Most expensive mistake you have made when restoring a car?

I hired the wrong engine builder!

 

Never try to build when Daughter is in custody battle with boyfriend! I got a 1955 Chevy pick up with caberoit back glass for $100 plus pump shot gun. Went thru the hoops and got title. Had body off and shit ton of work done when daughters blood sucking shark skills attorney needed more money. I put my build on evilbay and sold it for $2300.00 and added more cash to help get my grandson back. Paid the Attorney and daughter and ex- boyfriend came to an agreement on their own after boyfriend lost job. Im sill a winner cause I see my grandson everyday!

 

Most expensive mistakes I've made have been farming out work to people who I didn't know personally. My own work will never be perfect but I can accept that. Friends that do work do the best they can because they are friends, so if it's not perfect I can accept that. But if it's just paying for something with someone I don't know, my expectations are too high, so the work is never good enough.

I think this approach "wastes" more time and money than just paying some professional to do everything and working more overtime to pay for it, but that kind of misses the point of why you build a car in the first place.

 

Awww man that sucks!

 

This what I have learned with my pile of crap......

 

My mistake? Starting with a fiberglass body to save money, it cost me twice the money!

 

Failing to LISTEN. I built my first rod when i was 18. 1936 Ford. My Father,( worked as a mechanic all his life) offered his advice early in the project. I'm 18 years old! What can this old man tell me that I don't already know? After all, I'm 18. I know everything. After I was finished, Dad rebuilt the brakes, fixed the pinion angle, and rewired the whole car.
But being 18, I still didn't listen. He did all that for me, plus built a super Y block for me. When anyone asked, It was ME who built this 36. I gave Dad no credit.
By the time I turned 30, I was amazed just how much the Old Man had smarten up.
By the time I turned 50, Dad was gone. I wish I could have that time back.

 

X2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Well the first mistake for all of us are buying the damn thing in the first place. It's all down hill from there.

 

Turned a 4dr wgn into a pseudo sedan delivery. Everybody wanted it, until I told them what it was originally. I should of chopped it slightly to fit a H.T windshield. Atleast I got all my money out of it, for what I had in it. Minus labor..

 

how to restore a million dollar car-start with three million

 

selling the car before you start because you needed the money when there is always another way. I have lost several cars and trucks this way.

 

That's easy! I opened up the garage and my toolbox... It was all downhill from there!

I always joke that my (OT) 1971 Road Runner has $10,000 main bearings in it, because I started out wishing to just rebuild the bottom end of the 440. Until a friend came by and suggested that I paint the engine compartment "while you have the engine out of the way". Another friend stops by a week or 2 later and notices that the paint on the hood and roof is a little dead and he thinks that I should paint the REST of the car while I'm at it. The guy that was going to paint the car tells me that it'd be a good idea to pull the interior out because the sanding and primer dust tends to get everywhere that you don't want it... And "while you have the interior out" to just go ahead and reupholster the seats and get a new carpet... and re-wire the dash, and put the optional tach-dash in it...

 

Mine was free, so I get to start at zero

 

Pooching the new radiator I got, thinking I wont damage it. Well I now have an expensive mock up radiator.

 

Pooching?

 

Shane...you just got the car, it runs and you are enjoying it.

I think that the biggest mistake that you can make is taking it apart to the point that you can't drive it in the few decent months that we have here in the summer.

Wheels, weekend projects - sure. Don't take it out of service, though.

You have very little invested in it...Use your money to buy another project and drive the wheels off this one until you get it running.

Many, many summers of nothing to drive has taught me this much.

 

Sweet!

Thanks for the advice....I see you are close by us. Any car shows near me I can take my son to this summer?

 

trying to restore it, instead of making it into a Hot Rod

 

You mean they didnt come rusty from the factory?

 

Being 16 and driving down an unfinished, being built interstate highway doing 80 at night on the white gravel and not seeing a 10 foot high white gravel pile in front of me until I did a dukes of hazard jump over it. Yahooooooo!

 

Wrong engine machinist... Hands down...
Once it bites you though it'll probably never happen again... If your wife lets you keep playing with old cars that is.

 

Bought a 50 Dodge hood for a 50 Plymouth. Was told it would fit, stupid me didn't fit it on the car cause it was totally apart. Had it stripped and then had it louvered, cost lots for everything..............then tried it on the car only to find it didn't fit.

 

Buying a project car in the first place. and Wife. Those are my two most expensive expenses when it comes to having a hotrod.

 

I hear you on that one. When I first built my '51 F-1, I had a mechanical fan which had about 5/8" clearance from the rad. Well on the first steep driveway I pulled into, the engine and core support flexed enough that the fan cut a nice big round hole in the back of the rad.

New Rad: $450
New Electric Fan: $125
Learning the hard way: Priceless.

 

I take 10 times the amount of photos I think I need, and then when life gets in the way and delays a project by 4 years, i still know the layout of everything. Label everything (I use paper in the bag, as the heat where I live fades the permanent marker on the outside of the ziplocks so they are unreadable.

and last but not least....Have a plan.....this saves more money than anything else. I do not allow myself to radically alter the plan midway and the projects seem to cost way less to do.

 

Pick a theme (traditional themes never really go out of style), make a plan (with a parts list and prices) on paper and then stick to it. Building a car more than once is expensive and usually unnecessary.

 

buy quality tools. learn to use them.

 

time & cost mistake - no matter what car you use, make your worst case estimate of what it will cost & worst case of how long it will take - multiply each of these by 3 and you will be very accurate on real time & cost of the project

 

Restoring a car.
A bad idea if it's an investement because it's unlikely you'll recoupe your money.

If it's a car you are going to use, buy one that don't need restored, it'll cost you less.

If, on the other hand you want to spend a lot of money because it's fun and the work is a challenge, and rewarding, go for it.