Are you interested in gaining the skills to renovate a Classic Car?
Welding,Chassis repair,body repair, sheet metal fabrication, spray painting etc.
I`ve just discovered a site :
www.restoredclassic.xrs.net
with list of courses run by your local college .
(Some of the full time courses ( 2/3 days per week) are FREE )
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It could be more effective to acquire skills to make money. You can always buy good classics for less than they cost to restore to the same condition, from a heap.
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Alex,
I spend much of my time looking at vehicles for others. Yet today I'm getting out early to finish a major brake overhaul on my own 40yr old Land Rover and there are three diesel engines stripped in the workshop to make one for my other Land Rover.
I agree, even with no labour costs, it is hard to recover the expenditure on an eventual sale but there is huge satisfaction to be gained from this work.
This 1960 Land Rover could easily have been broken for parts (worth more in bits than as a no-MOT sale) but very pleasing to get it ready for a MOT and back on the road. After all it is nearly as old as me and, should I choose to keep it (assuming conventional fuels/cars remain in use), it could go on another 40 years. Quite something in this disposable age.
David
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David
Well done !!! Owning and keeping an old car on the road is certainly a labour of love , BUT IT IS WORTH IT !!
I intend to enrol at the local college for one of the Restoration Courses , so that I can learn to do the jobs PROPERLY . ( Despite being an old car enthusiast for over 30 years , and being fairly competent in many restoration skills ,it`s NEVER too late to learn something new or how to do it properly !!
Keep up the good work
Regards
Chas
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I agree in principle, of course. But if one starts off hoping for something interesting to drive that one can't afford to buy, without really enjoying the work, it will probably end in tears, and another of those sad adverts for an "uncompleted restoration", meaning something destined for the scrapper, which might have survived if unassaulted. (At least what I ruined was just a Wartburg and the bits went to a reassembler of the beasties.)
Must go and squirt WD-40, which is about my limit nowadays. Celica Supra still looks pretty well, and it is WHITE!
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David
Absolutely right. I'd hate to try to earn my money restoring old cars. It simply isn't finanicially viable to do it, as you say. But. it's graet fum keeping them on the road.
I did a car bodywork restoration course for a few years as an evening class. Learned a lot, and such course certainly helps to ease the pain of a home restoration.
The major problem for the home restorer is cost of equipment. Fine on the course with a decent spray booth, and oven, but you need to be aware that some things may be best put out to the professionals.
Regards
John
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