Welcome to Our Classic Auto Blog

Whatever your motivation for owning and/or restoring a classic car, it is a process that requires time, patience, skill, money, and a place (whether a home garage or a workshop) with the right tools and people. so now we welcome you to our classic auto blog.

For the classic car lover, bringing a car back to life can be a truly rewarding experience, or it can be a nightmare that never seems to end. The reality is that most restoration projects that are started never get finished. Unfortunately, the personal pain that goes along with some of these unfinished projects seems to last longer than the project itself. Certainly, many shops, consultants and TV shows make a lot of money and notoriety on the failures of the car lovers in the world.

We started this classic auto blog and forum to help all the average classic car lovers avoid the pitfalls of car ownership and restoration nightmares. The average car lover is not a multi-millionaire with unlimited funds to own and restore a car or even have a “collection”.

So how did we get here; as car lovers before we could even legally drive, we have had the fortunate opportunity to own and restore multiple classic cars and trucks with a limited budget and a mechanical skill set which can best be defined as an average back yard mechanic, or “just good enough to not get into real trouble”.

Jamie and I are neighbors who both enjoy owning and driving our classic cars and trucks regularly. We are blessed to live in an area with an abundance of older cars with great places to drive and show. There are weekly cars shows and in the summer nightly cruise ins. 

For me I have been lucky to restore more than half dozen cars starting over 20 years ago, before the TV shows helped shape the process creating a world where both prices and the number of restoration shops skyrocketed, with what seems to be a restoration shop on every street corner. I have been even luckier in the restorations as I was able to get my projects done with shops doing most of the work, and for the most part have had little problem in being taken advantage of or ripped off by the restoration shops. What I have found is that there are many good and honest restoration companies; unfortunately, there are at least as many, if not more, not so reputable companies out there making the process for many miserable and costly.

Many of the classic cars that Jamie has been lucky enough to own and work on were the result of someone else’s unfinished project or older restorations that were in need of some TLC to bring them back to their former glory. Even with a seemingly finished or almost finished project, it is easy to find yourself at the wrong shop taking two steps backwards. Every restoration is different in purpose and scope, but the formula for success or the potential for failure are the same regardless of the project.

We came into doing this blog to help all those out there who would like to own and drive a classic car without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and many years of their lives by not being truly prepared. Unfortunately, television makes the whole process seem rather easy, quick, and not very costly, making “reality TV” far from reality.

Well how do I know; great question!!

Having completed multiple restorations (Including models: Chevelle, Camaro, Impala, Porsche 911, C15 truck, VW, Mustang) helps as does a recent opportunity to change career paths after being offered a position as an office manager at a classic car restoration shop.

I thought; what a great opportunity I get to do what I really love in classic cars and make a little money as well. I am sure you can figure that it didn’t go as I hoped. I spent the better part of a year working at the shop and learned quite a bit about the car restoration business and especially the not so ethical portions of the restoration business. Again, there are a lot of good shops out there, but there are even more that are not.

During my year at the shop more than 50 restoration projects sat in the yard, and even more were taken in with owners leaving substantial deposits for work to be done, with a job rarely being finished. I found it interesting that the customers were often very frustrated and often angry, but they all seemed to make the same mistakes in engaging in the classic car or truck restoration.

This classic auto blog is our effort to help educate that average classic car owner as well as a guide thru the car restoration process.

Over the coming weeks and months, we want to share resources to help plan and navigate the classic car business and restoration process. We also want to share some of the restoration experiences, both good and bad.

We also hope that our readers will engage in our forum to share their experiences as well.