What is more fun, restoration or driving a restored car?

[TerryG]

One of the guys on the farm asked me this today.
Do you restore a classic car because you enjoy the restoration work or because you want to own a restored car?
Personally I don't enjoy bodywork at all but love "tinkering" and really enjoy driving something that stands out.

[SirTainleyBarking]

For me resto is to get the thing raod legal and moving.

However

It is enjoyable in being able to work on a car that isn't the daily driver*, secure in the knowledge that if you need a bit of extra time, or its VOR whilst you source a part, its not the end of the world.

*In my case I take the view if its road legal and moving it will get driven daily if the daily driver is borked

[bnicho]

Exactly what STB said above.

I get my enjoyment from having the car on the road and usable.

Tinkering to fix or improve after that becomes a pleasure.

[JPB]

/\/\/\/\ Yes, what they said is pretty much my philosophy too. Trailer queans are all very well but where's the fun in having an adenoidal little man marking your car out of ten on such criteria as whether the flats on the wheel nuts are all aligned "correctly"? It's hard to enjoy a show when you're struggling not to punch someone.

[suffolkpete]

Like Terry, I enjoy tinkering and driving and I tend to prefer classics that are suitable for use in everyday traffic. Besides, if you want to keep a car reliable, you have to use it regularly.

[Dave3066]

I enjoy both.

I get a great deal of satisfaction from turning an old component into a shiny new one, or from bashing metal into a complex shape to make a repair panel then making it disappear into the fabric of the car like it was never rusty. I'm also fortunate enough to be able to drive one whilst I'm restoring another.

Part of the enjoyment I get comes from having the right equipment to make it an enjoyable task. It's definitely not enjoyable lying under a car welding upside down. Nor is it much fun trying to do a job without having the right tools. I decided a long time ago to make sure my restorations would be as enjoyable as I could make them so I started collecting any tool I thought would make it so.

I currently have another car to restore when I'm finished the one I'm working on and I don't plan on doing any more after that......but you never know

Dave

[tractorman]

I suspect we are all of the same mind - it's fun to tinker with an old vehicle, though some jobs are thoroughly unpleasant (clearing off underseal springs to mind). However, if we were only interested in driving a nicely restored old vehicle, would we go out and buy the rustiest old Strada, Range Rover (or 1,001 other models) or would we try to find something nice and clean, with a good long MOT and proof of quality restoration, repair and servicing? OK, money comes into the equation - but I suspect we could buy a slightly older "daily" and afford a better classic.

I have said before that I prefer to drive the modern than an older car; some of that is due to my "age": I like my comforts and being able to hear the radio without the volume turned right up; but a lot is "been there, done that" (and I use the tee-shirt for wiping dipsticks now). An odd ten miles now and again is fair enough (and far enough for my old back), but not as a full-time occupation!

It's the same with the tractors - especially as David Browns have a factory-fitted whine. I enjoy pottering about with my machines, but would much prefer to work with a nice new air-conditioned quiet cabbed machine with a radio (and higher top speed) if I was still a full-time farm worker.

As Dave says, working with good tools is a joy. So far this year, I have reworked the MIG and am currently sorting out a (free) pillar drill (a quality one that lacked a motor). I got into tractors because I had loads of tools (mostly imperial sizes) and a "new" reliable VW that didn't need repairs (and would need metric spanners). I bought the digger as a change from tractors, but I'm too busy repairing and improving tools to have time to do the machines. I'll need to buy more projects to justify the tools if I ever finish the tractors. Perhaps a rust-bucket is on the cards...

[bubs]

I must be the exception.....as when I finished the granada last time round....I barely did a couple hunderded miles.....and when the frost came and killed the paint.....I thought nothing of stripping it down and bare metalling it again. I think I have an addiction to welding and fabrication.

I'm addressing this by filling the shed with tooling....bought me mill and a lathe, made a shot blasting cabinete, tube bender, and 6 foot sheet folder......next I'm going to make an abs 3d printer....so with a bit of luck ill have no time for crust reconstruction

[Martin Evans]

I thought I’d posted one here….damned computers!!

Restoration is largely a means to an end for me, though of course it’s nice to see things coming on and I like the idea of saving a vehicle from the fate that many suffer. When I bought the Midget, it was not that old and although it had become collectable, on the back of the Abingdon closure, it had been used as a means of transport by all it’s previous owners (By me too until I could afford to “Save” it).

I don’t have time to do much these days, beyond regular maintenance and it’s no fun if you haven’t time to do it (I like to be making progress). It can be frustrating when idiots mess you about and I had a couple of “Sagas” (Which were anything but holidays), during the time when I was overhauling and up rating the Midget, between 1986 and 89 (One, that involved faulty parts, ended up in the Small Claims Court and whilst I won the case, it’s not what you want).

I do at least get use out of my restorations (I don’t tend to change my cars very often). I have a few jobs to do on the Traveller, to get it the way I want it (One of which is to rectify faults on a 5 speed conversion, carried out by Charles Wares) but am going to wait until my father gets his Midget back on the road. That way there won’t be too many things going on and it will mean that I can use the ramp. It also means that the lathe and milling machine will be close at hand if needed.

If I could afford another car, I’d like a pre war sports car (MG Midget M, J, P or TA/B, Morgan 4/4 or Austin 7 Nippy/Ulster). I think I would go for a good one but not necessarily a recently restored car. You see quite a lot of those and the cynic in me suspects that, in some cases, the owners don’t like the results of the restorations and wish to offload the car, before the shortcomings become too obvious. There are some dreadful bodgers about (I know one or two).

One thing is for sure, I couldn't imagine life without classic cars

[TerryG]

Don't get me started on Charles Wares. Every job they were paid to do on my car had to be re-done within 2 years. Not what I was expecting when I parted with £1300 to them.