VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions Restoration time 4 your car

I wonder how long some of you guys have been restoring the car you have,since you've owned it. I see posts saying 20 years. Anyone beat that record? I've been playing around and throwing money in mine for three years.Not much else can be done without taking the car half way apart and rebuilding the motor/clutch/trans. Everything working so I guess I'm finished unless something tears up. 20 years sounds like a long time but maybe it's just me.

I can claim 8 years on the last one I did... we'll see how long this '36 takes!

I have owned my 38 for 34 going 35 years and still working on it, I will soon be starting on the 2nd rebuild.

I believe 1931Sal finished his in the 34 year time frame.

Tony

Embarassing, but I got mine in 1977....38 Business Coupe..all apart and partially street-rodded....runningboards, drive train, emergency brake, seats all trashed before I got it...brackets, cross-members torched off and on and on...pretty much spent a lot of time researching, making and finding original parts...probably could have found a Coupe in better shape and cheaper to fix! I traded the guy a paint job on his 69 Corvette for the car...pretty much got everything now but teaching myself how to weld patches...got a while yet before I'm done...that's 36 years by the way...Billu38

My '31 Chev Coach has been someones "project" since the mid sixties and had not been fired up for over 40 years when I bought it. I've been at it now for 4 years and it will hopefully be complete this summer. On the other hand, the '27 Pontiac in the picture at left was begun in 1962 by my friends father, who got it about 60% finished and then set iot aside for 30+ years. After he passed away, his son has taken it on, and as you can see it is still a year away after over 60 years of restoration,pause, restoration, pause, etc. I expect many restorations have pauses in the middle. The '37 Buick Opera Coupe also shown is currently in a 37 year pause and counting.

My 32 sat in my garage for 17 years while I collected parts and kept taking it apart. I was fortunate as after joining VCCA a member made me an offer to do the body work that I could not refuse. Within a year the body was completed with paint and interior and another year for chassis and assembly. I am now into my second year on a 51 and don't expect to be done for at least a couple more.

Well let me see, I got my 37 in about 1967. It had a 38 hood, grille, and trunk lid on it. It was my drive to work car. I painted it tan. Then in the mid 70s I overhauled the engine, put the original hood, grille, and trunk back on it and painted it blue. Then in about 1980 it was in a shop fire, not hurt too bad but I stripped it and painted it dark blue, put in all new glass, new interior, rechromed bumpers etc. I am still finding new or better original style parts plus trying to maintain it. It will never be restored (by Me) but it is a work in progress and a lot of entertainment. I have several new parts I still want to put on it, maybe someday I'll retire and have more time! LOL

I bought my 47 when I was 15, started the restoration in 1978, still working on it. To many projects in between but it is my main retirement project now.

My main worry is that after 36+ years of undoing the street-rod "damage" and trying to bring it back to it's original condition when I "kick the bucket" my kids will inherit the car and they'll tear it down and make a nice rod out of it!!! Well, what goes around, comes around as they say! Billu38

... and that's why you should leave it to me!!

Curious..

A..lose interest
B. Finances
C. Other projects more important
D. No one to help
E. No garage to do the work
F. Just not enought time to do it

After that amount of time, I would be lucky to remember where find the parts.

Since the 47 was my first car and I will never sell it it was easy to get push to the back burner, and do another project. I did buy a parts car in the mid 80's so I have lots of extra parts. My wife kept saying it would be a retirement project and it has turn out that way.

Wawuzit....all of the above except "lose interest" never lost interest,never will and still plan to finish it..Billu38

Billu38 has the same problem though the garage bit is nearly fixed which should make more time available. Currently I need an hour and 1/2 as I need to transport tools from home to where the truck is stored then when I finished I then need to clean the garage and when I get home put the tools away. I rarely take all the tools I need on the first trip so either give up or waste time on a 2nd trip.
The interest hasnt died but the interuptions have increased 3 fold.
Tony

It would be interesting to know how many members who report in regularly here have actually "fully restored" an old car (I'm doing a '31 Coach). By that I don't imply they had it repainted at a body shop and a new interior installed and a general refreshing. I'm talking about a full restoration, starting with a largely worn out vehicle that needs practically everything refurbished. Typically it means body off frame, all mechanical components rebuilt, de-rusted and painted frame/chassis components, body straightened/painted, window hardware refurbished, new harness, new brightwork, etc, etc. I'm also not talking necessarily for show, but a decent driver quality. It is these vehicles/owners who face the long list of obstacles "wawuzit" posted. As many have said it is much better time-wise and financially to buy one already done! But then you miss out on the fun and personal satisfaction of doing things largely by yourself. For those who may not have done the "full Monty" on these cars, you have no idea how often the long list of obstacles can really add to the time required. If I had been able to find a nice "Survivor" like Dawg's Old Smokey, then I'd have been so happy.

The old cars I've seen that are "fully restored" were at Barrett-Jackson, Jay Lenos Garage or in a Museum. After sometimes decades of work and thousands of dollars being spent, I doubt we'll see to many driving down the road, most are trailer queens.
When I first talked about buying another 38 coupe,like I had when I was a kid, a bunch of co-workers asked the question. "Do you want to look at it or drive it" ,refering to street rod vs. antique. It ends up that a $90k car isn't driven even if it is a streetrod. I see them at the car shows coming in via enclosed trailers and rushed to a covered spot.I'm not sure they really run. I guess both types of cars are in the same situation.

My 31 sport coupe came back to life from being toasted in a fire. It took almost nine years to complete with me doing as much as I knew how to do.I had the bodywork and paint done and also the interior. My car has taken first place in a local concours and I still like to drive it. Since its completion I have put over 4800 miles on it. It is just to much fun to drive and make people smile. If I am going on a long haul from my home I will trailer it just because of time. Enjoy the ride!

I think your approach is the perfect combination Sal. I've seen pics of your car before and after and realize the efforts you went to personally to bring it back. And then to get to enjoy driving it and showing it is the icing on the cake. I hope I never trailer mine unless going a long haul.

I started in 1978 with a total restoration of my 1936 Standard after I decided I did not want to make a street rod out of it. I had great joy in doing the restoration including my wife and I sewing a total original style haringbone mohair interior in our basemnent with her Singer sewing machine. To do this restoration I purchased a 1936 Standard 4-door for parts and restored it to get money to "invest" in the 2-door standard town sedan. The only item we did not do was rebuld the engine or rechome the shiny parts; I am still proud of the 35+ years old straight lacquer paint job that I did myself. This restoration was after paint and reassembly of a 1960 Corvette that I bought as a basket case. Since I have completed about 10 additional restoration of Chevrolets and Mopars. All of those Chevrolet were run thru the VCCA judging at Central and National meets over the past 30+ years. I presently am deviating from the vehicle restoration to the building of a 1928 Chevrolet Speedster. And yes most people don't know what a true restoration requires!

Hi 36dlc,

Well done on your cars over the years, and you are correct about a true restoration. Many a good paint and upolstery job sit on an unrestored or brushed over chassis and under body.

A few may be scared off by the prospect of a body off resto, but if your seriuos its the only way to go. Back to the bare chassis, refurbish and refit bit by bit.

I would love to see some pictures of your 28 speedster, and if you were ok with the idea, put a posting about it on my blog.

Regards

Ray

I am excited about the interest in my 1928 Chevrolet speedster project. Below is a link to a photobucket album with some pictures of my 1928 speedster project.

http://s1151.beta.photobucket.com/user/cufrdl/library/1928%20Chevrolet%20speedster

It is my hope/plan that I will have this project to a status that I can take it onto the streets in June or July!!!

This my first attempt at a speedster build so it will be simple. I am having a great deal of fun with this project!

That jump seat in the rear is pretty cleaver. Cool looking project. Please keep the pictures coming.

My son and I were at Hershey last fall and found a similar unit for sale. We talked to the purchaser that bought it after I could not make my mind to buy it or not. He said that he had seen one in a 1910's catalog for application on a speedster. He bought it to put on his 1907 Cadillac speedster. I thought that it was different so I have designed one to fit the 1928 chassis of my speedster with the thought of it being a "conversation piece".

Well, you did good. Nice looking woodwork.