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Spinning My Tires
is one man's view of the world of cars. Random thoughts, ideas and comments pop up here,
all of them related to owning, driving and restoring cars. I've been doing this car thing
as long as I can remember, and have enjoyed a great many car-related experiences, some of
which I hope to share with you here. And I always have an opinion one way or another.
Enjoy.
E-mails are welcomed--if you
have thoughts of your own to share, please send them.
Additional Spinning My Tires
editorials can be found on the Archives page.
5/6/05
The
Professional Advantage
The professional
restorer is an amazing person. He is like that ancient wizard from the stories
we read as kids, somehow having an innate understanding of how the world works.
He has wisdom that seems to guide him through any adversity with confidence. He
never hesitates and always knows the solution to any problem. He has the answers
before the questions are asked. The professional always knows exactly what to do
and how to do it.
So how can you,
an amateur, ever hope to achieve the same results as a professional?
I’ll let you in on
a little secret: professionals have only one thing that you don’t—experience.
They may have restored dozens of cars and know exactly what problems to look for
and how to solve them. They may have intimate knowledge of a particular make or
model’s idiosyncrasies or familiarity with the manufacturing techniques of a
long-gone era. They know how to spray paint so it doesn’t run, but still lays
down flat and smooth. They know how a sheet of metal behaves when you bend it
and heat it. They know exactly how much heat to use when welding in a patch
panel. They know just how to reassemble an engine and get it right the first
time. They know how to hold a piece of stainless trim, and how hard to push, so
that it can be buffed to a flawless shine on a buffing wheel. They seem to just
know how to do all these things.
Wow,
you say, that’s a lot of stuff to know! I don’t have that kind of talent!
Yes, it certainly is a lot to know. But you’ll learn all that stuff, too, and
you probably won’t even realize that you’re learning. No, the only thing all
that knowledge and experience buys the professional restorer is time.
Let me say that again: the only
advantage a professional's experience gives him is the ability to do the job
faster.
In order to
succeed at restoring a collector vehicle, you must have time to invest and a
willingness to make mistakes. A professional restorer has already invested
considerable time in his craft and has already made all the mistakes that you’re
going to make as a beginner. Time and mistakes are excellent teachers, and they
are the only reason he’s an expert and you’re not. Keep at it long enough
and you, too, will become an expert.
Even if a certain
component takes a professional an hour to fabricate while it takes you a week,
nobody will see that in the finished product. In this way, you can always
substitute time and patience for experience. With a little hard work and some
patience, you can get professional-grade results all by yourself.
It may take a little longer, but this is your hobby—who's counting hours?
I have always felt
that restoring a car was a journey to be enjoyed as much as the destination. If
you are not the sort of person who enjoys the tinkering, the problem-solving and
the occasionally tedious and physically demanding labor involved in restoration,
then you really should find a finished car that you can drive and enjoy today.
There is no room in restoration for corner-cutting or haphazard work, and if you
don’t have the patience to do it correctly, you absolutely should not undertake
such a project.
To me, it has
always seemed counter-intuitive to undertake a large project, but to not do it
to the best of your ability. If it is worth your time, it is worth doing it
well. This is an old belief, and I feel that it is even more important to an
amateur restorer who, presumably, is doing all this work simply for the fun of
it. What fun is it to do something incorrectly if the whole point is doing the
work yourself? A wise man once said that a job well done is its own reward,
and I live by that motto when I'm out in the garage.
That brings me to
my personal philosophy of auto restoration: we are simply caretakers of these
cars. Someone owned them before us, someone will own them after us. The work you
do will become a permanent part of the car and its history. If you care at all about the car
(or about the hobby we all share),
you will want it to be as good as it can be.
Of course there
are hacks out there who perform substandard restoration work every day.
Sometimes they don’t know any better, but I won’t let them off the hook that
easily. More often than not, they’re simply lazy and don’t care. And if there’s
one thing I’ve learned about restoration work, it’s that the right way to do
something is usually obvious. Doing something incorrectly will simply “feel”
wrong to you if you aspire to excellence.
I’m not suggesting
that you have to restore your car worrying about what the next owners will think
of you. I am saying that doing it right is rarely more difficult than doing it
wrong and that doing things correctly will only enhance your vehicle’s
appearance and value down the road. It is also immensely satisfying.
And if
you’re in a hurry to get it done simply because you want it done, will you
really enjoy the final result knowing it’s not your best work? I know I
wouldn’t.
See you next month!
(And thanks to all of you dropping your change in the
tip cup and shopping at Eastwood ! It makes a difference.)
E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net
This page accessed  times
Last modified on
05/06/2005
Thanks, Fidget!
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