Classic Car Restoration Basics

Saturday, September 29th, 2012

A classic car, restored, is nothing short of beautiful. If you’ve got the means to go ahead and restore an old Chevy, or whatever your dream classic car choice is, go ahead. It’s a wonderful feeling when you take something that’s been forgotten, or simply not been correctly maintained, and return it to how it looked on the day it first left the showroom.

I have an old 1955 Ford Crown Victoria, a stunning example, cream and red, and quite possibly the love of my life. And I can say that because my significant other has a comparable love of her life … one that comes in the shape of diamond rings. Anyway … you’re here to figure out the basics of classic car restoration, so let’s get to it.

Car Restoration Basic Checklist

There are many tips that you will stumble upon, or be offered, but we’re going to look at the bare bones stuff, the absolute flat out bottom-line stuff that everyone should start with, before they work up to the bigger issues that come with restoration an old vehicle. 

Engine – make sure that you give this a thorough going over. Classic is just another word for ‘old’, and you need to bear in mind that some parts may no longer be available, or if they are, they’re expensive. Engine rebuilds can be expensive on modern cars so the state of the engine needs to be factored in.

Gear box – what condition is it in? Is it still in good shape, or has the transmission become choppy? A run down gear box can be an expensive fix, so make sure that you run the car through its gears before you decide to buy it.

Bodywork – it doesn’t matter if it’s not too good – if you’re looking to do a full restore. However, messed up bodywork, rust, busted panels, they’re not good if you’re intention is to pay someone to do the work for you.

Interior – how much work will it need? Check under the seats if you can, inside the trunk, around the foot wells etc. Ok, the less that needs doing the more expensive the car will be, and again this is ok if you want to drive it away rather than restore it.

Cost – this is a general estimate. How much will it cost to renovate? If you’re looking at it being a long term process, the cost will negate themselves over the time span – spending a lot over a period of time isn’t as much as a kicker in the bank account.

Basically all the above are common sense pieces of advice. It will be expensive, but providing you’ve looked into sourcing parts, how much they will cost etc, you won’t (hopefully) be in for any hidden surprises. At least that’s the plan.

Classic car restoration is a wonderful experience, and knowing that you’re responsible for all, or a large portion of, the work brings a sense of extreme satisfaction. Plus you end up with a fabulous vehicle into the bargain. Just remember – be wise, have a checklist and use it, and don’t over stretch yourself.

Filed in Classic Cars | | Permalink | Comments Off

How To Buy A Good Cheap Classic Car

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

If you are someone who loves vintage, classic cars, and you are trying to buy one for yourself, then you have stumbled upon a good article. Here you will be able to learn how you can easily buy a cheap classic car.

It is no secret that classic cars do not come cheap. If you are a bargain hunter like I am, then there are definitely ways to go around those huge price tags and get the car of your dreams affordably.

I remember buying my very first cheap classic car like it was yesterday. I remember driving the car on the driveway of my new Hot Homes Of St George in Utah and proudly showing it off to my family. I was so excited to have gotten such a good deal for it!

Now let me help you get the same feeling. Here are the steps which you can use in order to get a good cheap classic car of your own.

Determine what you want to do with the car.

You have to first determine what you will actually do with the car. Do you want to use it on the road? Do you want to restore and resell it? Do you want to keep it only for display purposes? Think about these things and determine your budget accordingly.

Research is key.

You have to of course do some research and find out about the different cars which you will have to choose from. Gather all of the necessary info so that when you actually do get to look at prospective cars to buy, you know all about them.

Examine the condition of the car thoroughly.

You definitely want to go and carefully examine the car so that you can be sure you will not get ripped off by the seller. If you are unsure, have someone knowledgeable examine the car for you.

Go with cash if you can.

Why cash? Well, most of the time, a seller will be more willing to cut you a better deal if you are willing to give the payment in cash. Of course, credit is acceptable too, but just remember to keep in mind the costs.

Filed in Classic Cars | | Permalink | Comments Off

Class Car Buffs will Love Visiting Dekalb County, Indiana

Friday, July 6th, 2012

If you love classic cars and automobile history, then you definitely should make time to visit Dekalb County, Indiana. Yes, Indiana is famous for the Indianapolis 500, but it also has a rich history of automobile manufacturing. In the early 1900′s there were over 100 manufacturing plants making cars in just Indiana alone.

The city of Auburn, Indiana contains several automotive museums that highlight the cars and trucks made in Indiana and the United States. These include the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, the National Automotive and Truck Museum, the National Military History Center, The Kruse Automotive and Carriage Museum, and the Early Ford V-8 Foundation and Museum.

If you love hot rods built by Carl Casper, then you definitely have to go to the Kruse Museum. The National Automotive and Truck Museum contains over 45 vintage trucks dating from 1909. There are also about 75 classic cars to be seen. These cars generally represent the 1940′s to the 1970′s. In addition to American-made trucks and cars, you’ll also see some international doosies. There’s a 1909 Autowagon and the Endeavor. The Endeavor actually held the land speed record for deisel-powered trucks from 1992 to 2000. What was it? Well as measured at the Bonneyville Salt Flats it was 226 miles per hour!

But my favorite auto museum in Dekalb County is the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Museum. It’s actually located in the Auburn Factory and is an historic landmark. Visit the gorgeous 1930′s Art Deco building and you’ll be immediately transported back to a time before the Big 3 Automakers dominated the automobile making landscape.

You’ll see some of the most beautiful classic cars ever made in America. I have to warn you that it might make you a little sad to think of the manufacturing powerhouse that we once had in America and how so much of it has been outsourced to Third World countries.

But you can also use those memories to inspire you to think about building a new America that’s based on innovation once again!

Filed in Classic Cars | Tagged , , | Permalink | Comments Off

Shopping for Used 4×4 Trucks for Sale

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

Shopping for used trucks can be stressful, but it needn’t be if you approach the whole process with an informed advantage.

First you need to collect some useful references, ones that you can keep to hand while you shop. Start with Consumer Reports. That’s Consumer Reports, not Consumer Guide, don’t mix one with the other. Consumer Reports is a non-profit organization that conducts impartial and thorough tests of a wide assortment of consumer products, and you need to check the reliability of the different truck models you will be considering.

Next you should look at the Kelly Blue Book website. This will tell you the current market values of the exact models of used 4×4 trucks for sale you are considering. Never test drive or inspect a used truck without knowing its current market value. You should use that Kelly Blue Book value as the baseline for your dealing, not the price advertised by the dealer or private seller.

The third resource you should consult is CarFax. CarFax provides you a detailed vehicle history of every car, truck or van on the road. This will help you know whether or not your prospective 4×4 used truck has been stolen or if it is a refurbished salvage truck. Never agree to buy a truck for sale without consulting CarFax.

Next you will want to do some comparison shopping at a variety of sites. CarMax, Auto Trader, ebay Motors and Craig’s List should all have a wide variety of used trucks for you to browse and compare. Along with the Kelly Blue Book market values, browsing these sites will give you a much better sense of the current truck market and what you should expect when you start digging deeper into any single truck you find. 

Before you even start looking at used trucks, you need to understand the different problems a used truck might have and how to identify those problems.  For helpful videos on how to evaluate a used truck visit http://4x4trucksforsale.org/.

Filed in Used Cars | Tagged , , | Permalink | Comments Off

A Working Woman’s Car – The 1948 Oldsmobile

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

1948 Oldsmobile advertisement

 

My grandmother lived to be 103 years old. For all but the last three of those years, she worked. She worked in the home, in her family’s stores, on the farm. She worked as a mother, grandmother, cook, waitress, general store manager, farmer, seamstress, and butcher. She also worked as a chauffeur, carting kids around (like soccer moms do today, only then, there was no soccer in the US), and as a delivery driver picking up and dropping off grocery goods, fresh produce, and slaughtered chickens for her family’s general store. She was one of the few women in her community who had been driving since the birth of the Model T Ford. Driving came easy to her: as a young girl she’d learned to drive horses first.

Of all the cars she had in her long life, she loved her 4-door 1948 Oldsmobile the best. It was a huge and heavy car by today’s standards. Weighing in at 3,705 pounds, its V-8 engine at 115 horsepower let her heavy foot have reign. She’d pile us kids in the car for a drive to the county seat 20 miles away and gun the engine over gently rolling hills, making sure we got our share of tummy ticklers as the car crested and then flew over hilltops at high speed. I’m sure she took those hills the same way on family store business, whether kids were in the car with her or not. She just loved to drive.

The 1948 Olds was a work horse. It had plenty of interior and trunk room for deliveries and passengers. It suited all of the work she performed in her later years. As a bonus, from her perspective, it was the equivalent of 115 horses (imagine yoking 115 horses to a buggy). As the old adage goes, “A man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.” This powerful Oldsmobile kept pace with her woman’s life’s work.

Filed in Classic Cars | Tagged , , , | Permalink | Comments Off

What You Should Know About Buying A Hybrid Car To Save Money

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Hybrid cars are all the rage and buzz worthy in several circles. They can be a great way to take a friendlier approach to getting around in modern society. There are some out of the ordinary circumstances to consider before you commit to buy one of these vehicles. In addition, we should dispel one of the major myths that contributes to the purchase.

Hybrid Car.

 Buying A Hybrid Will Save You Money

At present, this statement is false. A hybrid will not save you money in the big picture. The technology is still relatively new and therefore expensive. Advances in technology come at a fairly quick rate. It is quite likely that this statement will be true in the relatively near future. The fact of the matter is that a hybrid car typically costs more up front and requires higher expense for general servicing.

Buying A Hybrid Is Friendly To The Environment
The hybrid car is a testament to man’s want to live more in tune with nature than against it. Unfortunately, a hybrid’s friendliness to the environment is not as clear-cut as looking at the mechanical specifications and making them better than a traditional car. Humans are always a factor. In this case, people that buy hybrid cars tend to drive their automobile more than a person with an older gas guzzler- approximately 30% more. The owner tends to fall into thinking that their use is always better because they have a hybrid. A hybrid driver needs to understand this pitfall and exercise discipline otherwise there is no real difference between carbon footprint and fuel usage between the two.

The Upfront Cost Of Buying A Vehicle
Buying a vehicle is never an investment. In all but the rarest of cases, the car will depreciate in value from the moment you drive it off the lot until you pack miles on it. The reason for that is semantics. There are two kinds of car buyers- used and new. Once a car has been purchased and driven off the lot, it is no longer a new car. It cannot be marketed as a new car and the dealer will never be able to ask as much for the car even if you drove it right back onto the lot. Used car buyers do not want to spend that kind of money on cars.

That knowledge can be used to great effect for a car shopper. The shopper can get very good rates on more recent used and leased vehicles which puts a fair amount of money back in your pocket thus reducing the need to obtain expensive cash loans or personal finance. A person that ends up shopping for a traditional automobile can still be competitively friendlier to the environment by reducing their time on the road.

 
Filed in Cars | Tagged , , | Permalink | Comments Off

What To Do When Your Car is Damaged From a Car Accident

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

car crash

Next to your home, your car is probably one of your most valuable assets. Proper maintenance is therefore important if you want your precious vehicle to last longer. When you maintain your car regularly, you can avoid costly repairs and unexpected breakdowns. Doing regular maintenance can also prolong the life of your car. Car maintenance can be tiresome but it will also save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars on repairs.

But sometimes, no matter how careful you are with your car and in driving, you car can still get damaged that would require you to take it to a car repair shop. That is why car insurance is required in most states. Your car insurance can come in useful in case of accidents. Having a car insurance policy will save you from paying for the repairs out of your own pocket. Car accidents happen every day. Even careful drivers get into an accident because of the other driver’s recklessness. 

When accidents like these happen, be it your own fault or the fault of the other driver, you may have to file a claim. You can get help from a lawyer at Fannin Law to ensure that the insurance company will not trick you into agreeing into a settlement that only protects their interests but is unfair for you. If there is a need to file a claim, you can contact Mr. Patrick Fannin to get legal assistance.

But before you go through all the trouble of filing a claim, get an estimate done first from your trusted car repair shop. There are cases when it is cheaper to handle the costs out of your own pocket than to file a claim particularly when there are high deductibles involved. 

If you choose to file a claim, someone from the insurance company will investigate on the matter first before they pay for the repair costs. If the claim is approved, insurance companies generally give you an option to use one of the shops they work with or to use the shop of your choice. Most of the shops affiliated with insurance companies are trusted repair shops that provide quality service. But if you are more confident with choosing the repair shop yourself considering that it is your car that will be fixed, you can look for a repair shop yourself and have your car fixed in the shop your choose. 

Filed in Automobiles | Tagged , , | Permalink | Comments Off

How The Hell Am I Going To Buy A Car?

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Bad credit car finance is a major concern for a large number of UK consumers. It often seems like the proverbial rock and hard place. The respectable lenders simply will not consider a consumer with poor credit, and the lenders who specialize in those consumers look to exploit them.

Managing Bad Credit

Consumers should not approach their credit passively. Get a credit report from all major agencies, and know precisely what the negative aspects are. In the case of active debts, the borrower should be proactive. Simply by entering into an agreement with a lender, credit improves. Lenders are more likely to lend to consumers with bad credit when they see an effort to repay the debt.

Save for the Down Payment

Equity is leverage, and the more the buyer has, the more options he or she will have. When buying a car, equity comes in two basic forms: down payment and trade-in. The goal should be to have as a high a down payment as possible. That will ensure lower interest rates and a lower monthly payment. When a trade-in is involved, carefully weigh the value as a trade-in versus the value privately sold.

Finance Independently of Purchase
Ghost Town
The worst way to get bad credit car finance is to get it at the point of sale. Most car dealerships have a network of lenders, but the consumer can comparison shop a wider array of lenders if they finance themselves. The other advantage is that car dealerships are more willing to negotiate when a client walks onto the lot with cash in hand or financing in place. Many people believe that the lot is the only option for Bad credit car finance, but that simply isn’t the case.

Consider Using a Co-signer

For people with particularly poor credit, a co-signer is often the best way to get a loan. With a co-signer, the borrower has many more options, and access to much lower rates. Low interest rates make it much easier to afford a car and to build back credit. Keep in mind that co-signing is a risky proposition for the co-signer. If the borrower defaults on the loan, the co-signer will be on the hook.

Comparison Shop Online

Consumers should not limit themselves to local options. The Internet opens up a wide range of opportunities, and all worthwhile lenders have Internet-facing services. Brokers and comparison-shopping services are also an option. These services let a shopper input their information once, and then they return a list of lenders along with the details, such as rates and amount limits. Most online lenders can send an e-check to the dealer immediately during business hours.

Choose and Budget Wisely

A borrower should not choose a car above his or her means. Even if that person is earning well now, they should choose a car that lets them have low payments and low rates. They can then work to pay the car off faster. As credit improves, the borrower has a couple of options: They can lower the interest rate by refinancing, or they can trade the car in and upgrade to another.

Filed in Cars | | Permalink | Comments Off

How to Ride in Style No Matter What You Do For Work

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Gone are the days when having a car was a luxury or a sign of show off. To many it has become a necessity and not only a car, but a good one. What you do for a living matters less in you owning and riding a nice car. With a technician job, you can still afford to drive among the best cars around hassle free. No one has enough money, but how you mange what you have makes your earnings enormous.

Buying a car is one thing and keeping it nice is another. This is probably why technicians have nice cars due to maintenance. Luxury vehicles require regular maintenance and an owner who knows his car. A technician may be earning much or less but immediately realizes when his car is faulty thus an immediate course of action is taken. Realization and fixing a problem in time saves on cost and saves adjacent parts from also getting damaged.

Nice Car

By Spending money unwisely, you will only end up poor. To have a nice car with a minor job like a technician, you require investments that will accrue with time. They include education, land among others. With time these assets will appreciate and can afford to buy you the posh car you think of. Of course to achieve this, patience and diligence remains an asset. Also to have a good car your priorities must be right whereby you spend less and save more.

Sometimes with a technician job, to have a nice car by first purchase is really an uphill task. Start with what you can afford without being embarrassed of what others will say. Furthermore you have your target and that used car is only a stepping stone. In addition, by a virtual of your profession as a car technician, you can upgrade a car to be better, faster, comfortable and stronger than a new one.

Filed in Automotive | Tagged , , , , , | Permalink | Comments Off

Really Owning Your Car

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

I have spent my whole life saving for one thing, a Jeep. All I wanted was one of these since I was a kid and used to watch Mash on TV. So when I was a kid, I told my dad and he told me to get a paper route and start working. I did just that and he helped me learn the value of saving my money.

At fourteen I got a job flipping burgers. When I turned sixteen Dad helped me get a Jeep. It was by no means new but it was still running and a dream come true.  Then came the fun part! I got to do whatever I wanted to this thing. It was my toy and the one thing my money went to. Let me tell you, this did not make it easy with the girls, that is spending all my money on the jeep, but I figured I would easily find a girlfriend after my Jeep was in tip top shape.

I started by putting a lift kit on it. This was not cheap but well worth the extra six inches I got. I upgraded the tires. I had to buy new beefy off road tires that made me think I could climb a mountain. Now I needed to find a replacement spare tire cover that worked with my personality. This turned out to be quite difficult and had to order a custom one with my own art work on it. I found a awesome effects kit for it to give it a wow factor.

At this point my father pointed out that I have spent more in to the Jeep then I would ever get out of it. Why I would ever get rid of it? This made it easier to hold onto it forever. Now that I am in college I have what I consider the coolest car on campus. That lady issue I had in high school is not I issue anymore.

Filed in Automobiles | Tagged , , | Permalink | Comments Off