Auto Restoration 101

As soon as I read this article I had to post it. Especially when I read about the impact this could have on the auto restoration industry and small business in general. The Big Three are already tentatively getting $15 billion of our taxpayers’ money. Do they really need more help with sales by hurting the classic car hobbyist and the small business people associated with older cars? Because that’s basically what it is, scrap your older car and get some incentive from the U.S. Government towards the purchase of a new vehicle.

The last time my small business was in trouble I didn’t have the government offering me any funds to stay alive. It was more like penalty, you now owe this, penalty, you now owe us more, penalty.

This article is courtesy of SEMA.

SEMA stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association.

SEMA is working vigorously to challenge scrappage laws that would dismantle America’s automotive heritage.

SEMA is opposing efforts to revive consideration of federal funding for vehicle scrappage programs. In response to testimony delivered to Congress, SEMA sent letters to members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee to counter requests that tax dollars be used to entice motorists to trade in older cars and trucks for newer models.

The current discussion of scrappage is tied to the larger debate over how the government should help the domestic automakers and their dealers weather the current financial crisis. SEMA’s letter stated, “Cash for Clunkers as a national policy, even on a voluntary basis, would come at the expense of many small businesses and ignores the better policy option of encouraging consumers to repair and upgrade their vehicles.”

SEMA emphasized that auto restoration, customization and repair shops nationwide, as well as hobbyists, would suffer with the indiscriminate destruction of older cars, trucks and parts they need if scrappage programs were expanded with federal funds.

“America safeguards its artistic and architectural heritage against indiscriminate destruction,” SEMA’s letter stated. “Our automotive and industrial heritage deserves the same protection.”

SEMA also argued that federal funds for scrappage programs would also cut business to the broader independent aftermarket, composed mostly of small businesses. It would be counterproductive for Congress to enact a measure that would hurt the specialty industry and independent auto restoration and repair shops at a time when Congress is seeking to stimulate and support small business.

Finally, SEMA noted that scrappage programs ignore better options, such as vehicle maintenance programs that maximize the emissions systems of existing vehicles. The voluntary repair and upgrade of emissions systems is a win-win for consumers, dealers and manufacturers.

SEMA has also learned that legislators may be also considering scrappage as a clean air measure and are now in contact with these offices to explain scrappage’s shortcomings as an environmental measure. Traditionally, scrappage efforts focus purely on vehicle age rather than actual emissions produced.

SEMA played a central role in defeating federal scrappage legislation in 2002. The association is working with like-minded industry groups now to stop this renewed threat to the auto hobby.

For more information, contact Brian Duggan: briand@sema.org.

I am finally starting the frame assembly. I installed the upper a-arms, upper bump stops and started plumbing the new brake lines. We bead blast and painted some of the original bolts that were in good shape. The motor mount bolts used a special carraige type bolt so I decided to clean them up and re-use them.
I am still waiting on a rear axle cover gasket. Since we opened it back up again I have ordered two more gaskets, both of them that I recieved were the wrong one. Very frustrating! Currently have another one ordered and keeping my fingers crossed.
I have a machinist working on some threaded bungs to repair the lower a-arms. Once I get them I will post an article on the repairs.

These are the original motor mount bolts. We painted them silver to duplicate the original plating.

The right side upper a-arm. The original bolts were used on this also. The upper bump stop is installed also.

Plumbing the brake lines to match the original. The motor mounts are installed too.

This is the new lower bump stop compared to the original.

This article is courtesy of:
Chris Woodyard • USA Today • December 7, 2008

MONTEREY, Calif. - Prowling a parking lot near the romantic waterfront of Cannery Row last August, Linda and Bill Feldhorn fell in love.

Not with each other. That happened more than a decade ago. Rather, they fell head over heels for a sexy two-toned 1961 Austin Healey roadster.

The couple from Malibu, Calif., paid $111,100 for the black-and-tan sports car when it hit the auction block. In doing so, they joined thousands of others across the nation who are turning their love of collectible automobiles into investments.

The Feldhorns and other collectors are convinced that rare cars will prove profitable in the long run. Prices are softening, but unlike the stock market, not plummeting.

“There is a reality check going on,” said Ian Kelleher, managing director for RM Auctions in a phone interview.

So far, the auto collection world isn’t awash in bargains. But prices have softened, creating some opportunity for would-be collectors looking for alternative investments.

“Things are not necessarily flying off the shelves like they were three years ago, but that’s to be expected. A great car is still going to bring great money,” Kelleher says.

Others agree. They say collectible cars are showing resilience. Plus, you can’t drive a stock around the neighborhood.

“Cars are performing a heck of a lot better than AIG stock,” says Dave Kinney, publisher of price guide Hagerty’s Cars That Matter.

He says some models that recently had the biggest price increases are now seeing some of the largest declines - 7 percent to 15 percent in the last three months alone.

Some Ferraris, for instance, have taken a hit. A 1967 or 1968 Ferrari Dino 206 GT, for instance, that would have sold for $205,000 three months ago, is now valued at $195,000, according to latest update in Kinney’s guide.

But not all. A BMW 507 roadster from the late 1950s, of which only 253 were made, continues to increase in value. Prices are as high as $845,000.

The evolving market creates an opening for first-time collectors who can still afford to buy.

“When there is blood in the streets, that’s opportunity,” Kinney says.

Declining prices lately stand in contrast to a run-up in the past decade.

Auction house Gooding & Company sold a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy earlier this year for $1.3 million. The same car couldn’t garner a minimum bid of $225,000 when it went on the block in 2001. Competition from museum curators and international buyers is driving up costs.

Prices can swing widely on individual cars. Already, a generation that fell in love with 1960s muscle cars has seen prices of many of them dip in the past few years.

Collecting “is not just a rich man’s sport,” says McKeel Hagerty, who runs a financing and insurance business centered around collectible cars and who recently bought the price guide. “You can buy an awful lot of car for not a lot of money.”

A budding collector can start with a 1965 Ford Mustang for as little as $15,000 and “have a blast,” Hagerty says.

A new generation of collectors is expected to eventually run up the prices of the cars of their youth - sporty gems such as Datsun 240Zs or even Honda CRXs, says Kinney, who is also an appraiser .

Auctions, of course, aren’t the only way to acquire a collectable car. In fact, buying through a private party gives a buyer more time to inspect the vehicle and weigh the purchase, notes Tom duPont, publisher of the duPont Registry, which lists collectable cars for sale.

For sheer excitement, though, the auction is hard to beat, especially at the high end. Several major rare car auctions are held in this coastal resort town, centered around the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, every summer. Now, all eyes will be upon Barrett-Jackson Auction, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., in January, to see whether collector car prices are stabilizing. Last year, winning bids topped $88 million.

To minimize risk, experts suggest new collectors:
- Study auctions. “The best way to find out about car auctions is to go to one, leave your checkbook at home and listen to what people have to say,” Kinney says.

- Do the homework. Even if you manage to buy what you love, you need to know exactly what it is you’re buying. Using the Internet, “it’s easy to do research on cars that was impossible 10 or 15 years ago,” Kinney says.

Inspect the car thoroughly. Look for any anomalies or parts that aren’t authentic for the year and model of the car. “Anything that doesn’t match your research should take the price down,” duPont says.

Most auction houses employ experts in particular types or eras of cars who tend to be surprisingly candid about what their own inspections showed about a car.

- Buy what you love. Collectors who acquire cars that have special or emotional value to themselves aren’t going to worry as much about price fluctuations. The pleasure of owning the car will mean more than price.

- Avoid junkers. Trying to restore a jalopy back to showroom condition could be a major money-losing proposition. New collectors often underestimate how much it will cost to turn an ugly duckling into a swan.

Finding a good-looking car, Hagerty says, can be worth more than finding one in perfect mechanical condition. Fixing a blown engine, for example, can be cheaper than paying for a mirror-finish paint job worthy of a collector car, he says.

A restoration costs “serious dough,” especially for tasks such as rechroming bumpers or having parts remade from scratch, duPont says.

The payoff for diligence, though, is a car that will turn heads wherever you drive.

“The real benefit is the enjoyment,” says duPont, whose personal collection of about 20 cars includes a 1929 duPont Model G speedster. “Buy what you want to own.”

By Benjamin Bell | Thursday, December 4, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage

A two-alarm fire in a Weymouth garage destroyed three rare classic cars yesterday, including a 1929 Buick Roadmaster reportedly used in the Robert Redford movie “The Great Gatsby.”

“It is a shame that the vehicles were destroyed. I feel bad for the owner,” said Deputy Chief Jonathan Tose of the Weymouth Fire Department. “From what I understand these vehicles were his life.”

Firefighters responded to the blaze after an apparent explosion in the Buick, which is owned by retired machinist Ray Bean, 89.

The fire also destroyed a 1964-1/2 Ford Mustang and a 1915 Dodge Phaeton, one of only three to remain in the United States.

Fire officials said Bean was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Photo by Mike Adaskaveg

This is a great article that I first read about in my monthly issue of BodyShop Business Magazine. It’s real unfortunate that something like this could happen while driving and enjoying your classic car. Luckily no one was injured and the car will be repaired back to life.

This article is courtesy of BodyShop Business
by Hannah Schiffman

Dad got in a car accident. When my husband told me, we were parked outside a Holiday Inn near Lansing, Mich., after spending a drizzly September day driving 100 miles from Dearborn in my family’s 1909 Brush – a true “horseless carriage” made in Detroit for less than a decade that has a one-cylinder, 10-hp engine, wooden frame, wooden axles and wooden wheels.

I pulled the cushion off the Brush’s backseat and dug for my cell phone among our rain gear and tools. I called Dad, hands shaking.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, the car’s ruined,” he said.

What a relief. This was the first sign that Dad was just fine, or would be after a few beers. The car, on the other hand, was definitely not.

Dad had been driving our 1908 Model S Ford. A bright-red roadster and backward big brother of the Model T, the driver sits on the right side. It has three pedals, two of which are brakes and none of which are a clutch. And the spark and throttle levers on the steering wheel are opposite of every other antique car we own. By all accounts, it’s a deathtrap, but it wasn’t even the at-fault party in this accident. That honor went to a teenager who dropped his cell phone on the floor of his car and drove left of center while trying to retrieve it.

His car slammed into the Ford’s front left wheel, shattering the wooden spokes and tipping the car up on two wheels. When the modern car hit the Ford’s back wheel, it sent it into a sidespin and on its hubs into an unsuspecting homeowner’s front yard. All the while, Dad held onto the steering wheel to avoid flying out.

“I rode that thing to the very end,” he told an onslaught of concerned old-car drivers who had also made the trip from Lansing to Dearborn in an oddball parade of vintage Oldsmobiles, Cadillacs, Maxwells and countless other makes. They stood in awe in the Holiday Inn parking lot, the Ford strapped lifeless to an open trailer.

The 1908 Model S Ford

Both of the Ford’s front wheels were shattered. Three brass hubcaps were reduced to what looked like crushed gold cans. The fenders were rippled and dented. The red paint was cracked. The engine…God only knew.

What’s left of one of the Ford’s wooden wheels.

But Dad’s going to rebuild this car that has no seat belts, no roof and no doors. One that gets you wet in the rain. One that slows traffic given that it only has a top speed of 35 milers per hour. One that sometimes has to be shoved into reverse to come to a complete stop. One that growls in low. One that spews oil. In spite of all that, Dad’s going to get it back on the road.

Why? It’s the friends Dad has made throughout his years in the hobby, the ones who helped load our crippled Ford onto a trailer after the accident and promised to help fabricate or find replacements parts for it. They also patted his shoulders and came up with a million reasons why the accident wasn’t so bad (hey, he lived, right?).

But there’s one person in particular who Dad will think of when working to get the Ford back in tip-top shape – Grandpa Schaefer.

In 1947, Grandpa bought the Ford from a Berea, Ohio, dealership that displayed it during WWII when no new models were available. It sat in various states of disassembly for the next 40 years in the family garage, as Grandpa bought more cars (like the Brush), married my grandma and started a family, a plumbing business and a career as a small-town politician. Not surprisingly, the Ford in all its backward, hard-to-drive glory sat in the garage through it all. Until Dad stepped in.

Twenty years ago, after late nights and long weekends of tinkering, Dad built the Ford into a running chassis with milk crates where the seats should have been. It was no small miracle, considering how much time had passed since the car last ran. He picked up Grandpa and took him for a quick ride around the country roads in Valley City, Ohio, where generations of my family have grown up.

“He said it was the ride of a lifetime,” Dad is fond of saying, getting misty-eyed in the process. Soon after the ride, Grandpa died of a heart attack.

I think it’s Grandpa’s memory – the joy he took in riding in the Ford that one time, his shock when Dad drove our Brush on its first 100-mile run from Lansing to Dearborn in 1987, the goodwill Grandpa earned in Valley City by driving the family cars in parades and shows – that’s going to fuel the Ford’s restoration.

Hopefully, Dad will have his own ride of a lifetime when the car’s back on the road. I’m sure Grandpa will be proud.

Let’s try something out. I would like to post some articles and pictures of some of your restoration projects. So if you have a classic, antique, collectible car or truck let’s show it off. It doesn’t matter if it’s a project car in a thousand pieces or if it’s finished and winning awards! Maybe you have an old car that used to be your grandparents or maybe you have a rare barn find that you have restored. Let’s see it. Just write me a few paragrahs about the car or truck, send me up to five photos and I will post some or all of the pictures and the article on the site. Send them to this address: readersrides@autorestoration101.com
Of course, since it is my site, I have the right to edit, accept or deny any submission!