Poll: Anybody "Restoring A Car"

[Dave Mc]

Bought my 29 special coupe in pieces in 1975,decided to build it as a Oval window Business Coupe.meticulously restored the car which was completed in 86,used it as my daily driver until 2005 when I closed my shop and moved back to Nevada,now the paint is showing it's age and the Leatherette Top shows sunlight if you look up,still starts right up and drives nice,but sits in the garage most of the time as I now have three other cars to keep up with.

[John Kennedy]

Make it nice, yes. Total concours restoration - NO!
I've never really "restored" a car, but can imagine that no matter what you do to it, it'll never be "good enough" and you'll never drive it.

I'm a mechanic, not an artist. I build stuff that's fun to drive.

[John Kennedy]

Tim gets it. Nice write-up!

[fredshere]

I have restored many 67-72 trucks (not ford) but I bought a 32 5 window coupe And am restoring it. I bought it A year ago last march, it's as fun for me to try to find parts and asemble them as it is to drive them .It's been a chalange Because ford changed so much in the middle of The production year

[Dave Mc]

I have 4 finished Fords a 29,31,33 & 48 and 2 unfinished both 33's but right now I am
Restoring a 53 Cad almost finished ,needs upholstery and Stainless trim,then bugs worked out

[charles in east texas]

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I have a 36 5W that I need to be restoring, but can't seem to muster up the energy.
Charles

[68HILLBILLY]

I mostly buy parts I need to maintain my cars, but I do have a couple that are in the parts accumulation stage and will be getting what I call nice driver restos. I never wanted to win a show , but I do get a lot of enjoyment driving my old cars . having said this , I have great respect for anyone who actually restores every piece on a car.

[Shu47]

No restore for my truck. I have it driveable and am now working on electrical cleanup then it will be a rebuild of the wood flatbed (hopefully with old wood) and then I plan to dive and maintain it.

[41 Fords ohio]

I've owned several older fords since 1966. The oldest was 35 coupe and the newest was a 55 pickup. I've driven everyone of them. The first car I ever owned was a 41 coupe,which I stll drive today. I recently bought a 41 2door sedan,and I plan on driving it too. I've seen too many of these older cars that have been torn down and never rebuilt,scrapped for the metal. I think if you have one, drive it. That's what they're for.If you did a a restoration my hats' off to you. I could never afford it. I just love to drive em

[cmbrucew]

Originally Posted by 41 Fords ohio

I've owned several older fords since 1966. The oldest was 35 coupe and the newest was a 55 pickup. I've driven everyone of them. The first car I ever owned was a 41 coupe,which I stll drive today. I recently bought a 41 2door sedan,and I plan on driving it too. I've seen too many of these older cars that have been torn down and never rebuilt,scrapped for the metal. I think if you have one, drive it. That's what they're for.If you did a a restoration my hats' off to you. I could never afford it. I just love to drive em

41 ohio
Welcome to the barn.
Nice car
I bought a 41 Deluxe business coupe two weeks ago.
Do you have some pictures of your coupe?
Bruce

[Junknshit]

First, I have to say that I think Tim in reply #56 has said it best. What a great outlook.

Second, I want everyone to remember that these are my opinions, and my opinions only. Lets look at a dictionary.
Restore: To bring back to original condition.
Hot-Rod: A vehicle rebuilt or modified for increased speed and power.
The rules for judges are made up by someone, and with all of the changes and carryovers that Ford did, there is no-one that knows all of them. If I had bought say a 1929 Model A 2dr sedan brand new and put it in climate controlled storage until today, took it to a restorers top of the line event, I'd be willing to bet that at least one thing would be found wrong (not original) with it. Now, I don't like the lack of power, so I change the head, or cam, or carb, or exhaust, or combination of some of these, do I still have an original car? Not in my opinion, I now have a Hot-Rod. If you completely restore your A, as best as can be done and later change to 15" wheels with big and littles on it, what do you have? It's not original, and it's not a Hot-Rod. (I know, some nit-picker is going to say they did it for a gearing change so it is a Hot-Rod)
Awards, trophies etc: Best this, best that. For an example lets take "Best Paint" Is the best paint job the smoothest, glossiest, deepest paint job there even tho it has a couple of rock chips in it, or is the best paint job one that is rock chip free even tho it doesn't look original either?
Best to me is not the same as it is in the eye of the judge (or judges argueing it out and settling on one.)
I could go on, but I won't. I'll just say that I love old cars, all of them, and I love meeting the people that own them. I can honestly say that I could care less about awards of any kind. I do like one type of reward, and that reward is being able to drive my car.
I would personally like to see real car runs come back and replace the "park it and shine it lawn chair shows". Reliability runs, tours, etc, remember them?

P.S. I have always been amazed when going to a fairgrounds "Rod Run". Go out behind the barns sometime and see if you can figure out 2 things.
1. How do the horses get air in those enclosed trailers?
2. How do they haul horses on those funny flat ones without the horses falling off?

[pauldeborr]

Originally Posted by Shu47

No restore for my truck. I have it driveable and am now working on electrical cleanup then it will be a rebuild of the wood flatbed (hopefully with old wood) and then I plan to dive and maintain it.

Awesome! This is the foundation for anybody. Just make em drivable and keep em on the road. People now days cant even change a flat tire.

Thanks for the inspiration

[41 Fords ohio]

Originally Posted by cmbrucew

41 ohio
Welcome to the barn.
Nice car
I bought a 41 Deluxe business coupe two weeks ago.
Do you have some pictures of your coupe?
Bruce

Thanks Bruce, I'm old school, computers are trouble for me. Half the time i'm amazed that I can even log on. The pic of my new car took me 20 mins. to post and I can't even tell you how I did that . So as soon as I can figure it out I'll post some pics of my coupe. Thanks Ed