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How to Restore a Classic Car on a Budget

Learning how to restore a classic car on a budget only requires a few simple steps, but implementing them will take time and budgeting. Time is an important factor in full restoration projects since it can take around 1,000 hours to fully restore a classic car. You’re going to need a lot of parts which won’t always be easy to find and will cost significant sums of money. However, there are ways to accomplish the task without breaking the bank.

Finding Your Car

First of all, you need a vehicle to restore. Talk to other classic car enthusiasts who may be aware of a potential project, look at magazines and check any online ads. Don’t be in a hurry to make a choice. The more work you have to do, the longer it will take and the more you’ll spend on parts.

Finding Parts

You need a number of replacement parts when you restore a classic car. If you’re lucky, you will be able to salvage some of the parts already on the car and in the engine. However, there will still be a lot of items that you’ll need to buy. Contact vehicle salvage centers in your area to see if they have a similar vehicle. If so, find out what parts are available.

Restoring Your Car

The only way to restore a classic car on a budget is to do the work yourself. That means you need a place to do the work, such as a garage, where the vehicle is shielded from the weather. You also need a full range of auto tools, the owner’s manual and plenty of experience. Talk to friends or other enthusiasts who have restoration experience and might be willing to help or teach you. Keep money aside for a professional paint job to finish the vehicle, although you can do the priming of the body yourself. This will save on the overall paint costs.

Expect to take about a year to restore a classic car. Don’t try and rush the project. Always take time to locate the cheapest sources for parts before you buy and do as much of the work as you possibly can yourself.

For more on how to restore a classic car on a budget, visit the source of this article here: http://www.carsdirect.com/classic-cars/how-to-restore-a-classic-car-on-a-budget

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Dentist’s private car collection is selling for £100 million

A car-obsessed dentist who has amassed Britain’s biggest private car collection is selling the whole lot for £100million. 

James Hull, 53, who founded the James Hull Associates chain of dentists, owns more than 450 rare and classic cars, ranging from multi-million pound rare Jaguars to Winston Churchill’s Austin, and a Bentley once owned by Elton John. With no room to park them all near his home in Kensington, west London, he garages them in vast warehouses in Herefordshire, but has now decided to sell up because of health reasons. None of the cars is cheap, but a buyer with particularly deep pockets is needed, because  Dr Hull says he is determined to sell the 457-strong collection as a whole. He is hoping a buyer will come in with a £100million-plus offer, making it the highest value car sale in Britain. For that price, the buyer will get 457 classic vehicles, 365 pedal cars and 300 pieces of memorabilia including model aircraft from WW1 and WW2. With cars represented from every decade since the 1930s, the collection includes a Jaguar D-Type, worth in excess of £4million, a similarly valuable Jaguar C-Type, and Lord Mountbatten’s Mini Traveller, as well as a super-rare 1950s Jaguar KXSS. The collection also includes a Humber which was owned by the judge presiding over the Profumo Affair and a 1961 Jaguar E-Type which belonged to Britain’s world motorcycle champion Mike Hailwood.
 
For original article, with photos, visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2630564/Vroom-
view-Dentist-cars-keeps-enormous-warehouses-selling-450-classic-vehicles-100-
MILLION.html#ixzz31zPZQ1VS
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Kearney Classic Car Collection’s new director cared for 60 exotic rides; now he oversees 200

It was an accident, Greg Overton insists.

He sat down at his computer to renew his membership in the Association for CarMuseums when his finger hit the wrong button. Up popped an ad saying that theClassic Car Collection in Kearney, Neb., was looking for an executive director.Then working in isolated Gateway, Colo., just four miles from the Utah border,Overton had no idea where Kearney was, but he perked up. He’d been manager of the exclusive Gateway Automobile Museum for nearly three years, and he and his wife, Suzette, were sensing that it was time to leave.

Interested, Overton sent a brief email to Brad Kernick, chairman of the board of the Classic Car Collection. Meanwhile, he and Suzette began investigatingKearney.

“It was the right-size city. It was a university town surrounded by rural area,” he said. “I also knew there aren’t many auto museums out there, and I wasn’t quitesure where I’d go if I didn’t stay in this line of work,” he said.

Overton, 51, got the job in Kearney, and this morning, he was introduced to the press, the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce and others at a festive meet-and-greet. Introverted and friendly, he is thrilled to be here.

At more than 170 cars, Kearney’s collection is three times larger than the oneOverton managed in Colorado. The museum in Gateway displayed about 60 cars manufactured between 1906-2006 that belong to John Hendricks, founder of theDiscovery Channel. Many are one-of-a-kind, rarely-if-ever-driven models.To read more please visit the original source at http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/classic-car-collection-s-new-director-cared-for-exotic-rides/article_78fd42a4-dd17-11e3-94f3-001a4bcf887a.html

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What Makes a Car a Classic?

Just because a car is a vintage model in perfect shape does not make it eligible to be called a classic car. This is a very specific term that only applies to certain cars built over one 23-year period. Of course, uninitiated people apply the term more widely, and governments use the term “classic car” to describe which cars can carry antique vehicle license plates.

Identification

      • According to the Classic Car Club of America, a classic car is defined by three criteria. First, it must be a “fine or distinctive automobile.” Second, it has to have been built either in the United States or abroad during the years between 1925 and 1948. Finally, it has to have been originally a high priced car.

Significance

      • The Classic Car Club of America maintains a listing of those cars which meet the standards of these three criteria. They are certified as either CCCA Classics or as Full Classics. If a member of the Classic Car Club believes that another vehicle should be awarded this designation, a petition can be made. However, additional models have rarely been certified as CCCA classics.

Size

      • According to the research of John Lee, a Classic Car Club member, 1,366,843 American classic cars were produced. Packards and Cadillacs account for over half of them. 388,980 classic Cadillacs and 336,799 classic Packards were made.

Types

      • The other classic cars were made by 37 other American car makers. The list includes such familiar names as: LaSalles, Lincolns, Buicks, Studebakers and Chryslers. The classic car maker who produced only one known vehicle, according to John Lee, was Julian.

Considerations

      • Each state has a law that determines which cars qualify for antique vehicle registration. Many states, like Pennsylvania for example, set the eligibility for this special license category as pertaining to cars that are more than 15 years older than the current calendar year. The cars must also be in their original condition to qualify. While these cars may be classic cars according to the law, the Classic Car Club would not certify one of them as a true classic. Instead, they would be called modern classic cars.

See the original article here.