Restoration
Restoration, Restomod or Resto-Rod: Choosing Your Direction
Before you spend a dollar, decide what you are building. These three paths cost different money, take different time, and end in completely different vehicles.
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Guides in This Section
11 articlesRestoration
How to Inspect a Project Car Before You Hand Over Money
A cheap project car with bad structure is the most expensive vehicle you can buy. Here is exactly where to look, and what should make you walk away.
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Restoration
Budgeting a Full Restoration: Where the Money Actually Goes
Most unfinished projects did not run out of enthusiasm. They ran out of money in the paint booth, because nobody told them where the budget really goes.
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Restoration
Teardown and Documentation: The Boring Work That Saves the Build
The difference between a project that finishes and one that sits for a decade is almost always what happened during teardown.
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Restoration
Bodywork From Bare Metal: Panel Gaps, Filler and Block Sanding
A mirror-straight panel is not a paint achievement. It is hundreds of hours of metal work and block sanding that happen long before any colour goes on.
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Restoration
Paint, Properly: Prep, Primer, Sealer, Base and Clear
Paint is the last ten percent of the work and the first thing everyone judges. Here is the full stack, in order, and what each layer is actually for.
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Restoration
Frame and Chassis Work: Rot, Alignment, Boxing and Bracing
Everything else on the vehicle is located by the structure. Get the frame wrong and no amount of bodywork, alignment or suspension money will fix how it drives.
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Restoration
Interior Restoration: Seats, Headliners, Carpet and Trim
The interior is where you actually spend your time with the car, and it is the first place a rushed build shows. Here is how each piece gets done properly.
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Restoration
Rewiring a Classic: Putting a Modern Harness in an Old Car
Sixty-year-old wiring is the most common cause of a finished build that will not start, or worse, burns. Here is how to replace it properly.
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Restoration
LS, Coyote or Numbers-Matching: Choosing a Restomod Drivetrain
The drivetrain decision shapes your mounts, trans tunnel, wiring, fuel system, cooling and value. Make it first, on paper, before anything gets cut.
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Restoration
Finishing a Build: Shakedown, Tuning and the First 1,000 Miles
The build is not finished when it starts. It is finished a thousand miles later, after everything that was going to loosen, leak or disagree has done so.
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