senor honda

Do you take the time to stop and think during a restoration?

Do you drink enough that you can keep a fuzzy head?

By Staff Writer
Aug 27, 2024 | Restoration, Column

At the end of every evening or weekend work session on one of my project cars, I have a little ritual I follow. Once I have cleaned up my tools and put everything away, I like to just sit on a stool and study what I have done. And while I do not care to drink while I work on cars, in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that at this point I usually have a beer or a cheap Scotch or a good Scotch (whatever the hell that is) in my hand.

Then later I wake up with my wife kicking me in the ribs on the garage floor where I passed out after she comes back from some sleazy bar on the redneck side of town, where she went looking for a real man.
Someone who understands her and is willing to have a meaningful relationship for more than six minutes.

I might last longer if I didn't soak my testicles in booze so much, and then I have to look at her sagging tits which further enhances the experience as I smell one or more
brands of cheap cigarettes, and some racoon piss that passes for cologne, usually Aqua Velva or Old Spice....... which makes me gag.....as I'm hoping to make it to an empty trash can
to barf so I can avoid having to hose off the garage floor.

Sometimes I see a horizontal blue stripe across her back at waist level from the pool table chalk, that says it was better that she use the pool table instead of
running out in the rain to some nasty pickup truck belonging to a hog farmer.

I think I'm a drunk. If I were an alcohulick, I'd have to go to meetings,,,,

You see, now comes thinking time. I need this time to look over what I have accomplished and what I need to do next. I usually have a notepad and pen handy; although I see the sense in putting everything into a smart phone, I just like the feel of the pen on the paper–it helps grease the wheels in my head. I write down notes for stories, list parts that I will need next, and kind of get my next session organized.

This time is especially essential after a session of welding, grinding or cutting, since it’s not safe to leave the shop right after I have been doing this type of work–a fire might be brewing in some overlooked crevice or in the trunk.
Sadly, since those post-wrenching sessions require a bit more time to make sure everything is safe, I generally require more than one Scotch to correctly complete the process. I really don't like waking up on the floor to discover that while I was passed out on the floor from thinking too much, someone came in and welded the trunk shut.

Now, here is where it gets a little weird. I often sit there even when I don’t really need to take notes, or think about what I am doing next, or make sure everything’s cooled down. I just like to gaze at my cars. I like learning about the nuances of a new project car, so I kind of drink it in while I sip. I look at what I did particularly well, and I note what I could do better on my next project. This type of thinking time often requires additional Scotch as well.

A recent three-Scotch session brought me the revelation that thinking time is not only one of the best parts of restoring a car, it’s also an absolute must for any restorer. You can’t always be working on the car; you need to think about what it’s logical to do next, what parts you will need, and how the heck you are going to solve the tricky problems that always come up, like how to put out a fire in the trunk when the trunk is already welded shut.

Now let’s consider the professional restorer. If I were a shop owner and explained to you that I needed to bill you several hours at $50 to $100 an hour for thinking (and a little drinking), you’d tell me I was a bum and fire me, right? Does that mean you don’t want me to spend any time thinking about how to properly restore your car? Do you not want me to spend any time appreciating its potential beauty and trying to decide how to do a better job restoring it?

Obviously, no one is going to say they don’t want that. So how does a professional bill for this time? Most probably build it in, or just eat it as a cost of doing business. I would love to hear from shop owners on this subject.

If you take this idea a step further–and three Scotches will do that–we should also address the time spent tracking down new and used parts for a restoration. Some cars, like a Mustang, an MGB or a Triumph TR4, require little more than going to NPD, Victoria British, Moss or Northwest Import Parts, just to name a few of the available sources, and simply ordering what you need. What, though, is a professional restorer to do with a rare car like a Tornado Typhoon? It took me a lot of time to find parts for that one. How does a shop charge for time spent searching out stuff on eBay or–as I did with the Tornado—chasing parts all over Europe?

This kind of uncounted, yet necessary, time investment is why I rarely enjoy talking to people who don’t understand what’s actually involved in a restoration. Too many believe that restoring a car requires little more than a few hundred dollars’ worth of paint and a couple of months’ worth of rote body and mechanical repairs.

I figure I can restore just about any simple sports car in 800 to 1200 man-hours. Yes, I work fast, but this time estimate does not include prep and paint; although I grew up in my dad’s body shop, I just don’t have the time, equipment, or love of tedium necessary to produce concours-level paintwork.

What this estimate does include is the five to ten percent of that time I spend studying, learning, planning and ordering parts. If you are having your car restored, you need to appreciate that this is part of what you’re paying a professional to do.