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Restoration Services or So you want to have a car restored do you?
Below are examples of what we do and have accomplished with lots of photos and commentary about what is involved with restoring a vintage car for street driving use. Before you read about restoration work, read some commentary about common pitfalls of car restoration. It's good to be excited about a restoration but its better to be excited and well briefed. As the late and great George Carlin so accurately opined about humans in general, "There's a reluctance to confront reality and a desire to soften unpleasant realities." These days, many cars are advertised in on-line auctions as being "restored". We receive quite a few of these cars and get to closely examine them. The condition of many such cars is shockingly bad. All too often we find that recent work done on such cars in order to sell them is superficial at best and outright fraudulent at worst. The internet has made it ever so easy for unscrupulous sellers to construct a nest of lies to sell a car and many buyers are simply too lazy to do what it takes to have a car checked out before they spend their money. If you plan on purchasing a car with an on line auction, have the car checked out by a local shop in the area. Let's define what restoring a car actually involves. Typically an intensive mechanical and structural restoration involves disassembling the entire car to the last nut and bolt. As we do a lot of cars for owners that live an inconvenient distance from our workshops, we photograph the pleasant and unpleasant discoveries and e-mail them to our clients so an owner can make informed decisions and confront the reality of the condition of their car with the work and expenses involved. Cars with large rusted areas will cost considerably more to restore than cars with solid bodies. Cars with extensive rust can and should cost a great deal less than solid cars. Rust is very easy to hide in photographs especially on white cars. Restorations can and do involve many hundreds or thousands of hours of labor depending on factors such as the age, condition, complexity of the car, availability of quality properly fitting parts and of course, the sum of an owners desire. A common question we receive concerns the expense of restoring a car vs. the eventual resale value. The simple answer is the extensive labors and high cost of quality parts used in restoring a car will greatly exceed most resale values. So why do it at all? Why do anything? Why not have a boring little life like an amoeba does? A simple answer is because we humans have evolved brains and we have the ability these days to choose mechanical contraptions that bring us pleasure. Of course many fellow creatures on this planet also choose to do things that bring them pleasure but those creatures cannot drive cars. Yet.
"No device since the shields and lances of the ancient knights fulfills an ego like an automobile." William Rootes
How about a more modern interpretation?
"No contraption invented by humans has the thrill of driving a fine car other than perhaps the space shuttle." S. MacClymonds
There are many reasons why car owners choose to restore their cars. Such as they really like the car or perhaps the car belonged to someone they loved very much like their grandparents, parents, family member or friend. These enthusiastic owners appreciate the hard work that goes into making their projects a reality. They plan to enjoy the car for many years to make the considerable investment sensible to them and we enjoy working for such owners that plan to continually enjoy what we have done for their car. Properly restoring most cars with the object of selling them for a profit seldom makes financial sense as every car is not super rare or in high demand. Of course, buying a new car with the object of selling it for a profit seldom works out either. We have found that owners without an emotional attachment about their vintage car or that lack a real sense of excitement from owning and driving a particular car do not make the best of clients as the car means little or nothing to them. The car is just another soon to be boring object in their lives and we prefer to work for owners that have a real affection for their car and care about its future as well as their personal safely. (They want good brakes.) Other questions we often receive are; How long does a typical restoration take and what does such work cost? These are the hardest questions to definitely answer as there are no typical restorations. Factors such as condition, age, availability of quality parts and owners desires make huge differences in costs and time. We suggest watching the movie," The Money Pit", as an introduction to restoring vintage cars. It's a very funny movie yet some of the truths about the pitfalls of restoring cars, houses, boats. aeroplanes and such that are in poor condition are ever so true. Again, why restore anything? A good reason is that great and worthy things were made in the past that had character and enduring beauty. We try to make sure that owners understand the costs of automobile restoration as well as we can as we want to make sure they have the financial means to finish the project. It does not serve anyone well to have an owner get part way into a restoration and run out of funds to finish it. We have ended up finishing many restoration attempts that other shops began and never finished for the below reasons all too frequently.
"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."- Albert Einstein
We are always inspired by Einstein's enormous intellect and believe that discovering a well hidden problem on a car presents an opportunity to correct that problem. Making the car into a better driving machine is after all the point of restoring a car.. Reasons for an uncompleted restoration can range: 1. The car in question may have been in far worse condition than the owner knew. This is a common problem as many cars have been "worked over" many times during their long lives and really bad, i.e. expensive, problems can be well hidden only to surface after much work has been expended. ( See the " Money Pit".) Thus some jobs grow extensively as discoveries are made and most owners want newly discovered problems solved as well. ( See the Money Pit again.) The end result can be great but getting there takes stamina and considerable fuel. i.e. funding. Thus it's always better to start out with a car in relatively good condition. Restoring a car that is rusted out, worn out, trashed, abandoned for years in a swamp, used for target practice or dropped out of a bomber over Baghdad during "Shock and Awe", is not a good place to start unless the car in question has emotional significance to the owner or the car is highly desirable. Cars bought from on line auctions can and many times are especially risky purchases. It's best to carefully examine all such purchases beforehand. 2. Perhaps the shop entrusted to do the work did not manage the job properly or lacked the experience to handle the job in a proper manner. #2 can probably be avoided by properly vetting a potential shop to find out how long they have been in business and what sort of business they do. A paint and body shop that only does late model crashes may not be the best place to have a classic car body done as such work is too time consuming for their business model. Look into how well organized a shop appears to be, keeping in mind that vintage car shops usually have a lot of vintage parts around that they are working on at all times so clutter can mean a busy shop and many restorationists are packrats. It's in the blood. Clutter does not mean cars are sitting around covered in layers of dust with parts, old boxes and beer cans piled on top of them. These cars have become a part of the scenery. You don't want your car to become a part of the shop scenery. How enthusiastic about the cars and work are the employees? If an car owner gives a shop $5K or $10K or more to work with at a time, does the shop have the integrity and organizational ability to manage the funds properly so the work moves along? We have found this last part to be a real problem that results in many unfinished projects. It is not a bad thing to "trust but verify." We provide photos of works in progress via e-mail for owners that are a distance away and are always happy to show owners the work progress. It is all part of the enjoyment of having a car restored. 3. The car owner or shop encountered financial or personal problems mid stream in the work that caused the job to slow down or stop. These problems can happen to anyone at anytime. Divorces, cyclical stock market crashes, family or health problems can create a lack of funds or focus. Life is hard sometimes and we do our best to work with our clients while they sort out the vicissitudes of life that hit us all upon occasion. 4. The car owner had unreasonable expectations on costs or time to complete the work. #4 results in many uncompleted cars. Once upon a time, we had a client with a car in the workshop that we were well into restoring. This client placed a bet with a pal of his without telling us beforehand. The bet was that we would restore the car for him by a date certain. The car was in much worse condition than the time frame would allow (lots of rust covered with bondo and heavy paint kind of thing) and no doubt the person that placed the bet had restored a car before and knew they had suckered their friend. The car owner made this bet without consulting us beforehand and lost as restoring a car is not a game. Working people are not playthings and people should not treat people as pawns in their games. Some owners think we or other shops have a magic wand that we can wave over their cars and poof! The work is all done and the cost is whatever they command. Actually, car restoration is a lot of hard physical work that takes considerable planning, thought, parts and funding to accomplish. The work we do is not done by a computer program and is certainly no video game. Working with the hands and mind in a time honored manner completes a restoration. However... Let's go back to that magic wand. Truth be told, we do have a magic wand. The wand can only be used three times and the third time it turns the user into a fuel pump! So, the wand stays hidden away with our other secret stuff.
For parts orders call 281.448.5165 or Send us an e-mail!
Indulgences...
Our intent is to return the various systems to like new or better functionality and appearance. During these jobs, we may offer a client subtle improvements like electronic ignition, stainless exhaust systems, body soundproofing, state of the art sound systems which are carefully hidden and more.
We converted this MGB from L.H.D. to R.H.D. as it will be returning to England. We also performed a total ground up restoration including new leather cockpit, canvas top, ANSA exhaust, total rewire and all mechanicals rebuilt.
reconstruction.
Jaguar Mark II Restoration We converted this Jaguar from right hand drive to left hand drive. We also converted the car from an automatic transmission to a four speed with overdrive transmission and changed wheel specification from steel wheel to original spline drive wire wheel specification. The enhancements included new paint work and body seals, fitting an electric aerial with a state of the art sound system, rebuilding the engine, brakes, suspension, steering, replacing all wiring, and fitting additional insulation as well. The entire interior is fresh with new leather, carpers, panels, headliner etc. This car sports a set of original and rare recliner front seats and will have all the bells and whistles. MGA Coupe Restoration
We can completely strip down any mechanical system, clean and paint all components with high grade automotive enamel and rebuild the entire vehicle with whatever new parts are required to return the car to as new or better drivability and endurance. Nash Metropolitan Restoration
Jaguar E-Type 2+2 Restoration
MG Midget Restoration
to match the outside hot red color.
Jensen Healey Restoration The owner of this 1972 Jensen Healey completely disassembled his car 20 years or so before we received it. Eventually frustrated yet still enthusiastic, he brought the car to us to complete his dream. Enhancements included Dellorto carburetion, Lotus 777 cams, burled walnut dash, canvas top and fancy stereo as well as a total rebuild on all mechanical and electrical systems. This is one of the finest Jensen's on the planet.
MGC-GT Restoration
Mercedes Benz 350SL Restoration Here are photos of a scarce 1972 Mercedes Benz 350SL that is enjoying a nice restoration. This car was bought new by the owners father and is a family pet.
This Mercedes restoration was completed in 2007. In 2008, the owners young son, while driving the car at high speed, lost control and drove over some major tree roots, knocking over a fire hydrant and abruptly stopped against a tree thus ripping the suspensions and steering into twisted pieces. The driver fought the tree and the tree definitely won. Much of the restoration work we did was destroyed by the impact. The car sustained extensive damage to the body and mechanicals but did it's job as the young laddie came through without a scratch. The owner decided to have us repair and restore the damaged car back to it's former glory regardless of the damage and so it begins. In a different world than our company inhabits, such cars are considered totaled as the damage is massive and the eventual cost unknown. In this case the ingredients for a successful outcome are in place. The car is an old friend, the owner wants it fixed, has the means and has agreed to allow us to have full control over the work to make the determinations of what needs to be done to save the car so we will.
For parts orders call 281.448.5165 or Send us an e-mail!
Bristol 409 Restoration Here will be photos of a restoration on a 1966 Bristol 409. This very scarce hand built high performance all luminum body English muscle car is one of 42 or so Bristol cars built that year ( Bristol Cars won't reveal what their production figures were or are. ) The car features a factory fitted 5.2 litre V8 Chrysler engine with push button shift automatic transmission. These V8 engines replaced the venerable six cylinder pre-war BMW based engine that were previously manufactured by the Bristol factory. Bristol Cars purchased new engines from Chrysler and would totally disassemble them. They would check the tolerances to make sure they were perfect enough for them as merely perfect was not deemed good enough. Many bolts and fasteners on Bristol cars are wire tied or used Nyloc nuts like airplane construction. This is because Bristol Cars emerged from the old Bristol Airplane Company that manufactured war planes during WW2. The Bristol 409 car body is an all aluminum body construction mounted on a very stable steel frame using four wheel multi piston disc brakes. These were the most advanced brake systems available at the time. Considered by automotive enthusiasts then and now as one of the finest driving automobiles ever built, Bristol cars are still hand built in very limited numbers ( they won't say) for owners with plenty of cash and discretion. For this Bristol restoration, we rebuilt the entire brake, steering and suspension systems with great attention to details like replacing the copper wire used to wire tie the differential cover bolts. The vintage KONI shocks were hand rebuilt and restored for this job by the KONI factory. The exquisite interior wood trim was restored and refinished by Madera Concepts and all aspects of the mechanicals will be refreshed. We rebuilt the Marles steering box, replaced the ball joints, bushings, tie rod ends and we installed Royal Purple synthetic lubricants. ANSA tuned exhaust tips are fitted. We installed a Pertronix electronic ignition of course. The brake system was rebuilt with all the calipers having new pistons fitted and all new steel brake pipes as well as the flexible hoses were replaced. The front subframe has been removed, disassembled, sandblasted and repainted with epoxy primer and black paint. There was not much rust in the steel body sections and these areas we cut away and welded in new steel. The carburetor and alternator were also rebuilt. The engine received a new timing chain with new sprockets and we replaced the oil pump for good measure. The heater box was removed and restored. The radiator was rebuilt with a high efficiency core and the original Kenlowe radiator cooling fans were restored. The front and rear windshield seals were replaced and soon the car will be roadworthy for the first time since 1980. Triumph Spitfire Restoration
Austin Healey 3000 Restoration and modification
MGB-GT Restoration Next we have a 1973 MGB-GT in for rust repairs and mechanical renovations after a long storage. The car now belongs to the son of the original owner. This photo shows window screen and bondo used to "repair" rust damage on this 1973 MGB-GT. It's classical trash bodywork. We sliced open the car here and there so as to observe the extent of the rust and do a proper repair plan. We will be replacing extensive body sections on this MGB-GT and photos of this work will follow as it moves along.
Lord of the RingsIf Frodo had owned a car (say a Mini) that we had restored, he and Samwise would have cruised to Mordor a lot sooner. We re-manufacture engines to a very high standard and of course they always receive new rings and pistons. As we rebuild engines by Rolls Royce, Lotus, MG, Jaguar, Triumph and Mercedes Benz, the specifics of the rebuilding process varies by engine type and owner desires.. Please contact us with your engine details for more information on costs and the many possibilities for performance.
Specifics on engine work1. All parts are of the finest quality available.2. All worn parts are either rebuilt or replaced or machined if available or possible. 3. Owners will be advised about enhancements or upgrades available to increase performance, reliability or drivability. 4. Attention to detail. All parts are painted in original colors and all work is performed to keep the car as original as possible in appearance. Enhancements such as electronic ignition, modern style fuel pumps and accessories can be subtly fitted where possible for enhanced reliability. We offer many enhancements to improve reliability and drivability. Smiths and Jaeger InstrumentsIf your dash instruments need repair or restoration, send them to us.
Lord of the Dings
For a proper restorative paint job, the car should have all chrome, lamps and trim removed. In many cases the interior is removed as well. The body is sanded down to the original primer, if it exists, and primed with a high grade catalyzed primer. All dings and body flaws are repaired and the entire body shell is hand block sanded to remove waves and body flaws. The result is a smooth finish able to show the top coats well. To achieve a "show car" paint job, the car usually has to be painted two or three times to achieve virtual perfection. This is a tedious, expensive and very time consuming process as perfection is not possible on this world but humans still try to get there. We suggest that owners critically evaluate any paint shop for signs of how well they are organized as we regularly supply parts to body shops that have lost expensive and hard to obtain parts. Some shops throw parts away without regard for what they are dealing with. Thus its always good to take a lot of detailed photos of your car to document what was there.
For parts orders call 281.448.5165 or Send us an e-mail!
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