<VV> Was "most cars begin life as"- now Restoration

[Tony Underwood]

At 03:18 PM 8/8/2010, J R Read_HML wrote:
>I see little if any difference - money VS time.  One could say "I restored
>it myself" OR "I had it restored" OR "I did the things I felt competent at
>and had the rest done by others".  Any way you slice it, the restoration was
>accomplished by the will to make it happen.
>
>Examples...  The heads go to a machine shop.


I did mention "grudgingly" taking specific parts for machine work 
that I can't do.   Pressing in valve seats is one of the things I 
don't have the equipment to do.



>The exhaust system is likely
>purchased as a unit (at least the parts to put it together).


But I DO acquire the correct parts and I put it together.

I *have* fabricated 140 U-pipes via some welding and a bit of 
ingenuity.   They worked out well.  I've also adapted non-original 
but correct-appearing mufflers to a Corvair headpipe by doing some 
discrete welding on the muffler inlet to snake it down to the correct 
size ( Walker generic replacement, $24.95 at Woods Auto Parts ) and 
fabricating a hanger that fits without allowing the muffler to twist 
( welded together a couple pieces of steel strap with holes in the 
right places, then welded to the muffler ).

...would you suggest that replacing a fender with a factory made 
replacement part is somehow "not a true restoration" effort?

I once cut off a front fender from a parts car, and put it on my 
Corsa ragtop back in the 1980s after it was tagged by a Chevy Blazer 
that failed to yield right-of-way.

All it took was a MIG welder and my time ( which was free ).   I paid 
the guy 35 bucks for the ( excellent ) front fender, which I took off.

Since I did not hammer out a replacement fender like those Ferrari 
fanatics do at the factory, was I somehow "cheating"?

In the end, total cost out of my pocket was... 35 bucks.   What would 
it have cost to pay a body shop to go out and acquire a fender then 
weld it to the ragtop?   Even at 1980s prices I think I came out WAY ahead.



>Not many of us
>can do the machining of the heads or build a stock exhaust system from
>scratch.


I did actually pin the seats on a pair of 140 heads, which worked out 
pretty well and not a single seat ever came out again.    A guide DID 
come out of one of the heads a few years later, not the fault of the 
seat mods...  I imagine I'll be fixing that head myself as well, 
sooner or later.


And, yes I CAN build a 'Vair head pipe myself if I had to.  But, I 
don't have to; I have several good ones in the shed.   But I'll sure 
be putting them on a car MYSELF.   I'll also modify them if need 
be.   Myself.



So, when does a resto (or rather, in my case, a refurbishment since a 
true restoration means to *Restore* the car to as-new) become NOT 
done by the do'er by virtue of his having used factory or repro 
components instead of fabricating their own replacements from scratch?



I will farm out the few things I'm unable to do...  while doing 
everything else myself.   I will NOT spend 2000 bucks for body work 
prep and new paint when I'm able to do it myself.




tony..