First time restoring a car or fiftieth time restoring a car – both can be stressful. For beginners, it’s something new that they’ve never done before. Something they might not have even been shown how to do, either, which can be daunting.
And for those who have done it numerous times before, it can still be something stressful. Of course, you know the process and how it goes, what to do, but there’s often so much to do that it can still be overwhelming.
With a little bit of planning though, almost anything can be conquered.
5 Tips For Car Restoration
Organise
Perhaps the easiest step in any car restoration: disassembling the car. Everything is removed – doors, interior, seats. Until before long, what you’ll likely be left with is just a pile of metal and other hardware parts.
Having an organised space for this part of car restoration is important. There’s nothing worse than kicking bolts halfway across your garage and having to scavenge for them later on. Keep a record of everything you dismantle and where you place it all. Think bag-and-tag system. It only takes a few minutes to organise labels or write on the bags and it seriously helps to keep everything in one place. Even if there are a dozen bags.
Take pictures throughout the process as well, you shouldn’t just rely on your memory. Even if you have a photographic one. This will help much more during the reassembly stage.
Work To Your Time
A project such as restoring a car can not be rushed. Not if you want to do it to the best of your ability. Attempting to rush through the process will just overexert you and can lead to a poorer job done with potential for future error.
Take metalwork. It’s really critical that it’s all done efficiently so that rust doesn’t set in easily in the future. Rust will only cause money to be spent on repairs.
So even if it takes longer than normal just because you’re familiarising yourself with the tools, the steps, and the process, that’s fine. Actually, that’s better. It will lead to you being more knowledgeable for your next restoration and the result will be much more rewarding and lasting.
Invest
Owning only a few tools isn’t really the best place to start when restoring a car. It’s better to have a more comprehensive tool kit available, even if there’s plenty of tools you’ve never used before.
Buy the very best that you can, the maximum of your budget. Low quality tools won’t help you in comparison to high-quality ones. They are more likely to break or not work quite as well as they should.
But it’s not just about traditional toolkits – spanners, screwdrivers, drills, wrenches – you should probably also consider power tools. Just the ones that will be most useful to you in a car restoration project. Power tools like angle grinders or welders.
Choosing A Realistic Project Car
Restoration is a tough enough job as it is without any added complications or complexities. Especially if this is only your first or second car restoration project. For instance, you don’t the complications of having a project car in which parts were produced in limited numbers back in 1963.
Sometimes those elusive parts can be found, but usually only with the experience and knowledge of quite a few car restoration projects on your belt. Otherwise, the stress can just build and the project could go unfinished for longer than you want.
Trawling and scavenging for parts, even the basic ones, can quickly lose its joy. It becomes old. Quickly. So it’s good to do a bit of research beforehand about where you can find the highest quantity of car parts so that if you are on a time-limit, you don’t spend hours upon hours just searching for that one part.
The MGB, Volkswagen Beetle, and Triumph saloons are very popular for this reason. Most parts can be found easily and quickly.
Automobile Protection
If you’re going to go through all the trouble of getting a project car to restore, disassemble, and reassemble, you need to make sure the parts are all protected.
Many thermal spray coatings for automobile parts and the automobile itself offer numerous benefits. Most obviously, they prevent and protect against rust and corrosion. So all that hard work is well preserved and your project has a longer lasting performance.
The actual vehicle parts themselves also have a longer lifespan due to the protection thermal spraying offers them. Because it works to reduce friction, sliding, and wear, the parts can be prolonged as these things won’t damage them at the same rate they would without the coating.
Our Experience in the Automotive Industry
Alphatek Hyperformance Coatings Ltd can help you there. We have a long and successful history of providing metal spraying solutions to the automotive industry. Some of the brands we’ve provided solutions for are quite prestigious in the industry, too.
Aston Martin… Bentley… Bugatti.
Metal spraying applications in the automotive industry include interior detail, exterior panels, turbochargers, and the EGR valve.
Exterior Panels
External automotive panel designs can be protected from wear and friction due to thermally sprayed coatings.
Alphatek has delivered some exciting breakthroughs when it comes to automotive panel coating technology. Like the development of specialist, new composite panel technologies implores specialist metal finishing.
Turbocharger Coatings
Turbochargers are often heavily relied on because they can increase the power output of all kinds of automotive engines. Naturally, then, the efficiency of a turbocharger can be improved with the application of an abradable coating. This ensures the maximum efficiency by reducing mechanical friction.
With extensive experience working with gas turbines in the oil and gas sector, Alphatek has developed multiple solutions equally applicable to automotive application.
EGR Valve Coating
EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valves are incredibly important components of a modern exhaust system. They ensure effective recirculation of some of the exhaust gas back to the combustion chamber which reduces temperature.
Through an application of a specialist thermal spray coating, the life and performance of an EGR valve can be improved massively. In turn, this increases overall engine efficiency and reduces the mean time between failure.
Contact Alphatek Today
As a leading independent thermal spray coating specialist, we provide complete metal spraying, thermal spray coatings, fluoropolymer coating, and finishing services to a range of industries.
Industry demands require such diversity when it comes to coating characteristics, from non-stick release to corrosion properties. That’s why Alphatek delivers that and more. Every time, offering the best value and most effective thermal spray coating solution to our customers.
We understand that there is never a shortcut to an efficient solution. Or experience.
Get in touch with us today to find out more about us, industries we provide for, or our metal spray coatings.
