On Thu, 10 Apr 1997, Bob Douglas wrote:
> Good advice, but I'll admit to being a bit surprised at how lop sided the
> inputs are in favor of rolling restorations. However, keeping a car drivable
> during a major restoration has its down sides too. Another approach is be to
> partition the work so that the periods that the car is undrivable are
> relatively short (months vs years?).
There probably are as many approaches as people. I happen to enjoy the
work of restoration as much as I do driving the finished product, and I
have another LBC to drive, so I don't feel it's all that urgent to finish.
On the other hand, I was distressed at my last car by the amount of money
it took to do everything just so. There was a stage during the last year
when the Visa bills were continuous and large, as I was trying to make
sure every bit was shiny. I also got impatient from time to time when I
wanted to bolt something on, but 3 little fiddly jobs had to be done
first so it all would be perfect.
For the Alpine, I plan a two part strategy that should end in a ground up
restoration. I am going to pull the car completely apart, and rebuild
the major components--body, engine, suspension, to make the car body and
mechanics as good as I can. Then, I am going to put it back together and
drive it. I won't be fussy about a bumper needing chrome, or an air
cleaner needing to be bead blasted and painted, or whatever. I will have
a good drivable car with a sound freshly painted body and good mechanics.
As time and finances permit, then I'll do the detailing. Maybe a bit
every winter.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons(at)northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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