| Restoration is a must for any classic car owner who | | | | better. Your goal is to find the paint that perfectly |
| wants to have the authentic look and feel of the | | | | matches a color of the classic car you have. It does |
| model they have. While restoring a vintage car may | | | | not need to be the color that you bought it in. For |
| be no easy task, the rewards are great: your car will | | | | example, if you have a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in |
| increase its value, and you get to ride in an almost | | | | red, you can still paint in cream, since it's one of the |
| authentic make. | | | | colors that it came in. |
| You can easily have a shop that specializes in | | | | 4. If your car seats are leather, clean it thoroughly. |
| restoration fix your car. But if you want to tinker | | | | After cleaning, inspect the leather condition. If it has |
| around and do restoration on your own, here are 5 | | | | a few minor scratches on it, you can easily restore it |
| great tips that you can easily follow. | | | | by buying liquid leather solutions. Just make sure that |
| 1. Inspect the car thoroughly, and keep a list of | | | | the solution that you will apply is the same color as |
| things you want to restore. Do not go and | | | | the seat, or else it would look horrible. Look for |
| immediately replace everything--some parts may still | | | | excess leather under the seat and bring it to the |
| be usable. The top things that you need to replace | | | | shop, in order to accurately compare the colors. |
| are: heavily-rusted parts, chrome parts that could not | | | | If the leather is heavily damaged and worn-out, |
| be shined by polishing, broken windows, upholstery | | | | replacing it would be better. At this point of the |
| that are heavily worn-out, and of course, everything | | | | restoration, you can be a little more lax in terms of |
| mechanical that does not work. | | | | authenticity. You can have your seats replaced with |
| 2. For the non-mechanical parts (e.g. windows, | | | | new ones that exactly looks the same, but of a |
| chrome parts), it would be much better to look for | | | | different kind of leather. |
| parts cars first. Parts cars are cars that could not be | | | | 5. If the chrome parts could not be restored back |
| feasibly restored, but has parts that could be reused. | | | | into its shining glory by polishing, you need to replace |
| By shopping around for parts cars, you would be | | | | them. You can do the paintjob yourself, but unless |
| saving a few hundred bucks. | | | | you have experience with chrome re-plating, you |
| For the mechanical parts however, it would be much | | | | need to find a specialist. Detach all the chrome parts |
| safer to look for stock parts. You can't assume that | | | | from the car, and have an expert re-chrome these |
| an engine of a parts car would still be good in three | | | | parts. |
| to five years. A stock engine might seem to be | | | | The fun part about restoring a classic car is that you |
| more expensive, but it will certainly last longer. | | | | get to spend more time with your car, thus making it |
| 3. For the paint job, find a shop that offers a wide | | | | ever more valuable to you. Once you finish restoring, |
| variety of paint colors. If you can find one that | | | | you can surely enjoy the product of your hard work. |
| specializes in paints for restoration, it would be much | | | | |