Revive a few old memories (Classic cars in general)

Member Name: ScottishWestie

Product:	Classic cars in general
Date:	05/08/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can be inexpensive, rewarding, something different, good resale value

Disadvantages: Can be expensive if you don't know what your doing

Motoring from another era can sound very romantic & rewarding. Driving down an empty leafy country road in the Cotswolds on a sunny summer afternoon with the roof off the E Type Jaguar, young lady or gent (depending on your preferences!) by your side, picnic basket in the boot with a bottle of champagne & not a care in the world.

Or, a family day at the beach in the old Morris traveller, hot afternoon playing on the sand, in the water, picnic & the transistor radio blasting out your favourite music.

For many buying a classic car to revive old memories has become more popular & the classic car industry is like an industry of its own. There are dedicated classic car garages selling old cars, dedicated companies supplying spare parts & dedicated clubs, magazines & annual shows.

Today when we buy a car we can choose between new or second hand, the choice is bewildering from tiny city cars to luxury limousines & everything in between, we buy cars to suit our life style. They have never been more reliable, more economical, safer or environmentally friendlier.
But for many they still crave for the older cars regardless of their age. Older cars have more personality; they don't all look the same like modern cars & have more character, but are they viable as everyday transport?

WHAT IS A CLASSIC CAR?

What constitutes to being a classic car? The general rule is that any car over 20 years of age can be regarded as a classic, that can mean anything from a humble Ford Escort to a sporty Jaguar.
Cars have been made since the late 19th century but the early examples looked like a horseless carriage, same height, width & length without a roof, something that is often seen on the annual London to Brighton runs.
The thought of having one of those as daily transport would be ridiculous, can you imagine sitting it peak time traffic jams with one of those & then trying to get it into a parking space at work!!
Anything pre war is best kept for special events close to home, but most post war era cars can be used quite easily as regular daily transport despite many of them having top speeds of around 50-60mph.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF CLASSIC CAR OWNERSHIP?

Well it's something different; it can be a stylish sports car built in the 1950s or a rather nice looking family car from the 1960s. Running an old car has it advantages, pre 1973 models are exempt from road tax & if you limit your annual mileage, insurance can be very competitive.
Older cars are simpler to maintain as there is less reliance of electrics like modern cars, they are also simpler to look after & many components can be repaired cheaply as opposed to being replaced.
There are many clubs dedicated to certain vehicles which means you have access to spare parts, technical assistance & their great for meeting new friends.

Many hold their value quite well especially if they are looked after, its nothing unusual to find that you get a couple of years motoring in a classic car & sell it for little less than you paid for it. There are many examples of owners actually making money on them depending on the make, model & condition.

AND THE DISADVANTAGES?

Well there are a few, some spare parts do become scarce or expensive. They may be simpler to maintain than a modern car but they do need more frequent servicing.
Many post war cars were never designed for high speed runs, we didn't have a network of motorways in the post war era so many cars could just be coaxed up to the dizzy speeds of 50-60mph. that restricts there use somewhat in modern day Britain.

They don't have modern day safety features such as air bags & anti lock brakes, some don't even have seat belts! Some can be quite changeling to drive with no power steering, no servo assisted brakes & woolly handling.

They also come form an era when the only fuel required was either 2 star, 4 star or 5 star leaded petrol. With fewer garages now selling leaded fuel you have to either have them adapted to run on modern day unleaded fuels which is expensive or purchase leaded additives to mix in with your unleaded fuel.

BUY OR RESTORE?

Yes you can still buy old cars from car dealers just like a modern car or you can buy an old banger & restore them yourself.
There are plenty of dedicated classic car garages selling a rich & diverse selection of classic cars, they often advertise in dedicated classic car magazines.
The prices vary but for a complete legal & sound family car from the 1960s you could pay as little as £1000 & the sky is the limit when it comes to exotic Italian sports cars, prices that run well into seven figures is nothing unusual.
What was once a popular family car such as a Ford Escort/Cortina/Granada can become an investment if it's in good sound condition, sportier or luxury examples do fetch high prices today despite the recession.

Restoration is another way of getting yourself a classic car for very little money but obviously you need the basic skills, tools, a place to store it & the most important thing of all, time.
This is the route I went down in 1988, I for some strange reason always wanted a old 1950s/early 1960s Ford Zephyr or Zodiac. I don't know why because these cars were made long before I was walking planet earth, none of my family ever had one & I had never worked on one when I was a young motor mechanic.
However, I just loved their transatlantic look, they resembled a small American car, I did some homework on them & found they were quite mechanically simple to work on & that some parts were still available.

So with some spare cash (£500) I went looking for one in 1988, I scored the local papers, classic car magazines & club newsletters but could never get one within my price range.
One day I went out to look at one & came back with a 1973 Datsun 240Z sports car!! The Zodiac I looked at was awful & not worth an old pen knife & balloon let alone money.
But the owner said his mate is selling an old classic Datsun if you're interested, I wasn't until I found out it was the sporty 240Z model. When his friend opened the garage door to reveal this old car my mind was made up.

This car was registered new in 1973 but after six years of daily use it corroded so badly it was taken off the road. In the 1970s Japanese cars had built up a fabulous reputation for reliability but their weakness was corrosion, here was a classic example.
The owner had taken it apart purchased new body panels & had welded it back together again, at the same time he had purchased many new parts with the intention of getting it back on the road.
However, circumstances had changed, the money & the willingness had run dry & the car had been left in bits in his garage for nine years.

What I saw was just a bare body shell with a windscreen, nothing else, however he was willing to sell me the car with the old & new parts plus the parts of two other similar cars plus give me the use of the garage for storing the parts for a year for £600.

Normally when you buy a car you test drive it, sit in it, touch it, feel it & kick the tyres, however in this case there were no seats, no wheels or tyres to kick. Just a bare body shell & a windscreen to look out of.

The deal was done, a hand shake & those arrangements to have it moved to my own little lock up garage five miles away. This was in the summer if 1988, I was all excited, I was like a mouse with the key to the cheese larder!
Here I went out looking for a classic British Ford Zodiac & came back with a classic Japanese sports car.

THE DATSUN 240Z

When Jaguar released the E Type in the early 1960s it sets new standards for sports cars around the world. Forget about Ferrari, Porsche or Maserati, the Jaguar was the ultimate sports cars, curvy, sexy & fast, very very fast.
It influenced many other companies to copy its design, the Japanese in those days were the masters of copying other peoples designs & Nissan in Japan (trading as Datsun in Europe) made the Datsun 240Z influenced by the E Type jaguar.
It too featured a long bonnet with a six cylinder engine like the Jaguar, it too had two seats & a hatchback design at the rear. However the Datsun was aimed at the market below the Jaguar & under cut it on price in the lucrative USA market. It was an instant hit & became the world's best selling sports car. In the UK it sold in less numbers but was priced just a little less than the Jaguar.
It did receive glowing reports form the press & as time went on became one of the first true Japanese classic cars.

THE RESTORATION

The decision to restore an old car shouldn't be taken lightly, it's a bit like renovating an old house, its not until you start taking it apart that you realise the extra costs involved. Cars can be like that, it may look like it needs some welding but after you take it apart you then realise its only good luck that was holding it together in the first place & your budget has been blown apart.
The most expensive part of any restoration involves repairs to bodywork & the costs can really soar unless you are doing it yourself & you really need expertise or extreme confidence to do it properly.

I was a bit luckier in a sense as the car I viewed had been taken apart & I saw it 'naked' with nothing to hide. The most expensive part of my restoration was going to be the cost of replacing interior parts as they are the first to become unobtainable with any car & any replacements that are found are usually expensive.
My seats were missing, they apparently were beyond repair & replacements simply weren't available. I was also missing carpets & other trim items, but those problems were for later on.

My first problem lasted about a week, the seller had very kindly stripped apart three vehicles & thrown all the parts into wooden boxes for storage. However he hadn't labelled anything, identifying parts was easy enough; my problem was I didn't know which vehicles they can come from.

He had stripped three cars of different ages, my one was an early two seater model from 1973, the others were a four seater model dated 1976 & two seater American spec version from 1977. Some of the parts looked identical but inside they could make a big difference between a car running properly & not at all.
Thankfully there were part numbers on some of the items so it just meant looking up micro fiche slides of thousands of part numbers to identify which one belonged to my car.
That alone took a while buy the effort was worth it & allowed me to start rebuilding the car confident I was installing the correct parts.

The work started in mid July & I set myself a target of 6 months to complete the job & have the car running with a MOT. By mid August all the electrical wiring & brake & fuel pipes were installed along with all the suspension. The brakes had been completely overhauled & to my surprise the components were in remarkable condition for a car that was now 15 years old.
The brake components were made in Japan but based on British designs made under license.

In September, I planned to install the engine & gearbox, my first problem was the seller told me the original engine had covered over 100.000 miles & the engine was starting to knock. However one of the other engines he supplied me had only done 50.000 miles & was 200cc bigger, I decided to take the chance & fit the bigger engine.
My plan was, once the car was running I would overhaul the original engine & fit it to the car the following summer.

The engine was fitted quite easily along with the five speed gearbox; all you need to start a car when you are cranking the engine over is fuel & a spark. Despite having this it wouldn't start & many hours were wasted checking & double checking settings.
Eventually the car was hooked up by rope to another car & tow started after 100 yards. It fired up & sounded very sweet indeed & from there on started without any more problems.

By late October I had arranged to have it painted by a work colleague who had a fantastic reputation in the area for his workmanship. He spent a whole weekend painting the car back to its original colour of white & he made a great job.

I remember taking it back to my garage on a cold & frosty November day & installing the chrome bumpers, lights & badges. From the outside the car looked fantastic all the previous months work had been worth it & it was so satisfying to see it complete.

However work would continue inside over the winter, I couldn't get the original seats without paying a kings ransom for them. So I visited a scarp yard & came away with two rather comfy seats from an Alfa Romeo & fitted the original seat runners to my new £10.00 seats. After some colourful profanities the seats fitted (just) & were rather more comfortable than the original ones that I eventually obtained a couple of years later.

The carpets were purchased by a British company who specialise in carpets for cars, they weren't a perfect fit but I made them look as good as I could. The lower foot well panels were made from hardboard & beyond repair so I purchased hardboard from B&Q & used my old school boy skills at wood work & made replacement panels & painted them black. They looked rather good once finished.

With the interior now finished & a 1970s style radio cassette unit fitted the car was ready for its first MOT. It passed with flying colours & for the first time in early January I took it for its first proper run of about 20 miles.
Only two problems came to light, I had fitted the incorrect brake servo which I later replaced & the wheels were out of balance, that alone proved to be difficult to repair as one of the wheels was slightly buckled.
The suspension was so hard I could almost feel the thickness of the paint of the white lines on the road, at least in handled well.

THE COSTS?

I gave myself a target of six months & only passed it by two weeks, the car had cost me £600 & with the extra cost of new parts I purchased plus my respray the final cost was just under £1300 including the cost of buying the car.

I ran the 240Z for eight years & apart from a faulty flasher switch which burned out with age, the car was 100% totally reliable giving me many weekends of pleasure touring the Highlands of Scotland. I even got the chance to drive around the Knockhill racing circuit near Edinburgh one Sunday to see how it would handle at high speeds.

It was never the fastest thing on four wheels but it looked quite good & gave me many hours of pleasure owning it. I lost count the number of times I got stopped by people asking if I would sell it, the would give me their phone numbers & business cards & appeared to be genuine enough.

After eight years my job had changed & I was now driving about 1200 miles during the week. The last thing I wanted was to drive at weekends & the car was left sitting idle in a garage.
It was better off sold to an enthusiast & in 1997 was eventually sold to a young man from the South of England. I got £3000 for it, the first & probably the last time I will buy a car that appreciates in value rather than depreciates.

I suppose it does prove that you can run a old car on a regular basis without spending a fortune & get a lot of satisfaction from it. Many years on I still wish I had it but maybe someday another old classic will come along ripe for restoration.

Summary: Worth considering if you want something different

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