New Project

[47steve]

Hi All,

I am on the verge of picking up a project (Firenza) and was wondering what the sequence of events are when planning a full restoration?

I have restored a couple of motorcycles in the past and want to bring the vehicle up to a good standard. Is there a list of events that someone has carried out the will give me a direction or is it a case of chugging along bit by bit?

TA Steve

[Johnboy HB]

Depends on your skills, workspace, timeframe, budget to name a few, if you're a skilled restorer, you could strip the car completely to bare shell, have it blasted or dipped, repair what's left then go from there, obviously, that's probably the most expensive route, & most time consuming, bare in mind that life will get in the way & will take far longer to do than you think, personally, I don't do it that way, I pick a place to start, repair that area then move round the car repairing as I go, I have two Restoration's on here, 1 finished, 1 ongoing, & you can see the time taken to do them, neither of them are show stoppers, but are done to a good standard, which is what I aimed for,

[47steve]

Thanks for the reply. Need to take a closer look and see how bad the vehicle is in. Possibly go down the full restoration route as i want it to be of a good standard.

Are there guy's on here that do refurbs of various items?

TA S

[Johnboy HB]

Your biggest obstacle is panel availability, the only panels readily available to my knowledge are rear wheel arches, wings & sills come up on eBay now & again, everything else will have to be fabricated, droopsnoot on here has made some parts & he may be able to help you, as you say, probably best to assess the whole car first

[Fred Dukes]

Good advice from John - as he says life tends to get in the way and distractions are plentiful - try and avoid the temptation to buy more classics My plan was to restore Flo the Firenza and have another usable classic to do the shows at the weekends - that was 20years ago - since then there has been a steady stream of vehicles and Flo is just getting to the stage of putting the engine and subframe in

[cooperman]

Hi Steve, I am doing a project now and my process is to have a good look around the car to see what needs doing and break that into sections, body, engine, steering and suspension and interior. Then from that I can make a parts required list.
I started by stripping everything off the body and then started with body repairs as I can do the welding myself, then suspension and brakes. When the body is back on the axles it will go for painting. While the body is away I can get the engine rebuilt and door cards made.
After that it should be a case of reassembly and electrics.
As John says, it does all depend on budgets and timescales, and your end goal... a daily or a show car? And he's dead right, everything will take twice as long as you think.
Good luck and enjoy it!
Marcus

[BobbyMel]

I've been building my Project for 2 years now, still not finished, done most of the work myself, except the paint job, left that to my mate, the professional painter.
If you're local too me, you're welcome to visit.

Bob

[rizzo]

I think you have done amazing work in that time Bob, ive just looked at the date of my thread and cant believe its been near enough 7 years since i started mine, still there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[BobbyMel]

Bill, I want to use mine before I'm too old, if I took 7 years, I probably wouldn't get use it, ha

Got a little obstacle to get over at the moment, I'm pretty sure I'll sort it though!

Bob