Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Look and Utility

Look and Utility

One of the things about the automotive restoration hobby that amazes me is the diversity of the automobiles that get restored. This can be an expensive undertaking and one would think that the builder would give a great deal of thought into what he/she plans on sinking their time, treasure and talent into. Now some readers will take this wrong but I will say it anyway. There are some cars that were ugly when they were built and the passage of time has done little to improve their appearance. Still I continuously see beautifully rendered work done on machines that do not warrant the time and effort.

This begs the question, if you are going to go to all the trouble why not focus all that work on something worthwhile? I can hear it now…. “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder…” but if you truly believe that nonsense I might as well be talking to a tree.

My first big restoration projects involved trucks. I like trucks and I restored trucks that had classic lines and that looked good. However when I finished one they still drove like old trucks, got lousy gas mile and clunked along at thirty miles per hour. They were nice to look at but not really fun or practical to drive.

Now the response I am likely to get goes something like this. “You just don’t get it. Many people restore what they can get. It doesn’t seem to matter as long as they have a project to occupy their time….you know get out of the house, away from the wife and tinker around in the garage…"

My response is tinker on something worthwhile… so when you finish you have something someone will want to buy if you ever get desperate for cash…. Like losing your job. I’ll say more about this one later.

Another response is that maybe a some point in the builder’s life they fixated on a particular vehicle, perhaps one their parents drove. That they have many happy memories of that car or truck and restoring one like it helps bring back those memories. Who can argue with that? Except to say “get real!” Someday, when priorities change, having something you can unload will begin to outweigh all that nostalgia.

There are other factors that weigh into the what to restore equation, like the “Purists.” Many find in the hobby an opportunity to take the quest for perfection to the edge of insanity. Where everything has to be original down to the casting marks and manufactures etching on the glasswork. I know some builders who equate their skill with forgoing altogether more modern materials like body filler and adhesives, disdaining to use epoxy or body fillers or anything that was not in existence fifty years ago.

There is a joy to driving a vehicle that operates well and looks good. My advice is to think hard before starting a project and give thought to the look and utility of the end product.