Basic Restoration

I will try to keep this short & simple. This is not an exact science, this is just simply what works for me. By no means am I implying that this is the right way to do a restoration or that some other method is the wrong way. Never be afraid to experiment or try different things. If you mess up, count it as a lesson learned.

Find a Car: Very simple - find a car that needs restoration. I avoid cars that are needy - i.e. no hood, chorosion, bent roof pilars, etc. I like good, solid, complete cars. I always suggest taking "before" photos of any car you intend to restore, it is nice to compare the beginning product to the finished product.

Take the Car Apart: Work carefully & slowly here, it is easy to damage the car or injure yourself. Hit each rivot with an automatic center punch, be sure to center it on the rivot head. Using a 1/16" drill bit, drill a small starter hole into the rivot post. Now go to a larger drill bit, usually a 1/8" works fine, center it in the 1/16" hole you just drilled and very carefully drill off the head of each rivot. The chassis should just pop off, if its a little stuck use a small flathead screwdriver and gently pry it off, if it does not pop off fairly easily you may need to drill the rivot heads a little more, or maybe use a slightly larger drill bit. Once the car is apart I use a small file to clean up the edges and tops of the rivot posts. At this point you should test fit the chassis to make sure it will fit back on easily. Now go back to your 1/16" drill bit and drill a hole into each rivot post - this hole will be used for re-assembly. On cars that have very short rivot posts be careful not to drill through the body or engine compartment.

Stripping: Strip the paint from your body & chassis. Often lacquer thinner works well, Marhyde Paint Striper in a Spray works well too. When using these chemicals always treat them with care, they can be dangerous. Use outside only, do not get on plastic, do not get on skin. It is best to use a quality grade pair of rubber non-latex gloves for this job. Never sand blast, bead blast, or anything along those lines to remove the paint.

Clean & Polish all Metal Parts: (Polishing & Cleaning of small metal parts, such as Spoiler motors will be discussed in the Other Topics Section towards the end of this page) Start by soaking the parts in some tpye of etching cleaner for about 1-2 minutes. Remove from cleaner, rinse, & dry. Next use some very fine steel wool #0000 and very thoroughly go over the body & chassis - this will clean it up and smooth it out. Next use a good cleaning brush, not something real abrasive, but not real soft either. Use the brush along with some brasso to thoroughly and extensively scrub all metal parts. Wash, rinse, and dry. Next use a good metal polish to polish the parts - I suggest Wenol, Wenol is a moderately expensive German engineered metal polish, it is the best metal polish on the market in my opinion. I use a rag and some Wenol to polish most areas by hand, small areas such as the grille & engine compartment will require an old toothbrush and some polish. Don't be afraid to be aggressive in your polishing, just don't use anything abrasive, the more it shines, the better it is.

Polishing of Chassis: Use rubber gloves for this. Take a reasonable size piece of #0000 steel wool and soak it with some brasso. Use that to very thoroughly scrub the entire chassis. Once the chassis has been well scrubbed - wash, rinse, & dry. Next very thoroughly and aggressively polish the chassis using a soft cloth and some metal polish(again I use Wenol), then buff to a shine with a soft clean cloth. Wash, rinse, & dry. Once the chassis is well polished be careful not to touch it with your bare hands - skin oils are damaging to polished or bare metal. Once the chassis is polished it should be coated with a lacquer or urethane clear coat to maintain the shine, polished parts will retarnish quickly if left uncoated. I usually clear coat the chassis at the same time I paint the body, just be sure to put some masking tape around the wheel bushings.

Dremel Polish the Body: If you do not own a vibe polisher then this step is very important. If you have a vibe polisher then this step is not absolutely necessary, but can be very beneficial. Use a Dremel Tool with Buffing Wheel with some type of polishing compound and set the Dremel to speed 2 or 3. Mibro Polishing Compund #6 from Lowes is great for this step. Work over the entire body very carefully and thoroughly, go around all egdes and in grooves. When done be sure to thoroughly clean off all polish residue. This process will clean up all the fine scratches left from the steel wool and will create a near mirror shine. I do not usually use this process for chassis. Once the body is well polished be careful not to touch it with your bare hands - skin oils are damaging to polished or bare metal.

Final Polish: The Vibe Polisher - if you do not have a vibe polisher then you may skip this step. Now I send the body & chassis for a 24-48 hour run through the vibe polisher. For those who do not know what a vibe polisher is - it is also called a tumble polisher. It uses a dry media in a vibrating tub to gently polish metals. Vibe polishers are most commonly used by shooting enthusiasts for polishing used shell casings for reloading. As a media I prefer fine corn cob treated with rouge powder. There are diferent brands of vibe polishers and you may think they are all the same, but this is not the case. My first vibe was a mid range $75 one that lasted about a year before it died. My second vibe was a cheapo $40 one that lasted about 5 months before it died. My current one is a more expensive $100+ Bulldog Model from Eastern Coinop and so far it has performed wonderfully, the Bulldog also comes with a 1 year gaurantee.

If you plan on doing much restoration then a vibe polisher is an absolute must, I would never again do restoration without a vibe polisher, it is probably the most essential & valuable tool I have. Vibe polishing will remove all the ultra fine scratches left from hand polishing and give the car body a smooth, bright finish. Once the car & chassis are removed from the polisher they should be thoroughly but gently cleaned & dried, at this point do not touch the parts with your bare hands, skin oils can damage the polished metal and also affect your paint work. It is not absolutely necessary but I suggest that to brighten the body even more you can do a quick gentle polish & buff with some Wenol on a very soft cloth, just make sure sure that the car is free of any polish residue before painting. Unless you are using a zinc plating system your body & chassis are now ready for painting!

***Most people reading this can most likely skip the next step but I am including these steps in the interest of completeness.

Zinc Plating: I use a zinc plating home kit from Caswell Industries to give a new fresh coating all my restorations. Zinc plating is expensive, complex, and involves a great deal of time, there is a large learning curve, and several chemicals involved. I would advise against anyone doing their own plating work at home.

After parts have been zinc plated, its a quick hand polish with Wenol and Back in the Vibe Polisher for 24-48 hours.

Before we get to painting lets talk about the paint stand. There are a variety of ways to set your car for painting. One thing I really like is a fly tying stand with alligator clips, that works exceptionally well. I usually make my own "paint stands". I start with a section of 2X4 about 6" long. Then I get a small wood darrell pin from the hardware store and cut off two pieces about 6" long each. Then I drill 2 holes in the 2X4 just very slighlty larger than the darrell pins, and use a hammer to lightly tap them into the holes. Next, I drill a hole in the top of each pin, this will be where the rivots posts of the car body sit, you want the rivot posts to sit firmly in the holes , not loose. This makes a perfect paint stand and allows for all areas of the car to be painted at once. Here is what one of my stands looks like:

Painting: - This is not as hard as many people think. First just choose a color that you like. Now just use your airbrush and paint your car, see the Tools & Supplies page for info on airbrushes. Some people suggest tack coats or letting paint dry 15 minutes between coats - I don't do any of that. I use lacquer paints that dry quite quickly and I just spray the car until I get good coverage and a shade of color that I like. If you use waterbase paints it may be necessary to allow some drying time between coats to prevent runs or pooling. I use an air pressure on my airbrush of around 25-30 psi. After painting I apply a good clear coat. I personally use a 3 part automotive urethane clear. Urethane clear is expensive but good. There are a variety of clear coats you can use- lacquer, polyurethane, acrylic, etc. Just realize that some are better than others, and some are prone to peeling if the car is to be masked of for other details such as a black roof.

Windshield & Interior: Sometimes cars have been painted by the "child artist" and the glass or interior are also painted, this is not a problem. Easy Off Oven Cleaner in the blue can will do a great job removing paint from plastic, don't use the extra strength yellow can. Just place the parts in a small baggy, spray a liberal amount of oven cleaner onto the parts in the baggy, then seal and let soak for atleast several hours, overnight is best. Remove the parts from the bag and use an old toothbrush to scrub them, then wash, rinse, & dry. Sometime parts may come nicely clean very easily & quickly, other times parts may need this process muiltiple times.

To polish the windshield I use a soft, lint free cloth along with Novus Plastic Polish #2. Place your finger behind the area you are going to polish to support that area. Put some polish on a rag, rub inside & out, then buff with a dry area of your rag. You may need to do this several times to get it looking good. Once the windshield is clean & clear your job is done. Some scratches may be too deep to completely polish out, but the Novus should get them to where they are minimally noticeable.

With interiors always be very careful not to damage them. Steering wheels and the folds/seams are places where interiors break very easily. The interior should always be gently washed with some dish detergent and a toothbrush to get it good and clean, even if it already looks clean, this will improve the appearance of it. After washing ,very carefully dry with a papertowel, again always be careful no to damage delicate parts.

Wheels: If you wish you may try to clean & rechorme your old wheels - if that is what you prefer please see the Axles & Wheels page for various techniques. Or you can add a nice set of original wheels if you have some.

Myself , I will never again rechrome an old wheel - its too much effort for a mediocre result. I always buy reproduction wheels from Jon at The Redline Shop. They cost about $8 per set of 4 + shipping. I know this sounds expensive at first - but the improved appearance of the finished restoration and the ease of use greatly outweigh the cost. Make sure you order the right style & size of wheel .

Once your wheels are done, or once you get your repro wheels from Jon, go ahead and put them on the chassis. Make sure the wheels all sit straight and roll freely. You may have to play with the axles, tweaking them etc, to get the wheels to all sit level & roll straight.

Trim & details: The detail paint on a car is the hallmark of a good restoration - flat black grille, red tailights, etc. I always paint details before re-assembly, thats just my personal preference. I usually just use standard Testors enamel colors for this - gloss red, flat black, and other colors if necessary. You can use a toothpic, fine tip artist brush, or whatever you are comfortable with. The neater the detail paint looks, the better the restoration looks. I usually like to let my detail painting dry overnight.

Re-Assembly: There are a number of options here as well. You can just use some glue to hold the chassis to the body, this is the worst option, the appearance is very poor. You can use repro rivots, I do not like that either as it makes the car look too original and makes it easy for someone to sell it as an original. You can get some small zinced nails and cut the head off with a pair of cutters leaving the head and a very short shaft of 1/8" & then you have made your own replacement rivots that are clearly not original and they just need to glued in place.

My personal recommendation, is to use 1-72 button head screws. These make re-assembly quick & easy, screws make taking the car back apart very easy if should need to do so, and screws create a very clean neat finished look while at the same time making the car readily recognized as a restoration.

The Finished Product: So after all that hard work you have your restored car! Compare the before phots with your finished product and you'll see the difference!