Take a lot of pictures of the car and draw diagrams of every part of the disassembly. Note the hardware type, size and location. After a couple of months, you will be thankful that you did. Take the time to catalogue and organize the parts when taking your classic car apart. Don’t just throw the nuts and bolts in some bucket for later use. Use clear plastic bags and tag one as you go, labelling the bag with the contents. Use small wire tags on parts that are too big for plastic bags. Make sure you clean, sand-blast and paint the nuts and bolts before you assemble them again.

Order all the new parts you need before starting with the assembly. Inspect each order to ensure that you get exactly what you paid for. Don’t throw away any spare part, even if it seems old and broken, until you’ve found a suitable working replacement. The good thing is that many of the important parts found in classic cars are stainless. Stainless steel can usually be buffed to look new again with a cloth, buffing wheel and special polish. On the other hand, chrome, which is also used in nearly all classic cars, need to be re-platted or replaced altogether.

Posted by Transport Specs