Muscle Car Restoration: Do it Right the First Time

Pick The Right Car: This could possibly be the most important part of the process. So many projects fall by the wayside because people chose the wrong car the first time, make sure that you love the car that you decide to restore, you don't want to lose interest.

Evaluate The Project: This is another vary important part of the process, if this is your first restoration you need to evaluate what needs to be done to restore the car, look at the quarter panels, floor boards, rocker panels, and every sheet metal surface for rust.

Make 100% sure that you have the knowledge that it will take to complete that project, or if you don't, you have access to somebody who does, don't take on more then you can handle, your objective is to complete the job, and be proud of it.

Set The Time Aside: If there is one thing that you need to know up front, it's that these projects don't get finished over night, it will take a lot of time and patience to complete the restoration work on a muscle car restoration project.

Plan The Budget: One of the biggest reasons that these projects don't get completed is that people think that there is a cheap way to complete the project, they get buried in the project and they run out of money, and at this point they usually sell the car.

Make sure that you have a plan to follow, know what parts you can repair to save money, and know what has to be replaced, know your cash flow limitations, and have a good idea of the things that you want out of the restoration.

Factory Stock, Or Custom Car: Here again this will depend directly on the money, and time that you can invest in the project, if you have money to burn, then the sky is the limit, if your on a strict budget you'll need to make compromises in the things you do.

No matter is you have money or not, the most important thing is that you get exactly what you want when the car is finished, if you need to take longer to complete the project so you can afford to have all of the custom goodies you want, then by all means take the time.

Nothing says that you have to complete the project in an allotted amount of time, it's you car, the best thing that you can do is to always remember that, don't let anything make you go faster then you feel comfortable going, the idea here is to get what you want.

Get Help If You Need It: I'm a huge supporter of people restoring classic cars, it can be a lot of fun, it can bring your family and friends together, it can also be a huge pain, if you need help on a certain part of the project for whatever reason, get it.

Don't be embarrassed to ask your friends to help if you think they can, or if you need a shop to do some of the work, most shops are glad to do partial restoration work on cars if you need it, as I have said earlier, it's all about getting your car restoration completed.