The eight stages of restoration

The eight stages of restoration: "
Is dedicated to all those who are restoring their classics, which have already done and in general any good classic car enthusiast.



The Eight Stages of Restoration

• Stage One: Inspiration

This stage occurs when you suddenly decide, without any rational reason, you need to have a specific car. You may have seen in a photograph in a magazine, an advertisement, a car parked on the street faded or you inspiration arises in a conversation in a bar after two pitchers of dark beer (lager with broken) Some people in this state of sobriety that would do is attack the Reichstag, but you do not. You decide what you really need is a parked Porsche 356B which leads under a tree 9.
My friend John came into this first stage last weekend. He called me from California to tell me he just bought a Triumph TR6 for $ 900. Apparently he was also of sheet metal, interior and evil would not start. I ran to get my books from the "Triumph TR6 TR5/250 and" Steven Rossi Ian Clarke and began to flip through photos. John and I were talking late into midnight on the virtues of the TR6, and then I realized that I had to buy one. Only unfinished restoration of my Lotus distracted me from the new Grail planned before my eyes radiating divine light.

• Stage Two: The Hunt

This stage is when you start looking online. This stage also communicate in all types of meetings, conversations with friends, etc. .. you're looking for a car until someone says, "Hey, what a coincidence!, does my brother have one of those!. The engine has cracked and my sister has told him that if he kills him out of the garage " The hunt continues with more or less intensity until your patience is rewarded and buy the worst car you could have found

• Stage Three: The homecoming

This is the stage where you are most happy of all. You bring the car home with the help of some friends you prepare a pitcher of beer and it's time to spend all night sitting admiring the line and the true extent of the problem you're going to assume that Porsche 914 with box rotten battery.

The work you do that night in the car really is not very productive: you pass the vacuum cleaner to the carpet (and find a collection of clips, paper, pens and coins), and take out the 8 tracks that still retains the car. The real car enthusiasts, still euphoric during this phase, and not just alcohol. Is the clink of bliss that lasts until you see face to face with reality. That is when it comes to lies. You and your friends say things like "I do not think the rims are bent, surely you just have to make a balanced" All other people tell you that your head and you drink one beer to take off your sweats.

• Stage Four: The road to dismantling and the amnesia

Most often it is a sort of adult version of child vandalism. This stage has

place when you start to disassemble the car of an impulsive and reckless. You know you should take as many photos and detailed notes of what goes where, but you're having too good to stop. "Sure I remember how it goes the wiper motor mounted" you say to yourself, or "I'm sure the shop manual has a detailed drawing of how they mounted the hinges and joints, so I'll leave all on the ground "

• Stage Five: The years of sandblasting

This stage is where all those "fine lines" in your face make their appearance. It is when does the most work. It's a Dark Age: pests, despair, poverty, dungeons, torches and primitive medical experiments by bloodletting. Your hands are permanently scratched, and even keep all your fingerprints, you erased trying to clean the heads of old screws. You reek of rust and liquid cleaner parts. When you try to go to buy things in the wee hours of the morning your wife wakes up to tell you to remove clothing, goals in the washing machine immediately after you shower. This phase is also when the money you never would have spent on a new plasma TV, has disappeared after leading the chrome door handles.

This is when most begin to ask the sky a meteor falls directly on the parts store, if possible, when we are at home laughing while watching an extract of the Visa.

• Stage Six: Ordering the chaos

This is the stage that had already mentioned, and when you remember that car parts are much more efficient if they are a part of it rather than scattered throughout the garage.

• Stage Seven: The Resurrection

Interestingly, I found myself entering this stage the night before, procendete Stage 6, when he finished installing the front windshield of my Lotus Elan. Suddenly, I had to look at the car again. I sat on a low chair (with attractive upholstery plaid) in the middle of my garage and I realized from that angle did not appear that the car was complete and ready to roll. I had new tires, freshly painted and new tires, bodywork, painted bright green and the door handles were in place. Unless I got up to look at the gutted interior or even ask me because they could not see the wheel through the windshield, it seems a complete car. Until that night, I had almost forgotten that the Lotus Elan was conceived as an object for people to give laps around it, and after three years I began to think of it as a permanent place of work as a coal mine . I had forgotten the moment you leave the surface of the green earth and enjoy the sunshine.

He still had a lot of things to do for this stage was complete. Install the steering column and dashboard, complete wiring, upholstery inside, aligning the wheels .. etc ... And the final step is to start the engine to see how it goes (if started) and spend hours setting it up to get the car "going fine"

• Step Eight: Drive the car and head gradually lose

At this stage, you finally get to drive the car and going places, enjoying the fruits of your labor. You can hike, visiting friends, going to concentrations of cars, or just enjoy long summer evenings driving convertibles. Some people at this stage are happy forever with that car that have been restored with all their dedication and feel as if they had reached a kind of mystical destiny. The work is done and hang your tools. Others, however, take a break. They need a new project - if the projects. Once the cuts have healed hands are planted in the garage next to the car and reflect just ended. Tools are not visible and not hear the sound of the radio. The absence of noise, sparks and swear words are disturbing. Nor hear the roar of the UPS truck at the end of the street. It's creepy. Then one night get the call from a friend who tells them brainless just bought a TR6 for 900 dollars and take back their books TR6 and wonder if perhaps his mission in life is not over yet.

original source: http://retromocion.com/foro/index.php?topic=41.msg222 # msg222

edited by Patroleitor
Photos taken from the web

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