Classic Car Restoration Management

That abandoned restoration job in your garage might just represent the classic "bad end to good intentions." It happens when the romantic in you buys a project car and then your inner manager falls down on the job. The cold, hard truth is that the ability to efficiently manage a restoration is just as important as the actual work you perform. Here's how to plan out your restoration so the job keeps flowing.

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Like a ship heading overseas, the worst thing that can happen to a restoration is to stall out mid-journey. Once this happens, all the energy and inertia you've built up grinds to a halt and can prove hard to jumpstart again. To avoid this, make sure all of your resources and suppliers are lined up from the get-go. This means researching and deciding on companies that will strip the body panels, hot-tank the engine castings, bore and deck the block, rebuild the transmission, powder-coat the frame and suspension, supply bearings and gaskets, build the wiring harness and manage hundreds of other details.


Wrong Scenario: The car project is in a million pieces in the garage. You, calling a powder coating shop Saturday morning: "Uh, do you powder coat car frames—"


Them: "We do powder coating, but I'm not sure if we can do a car frame right now. The boss is on vacation for three weeks. He usually handles those."


Now your project is stalled for three weeks.