so I figure an E-type (except maybe series III)

and XK120,140,150 would be out. The early Porsches (911, 912) seem to be as much as 356's.



Things I've thought of '65-'66 Mustang, 60's T-bird, MGA, TR3, TR4, Frogeye Sprite, Mini, Old Pickup, or Jaguar Saloon's from 50's or 60's. Oh, and if I could get a corvette (maybe 70's C3).



A lot of fabrication would need to be farmed out as I'm not a welder (not sure if that would cost and arm and a leg) Ideal (if it existed) would be a rust free example of whatever that needed mechanical and cometic work.



Any Suggestions?
 
Replacing metal is expensive. Painting is expensive but one can do a lot of the labor intensive prep work them selves. Interiors, if a popular vehicle, can be bought piece by piece and installed yourself.

Motor/mechanical work, that's the one that depends on your abilities and tools available.

At the Sullivan's Collector Car Auction this year (bought a 77 T-Bird, 12,901 miles, a survivor that has no repainting, perfect trim, tires, interior, etc, just need to charge the a/c and upgrade the radio, it's me new driver) I noticed that Mustangs were bringing about 30 to 40% higher than last year, Bow-ties were about the same as last year.

There were a few English roadsters sold, a couple not bad.

The Mecum sale the two days before in KC had some good project cars as well.

You can get some ideas from the after sale info posted on both sites.

sullivanauctioneers.com or the Mecum site.

As always, some of the photos made the cars look good until I took the ETG gauge to them and used my extending mirror to look at the chassis's.

Failing to do some serious research of brands, knowing what their weakness's are, what repro parts are readily available, etc is the down fall of many who seek to go into these types of vehicles.

Grumpy
 
I'll definitely do research on anything I put my eye on before jumping in (not blindly). I'll probably narrow it down and find the best example as I save up to pay cash for it.
 
Ron Ketcham- Heh heh, I was on the edge of my seat hoping you'd buy that Ford wagon ;)



captzippy- Heh heh#2, what about restoring the XJS to concours? Bringing my 18K mile one up to snuff is an ongoing challenge, and it was as nice as you'd expect (bought new, never abused) for a starting point.



Otherwise, choose something you simply *LOVE* (to maintain enthusiasm) and avoid structural rust and missing (rare) trim like the plague. Make sure you can get what you need. IMO that would rule out Jag saloons (and note that pals of mine in my Jag Club are always having them restored at my other buddy's shop...big, big challenges even when money is no object).
 
That Country Sedan was sold at another auction a few weeks earlier.

The buyer drove it over to the Sullivan Auction, had added some nice wheels and tires, did a bit of detail on it.

He's got $2,000 of wheels and tires on a $6500 wagon, but it looked sharp.

Grumpy
 
Accumulator said:
captzippy- Heh heh#2, what about restoring the XJS to concours? Bringing my 18K mile one up to snuff is an ongoing challenge, and it was as nice as you'd expect (bought new, never abused) for a starting point.



Otherwise, choose something you simply *LOVE* (to maintain enthusiasm) and avoid structural rust and missing (rare) trim like the plague. Make sure you can get what you need. IMO that would rule out Jag saloons (and note that pals of mine in my Jag Club are always having them restored at my other buddy's shop...big, big challenges even when money is no object).
Click to expand...



Problem is that just about everything I mentioned - plus some - I do *LOVE*. I'm a very eclectic car guy. The XJS is my daily driver so I couldn't keep it concours for very long. Maybe if I got something else in a while. Problem is, it's too 'new' in some ways. Getting the ABS working and such doesn't seem much like restoration to me (but then it will be soon enough as I and the car's like that get older).
 
I am either confused or you are.

I didn't buy it, the other guy did and he DID NOT put it in the auction.

As a matter of fact, Milford offered him a $1,500 profit that day we saw it with the new wheels, and the guy turned him down cold.

My buddy Milford sold two cars at the auction, a nice 56 Chevy 2 dr, original except for repainting, got $19,500, his 69 Chevelle "SS Clone" a personal driver he had for 17 years, was nice, very nice, with a 350 crate motor, brought $13,000 (which was about $2,000 less than it should have brought).

At present he is finishing up a 55 Chevy convert, crate motor, disc brakes, etc "resto mod" and the 56 Pontiac Safari wagon (I did the stainless on that boat 55 pc-35 hours), and have yet to do the trim for the convert.

He's got a cherry 56 Chevy 4 door, a 55 Chevy Nomad (older restoration) and a couple of others still in process.

Grumpy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top