What is this project?

[vulgalour]

You know how it goes, you've got an old car and you're working on it and you get asked more than once "but why are you doing it that way? I thought you were restoring it."

 

This is something that's popped up in real life more so than on forums, but it got me thinking about what I'm actually doing with the car and how it affects being an owner of a classic car. In my experience, the majority of the classic car brigade are so far up their own arses when it comes to the proper way of doing things that they need a window in their stomach just to see where they're going. Not all are like that, obviously, I've met some really nice classic car people over the years too, but they do seem to be in the minority. I can't get away from the fact that I own a classic car, and one that is likely to get to a few shows and be shown as that's something I enjoy.

 

But looking at her, the Princess isn't a restoration, and I'm not sure she's a renovation either. But then, neither is she really a modified car. So what am I doing and what do I tell people? I'm not ironing out ever last pimple and dent, I'm not going for a bare metal respray to make her look brand new, but at the same time I'm not preserving the dirt and the rust from decades of use. It's very difficult to explain why I've gone to a great deal of trouble to make the paint shiny and beautiful but why I've not also eliminated every ding, every spot of different coloured paint or why I've replaced the vinyl trim with metallic paint.

 

For me, I do it because that's how I feel I should look after my car. I don't have deep pockets, so I'm limited as to what I can do, but I derive a great deal of joy in preserving the history of my car and doing things without spending big piles of cash in short spaces of time. I'm not sure where I'm meandering with this now I've written it, but it's out there. Am I alone in my peculiar approach to looking after an old car and is it really more normal to just sink tonnes of money into replacing every conceivable part with new items?

[Albert Ross]

I see this a lot in the Land Rover restoration world. Wave a chequebook at a usable daily driver, remove all the character, and hey presto, ANOTHER Green SWB Petrol. A bloke with more money than sense took a perfectly good 1958 88", replaced everything, and then grumbled that it felt different. Well yeah, it would. Dick. I like my rough looking heap. Dents, scratches, missing lumps of filler etc.

[Craig the Princess]

I like my rough looking heap. Dents, scratches, missing lumps of filler etc.

 

Amen Brother!

 

And volksangyl you are doing an awesome job with the Princess, repairing and improving as you go along. The house-bump repairs are the sort of things that make this forum great.

[Cavcraft]

Sounds twattish, Volks, but it's just love of an unloved car and it should be praised. One of the best things about our hobby is people not getting why we spend ages pissarsing about with deeply unfashionable cars that were (mostly) considered shit when they were new, let alone 20/30/40 years down the line. It doesn't matter if you replace every last mechanical component or body panel, or just clean it a lot and enjoy driving and owning it.

[SambaS]

I can safely say I own the worst possible examples of my 4 cars in the country. Well, on the road anyway.

[MrDuke]

It's very difficult for me to explain my taste in cars at all, so I don't bother. I just let people assume what they want, and smirk at their confusion.

 

"Oooo, it's lowered, you'll be getting some BBS splits for it then?"

"No, I'm keeping the clovers"

"Oh right - so you're putting it back to stock?"

"No, I like it this low"

"Well, you need an RS grille then, that plastic thing looks shit!"

 

etc etc etc.

 

Bless them, they can't help being normal now, can they?

[Albert Ross]

There's a current trend in elderly Land Rovers for Chequer plate and Tdi engines.... I am cornering the local market in older original spec engines... they are being lobbed. I will have a dozen spare units of all types in my garage by the end of the year I guess, 2.3 petrol and diesel, 3 and 5 bearing, also 2.5 petrol and diesel, and maybe a later 1986/7 onwards 2.5Td. All well and good ripping out a 50 year old worn engine and fitting a 25 year old worn engine. But it's better to fix the original.

[SambaS]

Add to that I am a man of no talents so they will probably remain that way.

I can safely say I own the worst possible examples of my 4 cars in the country. Well, on the road anyway.

[eddyramrod]

it's just love of an unloved car and it should be praised. It doesn't matter if you replace every last mechanical component or body panel, or just clean it a lot and enjoy driving and owning it.

 

WHS. It's absolutely clear to us that your Princess makes you happy. That's good enough! Of course it also helps that you are preserving something that would otherwise have been thrown away, and reducing your carbon-footprint massively at the same time. Keep it up!

[scruff]

There's a current trend in elderly Land Rovers for Chequer plate and Tdi engines.... I am cornering the local market in older original spec engines... they are being lobbed. I will have a dozen spare units of all types in my garage by the end of the year I guess, 2.3 petrol and diesel, 3 and 5 bearing, also 2.5 petrol and diesel, and maybe a later 1986/7 onwards 2.5Td. All well and good ripping out a 50 year old worn engine and fitting a 25 year old worn engine. But it's better to fix the original.

 

I would - but I don't have a spare few grand to do it. The few specialists with new-old-stock ex-military parts for the old Series 1 engines know the shiny paint crowd have big budgets and price parts accordingly - or in the case of one in particular, won't sell to you or say they haven't got the parts if they don't like you!

That said, the original '52 Rover engine is in the shed, along with another (shagged) '57 unit. Our kids can worry about it, I just want to enjoy using the thing.

[vulgalour]

@Albert: I can't understand pristine Land Rovers, they make no sense to me. One of my parent's neighbours is a top bloke, he has (I think he still has it at any rate) a series 1 landy but it doesnt' have the original engine and it isn't in the original desert sand colour. Instead it's been repainted numerous times to smarten it up, it has a few stickers from his travels and he uses and abuses it like a good un. At the same time, he looks after it but he'll never bare-metal restore it, he likes the character and when you see it with other land rovers at meets it stands out not as a shonky heap but as something with genuine age and care put into it.

 

@Craig: thank you I sometimes worry my updates are boring, but I like to keep people abreast of what I've been up to of a day on the cars.

 

@Cavette: doesn't sound twattish at all, in fact it's nice to know I'm not in fact alone with my approach to this car. Essentially, I'm doing it this way 'because I want to' and nothing more, the fact that an old car gets the love and reward it deserves for years of motoring is a bonus. You also imply I have hippy credentials, which is impressive given how un-hip I am and how much I don't smell like an armpit.

 

@MrDuke: I'm not going to get myself started on the VW crowd and what they wanted me to do with the Polo. They seem to have given up trying to persuade me to go lower and fit BBS &c. now they've understood I'm stubborn and quite mad. I love Clovers too, especially so now you don't see them very often, they're a good looking wheel on a Ford.

 

@SambaS: Talents can be learned, usually. Just remember that not every defect can be resolved with a hammer, nor by hammering a smaller hammer over the first hammer.

[Father Ted]

I do it because that's how I feel I should look after my car.

 

Elsewhere I have posted this:

 

 

Its not original, it has 12v leckys, it has a wireless, its cream with red leather, it incurs the wrath of the MOC. Does the owner give a shit about that? No.

Its his car.

Perhaps if it were one of only two or three 8's I might think differently, but having visited a show with him last year and seen all the other literally tens of maroon, blue or green examples - this one stands out.

 

Do it for you. In a few years someone else might take it off your hands and do it their way, at least its being kept alive.

[Morgan84]

The most important thing is that you are keeping it going,and on the road,and out of the recyclers crusher.

 

Old cars are like stately homes;you have to keep at them all the time,and keep patching them up,and painting over the cracks !

[vulgalour]

I'd caught mention of that Morris and it is a gorgeous thing in those colours, how could you possibly be cross with something that looks so pretty?

[scruff]

Some people just can't see beyond their own narrow-mindness. Gorgeous little car!

[Morgan84]

Yes,the colour is wrong,but its only paint,not a hacked about V8 engined rat-rod.

 

It makes people happy,and the owner clearly likes it,so whats wrong with that ? In the 50's and 60's,people painted old cars with anything they could lay their hands on - did they care ?? Dont think so

[eddyramrod]

If ever I was going to have a Morris 8 Tourer, that's more or less what it would look like!

[vulgalour]

@Morgan: thanks for the new signature line

[morris_ital_lover]

Personalised preservation/maintainence? You are looking after the car and keeping it in fine fettle but you are not preserving it as it was exactly back in the 1980s, you are subtly altering it your way.

 

As for your Polo, one of the best aspects about it is the way that so many think you should empty a can of paintstripper on the bonnet, put a roofrack full of shite on the top and use some weird overpriced alloys.. instead you have personalised it in your own way for your enjoyment, not too be part of a "kl" crowd.

[MrDuke]

Perhaps if it were one of only two or three 8's I might think differently, but having visited a show with him last year and seen all the other literally tens of maroon, blue or green examples - this one stands out.

 

Although, even if it were the very last one on the road - he's done nothing to 'spoil' the car at all, in fact I imagine he's enhanced it quite a lot. Even if he chose to paint it satin brown (as long as he kept the metal rust-proofed!), if it heightened his enjoyment of the car then that's all the reason he needs to do anything to it.

Apart from anything else, if he did doubt that he'd done the right thing, seeing a flat-cap mafiosa turn spluttering purple would make it all worthwhile.

[Morgan84]

My friend pained his MK2 Jaguar VW Tornado Red ( think mid 90's Polo/MK3 Golf ) because he liked the colour.He changed the car from gold to red because he didn't like the original colour,and wanted to build it up to his speciforcation.He said he wanted a blood red,and was recomended Tornado - no ones ever noticed its a VW colour !

[fotorabia]

I made the useless subscription to Benzworld.com [uS based]...slapped some photos up of the W123..1st comment i got was..Will look good when u change the wheels...its got the later 80s Bundt alloys..i woz like..waddafuck..no way..i like them..plus i got more important issues to deal with than goddamn aesthetics!

[Minimad5]

Mines turned into an unwanted "light" restoration

Will be pleased when it's finished, UK registered and all legal.

[trigger]

It's very difficult for me to explain my taste in cars at all, so I don't bother. I just let people assume what they want, and smirk at their confusion.

 

 

Hey Dukey did you know you was papped over on Retrorides?. http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... 9&page=215

 

[SambaS]

Whoaa look at that!!

[purplebargeken]

Don't sweat it buddy. What you have done to your car is fab and in keeping with 'normality'. I really must post some pics of my other cars to show folks how rubbish I am at 'restoration' lol++. I plan to fix the rusty bits on my 1300FWD and then do the following:

 

Paint it VW Beige

Finish off the interior

Carbon wrap the bonnet and the roof 'cos it will likely irritate people.

 

Just enjoy what you do.

 

Ken

[MrDuke]

Hey Dukey did you know you was papped over on Retrorides?. http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... 9&page=215

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, but this is the first time a random stranger has actually, deliberately, taken a photo of one of my cars, for non-legal reasons. I feel like I've reached a frankly supreme level of achievement in life, which is unlikely to be bettered. Just,

[Louise2cv]

I papped the Lada at YG, remember?

 

That Austin 3 litre estate on the same RR thread, anyone know where it is?

[dollywobbler]

At the NEC last year, 2CVGB had these cars on the stand, as well as three shiny ones.

 

The Dyane, Ami and 2CV are all used regularly, all wear original paint and all shows signs of being as old as they actually are. The amount of people who asked whether they were going to be restored was frustratingly high. We did it to show that our club is not all about polishing engines. Some people actually dare to use their cars!

 

People look at my BX project and think it's horrific, and I think that's mainly due to the scruffy paint and odd rust patch. If the paint was good, but it was still mechanically weak, people wouldn't consider it as 'hopeless' as they do. Too many people assume that I'm going to magic up several grand to get it made how it was back in 1986. Ain't gonna happen! On my shift at least. If someone comes along and what's to make it immaculate then fair play to them, but it's not what I'm about. I made the mistake of restoring my 2CV back to super-shiny condition and have had to watch it fall apart in regular use since. Never again. If you want a car to use, don't over-restore it!

[purplebargeken]

Full super dooper resto = too bloody scared to use it. Nah.