The Great Car restoration project

The great Car restoration project

I’ve always wanted to restore cars. There is something inside of me that wants to take something that is worn down and seen better days. Take it apart and bring it back to its former glory, or at least make it usable. I rebuilt my TR6 back in the late 70’s not knowing what I was doing, but that has never stopped me before. At one point I had the engine hanging from a tree in my parents backyard. I replaced a bad engine with one from another TR6 that was a mess. In the 90’s a friend said I needed to buy a 1957 TR3. I thought he was going to help me restore it. It sat for years until it was just a worthless hunk of rusted junk. The same thing eventually happened to my TR6 when I had an issue with the clutch. It also sat for years and was sold to a TR6 collector as almost junk.

After destroying several Tr’s I promised myself I’d never touch a classic car again. Recently that all changed. Back in 2000 I purchased a brand new Ford Mustang Convertible. It was a great car. Over the following 24 years it sat sometimes because it needed work and I didn’t have the money or because my wife thought it was a bad idea to drive in the snow. When the top started to leak, it sat on rainy days. In the summer of 2018, just before COVID I was driving it home when the overdrive shut down and I limped home parking it in the garage. It was one of those times I didn’t have money. My brother, Eric back then said it was a sensor thing in the transmission. He’d fix it, but I needed to get the soft top fixed so it could stay outside. Jump to 2024, Covid is a memory, I’ve another job and my daughter Elena (some call her El, a nickname I love for some reason) has become interested in auto mechanics and she comes to me one bright sunny early spring day and says, “I’m going to fix the Mustang”. I politely smile and continue on with my day. She comes to me again and says, “Dad, I’m going to fix the Mustang.” Something inside me says I need to have faith in my daughter and show confidence in her abilities, so I took a deep breath and said yes she could.

THe car goes to Caliper Tire in New City, where she works. She removes the gas tank, and replaces the fuel pump back there. When and why did they ever put the fuel pump there? Real dumb place. I thought she was crazy to even think it was there. It’s alway been on the engine, like you know! She gets the engine running and she tells me I have to get the car registered so she can road test it and find out what is wrong with the transmission. Hemmings Insurance for classic cars is willing to insure the Mustang, but not my Grand Am for some reason. They are both the same age. Elena determines the transmission is shot. I don’t believe her. Your Uncle Eric said it was sensors back six years ago. I talk to Eric and he says he doesn’t remember it and he doesn’t have a device for the transmission computer. I brought it to a transmission shop and $6,000.00 later the Mustang is back. Of course the soft top still has holes in it and I only drive it on sunny days and what has it done since the car runs? Come on now let's say it all together, It’s rained.

So after all of that fun I ask Elena if she’d like to do a project car? She’s all gung ho for one, so I look at TR6’s, Jeeps and Corvettes. Elena doesn’t like Jeeps, so the idea of doing a 1980’s CJ7 like my brother is doing is off the table. TR6’s, I know inside and out, but The Roadster Factory in Pennsylvania burned down recently and I can’t find a suitable car to rebuild. My wife, Teri, sends me an ad from The MarketPlace on Facebook for a 1978 Corvette for about $1,900.00 saying this is a good one or maybe I imagined she said that. She did send me the picture, I’m sure of that. It’s important for the ‘discussion’* that will come later. I like the car and I like another 78 Corvette in New Jersey. I look at the one

in Jersey. The owner has lost the keys and the car is locked up. One of the doors is slightly ajar and I’m worried there is rot in what is called the ‘bird cage’. The birdcage is the metal frame of the car that keeps the doors and windshield square on the car. That goes bad and it’s a major repair I can’t do. The other 78 has no title and the paint on the fiberglass is gone, the fiberglass seems to be loose and in need of something I can’t do. I play with the idea of purchasing both for a moment, then I remember Teri is my wife and I don’t want another ‘discussion’* right before she leaves me. I pass on both cars. I find a 1986 Corvette in Boonton, New Jersey. It’s a faded black convertible with a stick shift. It was in an accident about eight years ago and the present owner has gotten a little too old to continue doing car restoration. Elena and I take a mid week trip to go see it. I tell Don we’ll be there about 6:30. When we arrive at the location, it looks different from the picture on Google Maps. I recheck the address and in my haste to leave I choose the wrong town and we are about thirty minutes away still. I called Don and we rescheduled for a Sunday afternoon. This time Elena navigates and we get there. We drive up a shady street toward the house. It’s April, still early in the Spring. The house is set off the street and to the right, down a hill is a large garage. I find out later Don can store up to eight of his cars in it. Don meets us outside. The Corvette is nothing to talk about. You need imagination to envision what it could look like once some care is given to it. The car has sat for eight years and

Don has health issues, so he is getting rid of projects. Elena asks a few questions to Don as I climb all over the car. Underneath to look at the frame, the driver's door doesn’t open, so over to the passenger’s door. It opens easily and closes firmly. That side of the ‘bird cage’ seems fine. I trust the other side is okay. I notice a belt sitting on the engine, but I don’t put two and two together until after we get the car to Caliper Tire. The air pump, which I thought was the alternator, looks like it is broken. We don’t make an offer on the car. I told Teri we take our time with this. We’d seen three Corvettes. The black 86 in Boonton, the first 78 in Jersey and the other 78 Corvette with no paint on it in Orangeburg. I waited a week looking for other cars. I watch videos on repairs and become a little more informed about Corvettes. During the week I notice Don has lowered the price to $1775.00. Around the end of the week after Teri and I have our ‘discussion’ about the car and how I’m going to pay for it (sell more stocks) and afford parts (I have no idea) I make an offer of $1500.00 and agreed on $1600.00.Everything comes together quickly and the car is flat bedded to Caliper Tires on a late Saturday afternoon, Sean jr and sr are still there. Senior seemed to get a kick looking it over. When Nastia see it she says, "Dad, you paid how much for this piece of shit??" Her reaction to the car is the high light of owning the car so far. I have to leave, Teri and I have plans for the night.

On Monday, I heard from Elena one of the owners has a problem with the car being at the shop. I was a little surprised about it. I thought everyone who needed to know about it had agreed to it. Someone tells her the frame is bent and the engine looks seized and it’ll cost $40,000.00 to repair. I.ve listened to people all my life say things like that and it’s always taken the fun out of doing projects. When I hear her say these things I have to fight that feeling I’ve make a $2,000.00 mistake. I tell her I’ve listened to people all my life say stuff like that. Sometimes they’re right, most times they’re not. I ask her, is this something she still wants to do? Will she have fun doing it? She answers yes to both questions and we talk a little more and she is reassured. Sometimes it’s easier to have two people, one older to put those doubts and fears to rest.

The car has been at Caliper Tire a week today. She was told it is a distraction so she can’t work on it during shop hours. That is understandable, but a disappointment. She can work on it afterwork on Wednesday and all day Sunday. She tried to move the car back into the shop on Wednesday, but it wouldn’t move. Our first project is tires and brakes because of that. A super surprise, the first of many, I’m sure happened when Sean priced tires for the car. They are 225/50r16 tires and are obsolete. A good name brand will cost $514.00 a tire. I thought I could get four for that price. We’re looking around.