Articles: Maintenance, repair, restoration, and other classic car topics

My mechanic knew that I was looking to buy another car and he called me one night and said that he had a car to show me and to come and have a look at it before going out to buy something else.So I went there with my wife and my friend told us to follow him to the barn at the back and when he opened the barn door and got this car out it was just amazing.The sound of this car was so nice and the bright yellow color and nice new mags with wide ovals on just made this car beautiful to look at.It was a 1967 Mercury Cougar with a 289HO 4V dual exhaust with Hooker Headers and a C4 automatic transmission.My wife just fell in love with the car and me too. I had one like that in 1974 and had a big accident with it.These Cougars are getting hard to find.So,I got rid of my motorcycle that I had bought brand new in 2000 and bought this car for my retirement.After 1 year of driving this car it's going great and I already invested over $5000 worth of chrome and changing all the rubbers on the car.Now,all I need is to put a good cd player in and out we go cruisin.Wherever we go,the heads turn and we can hear the comments"Look at the nice car,what kind of car is that".Even the young kids turn around and make good comments.These were the best years for muscle cars and sports car.The 60's can't be beat.I think we lived in the best years ever.

i just bought a 1951 nash statesman super. its got the org. flathead 6, im thinking of putting it as an v8 and on the floor. i have no idea what will change out easily! i really dont know where to begin on any of it, i could use alot of info.

Many pre-World War II cars were made without one of the basic safety features mandatory on modern cars: seat belts. This is a major issue with classic car safety. Many vintage cars are nearly impossible to bring up to current crash safety standards. And some classic-car owners believe that trying to do so would spoil a vehicle's authenticity.

Federal law holds cars only to the standards that were in effect at the time of the vehicle's manufacture. But many states have come up with their own regulations for classic cars, and often prohibit their use for routine transportation.

"When you're driving to a show, the guy in the modern car thinks you can start, stop and maneuver just the same as he can. But if you have an open car and it flips over, you're in big trouble," said Chuck Conrad, president of the Des Plaines, Ill.-based Classic Car Club of America.

Car safety is the avoidance of car accidents or the minimization of harmful effects of accidents, in particular as pertaining to human life and health. Special safety features have been built into cars for years, some for the safety of car's occupants only, some for the safety of others.

Road traffic injuries represent about 25% of worldwide injury-related deaths (the leading cause) with an estimated 1.2 million deaths (2004) each year - World Health Organization.

Major factors in accidents include driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs; inattentive driving; driving while fatigued or unconscious; encounters with road hazards such as snow, potholes, and crossing animals; or reckless driving.

Preperation

Make sure you have prepared the surface of your car first. Most suppliers provide you with a piece of specially coated poster board paper called a spray out card or test panel. Paint this card first to determine color match. There is nothing you can do once the automotive paint is on your car. You are ready to spray when all high quality solvents have been added to the paint to assure high performance. Avoid dry times, sanding times, flash times, or any other directions that may cause poor performance.

One part Acrylic Lacquer Primer

It is the easiest automotive paint to use. When you are ready to spray, shake it up and stir it with a paint stick. Strain it with a strainer right in to the gun cup, a recommended tip size is 1.4. Now create a slow build one coat at a time. Afterwards, wet sand with 600 water sand-paper.

Chopping, Channeling, & Sectioning are terms associated with car customizations for hot-rods.

CHOPPING

To chop a roof the pillars and windows are cut down, lowering the overall roofline. "Chopping the top" goes back to the early days of hot rodding in an attempt to reduce the frontal profile of a car and increase its speed potential. Some racers on the dry lakes chopped the tops of their cars so severely that the windows were only a few inches tall. These were sometimes referred to as "mail slot" windows. This sort of bodywork is also popular on custom cars, kustoms, and leadsleds. Roof chopping also quickly became very popular with drag racers for much the same reasons as it did for lakes racers. The first roof chopper is considered to be Sam Barris (see article about his brother) who chopped and customised his brand new 1949 Mercury.

Automobile restoration is the process of returning a car to essentially the same condition that it was in when it left the factory at time of manufacture. It should include not only the parts that can be seen – the body, the trim, the chrome, the wheels, the dash board and accessories and the passenger’s compartment – but the parts that are not necessarily visible or otherwise evident, including the engine and the engine compartment, the trunk, the frame, the driveline, and all ancillary parts like the brakes, accessories, engine cooling system, etc.

A complete auto restoration should include total removal of the body, engine, driveline components and related parts from the car, total disassembly, cleaning and rebuilding of each of the major parts and its components, replacing broken, damaged or worn parts and complete re-assembly and testing. Each and every part should be thoroughly examined, cleaned and replaced. All of the parts that were originally painted should be completely stripped of old paint, any rust or rust related damage repaired, dents and ripples removed and then the metal refinished, primed and painted with colors to match the original factory colors. Wooden parts should go through the same meticulous inspection with regluing, replacement of rotted or termite-damaged wood, sealing and refinishing to match the factory specifications. Chrome and trim may require stripping and repair/refinishing. The frame must be thoroughly cleaned and repaired if necessary. Often sand-blasting of the frame is the most expeditious method of cleaning. The frame should be painted or powder-coated to match the original.

An old automatic transmission often starts slipping between shifts. This can be due to worn clutch discs or bands. If you're good at other car repairs, why not tackle and automatic transmission repair? A rebuild kit will set you back only a fraction the cost of a new or rebuilt transmission.

You'll probably need a day to pull the transmission (with help of an assistant), a day to take it apart, a day to inspect all the parts, a day to put it back together and a day to put it back in your car (with assistance again). If you've done this before, the time will be much less.

You'll also make a big mess with spilled transmission fluid so protect your garage floor with lots of newspaper and have lots of sawdust to soak up spills. You'll need lots of working surfaces to spread out all the parts in the order you remove them. A couple of cheap folding tables should do the trick if you need to improvise working surfaces. Finally, buy or borrow any special tools your manual calls for. If you're creative, you can probably improvise or even fabricate the special tools. Above all, be patient and attentive to detail when rebuilding an automatic transmission, and follow a good manual step by step.

Engine Performance
Get engine driveability problems (hard starts, rough idling, stalling, diminished power, etc.) corrected at a good repair shop. Cold weather makes existing problems worse. Replace dirty filters-air, fuel, PCV, etc.

Fuel
Put a bottle of fuel de-icer in your tank once a month to help keep moisture from freezing in the fuel line. Note that a gas tank which is kept filled helps keep moisture from forming.

Oil
Change your oil and oil filter as specified in your manual-more often (every 3,000 miles) if your driving is mostly stop-and-go or consists of frequent short trips.

Step One
Park the booster vehicle close to the one that needs to be jumped, but not so close that the vehicles are touching in any way. You'll want to use a good set of jumper cables with thick wire and clean clamps. As you are hooking up the jumper cables, make sure they don't dangle into either engine compartment where they could get caught on moving parts (belts, fan, etc.). Turn off the ignition of both vehicles, set the parking brakes, and make sure that they are in either "Park" or "Neutral" depending on whether the vehicles have an automatic or manual transmission. Also, turn off all accessories like lights, radio and, if the vehicles are in a safe area, the hazard flashers.