Most expensive mistake you have made when restoring a car?

A list of what not to do.......

I will be refering to this when I start on the Corvair this summer.

 

Getting married before finishing the car.

 

Paint it with BC/CC

 

Unknowingly hire a methhead and leave him unattended around your stuff.

 

what is BC/CC ?

 

Base Coat/ Clear Coat

 

Changing mind about build style.

 

Mark everything..use lots of clear plastic baggies...Take photos before disassembly...Impossible to remember everything or how it fit no matter how good you think you are...my 2c

 

let a key part out on my first engine rebuild,

oil pump driveshaft in an early Olds motor,
fired it up without an oil pressure gauge,
took twenty minutes to figure out why it was boiling over so bad..

all my money from working on a crab processor in Dutch Harbor gone...

ah, to be young and dumb again
(now I'm just old and dumb)

 

Biggest mistake in general? Doing things 2 or 3 times because of no clearly defined plan...

 

Trust an Alabama Mother f er when he said car is in great shape,no rust!

 

Believing a bodyman that states he can have it in and out of the shop in two weeks....

 

Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

 

wbrw32 is right. Bag 'n Tag, take photos (store then on your computer!) and keep a build book/diary so you can review what you did when you do your do-overs.
Tom

 

Remebering Loctite is your FRIEND!

 

Picking a Corvair as a project....Really !!

 

Don't paint the body panels until your close to putting them on, its alot harder to store painted parts and not scratch!

I'll echo what the others have already said, tag and bag everything and take as many digital photo's as possible.

 

This an ten rolls of 35mm film saved me
with digital there is no reason not to film dissassembly

 

Have a Plan, Lots of Money, and Paitence!!

 

been there, done that!!! its a total $$ waster...

 

It is my mom's car. It's a family thing.

 

Instead of doing it myself, bringing it to someone "in the business" and having to cart the unfinished mess home 2 years later.

 

Taking it ALL apart,,lol My first Cuda ,,stripped it everything,every nut bolt and screw,,,,figure bare bones dip it etc..little did i know it helps to take pictures notes etc..

"where the hell does this go ?"

 

yes, what he said...

 

If I had all the time and money invested in cars I ended up not liking, I'd have a couple of Kick-Ass Hot Rods by now.

 

My last one was NOT blowing the thing apart when I started. I wasted LOADS of time re-wrenching and un-re-wrenching to get at stuff I should have just taken down at the get go.

 

Taking your car to a shop that charges by the hour! You don"t mind paying 1 or 2 extra hours, but not 3 times you were told to do the job.

 

Nothing wrong with a Corvair.
There's Clark's( http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/main )and
Mel's ( http://www.vairmart.com/ ) for parts and resto info.
'Vair owners are notorious for being "cheap" (tight/stingy/frugal) so the price of parts generally reflects that,which is a good thing.

Make sure you take LOTS of photos with a digital camera.
Make sure the camera has a "macro" setting (and learn how to use it!)for close up pics.
VERY IMPORTANT!!! Back up ALL photos to a Disc/CD in case your computer crashes!

 

Have a set plan first like everyone else has. Do your research first buy all your parts and go from there. If you see cool new products in a mag that just came out that you want for your car just turn the page. I will have built my hot rod 3 times before its done.

 

Not starting with a better car. I should have spent more money up front on a better, less rusty body, then spent all the time and money later trying to fix the piece of shit I got for cheap.