restoration order?

["A. Foster" <monkeypuzzle1@xxxxxxx>]

Marty;

 The conventional way, which makes the most sense to me, is to restore the car mechanically first. That way you can at least move it around. Body work and paint woulds be next, especially in the engine room. The interior would need to be dismantled so you can paint, repair, and remove trim parts. While you are doing that you could send the chrome off to be redone, since it needs to come off for repainting. At this point rewiring the car would also be a good idea as the old harness is at least partially rotten.

 Then comes upholstery, but certain parts of upholstery can be done at any time, door panels and seats come to mind. However the door panels should go in after repainting as they will have to be removed again if they go in before hand, the same goes with the carpet. Headliners need the glass removed to install on some cars, and that should only be replaced after the car is painted. Because some of the upholstery needed to be removed to remove some trim, that same trim has to be replaced before that upholstery goes back in. Likewise some upholstery has to be reinstalled before the trim goes back on. 

  I guess the basic point to make is that the car has to be disassembled in the reverse order to which the factory assembled it. This is where a body manual comes in handy, either that or take detailed notes. If you really want to go to town do a body off restoration and replace all of the body mounts and repaint everything.

Best Regard

Arran Foster

1954 Imperial Newport

----- Original Message -----

From: Marty

To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 10:16 AM

Subject: IML: restoration order?

 

Is their a proper order in which you restore a car? let me explain. here is the order I was going to go in. replace the carrier bearing, get a broken piece of glass replaced. engine pulled and redone top to bottom, engine compartment redone while the engine is out. brakes job.paint job, including door jams and replace needed rubber and smaller hard to remove chrome redone. interior redone, trunk redone, large chrome parts redone. windshield replaced, lenses and emblems replaced. Tires. Is this the best order to do this, or am I doing something wrong? And, or am I missing something? (If I left a car part out, it most likely has been redone or is in great original condition)

-Marty  1959 Le Baron