Practically Used Homestead Wheels

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Finally, if you like the vehicle and it costs more than you are willing to lose, go to Midas for a free check of the muffler and brakes. Watch them while they do it and keep their estimate for price negotiating. Then take it to a mechanic and a panel-knocker you trust and pay for a drive-train and body-work diagnosis and estimate of repairs to a safe, road-worthy, and cosmetically acceptable condition. Make your decision and negotiate.

You have to be willing to dicker. Dealers have about 1/3 of the price to play with. Private owners can ask anything ...but always ask more than they expect to get and will almost always come down if you are resolute. Offer the lowest price you have the gall to mention and go up reluctantly.

Restoring the "Well Used" Vehicle

You are going to: pay, at least $100/month to own a car, whether it is old or new. It's a "pay me now or pay me later" proposition. Buying new, you pay for all—new parts all at once. Buying used, you replace wearing parts one at a time before they threaten to break down. Plan well and you'll do the work when you want to (not when the car fails).

Buy, a vehicle that can be repaired easily and cheaply. For Mustangs, Camaros, VW. Bugs, 1/4-ton pickups, and other popular vehicles, every part but the frame and body shell are available at a reasonable price. Look in, the catalogs, or call local body shops..

Whether you or a paid pro does the work, you'll have to know what your car needs and what your options are. Read car-restoration books froth the library: Subscribe to the old-and performance-car magazines and catalogs. You'll surely need same help, and every country town has genuine and self-styled experts in fixing up old cars. Ask anyone you see driving an older vehicle who they recommend for mechanical acid body work—and more important, whom and where to avoid.

P arts may take same searching. You can save time and money if you buy a parts car to cannibalize or scout around for a car like yours that someone got tired of working on and thats being, "parted out". Use (well-) rebuilt alternators, starters, and, other wearing parts and junkyard body parts when you can.

With other than for a "numbers-matching" show car, substitute modern parts if possible, Box example, GM refused for decades to spend more than $2.00 for an, electric clock—even for Cadillacs—so clocks never lasted long. Using Velcro, I suck a rather than buy a "NOS" GM Clock movement listed in the catalog NOS means. Old Stock: original unused repair parts that hate been stored for decades. You pay for the storage a NOS clock won't work for long if it works at all.

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