Bringing Your Classic Car Or Truck Out Of Winter Storage
O.k., so you are one of the lucky guys who has already finished their project and you have just been waiting for some decent weather before you get your classic car out and show it off. Well, slow down fella, let’s look at a few things you should do before you just turn the key and take off down the road.
You do routine maitenance on your daily driver, right? Well, you need to do the same if not more to your pride and joy. I mean, I am just assuming you would want too since you have poured months and years of blood sweat and beers into it. So let’s see, what do we need to make sure we do?
- Check your tires….. While your ride was in that cold garage all winter, chances are that you have lost some air. You want to show off your ride, just don’t show it off on the side of the road stranded with a flat.
- Change your oil….. But I haven’t used the engine? That is true, but there is a chance that condensation has occured in the engine while it was left sitting for all those months, so let’s go ahead and spend the little money now and put in some fresh blood. Trust me, your engine will be thankful.
- Check your coolant…..Yes spring is here and summer is just around the corner, make sure you are topped off and ready for the heat.
- Wash and wax…..This should be a no brainer because you want to turn heads with a shiny car. However, my motivation for telling you this is you want a good protectent to keep that paint job in check. Nobody likes a faded paint job, so be nice to the paint and it will be nice to you, for years to come.
- Nut and Bolt…..This is a good time to check all the nuts and bolts that you put together when you were puting your ride together. It also gives you a chance to check all your wires and other sections of your car to make sure you don’t have any leaks ( seals ) and you will lessen the chanes of any problems while you are driving down the road.
- Fresh Gas…..Hopefully you left a minimum of gas in your car before you parked it and have cranked it periodically to run some through the carborator. Don’t forget to put some fresh premium and possibly even some gas treatment in so you won’t be sputtering down the road.
I hope I have joggled your mind a little here and you will take the time to do these things and more. I am serious folks. This is your baby, you need to put as much if not more time into caring for your classic car or truck ans you did restoring it. Hey, if it was so easy, then everybody would have one, right? Be sure to check back often to see tips like these and more. As always, thanks for visiting old-car-parts.com and be safe on the roads this season.
What color should you paint your classic car?
When you first start the restoration process on your classic car or truck, one of the first questions you ask yourself is ” What color am I going to paint it? “ Well, this is a question that can be narrowed down by asking yourself a few other questions first.
- Are you restoring the car back to its original state? If so, then you need to paint the car the color it came with, or at least a color it was offered in. If you do change the color to one it which it was offered, then make sure you change the tag on the car as well that tells you what color the car came in if applicable.
- Do you want to be like everyone else, or do you want to be unique? Yes, we have all seen the pretty teal hotrods and the ghost flames. It’s hard not to…..they’re everywhere. Buy some magazines with lots of pictures from car shows and see what everyone else is using, then find something you like and do it different. One thing that can decide if you place at a car show or not is if your ride stands out.
- How much money are you budgeting for paint? A nice metal flake paint job with some ghost flames does look sweet, but your wallett starts hiding when you think about it. A nice paint job can be very expensive by itself and this isn’t including any body work that may need to be done. You can get a nice 2 tone paint job on your ride and enhance it with some pin striping if your budget won’t allow you to go all out.
I hope this has helped a little in your journey to restore your classic car or truck. Make sure to visit old-car-parts.com often for more tips on restoring your classic car or truck.
Spring Is Here | Let’s Get To Work
O.k. so you are running out of excuses. There’s no Football, it’s not to cold to work outside anymore, in fact it is becoming nicer and nicer by the day. Yes folks, it is time to pull that project out of the garage and get it finished so you can tool around town showing off your ride.
What do you have left to do? Whatever it is, now is the time to get it done. Everytime you leave the house and see someone riding around in their ride it pisses you off and you wish you were doing the same thing.
If it is parts you need, but you have had a hard time finding them, don’t forget to check out the Old-Car-Parts store. Here you can find almost every part for every car or truck without leaving the comfort of your home.
We want to do what we can to get your ride on the road and in the sunshine, so make sure to come back to Old-Car-Parts.com to see many other things we will add frequently to help you get going.
Thanks for stopping by and keep on moving along.
Old-Car-Parts.com | Undergoing Facelift
Old-Car-Parts.com is undergoing a facelift. I hope to have a lot of useful daily content for you to see as well as some great pictures and videos. If you are looking for parts for your classic car or truck, then make sure to check out our store. Thanks for stopping by.
Top 3 reasons to buy classic auto parts online
These days, there are many different ways you can buy auto parts for your classic car or truck. Most of the time you don’t even care how you get it as long as it is the part you are looking for and it is inexpensive. Well that may have been the case in the past but now there is only one way you should buy your parts, and that is online. Whether it is a new part, a used but good part or even an entire vehicle, you can find what you need right here at your own computer. It’s like having the store come to you. The best thing is, it’s always open. So even in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep because you need to find that steering wheel for your ‘56 chevy so you can tool around town, you can shop, order and buy right from the comfort of your own home. So sit back and read the 3 reasons you should buy your classic auto parts online.
1) Convenience – What could be more convenient than shopping from home?
We have all gone out to the local salvage yards spending countless hours walking and searching for the parts we need only to come up empty handed most of the time. Let’s face it, the cars we want to restore are popular, so finding the parts we need is becoming more and more of a chore. You need to be in your shop putting your vehicle together so you can get it on the road but that is hard to do if you are always on the road getting parts. If you order your parts online however, you can spend more time doing just that. You can see all the parts that are available right in front of you and then have them shipped right to your door. ” Oh yeah , well what about the shipping costs? ” How does that save me money, you may ask. Well, with the rising costs of gas, I think you will find that the costs of shipping are very reasonable, and if you buy a certain amount of parts from some places, then they throw in shipping for free.
2) Availability - Virtually every old car part can be found online, if you know where to look first.
Everybody has their favorite store they like to do business with. But how many times have you gone to your store to get that certain part only to have them tell you it has to be ordered or it is out of stock. And in the case of classic car parts, most towns only have one or two stores that specialize in this department. When you shop for classic car parts online, you have hundreds of places you can go right at your fingertips. If one place you go to doesn’t have the part you need, you are just a couple of clicks away from finding it instead of having to drive across town and wasting valuable time and gas. And in the rare instance that you can’t find that part, you can be notified by e-mail as soon as the part is available even if it is late at night.
3) Cost – You want to keep your costs as inexpensive as possible.
You have made a big investment buying your vehicle, now you have to restore it. If you are on a budget like me, you have to pinch pennies where you can. Using online auctions can be a great way to do this when shopping for good but used parts and even new parts as well. Not only do individuals have parts that they are selling, but there are also stores on certain auction sites that have parts already on the shelf waiting for you to place your bid. I have used these auctions myself and continue to use them all the time because it does save a lot of money. who knows, you may even do like my father-in-law did and find an entire car he was looking for at a great price.
These are just 3 reasons that you should shop for your classic car and truck parts online.
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How to choose what kind of vehicle to restore
There are many different things to consider when trying to determine what kind of vehicle to restore. Ultimately, since this is going to take a lot of your hard work and time, you want it to be something that you are going to enjoy for years to come, so selecting a car or truck that you really like must be one of your first thoughts.
However, there are other things that you may want to consider and do a little research on before just jumping in and buying a vehicle. One thing that comes to mind is availability of the vehicle and parts compared to the amount of money you are planning to spend. ” Richard, can I restore a vehicle for $6000.00? ” Well, the answer is yes, you can. But it is very unlikely that you can do it with a car like my favorite, a 1969 Camaro SS . Finding a decent body alone for that much is a stretch. Usually trucks tend to be a little cheaper to restore due to the fact that they were made from tougher steel and you don’t have near as much rust (although this is not true in all cases) and you don’t have as much interior wise to have to worry about. But with a little searching, you can generally find a decent body to work with fairly inexpensive. Going back to the Camaro, this is becoming a hard to find vehicle mainly due to the popularity, the same is true for the ‘56 and ‘57 Chevy Bel Air’s. So if you are going to have a fairly tight budget, you will probably want to shy away from these vehicles.
You will also want to make sure that you have a good base vehicle to work with in the first place. I remember when my father-in-law and I drove about 45 miles away to pick up a body that he was planning to restore. We could have picked up the vehicle very easily by just sticking our hands through the holes in the rusted out fenders. he was getting a great price on the car, but after looking at it and realizing the total costs involved in getting it to total restoration, it just wasn’t going to be worth it.
So basically what you need to do is scout around and make sure you are going to be able to find a good starting base for your project. Next, call around and get some estimates for things you may not be going to do yourself ( Paint/body, engine, re- upholstering, etc… ) . After you do that, then you can decide what vehicle will be right for you.
I hope this helps a little in getting started with you project. Good luck!
