RESTORING MEMORIES
Going through high school in the early sixties, when gas was 17cents a gallon, almost every young man’s dream was to own the fastest, prettiest car or truck in school. As a result, the hobby of car restoration once reserved for the rich and famous has spilled over into the masses of the baby boomers. Back when only the elite took part in the restoration of fine cars, they hired professionals to do the actual work and had only antique and often very rare foreign cars restored. Since the baby boomers entered the scene, they restore their own cars, normally classic (50s to mid 60s) or muscle cars (late 60’s to mid 70s). Car restoration must be done in a specific order to avoid unnecessary expense and time consumption. The chosen vehicle must be completely dismantled and then reassembled, with all parts being either restored or replaced with a new or refurbished unit. The major processes are body and paint, interior detail, and mechanical work. The project normally starts at home in an oversized garage or in the back yard. The tedious, knuckle busting job of dismantling and marking parts takes several weeks and the body is normally taken to a reputable body shop where the art of steel welding and reworking is practiced with no body putty allowed. The body parts are repainted with several coats of high gloss lacquer paint. While the body parts are being attended to the car’s frame, wheels, and select metal trim are taken to a specialty shop where a process called powder coating is applied. Powder coating can best be described as an electro chemical process of baking the color into the metal. Parts that have been powder coated never need painting again. All chrome parts from the vehicle are taken to a chrome refinishing plant and anything from a standard re-chrome to a triple re-chrome show finish can be ordered. The interior work involves rebuilding the seats with new materials, the headliner and door panels are recovered, the carpeting and padding are replaced, often with a soundproofing added to eliminate road noises. This is also a good time to add convenience items such as air-conditioning, power seats, power windows and a modern sound system, all which may not have come with the vehicle originally, but make it more fun to drive. Many of these convenience items can be added without any damage to the original dashboard and its original options. Some items can be completely hidden out of sight to maintain the look of originality while enjoying the modern features added. Often the most pricey and time consuming task is the mechanical restoration process. The engine, drive train, brake and steering and wiring systems must be rebuilt. Every rubber part (body mounts, window molding, window channels, door, hood and trunk seals) on the vehicle needs to be replaced for a proper job. Often glass has become pitted, scratched, or bubbles up between the layers and needs to be replaced with new glass. During the mechanical restoration process, care must be taken to reassemble the vehicle in a specific order to avoid the headaches and extra expense of having to disassemble the car to do something the person doing the restoration may have forgotten. The finished product of the restoration effort is an antique, classic, or muscle car in better than showroom condition. This is when pride kicks in and the person restoring the vehicle begins searching for the next local car show to give them a chance to show off their prized possession. All doubts of how wise the investment was have now been removed. Although it is growing more difficult to find the right parts for car restoration, it is a worthwhile project, because number one, they don’t make them like they used to, number two, aren’t making any more of them, and number three, we need to keep the memory alive of when gasoline was 17 cents a gallon.