Congratulations on Owning Your British Car!  They're a lot of fun when running. It will mean far more to you since it is unique, has survived down the decades, was restored under your tutelage, and is British.

What’s Involved in Restoration?  If it were properly prepped when stored, you may luck out and not have that much difficulty taking it out of storage.  However, not that many of these cars had any care taken in storing them.  There will almost certainly be some problems... on the other hand, there are always some good stories of ones that started right up.  Most of these were ones that were driven somewhat regularly.  For example, both my 70 and 78 MGB's are in really great shape and serve quite well as daily drivers.

What May Be Wrong?  Almost any of these cars need some restoration… more often, a LOT of it.  If your car is in drivable condition, fortunately, much of the restoration can be phased..  But do some prioritization so that you’re not adding to the problems.

There are frequently fuel system problems.  The gas tanks often had water condensation resulting in rust.  Fuel left in carb bowls, fuel lines, and fuel tanks “varnished” and resulting in a real mess.  One of the first things to do to a car that’s been stored a while is drain the gas tank, checking for rust (if you find it, either have the interior recoated or buy a new one, which can often be purchased relatively inexpensively).  Then disconnect and blow the fuel lines with compressed air, blowing from the front to the back.  Next, open the carb float bowls and gently clean them of varnished fuel.  Finally, replace your fuel filter (note that original equipment filters were often plastic; replace them with the same-size one in a metal housing to eliminate the possibility of an engine compartment fire from a burst filter).

Rubber parts all over the car will have hardened.  Often the door window glass rubber and fuzzy seals have hardened or worn out.  While you can live with some of these for a while, be careful of failing to replace the parts around the exterior of the windows, as water will enter the door and rust out the bottom of it.

Too often, the car was left outdoors resulting in rust on the floorboards, degradation of upholstery and dashboards, deterioration of carpeting, and checking of the paint.  Tires may have flattened and rotted beyond safety.

The car might have come from a Snowbelt area and have salt-induced rust damage to the wheel wells, rocker panels, and many other areas.  Sometimes there are severe chassis or unibody problems.  These problems are more susceptible on unibody cars (such as MGB’s) which had thinner metal for structural elements than chassis-based vehicles (such as Triumphs) which had heavy-gage steel.

More often than not, the suspension bushings – made out of low grade rubber from decades ago – have deteriorated severely.

HOW Do You Restore Your Car?  The big question is whether you’ll…

·         Do the work yourself

·         Take it to a restoration shop

·         Or use a combination of these two approaches

Sources of Information:  There are numerous sources of data on both how to restore and sources of assistance.  Since I own MGB's, most the information I give is for those - however, you can find them for other British marques by doing an Internet Search such as:  [your marque] help support assistance bulletin board association technical data specs restoration forum" adding or subtracting other words until you find just what you're wanting.Here are a few:

Clubs, Associations, Registries:  A good way to find out about how to answer the above question is to join a local club and spend a lot of time talking with various members who have actually gone through the restoration process.  Be wary of the “I have a friend who…” stories – these are often just that:  Stories.  You can also join one of the regional or national associations or registries. 

Personal Websites:  There are also many personal websites that have immense libraries of information.  Some of them are linked theBarry's Classic Cars - Expertise Sources for British Cars of this website.

Internet Bulletin Boards:  Another good way to find out about mechanics in your area is to join various Internet bulletin boards such as the Yahoo Auto Groups MG-MGB Group (free). The MG-MGB Group is extremely helpful. To join, go to: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/MG-MGB/ and click on the "Sign Up" link at the upper left corner of the page.  There are similar groups for Morris Motors, Austin Healey, Jaguar, Triumph, Rover, and many others.  Once you're a member, you can immediately start posting messages. Ask the question "Does anybody know good MG or British cars mechanics and restorers in or near your town or area?"

Manufacturer’s Shop Manual:  It is always interesting and surprising how many owners will consider a restoration without first having bought and studied a shop manual.

They’re pretty easy to find, often available on eBay for anywhere from $15 to $50+ with quick shipping.

Many of these manuals are loaded with pictures, diagrams, “how to” procedures, disassembly and replacement instructions, some problem-solving procedures, specifications lists for various years and models, and a host of other valuable information.  In my opinion, one would be foolish to even think about restoration without such a manual.

I have one for the appropriate year in the trunk of my cars, thus affording me a valuable resource if I have a breakdown on the road; if I’m working on the car in my garage, the manual is right there with the car.

I also have the manual on a computer CD for each year of my two MGB’s.  I bought them on eBay for under $10 each and loaded the entire manual (in PDF format) for each car on my computer.  If I’m going to be working on my cars, I sit comfortably in my recliner in the living room the evening before and study what I’m in for the next day.

Many of the things you’ll see and learn in this book will help you make the decision as to how you’ll proceed (do it yourself vs. shop vs. mixed approach).

Electrical Diagrams & Problem-Solving Guides:  These fall in the same category as the shop manual.  Electrical problems are extremely common in Classic British cars.  The cars had less technologically-advanced electrics than are used today and decades of corrosion have often left a plethora of problems that can drive the owner crazy.  These can be compounded by changes made over the years by “PO’s” (previous owners), who often did some pretty weird and inexplicable things.

Fortunately, most of these problems are fairly easy to fix, but tracing down wiring is very difficult.  Many British car manufacturers did the very sensible thing of using the exact same color-coding year after year – once you learn it for one year, you know it for all.

The schematics in the back of your Service Manual are often hard to read, particularly in later-model vehicles where the electrics got more and more complicated.  I took the 8 ½” x 11” page and scanned it, then blew it up using software that came with my printer.  It resulted in 16 sheets of paper that I then taped together for a schematic than was now about 36” high by 44” wide.  I then taped it on my garage wall beside where I park my car – VERY helpful!

I also bought a color-coded, laminated 11” x 17” schematic that I keep in the trunk in case I have trouble out on the road.  I carry a mid-sized magnifying glass in my car tool kit to read it.  By the way, I also carry THREE flashlights in my car as a result of once having a breakdown at night out in the middle of nowhere in Arizona; you’d be surprised at how many repairs benefit from light coming at them from at least two directions.

There are also Electrical System Problem-Solving Guides available (I got mine on eBay) which take very logical, “decision tree” approaches to determining what might be wrong when you’ve tried all the more logical things.

These laminated, color-coded schematics and problem solving guides are pretty easy to find, often available on eBay for anywhere from $15 to $20, again with quick shipping.

Other Very Useful Resources:  Get the Moss Motors and Victoria British catalogs. These are both very-good references to understand how the cars go together and good parts-price resource.  Use the Moss Motors website – it’s loaded with all the same great diagrams as the catalog and you can use its embedded search function to find specific parts.  Here are links to some good ones:

Moss Motors- They have virtually everything; great website; their prices are anywhere higher than competitors; they DO have items that nobody else has (superchargers, electronic fuel injection, and a host of others); 800-667-7872 Moss Motors, Ltd., 440 Rutherford Street, Goleta, CA 93117;  http://www.mossmotors.com/

Victoria British – Good catalog and a full array of parts (almost as many as Moss); very wide selection; decent prices; unhelpful & unknowledgeable customer service people; difficult to use website; 800-255-0088, 14600 W. 107th Street, Lenexa, KS  66215; http://www.victoriabritish.com/features/MG/MG-1978-MG-MGB.htm

Northwest Auto Imports - Great prices and helpful people; these guys own, drive, and work on their MGBs and know a lot about them; always try them first, as their prices beat almost everybody else; 10042 SW Balmer, Portland, OR  97219 503-245-3806; Steve: sales@northwestimportparts.com

Advanced Performance Technology - Dave Anton (800) 278-3278; their website is sometimes a bit difficult to use, but their people are super helpful on the phone; http://www.aptfast.com

Little British Car Company – A Moss Distributor selling anything Moss does at a modest discount plus many parts that are hard to find elsewhere; to use them, go to the Moss Motors site, find the part, use the Moss  part number, then go to LBCarCo’s site and enter the part number… you’ll automatically get the same part at a discount. Most everything is done by email, but the owner is extremely responsive and very helpful – he’s an MGB owner and driver; Jeff Zorn 800-637-9640, 29311 Aranel, Farmington Hills, MI  48334-2815; LBCarCo@LBCarCo.com; website: http://www.lbcarco.com/ 

More Sources - There are many other suppliers who have catalogs and websites, many of which are listed on theParts Sources for Classic British Sports Carspage on this website.  If you can’t find a site for your specific car “marque” (brand), do a Google Search using several keywords until you get what you’re looking for.

Evaluating Your Expertise Sources:  The average club member may well not have a very good grasp of either what it takes to restore a car NOR of how to  scale the restoration… although most clubs have a handful of people with some knowledge in this area.  One internationally-known expert in the field recently stated it like this:  “It's extremely unusual for a club member, or any owner who has not been in the business to have a grasp of what it really takes to professionally restore a car.”

Why Are There So Many Horror Stories?  The overhead and labor costs necessary to perform the jobs, done by hobbyists in their spare time is impossible to compare. Many owners are angered by bills that they feel to be exorbitant, when in actuality the shop has cut their margin to the bone compared to other more lucrative
work.

Most restoration horror stories are from owners who have attempted to undercut reputable shops and ended up with fly-by-night outfits that don't follow through with promises.

What Restoration Shops & Garages Do:  On the whole in the British sports car repair business, there is self-inflicted devaluation of the service level and expertise necessary to properly restore or repair a British car. Shops charge well below the going hourly rate for modern repair, yet provide service based on years of experience.  My own shop has rate of $80 per hour whereas most garages and dealerships charge anywhere from $125 to well over $150.

Botching & Time Already Invested:  My friend John Wassam, owner of John’s British Cars here in Reno, Nevada has told me many stories about owners who get angry at the charges... even though they fully admitted when they brought the car in that they spend countless hours unsuccessfully to fix the problem - when he was able to get it to near perfect condition in a fraction of the time they had wasted (often including UN-doing messes they had made).   John says the worst scenarios are the guys who come in acting like they know it all (why, then, he asks, did they even bring the car in?).

Trusted Customers:  Regarding customers, some shop owners – once they really get to know you well – will allow you to actually work in their shop. There are insurance issues, of course, but sometimes there are legal ways around (for example, being on the payroll for shop cleaning).  One of the things my own mechanic friend says he likes about me is that I freely admit that I DON'T know and want to learn. Some of the people he lets work in his shop are like me; some know a good bit; some are expert - but all them are the type who will listen when he gives them advice.

The Truth Is – It COSTS!  Here are the words of one of the former most successful – in terms of actually completing the projects on-time, on-spec, and on-budget – restorers:

At the time we laughed about it, but back in the “old days” if an owner asked us what we would need to start a restoration, the answer was:  Wheel in a barrow full of cash.  We then told him, when he was actually ready to bring the car in, to haul in another barrow full of cash.”

Should “Investment” Be a Motivation?  The difference between a decent "daily driver" vs. a nice "show car" vs. a "concours" car can be years in the shop and TENS  of thousands of dollars - maybe $1,500-$5,000 for the daily driver, $3,500-$10,000 for the show car, and up to $30,000 or way more for a concours car!

Be realistic about he use of the car. If you are going to use it as a regular driver, which many of us do, don't spend $10,000 on show-quality paint and body work. Even if you are only going to show it, it can look good with a much-more-modest paint treatment.

If you try to re-sell your car, the "investment" on the daily driver may be mostly recovered but only a portion of it on the show or concours car will.  From what I've seen observing many Classic Car sales, the average concours restoration LOSS on resale is between $10,000 to $20,000.

Don't consider this a financial investment – it’s NOT… it is a sunk cost. You are doing this for an emotional reason. This car will never be worth, to someone else, what it is to you. For example, the later MG Midget is the least-valuable of just about any MG model. After even a minimal restoration, the car won't sell for more than has been put into it.  Yet, to the guy whose long-dead father bought it new and carefully stored it 30 years ago, it may mean everything to get it running and to drive it regularly… but that’s an emotional reason and should be labeled as one from the start.

How Much of the Project Can YOU Do:  You might be surprised at how much of the work you can do. These are relatively-simple cars. Seat upholstery, carpeting, interior-panel replacement are not hard to do.

There are probably members of a local club that would help replace the top, if it needs that.  Actually, I did one myself back in the early 70’s, but it helps to have someone with you.

Mechanically, these cars are pretty low tech. A good shop manual – British Leyland, Haynes or Bentley – can make you more proficient working on these cars than many, general-purpose mechanics who work on contemporary cars. It's not "rocket science” or “brain surgery."

My Personal Preference – The Combined Method:  I personally favor a combination of owner and shop restoration – but that's because I'm a "hands on" guy who knows my limits... some of which are a result of an almost 65-year-old body that hurts after awhile (particularly bending over the engine compartment or lying under the car).

The Joy of Doing Some of It Yourself:  I fall in that category of MGB owner who is mostly novice from working on only one or two cars - but who has acquired a few decent skills from listening, reading, and hard torturous work. I'm definitely NOT in the level of people like some of the members of my local Reno British Car Club or many of the MG-MGB bulletin board’s extremely skilled members.

Time It Takes an Amateur Vs. a Professional:  As someone who has done a near-total bumper-to-bumper re-do on my 78 B and lots of work on my 70, I know that many of the jobs I undertake are FAR more time-consuming for me than for an experienced mechanic.

For example, a clutch change (engine/tranny pull, disassemble, clutch insertion, reassembly, engine/tranny reinstall) is billed as an 6-hour job ($480) at my friend's shop. Were I to do it on one of my cars it would, in all honesty, probably take me a week of 10 hour days!

Some jobs are much faster, depending on the skills of the owner. For example, I put in new carpet, seat covers, and 9-piece trunk carpet in my 78 in just four hours - which I think is pretty fast. I fabricated a heat shield for my HS6 carbs and swapped the HS4's out for the HS6's
in a few hours. I also think that was pretty fast. I designed and fabricated a dual cold air intake system and an exhaust manifold cooling system on my 78 high performance engine in a couple of days.   Doing the internal assembly on that engine would've probably taken me five to 10 times what John could've done it in.

Suspension work is often painfully slow for one-time owner-mechanics, but usually much faster for the shop mechanic who has done hundreds of them and who has the right tools and lifts.

How I Approached a Recent Restoration:  When I did my high performance engine rebuild, I stripped the engine, taking lots of digital photos so I could remember how to put it back together again.  Then I paid my mechanic friend to pull the engine and transmission (I didn't want to risk damaging things); he allowed me to be his helper. I know I could now do it on my own with a helper. 

I paid a engine specialist shop directly to hot-tank and bore the block, balance all key parts, regrind the crankshaft, and for the internal engine assembly (I hadn't rebuilt an engine since I was 16 and this was a high-performance one); I would now feel comfortable doing most of it myself.

For engine compartment restoration, clutch installation, overdrive swap-out, and engine-transmission re-installation, I rented a bay in my friend's garage and either had him do the work did some of it myself, or did some with occasional advice by him.

As mentioned earlier, in my own garage I did the entire interior, including carpeting, dash, rosewood dash, chrome window cranks and shift bezel, and red leather gearshift boot.  I’m also carving rosewood door cappings and replacing the interior panels with black & red piping ones.  I’m installing lights that come on when the doors are opened along with a new high performance stereo that has i-Pod and USB inputs for my 80 GB hard drive.  I did the trunk carpet kit, as well.

I rewired the engine compartment and re-routed the fuse block to be inside the cockpit, adding an additional 6-circuit box while I was at it.

I'm going to do all the work on my lowering springs and bearings, but I'll rent my friend’s bay again so I can do some of it standing. He has far more bays than he uses and will rent them to trusted friends (who have their own tools and/or who have proven they will return his to exactly
where they got them immediately after they use them). I take him to lunch (because we're friends and I enjoy his company), sweep the shop and clean up, and empty the garbage.

You can see other work I did to my car on theBarry's Classic Cars - My 78 MGB Performance Engine page of Barry Barnes' personal website.

Make Your Decision about HOW to Restore Your Car:  You now have more information about whether you’ll…

·         Do the work yourself

·         Take it to a restoration shop

·         Or use a combination of these two approaches

I recommend that you do NOT rush this decision – any of the three involve time, money, and RISK.

·         The Do It Yourself (DIY) Decision will be the least expensive, will have a fairly high risk factor (depending on your mechanical skills and aptitudes) and may have the lowest cost.  Be forewarned that most 100% DIY projects take five to seven years, often resulting in the owner abandoning the project somewhere along the way after buying thousands of dollars worth of parts and investing hundreds of hours… only to be able to recover a very small percentage of his or her financial investment and virtually none of the labor one.

·         The Restoration Shop Decision will have the highest cost, a long time factor that will largely be out of your control, and may have a high risk factor depending on how reliable the shop turns out to be.  Unfortunately, this approach all to often also results in a three to five year project as well and can easily run up $10,000 to $50,000 restoration costs!

·         TheCombined DIY-Shop Approach gives you far more control of both time and costs and inserts some risk control capability in that, if your restorer turns out to be unreliable, it’s easier to pull the job and either take it on yourself or farm out portions to other shops.  This approach often allows you to prioritize on getting the car running, then gradually doing the other critical things – thus keeping you involved and motivated.

Additional Sources of Technical Assistance:  If You Choose to Do All or Part of the Work Yourself:  Fortunately, members of local clubs are often willing to give you practical technical advice – and sometimes even hands-on help if you end up making personal friendships – regarding some of the technical aspects.  Be very careful, however, about how much assistance you ask for… many friendships have been ruined by too many phone calls and too many requests for help.

Tradeoffs:  One of the members of one of the auto bulletin boards sent this about a sign he keeps on his desk for project managers: "Fast, Accurate, Inexpensive - Pick Two."

I replied with:  Great sign - Even though I'm retired, I wish I could find one like that for my home office.

I mentioned that I had started or co-founded 16 companies during my career. Most of them were extremely successful and three of them grew to be world-level industry giants.

Some things I learned: Quality Costs. It's worth it. Working with people who don't value quality is a pain... and not worth it.

A modification of the sign might read:

"On-Time, On-Budget, High Quality & Accurate, Expensive, Satisfied – Pick Five... It's Worth It."

Locating Shops:  Once you’ve talked with several people about who NOT to use and some possibilities of who TO consider, you might want to broaden the field.  Do a Google Search for "British garage mechanic restore restoration [city] [state] [state abbreviation] [area] [car marque] [car model] " - keep working on the search until you get the right number of hits.

By the way, I'd sure you recommend that you focus on as local a shop (or shops) as you can find.  The trouble with restorers is that they seem to thrive on the "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome. Restorations done in a professional shop typically take a minimum of 18 months to five years or more!

Additionally, your shipping costs to and from a remote location will run several thousand dollars.  This is money that could be better spent on the car itself.

Ways that DO and Do NOT Work:  Too often, owners drop their cars off and expect restorers to spend thousands of dollars on parts and hundreds of hours of labor... all without any payment along the way. What usually happens is that somebody else figures out the "system" and the non-progress-payment owners' cars almost never get worked on.

The Worst Possible Way to Do It:  The restoration project that is guaranteed to be at the BOTTOM of the pile is the one where the owner says "There's no big hurry, I'll need to get the money together anyhow." This is the situation where the garage owner knows he's going to have a car sitting around for five years that he's going to eventually have to have hauled away... those types of car owners don't have the money for the restoration and most of them never will.

Deliverables-Based Thinking:  I’ve done much of the work on recent cars but in the past I had a couple of my Classic Cars done partly or all by a restorer.  When I had a major restoration done a few years ago, it wasn’t going very well – as in “no progress.”  Having experience early in my career as a project manager, I broke the job up into sub-projects or components or deliverables:

·         Gas tank replaced

·         Fuel lines cleaned

·         Carbs cleaned & rebuilt

·         Radiator re-cored

·         Engine pulled

·         Clutch replaced

·         Engine rebuilt

·         Front wiring harness replaced

·         Engine re-installed

·         Engine running & tuned

·         U-joints replaced

·         Drive train checked & assured

·         Wiring checked

·         Dash restored

·         Dash gages all working

·         Carpets and seat covers installed

·         Brake cylinders re-built

·         All components road tested

·         Etc.

Technical Vs. Business Skills:  Remember that many of these shop owners are very good technically but are NOT very good businesspeople – that’s why they get their backlog of restoration projects in such a mess.  They love messing with the cars and like many of their customers.  They don’t know how to say “no” to the continued admission of more and more cars into the shop.  They get deep into cash flow problems by investing more and more into customers’ parts without collecting progress payments.  While having decent annual incomes, many of them are absolutely broke on a week-by-week and even a month-to-month basis because their sole cash flow is based all too often mainly on completing a car rather than collecting for parts or labor or a progressive basis (the way a doctor or lawyer or CPA might work).

Deliverables-Based Parts List:  Break the project down yourself in as discreet a manner as possible (see my list above).  Take the list and go through the various catalogs (Moss, Victoria British, APT, etc.) and prepare your list of parts.

This will probably take you several weeks – or even MONTHS – but is an extremely valuable process in that you have to learn a lot about your car and its restoration process in order to prepare the list.  It also gives you an appreciation of the scope of the project and pre-conditions you to some of the sticker-shock aspects of it. 

I did this on a major rebuild of one of my MGB’s and was, first, shocked to discover what I thought was going to be a $5,000 list ended up at $9,000+!  However, I went in and reviewed it with the shop owner who was going to do part of the work, explaining that I was going to have to cut back on the scale of the project.

After making a handful of corrections and even a few deletions, he suggested that, since I had done all the hard work that would’ve taken him many hours, he would allow me to place the orders myself – using his tax-free, discounted rate with the vendor.  This worked for both the parts that he would be installing as well as the ones I would do.  Since I paid the lower price, when he finally added the tax, it, too, was lower.  This step alone saved me almost $2,000.

His only stipulation was that he didn’t want to store any parts… for the ones that he’d be installing, I’d have to pick them up within a couple of days after they arrived at his shop, store them at my own place, then bring them up when I was ready to have that portion of the work done.

Deliverables-Based Scheduling & Pricing:  Take your deliverables-based list in and sit down with the shop owner to expand it – he will probably criticize your list for being incomplete but will appreciate your work in creating a starting point from which you both can work. 

Get a progressive price quote and deliverable date on EACH one of these components.

The shop owner probably won't like the date part of that - but if you assure him you'll give him progress payments when each is completed, he might just prioritize your car to the top!

Final Costing:  Last step. When you have determined, to the very best of your ability, the cost and time duration of this project, multiply your number by at least two… maybe even three. 

Things get found that neither of you knew were there.  Parts prices go up.  Labor prices go up. 

“Creeping Elegance” sets in when you decide – as I did repeatedly – that it would be nice to have all racing-spec engine internals, heavy-duty oil & water pumps, tri-alloy cross-flow head, dual Weber DCOE45 carbs, MSX street performance cam, balanced everything, oil filter relocation kit, oversize oil cooler, oil thermostat, braided hoses, overdrive transmission, rosewood dash, extra-quality cut plush carpet, extra-quality seat covers and interior panels, trunk carpet kit, new paint, etc., etc., etc.

Communication Is a Key Element:  The most successful - and quickest and least expensive - ones I've seen are where the owner stops by about every week or two and checks progress. While the restorer shop owner initially may not like that, eventually, he or she gets to know and like the owner and starts prioritizing the car to the top. Persistence pays with these people.

Manage It as a Project:  Hold the shop owner to the deliverable dates; call a week before each; remind him you're going to pay the date it's done and how much (he's probably forgotten and doesn't have the paperwork handy); and then be sure YOU keep your word on payment.

Remember, most small businesses are cash-flow starved, so they really appreciate a customer who feeds them cash to pay the bills.

Call again a day or two before the deliverable is due and ask "What time should I come in to pay you?" Then come in at the time you agreed, check his work, and PAY. This type of project will sail through and get done on or ahead of time.

Additionally, you might be better off managing your own restoration by separating specific tasks to specialist shops. They will get done better, faster, and probably cheaper. The general, "restoration" shop may be just be farming out these tasks to the same shops you would use. You save the overhead and you have more control.

The more of the project management aspects you take on, the more time you’re going to spend “managing” rather than “doing.”  On the other hand, you’ll have a higher sense of ownership and, quite possibly, a quicker and better restoration… and maybe even not as costly a one (never use the word “inexpensive” regarding a restoration – there just isn’t any such thing).

Deliverables-Based Scheduling & Pricing Is a PROVEN Model:  I spent much of my early career in the custom software business and I stand by what I said about making it a deliverable-based project with good communications.

I was an officer of a company back in the early 80's that worked on this basis with some of the world's largest corporations. We tracked EVERYTHING as a time/expense deliverable and managed to the fundamental unit (every single "change" was documented, costed, and scheduled).

We had a 99%+ on-time, on-spec, on-budget performance rate: Unheard of in the industry. We were so successful that we outgrew our competition massively while attaining 400% per year revenues growth.

The company eventually split in two and was acquired by Microsoft and Phillips Electronics of Holland. Using similar techniques for auto restorations can achieve similar (but NOT the same) results.

The Reality – Money Talks:  My own mechanic does get customers who have him do the entire restoration... some of whom know how to manage it as a project, most of whom don't. He doesn't like restorations as much as maintenance, but there are persuasive people with deep pockets.

What Will You Do?  My hope is that you’ve learned a bit from this assembly of my and several others’ experiences and that you’ll undertake a successful restoration – one that will be an enjoyable process, which will give a car that runs within a time and a budget that’s acceptable to you, and that brings you some additional knowledge and hands-on contact with your British car.

Good Restoring!  I hope this is helpful. Good luck and good motoring, Barry Barnes (website owner)