Your Restoration Regrets

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I'm with Doug on this one. Unfortunately I chose the wrong shop. Apart front tags peeling problems that I posted a lot lately the sanding of the filler started to show through the finish after a few months. Looked like the paint was sinking in.

That had gotten wire over the years.

The car still looks pretty good but if you ever seeing under neon lights you'll be shocked.

Oh well, I'll just get used to it. With all the wear and tear of being almost a daily driver it was never intended to be a show car for a long period of time.

 
I wish I would have done these 5 things sooner:

a). Converted from I6 to V8

b). Changed gas tank and flushed fuel lines

c). Converted to electronic ignition (waiting on #1)

d). Changed to a higher amp 1 wire alternator

e). Changed out steering wheel to Grant 15 inch...so much better.

 
Was putting a third coat of paint on the water pump pulley and also blasting the rust on a clamp on the radiator hose with PB Blaster. Pay attention to what can your holding. Pulley got the PB. Could have been worse. Clamp could have gotten flat black. What a sticky gooey black mess.

 
Don't buy anything used without having touched it for yourself.

 
I think if I knew I was going to buy and start working on a classic car I would have bought a house with a 2-car garage.

 
Wow, this could be a huge list. If I would do it again probably would do the following.

* Soda blasted the whole car

* Keep track of the parts better

* Better planning of the project progress in general.

* Keep to the plan instead of altering items if I saw something I liked later on.

-jbojo

 
Done the body work and paint first, then the engine, suspension, interior. For some odd reason I done the suspension first, engine second, dash third, body/paint fourth, and interior fifth. Next time the bare shell is going to be in paint before I start anything else lol, because I got tired of taping things out constantly. Also didn't help I changed engine choices 4 times either. Should have just settled on the big block the first time!

 
Do so many things by yourself than you could ever do - if you don't master them first learn them with a good buddy aside!

The shop guys have never the time and fees to do the things with the same care, accuracy and love than you. Time is money and that will always go to your charge!

That's my experience in which I lost a few hundred bucks at the very beginning of the time with my big raspberry buddy...

And I like it when I managed something new - that's like christmas and easter together and I am a little bit prouder of my mustang once more than before ;)

Tim

 
After 29 years of ownership it is hard to spell them all out.

1. Avoid the drunk driver who turned left in front of me and took out the Mach 1.

2. Dropped the carb mounting nut, looked for it, couldn't find it, checked inside the intake runners, couldn't find it. Started engine and took out the piston. I should have pulled the head, in the very least, I should have turned the engine over by hand.

3. I bought some used tires/wheels only to discover they didn't fit. That was pretty early on. They rubbed the fenders. So I bought air shocks (rear) to keep them from rubbing.

4. When installing the carpet I rolled over on my exacto knife. That was a trip to the emergency room

5. Telling the guys at the local tire shop that I would install the wheels myself because they would mess it up by scratching my wheels. I got the car jacked up and decided to check the rear brakes. Couldn't get the drum off. Oh, yeah, the parking brake is on. So I released it and, sure enough, the car fell off the jack. The tire shop applauded.

6. When I replaced the previously destroyed Mach 1 with a convertible I decided to give it some attention. Best to tighten that power steering belt. So I took a crow bar and braced it against the housing and... well I started a leak.

7. I painted the tach needle. It bent. I tried to unbend it. It broke. I won't do that again.

8. I bought some protective side moulding on ebay only to find out it wasn't original.

Finally, I should have started after the internet. Finding parts 29 years ago was a pain. You newbies have no idea how easy you have it. :)

 
Use ONLY OEM Body Panels and trim. If God (or Ford) had wanted you to have a new old ford he'd of made the parts sorta kinda fit. And we all know repro body panels and trim are &%^#
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I would love to have used nothing but NOS sheetmetal when I redid ( I wouldn't quite call it "restoring" it) mine.

Unfortunagely, at the time ( mid 90s) NOS 1/4 panels were $750-$1000 each, if you could find them.

I just could not afford to go that expensive. I used cheap overseas 1/4 panels (about $80 each) and worked them to fit. The shedtmetal was decent quality, EDP coated. I fully primered and painted the inside of the panels, and primered and painted all the welds...should help prevent corrosion.

I have no complaints about the cheap repro sheetmetal I used ( 1/4s, wheelbouses ( 2 pieces each side) trunk floor, drop offs ( 2 pieces) tail panel, front and rear valance panels, all the inner front fender panels ( 4 pieces), and the radiator core support.

They all fit pretty close to exact, didnt need a lot of tweaking, and saved me a BUNCH of money.

I think a lot of aftermarket sheetmetal is unfairly maligned with the "cheap crap doesn't even fit" complaint.

What many fail to admit to is that after several thousand miles, and maybe a couple decent impacts the car's body and chassis can get pretty tweaked even though it isn't always readily apparent to the naked eye.

A small, unseen "tweak" in the overall straighness of the car's body can wreak havoc on trying to fit new un-tweaked panel.

Even when assembling at the factory, some pretty severe "adjustments" are sometimes neccesary.

I probably saved $5000-$10,000 on sheetmetal for my "redo" by using cheap repro metal, or working the existing panel back to "acceptable" status.

My car is ultra-high mileage, many-times-wrecked and miles away from original so I could not justify that kind of expenditure.


Restoration regrets?

On my Mustang, I regret not replacing the floorboards when I had it all apart.

On my Torino, I regret not excercising the same restraint when it came to spending money wisely. I am already at least $25,000 into it, with a long way to go.

$6,000 engine, $1,000 trans, $700 diff, at least $10,000 in body work, $3000-$5000 in chrome and bright trim refurbishing/ plating. And I haven't even started to think about interior work.

Having the old-car "jones" is just like having any other substsnce abuse addiction: you make stupid rationolizations to yourself to justify enormously innappropriate expenses. The big difference is your FF&Rs ( Family, Friends and Relatives) don't see it as an obsession or an addiction...they just think you,'re a little wierd.

This is going to be a great car, but......

.......never again. This is my last "redo".

 
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"On my Torino, I regret not excercising the same restraint when it came to spending money wisely. I am already at least $25,000 into it, with a long way to go."

I stopped tracking costs on my project a long time ago. I figured that I am not selling it and it's more of a keepsake for me. Cost can skyrocket if you are not careful.

-jbojo

 
Restoration regrets?On my Mustang, I regret not replacing the floorboards when I had it all apart.

On my Torino, I regret not excercising the same restraint when it came to spending money wisely. I am already at least $25,000 into it, with a long way to go.

$6,000 engine, $1,000 trans, $700 diff, at least $10,000 in body work, $3000-$5000 in chrome and bright trim refurbishing/ plating. And I haven't even started to think about interior work.

Having the old-car "jones" is just like having any other substsnce abuse addiction: you make stupid rationolizations to yourself to justify enormously innappropriate expenses. The big difference is your FF&Rs ( Family, Friends and Relatives) don't see it as an obsession or an addiction...they just think you,'re a little wierd.

This is going to be a great car, but......

.......never again. This is my last "redo".
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Interestingly enough, I'm at about the same place you are (money-wise) into mine, and I haven't really done much with the interior either. I pretty much have the entire interior, weatherstripping, glass, paint, final details, and wheels to go after the paint's done.

 
Interestingly enough, I'm at about the same place you are (money-wise) into mine, and I haven't really done much with the interior either. I pretty much have the entire interior, weatherstripping, glass, paint, final details, and wheels to go after the paint's done.
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Yes, but the difference is that you are restoring a classic Mustang, which has broad appeal and will continue to rise in value. If you decide to sell, you have a far better chance of recouping a larger amount of your investment.

On the other hand, the car I am currently working on is a '75 Gran Torino. The car was originally a "Sport" model (basically meaningless in reality), red with a white vinyl roof, 14" steelies with hubcaps, and a few options. 460 PI motor.

the 74-76 "Big Boy" Torinos are basically worthless unless you restore them to one very specific configuration: "Starsky & Hutch" style.

Which I am doing.

I bought the car in 2009, started collecting parts and tidbits needed for the "redo" soon after, bought the second donor car in 2011 and then took the car to the body shop and have been woriking on it in earnest ever since.

I have ben a nut-job "S&H" fan ever since the show debuted in '75. I had a real Ford-made "S&H" special edition for many years, but it was a dog, the stripe was very poorly designed and did not accurately match the TV cars, and it needed a ton of work and I let it go in 2005...and regretted it immediatly. You never really know how badly you want something sometimes until its gone...

So, I went on the hunt to get another car and "do it up right".

This car I am working on now will be as totally screen-accurate as I am able to get it...which is pretty difficult to actually do, since every car they used over the 4 years it was on the air ( at least 6 "official" Hero cars, and at least 3 others for crash and fire stunts) was noticeably different from the others.

They used a mix of 75 and 76 Gran Torinos.

A typical TV cop-show in the 70's is kinda' like McDonalds: Just crank out the episodes as fast and cheaply as possible...forget about the details, no one will probably notice anyway.

But...with todays DVDs and stop-motion many details can now be seen that were never seen "in the day".

I have decided that I will paint and trim the car the way that the producers intended the car to be "portrayed"...that is, what they wanted the viewer to think the car was, as opposed to what it actually was.

To me, the big detail is the stripe. Seems like a simple thing, but there are actually at least SEVEN distinctly different versions of the stupid stripe that could all be considered "correct".

On the "StarskyTorino.com" website (where my old '76 S&H Torino is shown), there are HUNDREDS of owners cars on that site and out of all of them, there are maybe only one or two of them that have the stripe painted in such a way as to be considered correct, even with all seven original examples to choose from.

To me, the only really unique thing to that car is the paint scheme and specifically the stripe. Otherwise its just a nice 2 door car from the mid 70s.

So, I have spent a lot of time researching the stripe, beleive it or not. And i also have an original Motorola "Motrac" police radio (screen accurate!) to go in the car when done, a brand-new flashing red teardrop light to put on the roof at shows (Same one as used on the show: "Galls" teardrop beacon)

and all that kind of nutso obsessive BS.

But...these cars are topping out right now around $20,000-$25,000 for one done as nicely as I think mine will turn out.

The difference is that I really don't think they will continue to go up in value.

In fact, unless there is another "Starsky & Hutch" movie (extremely doubtful), I think these cars are going to start losing value.

But...I love the car, I want one and I'm gonna have the best one around!

 
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In my collection of weird stuff I have both of their autographs on a photo of the car. It is not in the greatest shape but it is presentable.

If I can find it I will send it to you. It needs to be with a totally ate up S and H fan such as yourself - LOL.

PM me your address.

- Paul

 
In my collection of weird stuff I have both of their autographs on a photo of the car. It is not in the greatest shape but it is presentable.

If I can find it I will send it to you. It needs to be with a totally ate up S and H fan such as yourself - LOL.

PM me your address.

- Paul
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Now that would be far too awesome! It would go right in the car along with all the other S&H memoribilia.

Thanks man...Who's better than you?

"Zebra Three, Zerbra Three...see the man named Huggy..."

 

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