Do you re-assemble all cars in this order? or do you just do what you can when the parts are availiable? Do you restore the parts as they come off the vehicle or do you strip all the parts off and restore them while you are re-assembling?
Great Questions....
1) Yes this is the general order of re-assembly from me. Once I start one area of the car I like to continue there until it's done or until I can't proceed (like installing the steering column before the K frame.)
2) Don't really like to bounce around from area to area, because things tend to get over looked or forgotten about.
3) First step is to strip the car 100%, have it properly sand blasted/primed etc... If you're personally taking care of the metal work and body/paint work then I would guess you should do that first. What I like to do is take care of restoring all the components and buying all the reproduction parts needed when the body is off getting painted. That way, ideally, when the car comes back all painted it should only take a few weeks to re-assemble.
Problem for me....When I'm working on my own car, I'm not getting paid...That's why a lot of this car's components were not ready when it came time to re-assemble.
On another note:
I work by myself out of a garage on my house...I turn out a lot of nice award winning, drivable restorations....
www.alangallantautomotiverestoration.comI take a lot of flack for the amount of work I out-source, mainly metal work and body and paint work.
I think of it this way....(for example) Lets say you take you car to Dave Ferro at Totally Auto for a full restoration.
Do you expect Dave to do all the work himself ? Of course not...He has an expert metal man on staff, quality body and paint guys and a group of assemblers that do everything else....ALL under one roof...
For me...I don't have a big enough roof....So my expert metal man has his own shop with his own business, same with the paint guys I use etc....Same results with a lot less overhead...You can be sure I'm not "padding your bill" to pay the rent...(no disrespect to the gang at Totally Auto or any other major restoration shop). I'm the one that choreographs the whole operation and takes care of everything. I also do a lot of stuff in house.
