In What Order Do You Restore?

[harnalien]

sup dudes. i've had my truck for a while, and find myself going back and forth on little projects. wanting to do the engine has had me in a standstill for quite some time. my question is, what order has experience shown you is the best to use in general? Of course, the condition of your truck will dictate a lot. My thoughts are:
1: Engine/Drivetrain
2: Electrical
3: Suspension
4: Interior
5: Paint and Body
6: Wheels/Tires
7: Drivin the heck out of it!!

[Mickey_D]

To me if I'm going to do a resto at all, I take it off the road completely and do a frame off. I've never done one on a driver. IMHO by the time you get the final piece of a driver restored, the first bit needs done again, so it turns into an unnecessary unending (and very unsatisfying) project.

But I'm weird like that. I'm too much of a perfectionist with myself. That's why I now drive absolute POS's that are far beyond value of restoring, because I won't be tempted to try on them. I can just drive them for the pleasure of driving. I can leave my old truck parked overnight in the Walmart parking lot with the key in the ignition the full 9 hours day in and day out and never fear that it won't be there in the morning. It's entirely too ugly for anyone to steal. And nowadays I like it that way.

But if I was going to do it piecemeal, I'd start with the steering and brakes as they are safety items. Wheels and tires next as they are the only thing that controls the vehicle. Next would be the drivetrain. Then the interior, then the exterior.

[old Rusty C10]

well with me i started slow cause i had little disposable income to throw into the truck so i bought the truck for $300 then the thing that irritated me the most was the rot in the inner fenders so i bought inner fenders and fenders and threw them on then i decided to do the doors cause they had alot of wind noise.I also changed the gas doors cause i felt that having them either missing or hanging was horrid and invited people to siphon the truck making it look easy nothing was painted tho they remain in the colors of the previous vehicles they had
I changed the oil immediately after getting the truck
I got the transmission for a birthday gift and ive been amassing parts for the interior and body
I just had the rear done up as well as the brakes
next will be the motor and front end
then the body work and paint and maybe the real interior work after that
i try to buy stuff as i can afford it so things always come in in wierd order

[streetstar]

Possible safety and wear issues would be first for me.

Brakes, tires, front end components, body/cab mounts,

then engine/transmission -- easier to remove these to do it somewhat thoroughly. With the engine and tranny out , most of the frame should be accessible to clean and detail. Its hard to do "3/4 show quality" detail job without at least pulling the bed and the doghouse though, but you can clean up a nice driver

Then i'd do bodywork, then glass, then the interior.


Of course if your driving it at the same time, i might put the interior at a higher priority than paint and body and engine detailing, because it is what you are looking at all the time, and funky carpet and cracked dashpads and seat covers can be distracting

[Restrorob]

Originally Posted by harnalien

what order has experience shown you is the best to use in general?
1: Engine/Drivetrain
2: Electrical
3: Suspension
4: Interior
5: Paint and Body
6: Wheels/Tires
7: Drivin the heck out of it!!

I moved a couple of yours around;

1: Engine/Drivetrain
2: Suspension
3: Electrical
4: Paint and Body
5: Interior
6: Wheels/Tires
7: Show the heck out of it !!

I decided to get all mechanical aspects done first so it could be test driven and any bugs worked out so not to have to hang over freshly painted fenders/wells,
Then it was stripped to the frame for the rest.

#4 is ahead of #5 due to interior cab color change but most interior will be re-installed before outside paint.

I've been stuck on #4 going on six years now, Little time to work on it But, That's fixin to change....

#7 Yeah, It won't be a DD but for state wide shows and cruze-in's....

[Thumpin455]

A restoration means a ground up rebuild to new or better than new specs for the entire vehicle. At least that is what it means to me. Some people think a paint job and some new seat covers and a carpet is a restoration. Just saying..

I am in the middle of two of them right now, and the first thing I do is disassemble the entire vehicle and strip it to bare metal. Usually the engine gets done while I am working on the sheetmetal work that cant be seen when the car is together, like wheel wells, cowls etc. I wait to do the transmission until after I get the underside/frame and engine bay painted. I also rebuild the suspension while I am waiting for one thing or another during the metal work phase.

So its the expensive stuff first and at the same time, Engine/Transmission, Body, Suspension. Then electrical, interior, and wheels tires and other easy to change things are after that.

So far the Mustang has been apart since 2005, the Cougar has paint on it and it was started October 2006, and my 76 C10 was painted and made drivable last spring/summer. it will get the full off treatment sometime, but for now it was practice to learn the paint gun, and also to keep the new sheetmetal I have for it from rusting. What I am trying to say here is it takes a long time to do these, mostly for me due to money and weather. The more rust there is the long it will take, and I have two 25lb spools of wire in the Mustang already.. yeah it was rusty.

The Trucks are the fastest to rebuild, because they are pretty much a bolt together deal. The cab is the only part that requires much welding, and the cab is usually much smaller than the body of a car, so less places to rust and replace.

I dont build show vehicles, I build drivers. Its what they are for and no matter how nice I make them or how much time I spend on them, they will be driven. I dont need yard art, I have plenty of that already.

[1966gmc]

Whatever I decide to do first.Paint/bodywork is always last on the list for me.
Sorry no help but thats me

[Rooster's82]

i work on what ever bothers me the most. In my current truck the interior was TOTALLY trashed and had roaches, while the engine was in surprisingly good condition. So i started on the inside, then as i found parts and had time i did the "bigger" projects.