Car Restoration Nightmares..!

What are you letting yourself in for?!

When buying a classic motor car for restoration be prepared for the worst! Motor Car Restoration Nightmares are here! What may on the face of it look like a sound motor vehicle, may in fact be a lot less solid than you think. Any rust showing through paint may not look too bad, but this is only what is visible at present, take a wirebrush to it and you may find that there is a small hole in the body work and the area is very badly pitted.  This information is not intended to put you off restoring a motor car, just to make you aware of some of the things you may find when stripping down a vehicle. It is probably going to be worse that you expected, but don't panic, with a little patience and effort most problems can be overcome, and the end product is well worth it! Plus the fact you will know all about your motor car motor restoration so nightmares will not happen to you ever again......... until you get your next project of course!

There are many hidden areas on cars, that you just cannot see with the car fully assembled. Make sure you can see any tell tale signs of what is lurking underneath! Almost anything can be restored with enough time and money, but you need to make sure you are prepared to invest in both with this project. Although classic cars tend to hold their value and a good restoration will fetch a good price, there is rarely a profit to be made. But thats not why we do it is it? Of course not!

Here are a few photos of a late model (1980) MGB GT. This car had an MOT when we purchased it, and only failed on one or two minor points. A weekend of work would have got a ticket back on it, however, we probed further and found that the sills had totally rusted out, and previous botched repairs had got it through it's last MOT. These botches are not only unsafe, but also expensive, the file that came with the car had receipts of welding done on the chassis and sills totalling over £1000 talk about car restoration nightmares! 

Removing the chrome step plate revealed a larger than expected hole onthe top of the outer sill at the bottom of the door pillar. It actually looks to be cut out and then rusted! Perhaps when a new outer sill was fitted they could not be bothered to fit it around the door pillar properly! The door seals were covering a very rotten edge too! Altogether a bit worrying! Remember all this is repairable it just needs some patience and work, to get it up to standard! The Car restoration video can help you enormously, take a look!

 We removed the front wing to see what state the front part of the sill and inner wings panel is. Err, not good, anyone seen the front section on the sill? Seems to have been cut off! The inner membrane of the sill is very poorly tack welded to the old extremely rusty membrane, offering no real strength at all. The inner wing is very badly rusted too and will need replacing, along with the trumpet in the top left of the picture. At least the seal on the splash guard looks in good condition!

Moving things doesn't get that much better! After removing the front wing. Here you can see a replacment trumpet section that has been put in place, there are a couple of good welds, but half of it does not even touch the section it should, let alone be welded to it! This is another example of botched work and is not something you can see easily without taking the wing off! Beware!

This picture is of the off side front sill section with the wing removed. There is not much left as you can see right through into the floor of the foot well, but at least we have not got to deal with any botched repairs here!

So, what do you do with a car like this? Well it is a lot of work and when done the car will not be worth that much, but what you will have is a vehicle that you know exactly what condition it is in, ok it going to take time and money to get there, but at least you will know your car is sound, unlike the version that is for sale down the road!

This car needs new floors, complete new sill (to include chassis outrigger, lower wing repair panel), inner wings, trumpets, bonnet fliches, and door pillars. The parts are all readily available and resonally priced, its the time that adds up, we will need to set aside a few days welding to get this one back on the road again!

Suprisingly the rest of this little MGB is sound, the rear wings, boot and under body are all in good condition, with the engine and running gear very good. We will repair this MGB and get it roadworthy again, not for financial gain (there would be none!) but we are sentimental and can't bear to think of anything going to scrap!

If you have your own restoration nightmares we would love to hear from you! Drop us an email at restoration@motorenthusiasts.com