Thank for the help on my '66 DeVille 10+ year resto-complete

[Chuck Swanson]

Appreciate all the replies/help on my various posts about my my '66 Deville vert over the last 10+ years!  Resto is now complete! Took home an AACA first junior award Saturday.   This was a great father/son project.  My son is 21 now and was a big help on the project.  He now works as a service tech at a Cadillac dealer  
Resto thread:
http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=116643.msg504636#msg504636

See you in Chicago, '22 GN!

Thanks, Chuck

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Chuck,

Congratulations. I knew you'd bring home the trophy; but I know the satisfaction of what you built feels even better. I see from the sky that little has changed at Hershey.  I showed a car there five times and had rain during three of them......I was beginning to take it personally.

Thanks for the shout out. For what ever help I provided , you're quite welcome. It's always fun to talk to fellow enthusiasts.

Ralph

[Cape Cod Fleetwood]

Holy Cow! What a metamorphosis!
Chuck, seriously, putting the father/son relationship (which I think is fabulous) aside -
Would you now advise people to do their own resto, or simply save their pennies and buy the car 'done'
or nearly done/needing "some" work? Your opinion has real value here. Nice job.

[bctexas]

Wow, what a wonderful accomplishment!  Congrats to you and your son!  And thanks for saving a grand old car from the scrap heap.  I truly admire your patience and skill.

Has your son driven it to work yet to show it off to his co-workers?  Wouldn't that be fun!

Happy Motoring!

[Chuck Swanson]

Chuck,

Congratulations. I knew you'd bring home the trophy; but I know the satisfaction of what you built feels even better. I see from the sky that little has changed at Hershey.  I showed a car there five times and had rain during three of them......I was beginning to take it personally.

Thanks for the shout out. For what ever help I provided , you're quite welcome. It's always fun to talk to fellow enthusiasts.

Ralph

Thanks Ralph!  Only a two minute drizzle, otherwise in the 60s 70s, so worked out ok, especially sine I had to do some final installs in back of hotel parking lot Friday

[Chuck Swanson]

Holy Cow! What a metamorphosis!
Chuck, seriously, putting the father/son relationship (which I think is fabulous) aside -
Would you now advise people to do their own resto, or simply save their pennies and buy the car 'done'
or nearly done/needing "some" work? Your opinion has real value here. Nice job.

Thank you!  It was a lot of work.  In hindsight, I would have started with a better car as this one needed some body work.  It was *only* going to be a driver.  However, when finishing the welding the top caught on fire (tried to save the top as it was on good condition, so dash and top were left on car).  Not much  else was on the car, but was insured.  Decided to strip the rest of car down to frame, then soda  and sand blast everything.  Only top went on fire, so had a spare top.    Dash had some smoke damage, not burned so disassembled and saved the good parts and restored. 
Also in hindsight I would have bought parts cars earlier in resto, vs 3 years after. Much easier to get many parts at once, along with using as reference when installing stuff.  As an example, installing new Pilkington glass three weeks ago, one side window was defective.  Had a beautiful piece on a parts car, so grabbed and installed. 

Since I did the majority of work with my son, it would mainly be the labor costs, which are around 2500 hours guestimate between my son and I.  Since it was a hobby, not including that "cost", so mainly for me was parts.  However, I traded/sold a ton of parts from my parts cars, so my cost of parts probably less than most.  I also bought approx. 2 40' containers of parts, and have sold many parts as my parts loads included other years I don't need.

Bottom line, if you do most of the work yourself and enjoy, yes.  If you are going to farm out most of the work, unless some family heirloom or something, better to buy one mostly done (which I have done too with my '65 Eldo, 96, 97, etc..) 

Yes, the father/son project/bonding...priceless    Thanks, Chuck

[Chuck Swanson]

Wow, what a wonderful accomplishment!  Congrats to you and your son!  And thanks for saving a grand old car from the scrap heap.  I truly admire your patience and skill.

Has your son driven it to work yet to show it off to his co-workers?  Wouldn't that be fun!

Happy Motoring!

Thanks.  Yes, decided to save as I could have scrapped after the fire (see above), but glad saved it.   No not yet, as I need to buy a $2 flasher as blinker was not working on it's first 2 mile maiden drive after completion...or maybe blinker fluid   (Many test drives before assembly, but didn't catch it) Thanks!  Chuck