Talk to other classic car enthusiasts who may be aware of a potential project, look at magazines and check any online ads. Thanks, though - those were on my list. Thanks to a healthy aftermarket, you should be able to find everything you need to get an old Cat on the road again fairly easily. What you should do before getting involved with a project is to really bone up on the cars you are interested in. Reproduction parts are available which makes it an easier project and the prices are reasonable. That means you need a place to do the work, such as a garage, where the vehicle is shielded from the weather.
Check out our ten top suggestions. Yes, the are certainly beloved by hipsters, but this thing will turn more heads, is auto-show worthy, and likely continue to appreciate in value. Lotus Elan Project: £7500 Concours: £26,500 A Lotus Elan has to be the perfect candidate for home restoration as most of them were supplied in kit form to be completed at home in the first place. Take auto parts, accessories, paints, tires, wheels, panels and doors, professional help and what each of them costs into account. How much you need to do obviously depends on the condition of the car, but there will certainly be some cosmetic work involved. With the top down and trunk lid lowered, there is no sight of the soft-top. Using the you can get your hands on to heat up the plastic trim to bring out the oils is an alternative method.
Here is a sobering statistic. We suggest that you put pencil to paper and ask yourself these tough questions before you put your pen to your checkbook and make that purchase. Being the second most-produced car in history, there's still lots of air-cooled Beetles out there. Learning how to restore a classic car only requires a few simple steps, but implementing them will take time and budgeting. Do check the body carefully: a lot of imports turn out to be hiding lots of filler from past impact damage under their many coats of paint. Falcons are mechanically simple so they make a great first project for the novice restorer. Prices for convertibles and fastbacks now regularly top £30,000 and are rising, and you can buy projects for well under £10k.
Parts that come off need be stored in an organized and documented fashion. Ford Mustang — 1964-1968 The original Ford Mustang was revolutionary in style, performance and price, making the first sporty car for many drivers. Personally, I would add a plastic restorer and protecter afterwards to prolong the lifespan and give it a better finish. A quick search of the internet revealed several suitable cars in the £4000-£6000 range, all still drivers and one with plenty of new parts and quite a bit of work already done to it. The largest expense was the rear clip, and a new radiator. There are a decent number of used ones out there to buy and the parts are easily attainable at reasonable prices. And please, whatever you do, stop transforming.
Ford Model A — 1928-1931 There are plenty of Model A cars still available in various stages of rust and repair and lots of suppliers for new and reproduction parts. Chevy Bel Air restoration projects are among the most popular. But the Aurelia appears here as it is one of the few cars in the sub-£300,000 range that you can have restored by a specialist for less than the difference in value between a top example and a project car. Bodywork, Parts and Electrical System Most professional auto restorers will probably tell you the biggest cost for your project might be bodywork. If it weren't for the Porsche badge, no one would love their 944, you found us all out, we're all just shallow douchebags who love Porsche badges right? Early Camaros share many parts with other Chevys, as well as early Pontiac Firebirds.
The rule of thumb has been the earlier the model the better. Although sanding is considered a simple task, you have to learn the right technique, so that you do a good job. Nevertheless, you should be able to find an old one at a good price. Chevrolet Chevelle— These are good restoration projects for beginners. If you think this is a silly question to ask, you obviously have never fully restored an old car. Time is an important factor in full restoration projects since it can take around 1,000 hours to fully restore a classic car.
Auctions are one source and Coys auction house is holding a classic car sale on December 2, where the old metal up for sale includes this gorgeous 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale 1600. They're the first Mustang models and were sold by the hundreds of thousands originally. Luckily, that salt-of-the-earth stigma is fading, and the powerful coupe is now firmly in classic car territory. No, it's not a Javelin, but the shorter-wheelbase, V8-powered, two-seater that's one of the best handling muscle cars of the era. Soldering Soldering wires is another simple task that you could undertake. It is a rare occasion that we find a restoration project costs us less than expected. An exception is the Packard, which was stylish and well-made and has a good number of clubs in the U.
In fact there must be because several people do just that and make a living from it. This one falls into the hard-to-restore category due to its rarity. In its day, these hot Corvairs were known to hold their own against Porsche 356s in races. Many will say that a finely restored Chevy Camaro will almost sell itself. I made some pretty innocuous comments which you obviously took personally. It's not surprising to see, fifty years later, that Sprites are not only popular as collector cars, but also competitive in many vintage racing venues. They are relatively cheap and easy to repair! You can also find a wide range of cheap parts online.
The availability of high performance parts for this car is increasing, and adding some of these parts could increase value and interest of buyers. You have a list of the parts you need for your project car restoration. But there was one exception: the Pontiac Firebird. For restoration, this one has a healthy number of production years, but it was a British export. Many enthusiasts do just that every year, with varying degrees of success. What they fail to realize is these later third-generation Vettes, developed and refined for over a decade, are the smoothest and most reliable of all C3 Corvettes. With over one million Novas produced this might just be the cheapest and easiest cars to restore.