Automotive Restoration

Automotive restoration is the process of returning a vehicle's appearance and condition to the same or better condition it was when it rolled off the assembly line. Total restoration can be laborious and expensive but pays off when finished, popular car and trucks from the past can sell for hundred's of thousand's of dollars when finished.

Given enough money or time, almost any vehicle can be restored to factory condition. The majority of restored vehicles rarely fetch more at auction than is spent on them, such that the best reason to restore a car is simply that you like the car, and would enjoy restoring it instead of hauling it off to the scrapyard it. The level of restoration can be anywhere from mild to extreme, it depends on whether your working toward a sharp looking daily-driver or a full-blown trailer queen that never see's rain. A frame-up restoration involves cleaning and detailing the underside of the vehicle, trunk area, engine bay, and interior, then repaint if needed. A frame-off restoration involves removing the body from the frame, the average automotive enthusiast is not going to have chain hoist's and a rotisserie in the garage so performing a frame-off restoration is not feasible for most of us. Sometimes the original parts needed to fully restore the vehicle are not available, or the restorer is working towards a custom look. Vehicles that meet this criteria are labeled as resto-mods and sell for substantially less than the fully restored vehicles.

As far back as the 20s vintage cars were being modified then used as street rods and dragsters, auto enthusiasts were beginning to cultivate a historical reverence for the older automobiles. Supplies of cheap prewar cars dwindled over time as a result of industry having to retool for the war effort. Sadly many of these vehicles had already fallen victim to scrap drives during the war, so much that preservationists eventually gained the upper hand, via the deeper wallet. Restoration in its modern form began at some point in the 1960s, when auto show judges began to look past the surface condition of a car and focus on originality. Concours prizes began to be awarded to restored trailer queens which are not driven or restored to be drive-able. To this day the majority of hot-rodder's feel that a restored vehicle should be drive-able to qualify.

A complete frame-up restoration entails that the car be stripped of its power-train, accessories, and any remaining components including the sheet metal. This alone is more work than many restorers are prepared for, and is the point at which many restorations are abandoned, providing bargains for the restorer who will buy the car as parts packed into cardboard boxes. The process then entails cleaning, fixing, painting (or replacing) each part of the vehicle that is missing, broken, worn, or non-original. The assembly of the restored components of the vehicle is the opposite of dis-assembly, except for the possibility of forgetting, scratching or denting something during re-assembly. If the car was bought as a project (i.e. in cardboard boxes), this is the stage at which it becomes obvious which parts are missing. Once finished a fully restored vehicle will resemble the way it looked when new car in all respects, except for a number of nuts, bolts and washers that are mysteriously left over.