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Testimony of a Muscle Car Fan

I purchased my rust free collector car as is, thirty years old, with an engine that would not turn over and seized wheel bearings for $500.00. The 1947 Chevrolet StyleMaster had been stored in a garage for fifteen years gathering dust.  I had the car towed home, removed the rocker covers and straightened a bent push rod in my vice. The car fired up immediately after reassembly, but I did take the head into my favorite shop where it was rebuilt. .I replaced all four wheel cylinders on the hydraulic brakes, as another rebuilder turned the drums and arced new brake shoes to fit. I also replaced the wheel bearings and performed a complete lubrication job while waiting for the head.  One new battery, a new fan belt, points/plugs and all fluids were changed by the time I took my first test drive. I then drove the car for twenty more years, while I planned the cars full restoration. Regular maintenance helped to insure more than fifty years would pass (from new) before the engine would have to be rebuilt from top to bottom. The suspension, upholstery and paint would be refurbished the following year. I am not saying you should wait that long, but planning for the future will help eliminate or minimize the problems that will invariably appear.

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ID 47562185 © Jan Łętowski | Dreamstime.com

 I stumbled across a perfect parts car for my ‘47 Chevy at a give-away price after more than fifteen years of keeping my eyes open in the right places. The car did cost $150.00 plus another $100.00 to haul it across town. I stripped the car completely over the next few months including the whole suspension system, the drive chain, seats, upholstery, four fenders, a hood and the trunk lid.  The parts car I purchased was complete and a deluxe model as well, so I also retrieved the clock, a radio, chromed grill and trim strips for a more uptown looking finish. I then thanked the scrap metal dealer as he paid me to take the unneeded .hulk of the parts car out of my life. The treasure trove of parts I had collected  were stored in a floor to ceiling, full length wall of shelves on one side of my fourteen foot wide single car garage. My project was in the center and my work bench with the access door occupying the opposite wall of my workshop/garage. It was a bit cramped to work when weather didn’t permit me to roll the car outside.  A double garage would have done the trick nicely for parts and storage of a project vehicle, with ample room to work, but you can make do with much less in a pinch.

  • Have a good idea what needs work and what you can leave alone before you start. A “ballpark” list to itemize all repairs and what they will cost before beginning-you can add items as you go.
  • Service records are important on many different levels; they are a necessity for any collector car and will enhance the value. Keep records as complete as possible with receipts for parts replaced, price, date, and vehicle mileage all included in the log.
  • Do only the work you can do well-find the right person to restore using their specific talents when needed.
  • Have a shop manual or access to one before you start a complete restoration. Some models may have both this manual and the body book free on the internet
  • The body manual is another necessity for body work and replacing door/window components, convertible tops, or body panels. Some models will have many other books and guides to cover all systems, how they work and how to service them. Much of this work will be close to impossible for a novice without the schematic diagrams to aid with logical conclusions.
  • A comprehensive aftermarket manual may be an acceptable substitute in most cases but not always
  • The above two or three manuals may not have all the schematic diagrams required. The local public library could have all the info you need and will allow you to copy the page.
  • Underestimating the cost of some replacement parts. The usual things that will fit a large number of models are mass produced. Engine, drive chain and other performance related accessories can often be found at a fair market price, but unique, model specific parts, such as original-like grill assemblies may cost many times a newer counterpart, if they are available at all. One of your least costly options will be to find an original replacement though the network of wrecking yards on the internet. Inovation
  • Even a well done paint job will deteriorate quickly if the body has not been prepped properly Every part of the body’s surface must cleaned thoroughly with a commercial metal prep or make your own mix (vinegar/water @ 1:4) then rinsed with baking soda/water.
  • Freshly cleaned metal surfaces to be painted must have primer applied shortly after prep is completed to stop oxidization. Automobiles are traditionally made up of “Ferrous metal” (containing iron) and will oxidize very quickly in a moist climate, and a little slower in a dry climate.
  • Poor deteriorated wiring and fuse box with aluminum foil (or?) used to by-pass the fuse and is a good scenario for a fire
  • Fuse box overloaded and may be too small for modern electrical devices we seem to need these days. – overloading fuses is counter-productive and should be avoided.

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ID 43518800 © Garlezki | Dreamstime.com

At the end of the day you will take everything off the car if your goal is a factory or better looking restoration. You can start from the inside and work outwards to keep parts from picking up the grease off your hands. It will also be a simpler chore to check and access the mechanical workings if the interior body is stripped down first. The seats, all vinyl kick panels, door step sills, door panels, floor coverings and jute underlay, plus the headliner-taking care to do as little damage to important cloth pieces as possible in the process. Refer to the body manual to remove the headliner or you could take off the moldings on the “B” pillar and all the liner edges that meet the windows and doors through-out. The part numbers and part location are often marked on the back of old interior moldings, but the plastic ones are the easiest to read.

The mild steel window channel, composite/rubber window seals and chromed or stainless steel trim strips should be kept intact for templates and marked where they came from to help ease installing replacement pieces I would cover and carefully store any accessories or upholstery items that will be reinstalled as is. The most popular restorations like Mustang, Camaro and some Chrysler favorites will have all the specific window and door components needed, but many others will be much more difficult to find and you may have to use a generic version rather than a model specific one.

Masking tape, baggies and a permanent black felt pen can be used for marking parts, and then placed them on their designated shelf for future inspection. The doors will need replacement hinge pins/bushings if they are loose, wobbling and/or not closing properly, but for now, remove the door coverings, then window glass, to access the window/door mechanisms including the glass and the channel holding it. This is easy and quick to do, but referring to the appropriate manufactures manual, even for a pro, can often speed it up.

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 © Martindeja | Dreamstime.com – Upholstery Photo

There are sometimes hard to find original manufactured upholstery kits and, more commonly, aftermarket complete interiors for some models from the big three American manufacturers. For the highest volume models, you may find a number of choices and quality of materials readily available from the large number of antique and classic specialty dealers, coast to coast, but these can be very expensive.  Old interior coverings may be used as patterns by an upholsterer to tailor new ones, which may be a lower cost option and keep money in your community. The upholstery shop might be the best place to take them while you are organizing other things. Upholstering can be done using similar to original material and supplied through any number of manufacturers. Your chosen upholstery shop will have catalogs with swatches of material to help you make the best choice.

The biggest problem for me began after I had my stripped the‘47 and had it towed from my home to get it bead blasted taking the car down to bare metal. The process was finished in two or three days; the vehicle was then loaded on a flat deck and transported to the body shop. The bead blasting had destroyed my old wiring harness for certain, which, in retrospect, was a good thing, but I had to put the work on hold while I found a new one. I located a replacement harness that could be shipped from California to my home in Canada by air in 24 hours for an exorbitant amount or up to ten days by ground transportation at a much more reasonable cost. The wiring harness was inexpensive compared to others I had sourced, but I had found one, and that was all that mattered, I thought. All the clips and wire attachments were included with the harness, but shipped in a plastic bag inside the box. They would have to be attached to the generic budget priced G.M. wiring harness I had purchased. This budget priced harness was far more expensive than the finished version would have been after I paid the electrician the extra hours needed for the installation of the clips on the wire ends on the harness.

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