The Right Car to Restore – One With All the Right Things Wrong

Story and photos by Jeff Shade

Finding the right car to restore is sort of like dating with the intention of finding a spouse. You must realize that no candidate will be perfect. So you search for one with the fewest things that need fixing and hope for the best. With a vintage vehicle, you’ll be taking on a large possession that will need insurance, maintenance, storage, and probably some repairs you hadn’t planned on. It’s a purchase that should be made wisely. An important factor in deciding what type of car or truck to acquire is the amount of work you want to do, or are capable of doing. Do you want a running and driving car that requires little work and can be enjoyed more quickly with a minimum of cash laid out for repairs or restoration? Or, do you want to get into a longer-term project that needs a full refurbishing in order to drive, show, and enjoy? In the case of a restoration candidate, you should look for faults that can be reasonably fixed without breaking your bank or that require more time and skills than you have. In other words, look for a project with the “right things wrong”. Before we get into what things to look for, and what to lookout for, please understand that restoring a car or truck requires that you have the following; time, money, the right tools, the proper work space, organizational ability, basic mechanical aptitude, and lots of patience. Not necessarily in that order. “Restoration” is one of those words that more often that not, gets misused. Restoration is purely and simply – returning something to its original state. You wouldn’t take a Victorian era writing desk, paint it with red house enamel, and replace its pull handles with modern chrome jobbies. That sort of treatment would ruin the antique, and all but make it worthless. Yet some hobbyists do the equivalent with a vintage vehicle and call it restored. Such a job would be “restification” at best, which means that the car was fixed up and radically changed from the way it came from the factory. There’s nothing wrong with “restification” or doing a “resto-mod”, as long as it’s not misrepresented as a restoration. Truly restoring a vehicle means disassembling every nut and bolt, replacing or repairing every single component, then reassembling everything the way it came from the factory. It is preservation, or returning the vehicle to its original, as-manufactured state. That means the original color and type of paint, upholstery material, belts, hoses, filters, decals, markings, etc. For the average hobbyist, such an undertaking is just not possible, so we compromise to suit our needs and budget. I’ve seen advertised as “restored”, cars that contain gobs of plastic body filler in lieu of properly repaired sheet metal, and a cheap paint job slapped on top of scratches, rust, and dings. That’s a car that must be ”un-restored” before it can be properly restored, and can be twice the work. I admit, I’m a purist.

This Facel Vega is a neat car, but you’ll look far and wide trying to find those taillight lenses and other missing trim parts.

West Coast cars such as this ’62 Falcon Squire wagon usually have very solid sheet metal. This lower quarter is perfect as are the rocker panels and floors.

Almost everything you would need is reproduced for mass produced cars like this ’57 Chevy wagon.