whats your biggest Resto blunder??
 

Just figured this would be great way for guys not to make the same mistakes others have already made.

Pull the headliner out of a car before you start welding on the roof. :rolleyes:

Hanging new quarters and not test fitting the rear window trim before painting the car .

Oh, that's easy: starting!
cm

LOL

beat me to it.

and in my case, starting one while you're still in college.

Wasted $300.00 on cheap junkie sheetmetal. Spend more money and get the good stuff. Lesson learned.

When replacing sheetmetal, measure everything many times.

Paul

Actually, my biggest blunder is probably still yet to come..lol

believing what the seller is trying to sell you, if buying from a stranger, i would hope that all of us on this forum are the trustworthy types. check EVERYTHING yourself and know what to look for. be well informed. sad but too many guys looking to make a quick buck off you.

Getting divorced in the middle of one.

The second mistake was not visiting the shop more often.

Biggest screw up
 

Using Killer chrome.

Really? I was really pleased with it once I figured out the proper way to use it.

But I always say. You can't finish what you don't start. Need another lifetime though.:o

The biggest blunder that I can remember at this moment is trying to change the positive battery cable at the starter WIHTOUT disconnecting it from the battery first. Fried both cables. There are others I'm sure.

One that comes to mind is not test-fitting the rear wheel opening moldings before welding new lower quarters in place.
Another is letting my brother paint the GTO.

well, up til now i can say this. dont take your car all apart then decide you need to get married. if you do get married well....try and keep busy so not to end up in the sac with wife to often, you would be amazed how quick a planned year long project can turn into 5-7 years after she starts shootin out kids at a steady pace and you keep having to upgrade the living quarters all the while she is telling you it is the proper thing to do! other than that tho, go for it!!!

If someone else installed a part double check it after he is not looking. A big dollar lessen learned, also double check your own work.

That right there - is some funny stuff! :D

Wow you nailed it. No pun intended.:D

Purchasing a car with more rust than good metal!

Letting Alpha Kustom in Willis, TX do the paintwork and not doing it myself.

Hope your brother dosen't read this.
Let me know if you ever need your car painted,I can do it at work in the paint booth for you.

I restored this '60 Bonneville,here are a few things we did wrong.

1.Didn't set a budget
2.Didn't make a plan as to what and how much we were going to do.
3.Didn't realize the only patch panel made are the rockers.

Take plenty of pitchure's and research the car and parts available prior to the restore...

Removing the door before replacing the quarter.

Live and learn.

Letting someone else finish a car I started (at work).

installing an aftermarket quarter on a 70 gto conv with the decklid off. didnt see the bodyline that wraps around the back was off until i put the decklid back on. of course i had already ground and smoothed the weld line ( from the door all the way back to the decklid) out. had to cut the quarter off and get a new one. :censored:

Oh man those are all great!!

Just what I had in mind.

I actually have never done a nut and bolt resto so I dont really have any other than the same ones already up.

I have done a lot of customs and Drivers and The biggest one I can say is letting anyone other than Myself touch the car in any way shape or form.LOL

Every time I have ever sent something out I have been disgusted with how it came out.

With the exception of my machine work which liefert in torrington CT does and its perfect everytime.

Bought a rust bucket.
didn't have a bank account in the high six or 7 figure zone.
installed a repop partial quarter and spent untold hours--in the hundreds -- trying to make it look nice. now i just want to rip it off, 10 years and the car still isn't painted mainly because of that quarter--and money.

Underestimating how time and money it's going to take. Double everything and understand that you're probably low!



JWW

Getting too antsy about your first engine and tranny removal and forgetting to drain the fluids.

Actually most of my blunders all seem to boil down to the same thing: lack of patience.

Blunders come and go from time to time but,

If someone thinks they want to attempt a resto. I would suggest starting with a very small project first. Case in point I have been out of the fiberglass and auto body DEAL for many years. Now a good friend of mind had a new fiberglass scoop for his dragster that need mounting. Then paint. Unfortunately for them and me they transfer the holes (large) in the wrong place for the (Zeus faseners):eek: Between grinding and glassing the holes and body work you would be shocked how many hours it took me. Needless to say I was taken back by the amount of time it took me.

Learn procedures first start small and work up to larger jobs to minumise blunders.

Steve. C. :usa2:

BODY FLEX-before taking that project off the frame,especially a conv. add braces to help support the body from changing its shape.If you don't , you won't like your new body lines!

That Rocker Guard can hide an incredible amount of rust and rot.
Still working on the previous owner's voodoo doll.....

Just throw money at it, it'll work out. :(

First blunder..Restoring the same car three times until I got it right..then selling it

Second blunder...Buying a basket case just because I love the challenge!!

it was not a gto, but when i was 23 just out of college, I bought a rust free 57 chevy 1/2 truck, to make into a hotrod, trusted A bodyshop down the road to to a good paint job, he said he would do it for about 1/3 less than anyone else, ended up having to have they paint stripped off & repainted @ another shop. so it ended up costing me twice as much to have it painted right...... my advice, spend the money & have it painted @ a shop with a good rep & quick turn around just once the first time!!!!:usa2:

Decided to detail the trunk after car was painted . you know cleanup welds and paint with splatter paint. So I grinded down the welds from the quarter panel patches .did seam sealer and painted, the trunk came out excellent .Then when washing the car I noticed the lower outside quarters were I grinded and it had bubbled and blistered the 6k paint job

Trusting someone else to do the work and then not checking up on how they did it.

The rest should be obvious.

Mike

I had to add one other experience.

buying a Scuff and Shoot quality endura from a seller in Jeffersonville IN that turned out to be be a rotten peice of junk. If you can't hold it in your hand don't buy it!

That sucks!!!

doing this now, What doesn't help is trying to get by with a cheap mig or gas welder

forgot to hang the front clip to test fit before painting, jeez that was a pisser. That was one of the first cars I did a decade or so ago, what a job to fix the alignment issues after I painted the front clip!

Not to mention, always let your epoxy primer completely dry before applying the high build primer , don't ask

oh one more, make sure your paint gun lid is COMPLETLY on before you start spraying! again , don't ask

Using an un-tried HVLP gun and a brand of paint you've never used before for the first time.

Shot the primer with my trusty old Binks Siphon Feed. Should have stayed with it. Trying to keep up with the times. Still don't like the HVLP!

Skimping on my k38, then spending months sanding only to realize I am going to have to spray again because I sanded through to my epoxy.

Shawn

Nothing nicer than your second coat of clear on your hood getting a glob of clear from your paintgun lid.I've since went with liners!

Thinking you can do it on a small budget with basic tools.

Thinking that a body man knows what a calender is......:mad:

Double everything they tell you.

Putting too much $$ up front. Now I just supply the parts or pay for the actual pieces they have ordered and received. Helps get the work done properly in a timely manner.

When buying on line don't believe a piece is nice if the seller beaks off "you'd have to be anal to find fault with it". Find that quote is usually followed by a package contain a part that is in worse shape than the 1 you want to replace.

Don't believe the pictures were bad because of this, that or the other problems with the camera.

Don't believe the new repo part will match your original piece.

When painting the hood, roof, and trunk lid, after the surface was all tacked and clean, I couldn't understand where all the water was coming from. Then it hit me, sweat was dripping out of my canister paint mask onto the car. Doh! (luckily for me it was only primer).

Yea, I needed to stop thinking about sex when painting :attention:

Not tacking the rear quarters together before removing the tail pannel. Being in a hurry!