Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

gresham flyer · Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 1435

In the states the barn find or totally original vehicle has hit an all time high at shows the length and breadth of the country.
Even the very top concourse events like Pebble Beach have a separate category for such cars.

People want something a bit different,now the barn find with that dusty found look is all the rage.
Just get it running,check the brakes and suspension is ok and leave the rest alone.

We have gone through the 1980`s,1990`s and the 2000`s ripping our cars to pieces and giving them nut and bolt restorations to a quality that they were never built to in the first place.
Triple chroming,2K paintwork,sumptuous trimming,detailed engine bay`s etc.

I will put my hand up and admit to being one of these people who has done just this to a car.

Some years ago I was lucky enough to find a Daimler Sovereign 420 1967 in a workshop that had been left there by its owner for over 20 years.
It was a one owner car and totally original.
It needed new sills,jacking points and the very bottoms of the front wings replacing. The mechanical parts needed sorting as it had stood a long time.
Apart from this a good clean was only required.
I like this car so much more than the one I did the nut and bolt work on.
When you get into it there is that age related smell.
The leather seats have an age related look about them. (bit like us)!!!
The interior although in very good order has that comfy feel.
The car has not been to bits..the doors,bonnet,boot,engine bay etc is how it was assembled in 1967,everything opens and closes as it should.

I think in the coming year with classic car prices at an all time high again and people spending their money on a car rather than that gilt edged investment bond the original or barn fresh car will be the next cult item to take off.
As it takes a lot of effort tracking down and purchasing such cars and putting them back on the road without spoiling their patina,show organisers should give credit to people who bring such vehicles to their events.
We do not all want lipstick red Jaguars looking like a brothel keeper madam all tarted up to the nines.

You get a lot of car club members having cheque book cars at local club nights parked with their bonnets up showing off their underware,or the ten year restoration car owned and restored by Mr Methodical parked in the car park all gleaming and telling everyone how he spent a fortnight re-hanging the doors so he got fag paper width gaps all over etc.

It takes a strong willed person to arrive in an original unrestored car and have everyone comment..."When are you going to give it the million dollar treatment" ..."you cannot drive it around with stone chips, dull chrome,or the odd tear in the seat cover" ..."that paint is a bit dull" etc.
More of us should do it.!!

An original unrestored car in good condition,that has been well cared for is priceless in my opinion.

What do you think.?

Gresham Flyer

D4B · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 2083 Location: Hampshire UK

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22837 Location: UK

Riley Blue · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 1751 Location: Derbyshire

A good friend of mine has done this to his pre-war Sunbeam, it's a supreme example of oily rag car restoration. Ironically he is a car restorer by profession and the state of his Sunbeam makes his wife cringe.

gresham flyer · Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 1435

The Vee-Dub boy`s love that rusty rat look. A local bodyshop near me is restoring a van for someone but leaving the surface rust on the van,and only repairing the very rotted out areas of the van.

Gresham flyer

Penman · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4880 Location: Swindon, Wilts.

Hi
I forsee a whole new service for restorers.

I wonder if this chap would work in 12" to the ft scale.
http://martynwelch.com/
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

baconsdozen · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.

I agree,far too many cars are over restored and many of the owners seem to think the more they spend the better it must be.
I have been determined to maintain the 'old' look of my Rover p5b.It has very few new bits on it either the old parts have been repaired or replacement second hand ones fitted where at all possible.It had been in a barn for close on twenty years and has a superb if slightly musty smell.
Cheque book restorations have meant that new parts are now way overpriced,I'd rather see a car thats used and enjoyed rather than one thats just a status symbol,that nobody is allowed anywhere near in case they leave a thumb print on it.
_________________
Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

clan chieftain · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Motherwell

All of a sudden I think the marina looks ok now. Laughing

_________________
The Clan Chieftain

Roger-hatchy · Joined: 07 Dec 2007 Posts: 2135 Location: Tiptree, Essex

This Wolesley Hornet got more attention, and more positive comments than any of the other cars at the show.
Better than any of the OTT show cars, al be it every car was driven to the show.

You can see what the owner said about the find on his info sheet.
Last registered in 1962.
A bit of work on the trafficators and a new wheel bearing to pass the MOT

He told me he has the original radiator motif with light, light but has broken. the light still works.
He is going to glue fix it rather than fit a replacement as it is the original.

Roger-hatchy · Joined: 07 Dec 2007 Posts: 2135 Location: Tiptree, Essex

PS.
And you don't have to worry if the plug leads are laying in the right direction, or the right colour

D4B · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 2083 Location: Hampshire UK

kismet · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 71 Location: South Staffs

I saw an early fifties Chevy pickup for sale on Ebay the other day. Had had a full restoration but the rust and corrosion had been airbrushed back on!

colwyn500 · Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland

gresham flyer · Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 1435

That Wolseley Hornet is just the time of look I meant.

It is far more interesting trying to find something like that stuck away in a barn, than reading Classic Car magazine and trotting off to a bespoke retailer and writtng a cheque out for that over restored car.

Gresham Flyer

Jim.Walker · Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 1229 Location: Chesterfield

If I go to a car show I usually spend most of my time wandering around the auto-jumble or tool stalls.
I rarely look at the cars because being well into my seventies I can remember what cars as far back as the usually well kept 1920s really looked like. In fact I even used to drive a 1927 Rolls Silver Ghost Hearse, which was still in service into the early 1960s. Most of the cars on display at shows today often hardly resemble the cars I remember.
Things which stand out for me are gaudy pre-war cars. 1950s cars with paint finishes which would have shamed a Rolls Royce of that era when normal family saloons etc. would have very marked orange peel from new. Cars with polished radiators hidden behind a grill would probably have been painted and not chrome or polished brass. Coiffuered plug leads and wiring (often with crimp on Lucars). Polished hydraulic brake pipes: and not forgetting it arrived on a trailer so that the immaculate underside may be inspected in the mirror carefully positioned beneath it.
Of course I can go on and on. Cars which prompt the "Ah, I remember" are cars that are obviously used and are usually the more honest representations of the type And more interesting. But of course, if the rust has not been kept under control...............................
Jim.
_________________
Quote from my late Dad:- You only need a woman and a car and you have all the problems you
are ever likely to want". Computers had not been invented then!