[Terry M. Hunt]

Winding up with more cars than garage spaces, then deciding to add another garage. It took two years, two contractors, an attorney, county inspector, structural engineer, and endless battles with total PIA home owner association to get it done. On a square foot basis, I could have built a beach house in Hawaii for less.

[Rack776]

1994 - a 17 year old guy decides it is a good idea to repair the rust holes in the body with sheet aluminum (Humm..easier to bend than steel and wont rust)
and pop rivits, covered with bondo, and thouroughly weather proofed with cheap undercoat.


2011 - a 35 year old guy starts to "restore" the car he drove in highschool back in 1994 and finds the dumb 17 year old did not understand that
aluminum & steel corrode and the bondo & undercoat trap water and help speed up the process.

I'd rather have a time machine than a MIG welder right now.

[jmt455]

Such a long list to choose from....

The worst was when I painted the interior of my 57 Corvette. It was the first car I ever painted...ONLY car I've ever painted, as a matter of fact!

The exterior (black) was completely finished. I masked off the front cowl area, all around the passenger compartment and then sprayed the Venetian Red lower dash. Let everything dry, removed the masking and thought everything was A-OK.

Next time I pulled the car out into the sun, I saw about a million little Venetian Red specks on the deck lid, the quarters and the bottom halves of the doors. That red paint went EVERYWHERE! I had to color sand and polish the doors, quarters and deck lid. Only the hood and the front fenders didn't get damaged. Luckily, I had laid on a lot of lacquer so I didn't have to re-paint the black.

[firstyearta]

1. Spent weeks prepping my '67 Firebird for paint (it was a simple repaint). Decided the paint booth in my shop was not adequate and rented one at a local shop. Sprayed all the base coat, masked the stripes (painted as a '69 T/A), sprayed all the blue, sprayed one coat of clear. Just as I finished, I disconnected the air line from the gun and and found out their compressor was leaking oil into the air lines when it sprayed oil all over my fender and hood. Ended up starting over and repainting the entire car.

2. Many years ago I jacked up a car with two floor jacks, one center front center, one rear center. That was fine till I opened one door and sat in the drivers seat and the entire car fell to the left.

3. Paying someone upfront to weld quarters on a '67 Firebird. Ended up picking the car up months later when it was still not done and had to remove the one that was on do to the horrible job. The other hadn't been started.

4. Thinking I could weld in a small floor patch panel without removing the entire interior and almost caught the firewall pad on fire.

5. I think my biggest mistake has been starting on one project and then buying a new one and thinking, "Oh, this will be simple. Let me just whip this one out and I'll get back to the other one" It's no wonder I currently have 5 cars in various stages of restoration. The last car I bought I swore up and down I would not touch it till the other projects were out of the way... and I haven't.... but it's also been sitting there untouched for 8 years. Will I ever learn?

[stucky2947]

Putting the windshield in my restored '62 GP. Had my father in law over helping me. We got the windshield started in the bottom started to lay it back only to notice that it was about 2" too long. Guess it was for a 'vert. Took it out and laid it on the garage floor (on two comforters as to not scratch or break it). We were talking about calling the supplier for the correct one, I stepped back and...............stepped right on the edge of the windshield. I heard the sound and knew just what happened. Cracked the damn thing. So my replacement windshield ended up costing me twice. It is in and looks great.

[gto_ron]

1. Not checking the repairs made by previous owners!!!

2. Not using top quality paints and primer. You get what you pay for.

3. Not fitting the panels on when it's still in primer, fitting them after painting is a pain.

3. Forgetting that NO-One will be as conscientous as you are when it comes to restoration. If you can do it yourself, do it or learn how. It's not brain surgery, it take patience and a desire to have the best looking car around.

you make mistakes and learn from them.

regards

[Matt T]

Quick run down the road, 1-2 shift at full throttle 400 w/th400 spun 4 rod bearings (low <20psi oil pressure--I didn't know what it was supposed to have until after).

Rebuilding your own engine at 16 years old. After numerous calls to the machine shop during assembly to get info that was not in the Chiltons book, everything went great until we tried to start it. We eventually figured out that I had aligned the cam using the Rockwell stamp on the gear instead of the correct timing mark, about 30 degrees off. Did you know a V8 will run (poorly) with the cam this far off if you keep about 1/2 throttle and don't get any sparks near the air fuel popping back out of the carb?

Thank God these old motors aren't interference like most new ones. All it cost me was a new timing gasket set and time to take the radiator back out, pull the cover & gears and put it where it should have been.

The second mistake: buying a camaro in pieces while in college and taking it the rest of the way apart without pictures/notes, figuring I could look at the Firebird if I didn't remember how things went. (I haven't tested this yet; it's been apart for 21 years now.)

[zeebo]

Originally Posted by gto_ron

1. Not checking the repairs made by previous owners!!!

2. Not using top quality paints and primer. You get what you pay for.

3. Not fitting the panels on when it's still in primer, fitting them after painting is a pain.

3. Forgetting that NO-One will be as conscientous as you are when it comes to restoration. If you can do it yourself, do it or learn how. It's not brain surgery, it take patience and a desire to have the best looking car around.

you make mistakes and learn from them.

regards

amen to number 3 brother! from reading these posts 80% of the blunders mentioned involved shoddy bodywork/repair by a "good body man" notice a trend/red flag here? lol..if you know of a good body man, id love to get his name and contact info!

and my advice: buy the most rustfree and cleanest car you can afford; if you cant afford it, save the money until you can! changing engines is easier than changing body panels, and you never get all the rust anyway, it does a great job of coming back....