Need Advice on Restoration Project

[pb24]

In a couple of months I'm going to start a restoration project on my 68 charger. I'm looking for some advice and tips on the best way to tag all the parts that will be coming off the car. I plan on taking lots of pictures to help me remember where things go back together but any advice or input you guys can give me would be helpful. Thanks

[Baldwinvette77]

Dont take too much off at a time,

For example dont disassemble your dash and your engine at the same time, I know alot of people who do that, and the always forget, or lose things, takes stuff off in large chunks, and disassemble them as you need too,  don't disassemble your door, untill you are ready to do rust repair/reskin that particular part,  

[fy469rtse]

And don't tag bags written on masking tape or texta that can fade , you don't really know how long till parts go back on , it's always longer then you think it plan it will be

[Ghoste]

You are on the right track though.  Take LOTS of photos and put like bags together, don't just throw them all in a heap somewhere.  Get some shelves, label the shelves and put dash components on one and grille on one etc.  For large areas such as underhood break it down even further such as horns, charging, fuel, and so on.

[70 sublime]

Try to keep the piles of bags split up into groups

Under the hood stuff
Inside the car interior stuff
Back end trunk stuff

Narrows it down a bit when the time comes to put it back together

[Homerr]

I can vouch that masking tape labels on the dash harness are useless by the time you get back around to assembly!  In one year half fell off and the other half the pen faded.

....Take LOTS of photos ....

And then take a TON more photos or you'll be searching for the picture you didn't take.  Stick the camera in areas you can't see and fire it off (like under the dash, down around the engine).  I found the shots that I took of the engine bay right after we took the hood off to be invaluable during reassembly to see how everything sits.

I did my restoration in the pre-digital camera era and took about 600 pics.  It wasn't quite enough!  I did have a spiral notebook that I did several drawings, of wiring mostly, that helped greatly.


The most important advice I can give:  document everything with a picture, drawing, label, etc.  No matter how smart you are or how good a memory you have by the time 1-3 years go by (or more) you'll be scratching your head about which clips/screws go for which stainless trim, how the window regulators fit in, etc.  Things that are completely obvious today will be tomorrow's mystery!


'Project Charger' by Larry Lyles is a good primmer on the whole restoration process!

http://www.amazon.com/Project-Charger-Step-Step-Restoration/dp/193199322X

[ottawamerc]

If I took a bolt or screw out to remove something I always put the bolt back where it came from, good storage space and made reassembly easier.

Scott

[projectanimal]

If I took a bolt or screw out to remove something I always put the bolt back where it came from, good storage space and made reassembly easier.

Scott

We did the same thing, as well as bought a lot of medium and small brown paper bags and magic markers.  Separated everything and wrote as much detail as possible on bag as it mayet be on the shelf longer than anticipated..... pictures are wonderful!   

[Chad L. Magee]

My suggestion is to first take a picture of the parts on the car, then disassemble, bag and tag them.  I would go one extra step and print off the photos and place them in the bags/containers containing each part so you will not forget where it goes, even if the tag gets lost.  You could even write the name of the part and where it goes on the back of the photo if you like.  Keep the part storage area organized by approximate location on the car if you can...  

If you don't want to place the photo with the part, keep the photos in an album and code them with numbers to the specific parts in the photo.  Computers are great for storing digital photos, but sometimes data can be lost, so back it up with good quality DVDs or an external hard drive.  Don't forget to put the codes on the tags if you go this route and keep a code book.  Otherwise you will spend most of your time   ,    or   what each smaller part is.  The key to keeping it together is documentation at every step of the process as been said before by other members here....

Another option is to video the entire process piece by piece.  It takes up much more data on your drive to do, but then you can show the restoration in stages as a video show later on.  I have seen this done on mega $ cars before.  I can't say whether or not it was worth it as it was not my cars nor time spent on them....

[Dino]

In short, you cannot take too many preparations.  You will forget how things went and you won't always have that camera handy but have no fear!  We are here to help.   

I have done many restorations and by the time I did the last few I started changing things up a bit.  First of all, you need a lot of space to do this.  The car itself will occupy the least amount, the parts will be friggin' everywhere! 

I used to set up sawhorses with plywood on top to create long tables where I could collect all the parts of the same 'family'.  I would have one table with all the chrome and SS trim, emblems and all that stuff.  Another had electrical only, all laid out. Another would have the interior parts and so on.  This not only keeps it organized, it also keeps it in sight so you do not get overwhelmed.  As the project moves on, the tables will get smaller which is a boost in motivation.

Too many people focus on body work and engine only and ignore the rest.  When the body and mechanical is near completion people tend to get eager to finish and start to cut corners on some of the bolt on parts.  There is nothing more I hate than seeing a 'restored' car with the old weather stripping and dull chrome or SS trim.  It looks like crap!

With a lot of parts that I remove, I don't just store them , I restore them before I do anything else.  Think about removing all that SS trim.  Unless you plan on replacing it, put the time in and remove the dings and polish it up so it is like new.  Now you can store it and won't have to worry about it again.  The goal in a resto project is to change things up.  When you are tired of trying to make that patch panel fit, leave it alone and go restore some under hood parts or tackle the dash.

You can go any way you like with this, there is no one way to do this so keep this in mind: a restoration needs to be fun and needs to be about the journey as much as, if not more, than the goal.

Putting all the parts into boxes not to be seen for a year or two is not going to make it fun.  Every single part on that car, down to the last nut and bolt will need some work, be it restore or replace.  So look at the big picture, divide and conquer and most of all, enjoy.

[six-tee-nine]

Take ALOT of pictures.

Every loose nut and bolt goes in a separate bag or together with other bolts that are from the same part.

When for instance you have 4 bolts that keep one part in place but are different sizes or length then bag them separate with a note in the bag telling you were they need to go then put the bags together in one larger bag so you know these 4 bolts belong to the same part.

When you remove your doors keep the glass and lock stuff in place as long as you can, saves time in the beginning.
Remove the dash but dont dissasemble it. Start with that when you are going to restore the dash.
Same for things like heater core, grill, taillights...

[pb24]

Thanks everybody for your input you guys have given  me some good advice. So what is the best way to mark the plastic bags? I thought about using a shipping tag with wire twist to mark wires and anything that's not going into bags.

[hemi-hampton]

I put all the parts in different size zip lock clear plastic baggies, I write with black marker on bag. then put group of bags like from engine compartment, in seperate small box. Then put all the small boxes into big large boxs, ect. It's worked for me for years. LEON.

[six-tee-nine]

Yeah i had to move My parts twice to finally have them in the shop wich resulted in having engine bay bags and interior bags ending up in the same box.....try to avoid that, searching means frustration wich means headache, yelling to the wife, even throwing with stuff.....

I'm only mid 30's so temper hasnt cooled down enough, altough its better than 10 years ago....