Navigating the Challenges of Starting a Car Restoration Project - The start of a beautiful journey...

Embarking on a car restoration journey marks the beginning of a thrilling adventure into the world of automotive craftsmanship. Whether you are a seasoned car enthusiast or a novice looking to restore a classic/vintage vehicle, the process ahead promises challenges, rewards, and the satisfaction of bringing a piece of automotive history back to life. In this blog post, we will begin to explore the essential steps to kickstart this car restoration project (a sense of excitement and a belief in yourself) , and share with you the exciting journey ahead.

Dolly arrives

So before the real travelling journeys begin I'm going to cast my mind back and document Dolly's journey from day of arrival on the back of a flat bed truck to the changes we've made through choice and necessity in order to bring us right up to date. It's going to take a few blog pages...

Yes, that's Dolly in all her Lapis Grey splendour. The engine started first time, in order to reverse her off the flat bed and onto the drive so that was a most excellent start. Of course, I wasn't aware of any of this as yet...

You see, the mister had decided on impulse to buy an unseen car from 'down south', that had been kept in a garage for a year (ULEZ hit hard). He found Dolly on the internet and thought "Hey, she'll like that". She does in fact love 'that' as it turns out.

Anyway, on the day in question, I arrived home from work to a shifty looking husband who insisted my sister needed help with something so we had to go round to her house immediately. Anyone who knows my sister also knows she's far from needy. Shifty fact one.

Shifty fact two, when I told him to go by himself if it was that important, he insisted it 'wasn't quite right' to visit another woman without me. My sister. My sister and her two children whom he has known for years.

We arrived at my sister's house to find her stood talking to a neighbour outside. "What do you need, I'm tired and hungry" I said. "I don't need anything" she said and went back to talking to the neighbour as my husband mumbled beside me. Shifty fact three.

I clocked the car on her driveway, went over for a look. "Whose is this?" I shouted over my shoulder. "Mine" she said and that was shifty fact final. She disikes old things, furniture, decor, cars and people.

As she said goodbye to the neighbour and walked into the house, I followed saying "You hate old things, it's not yours. Does it belong to that guy I can't stand? Can I drive it? Why have you got it? How long will it be here for? Seriously, where did it come from? Have you got the keys?"

Those keys are mine

And the keys appeared over my shoulder. "Yes, you found them," I squealed at my husband, "Let's go" and out the door I went for a closer look.

I climbed inside after a bit of a faff with the key that doesn't work and the dodgy central locking button (all mod cons). "Weyhey, this is cute" I said with a smile. "It's yours" said the beaming husband. Who was, I might add, extremely pleased with my reaction to his impulse purchase so far.

First look inside

The inside was filthy and covered in mould. It smelled like a damp pit and there was growth of something nasty on the carpet. The seats were scuffed and stained, the back window was hanging on by a rusty thread and there were too many dings, scrapes and rust patches on the body work to count but my goodness she was the cutest little car I had ever seen.

"It's a Dolly car " I cried. Yes I cried, just a little bit. No insurance or tax and nowhere to park her at ours. She had to sit on my sister's drive for a little bit but I was so excited. Yes I did visit her and yes I took loads of photos. Straight onto the Figaro facebook groups, I joined them all. The more discerning members of the groups pointed out the flaking paint, the mismatched panels, the rusty arches, the bent boot but I didn't care. I was on the phone to the insurance company and so the journey began.

Next, the move home.

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