Most expensive mistake you have made when restoring a car?

Time is money. A project that drags along for year after year ends up costing more just in 'friction' - you have to move it around, it eats space you can't use for other things. And long-running projects invite repeated changes of plan. Sometimes necessary, often expensive.

Know who you're going to sub work out to. When I did our house (pretty much tear-out-to-three-walls-and-rebuild) the difference between finishing it in a year and the two years it took was a few key subcontractors that I hadn't identified up front for work I couldn't do myself. The two weeks here and two weeks there adds up. Same is true for cars. If you can't do it yourself, find someone competent who can BEFORE you need them and make sure their billing rate and work habits meet your needs. CHECK REFERENCES!!!

Tools are good karma, and if something is proving to be more than reasonably costly and painful try to find a better way. It took far less time (and not a whole lot of money) to research, design, and make a rotisserie than I spent avoiding doing so on the previous project (the one that taught me I'll never, ever, clean the bottom of a car laying on my back again.)

 

Btt

 

buying it in the first place

 

welding floorboards without protecting the factory tinted windows on my 64k 62 Impala. Windows & welders don't mix!!!!!!!!1

 

Giving a body shop too much money up front, then not seeing at progress and still giving them more money to "help get it done"..... Then waiting 9 more months till the paint shop went broke.......

 

Starting.

 

I was thinking having having kids .

 

Buying another project car to build

 

Starting with a '53 Lincoln convertible. Cool car, ran ok. It was about 40% iron oxide underneath. I wanted it just a little too much. I don't buy rusty cars now! It also pays to know how easy it it is to find parts for any project, and at what cost they can be obtained.

 

Steam clean, spray foam, any type of cleaning before you attack the grime makes it go lots smoother. Also, don't assume every part that comes off the car is the correct part. Sometimes a bigger idiot than you worked on that car 50 years ago.

 

Gave a junkie a deposit for interior work, lucky I didn't bust his jaw

 

Using after market front fenders and fenderwells, didn't fit well after spending lots of time getting them lined and bolted installed, the hood it does not fit correctly any more due to fenderwell bolt locations being incorrect. I will now sandblast and weld repair the old ones and replace them. 64 chev c-10 shortbed.

 

Isn't half the fun the build itself? So the worse the car, the more fun you get to have.

That said, I got very very lucky with a '50 Chevy that needs all the body mounts replaced, I found a donor car I could cut up that even was already unbolted from the frame. The same pieces I paid about $200 for, reproductions would cost around $1000. And I got to cut them out myself, so I have a better idea what to do when I cut mine apart.

If you do it right, you can make it pay to have the car, though, I'm still at least $700 ahead by wheeling and dealing from buying the car itself, to the various donor cars I've used, even counting the stuff I had to buy outright. For instance, that same $200 I spent on mounts, I sold the nice original deluxe steering wheel for. I have a different column I bought cheap before I even had the car I'll put in it.

 

Buying shit that dont fit but itwas a good deal at the time.
Bought 4 wheels and tires for my coe for 50.00 a piece just to find out they dont fit my axles.

 

went number two without checking for t-p first.......is this the "most akward walk" thread? never mind.

 

HAHA, that reminds me of a hilarious story a frind of mine tells every year at the January Turlock swap meet. One day he was headed to the local junkyard and stopped off to grab some lunch on the way. After consuming what would soon become known as the worlds most dangerous burrito he was suddenly overcome with the urge to take a big and beefy. However, there were two small problems..................one, he was in the middle of a LARGE junkyard and two, he had nothing to wipe with. Both problems were quickly solved with the rear cargo area of a mid '80's Dodge Caravan and a roadmap of Oregon.

 

Not spending the money to do it right the first time don't try and save a buck because in the long run it's going to cost you ten times the amount.

 

Trusted someone when he said, "only 2 little rust spots the size of a quarter!

NEVER jump the gun, NO matter how pretty she may look!!!