Getting Started with Body Restoration

Any car restoration project is actually a series of smaller restoration projects, whether you're reconditioning a instrument panel, whether you're doing an engine rebuild, or upholstery, or doing a complete auto body, now, it's a series of projects that require different skills. And I'm with Terry Wright here, professional auto body technician, and he's got a lot of background, a lot of years doing paint and bodywork in the field. What are some of the things a guy should know before he starts restoring his first car? That's that's a really, really good question. I think you have to take a look inside, and see what you're able or want to take on.

And how deep do you wanna get into it? Because I think what a lot of us have known if we've had a classic car, we wanna fix one thing, and it ends up leading into another, and then all of a sudden you're on a frame off restoration, and you get so deep into it. I think I would make sure you know that's what you wanna do, and you wanna get involved, educate yourself as much as possible. Lot of good videos, especially on this site, I think, you could research. Get the help.

Ask questions. I always say, there's no stupid questions. Only stupid question is the one that's not asked. How about that? How about that?

Glean as much knowledge as you can from others around you. And just, you'll figure out if, you'll have an idea. You know, "That looks interesting. I think I can do that." Or, there's a lot of satisfaction out of painting your own car. Yeah, I agree.

And actually, nobody comes out of the womb knowing how to paint a car. And a lot of times, what I used to do, back in high school, I had good friends that were dirt-track car guys that would crash up their car every week, and every week they'd want somebody to come in and paint it, 'cause they didn't want, and I wanted to learn how to paint cars, but I learned more by making mistakes, and dripping runs in the car, and having contamination, and doing all kinds of things, but every time I made a mistake, I learnt just a little bit more. Now, that's a really good point, because you do really get discouraged if you do mess something up, and you feel like, "I can't do this." No, you actually have to make those mistakes to learn. That's how you learn. It gets stuck in your head.

"Hey, I remember what happened last time I did this." Learn and move forward. But you can do it. It can be done. And you know, you don't have to, the first time you paint anything, you don't have to paint your car. You could paint a fender.

And I've painted plenty of cars a fender at a time, where it's like I took it into the shop, and I got this fender all painted up and nice, and I could have that done and say, "Hey, this much is done, and now I can move on to the next thing." So, it can be done. It's just a matter of a willingness to tackle the project in the first place. And seeing it to the end. And seeing it to the end. And now it's so easy for people to get all the information they need.

You know, back in my day, it was like you had to seek out the people that would give you advice. Where now, with the internet, it's all there. You can come down to our site, you can see how to repair a dent. You can see how to replace sheet metal. You can see all the steps involved without having to discern it from car guys all over.

And the whole process has gotten easier to get the information you need. It really has. And I'll go back to the satisfaction of you doing it yourself. It's huge. I mean, anybody with some money can pay to have it done, but if you do it yourself, you can't buy that.

I agree. And that's one thing that really, I can't drive home enough to guys, is, this is not only about restoring cars. It's about getting the skills to know how to restore cars, and going out and showing everybody what you did.