Practical Classics (UK)

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From first project tips to silicone hoses, this is your classic agony aunt service.

QI’ve just bought my first project, a Peugeot 504.

It’s a bit tatty, but it works fine and even has an MOT. I’d like to make it as perfect as possible. Should I start by stripping it down to a bare shell and making a list of jobs?

Derek Stafford, Milton Keynes

Ed says

ANo. Tackle it a bit at a time, especially as it’s your first project. If it’s a runner, you should do as much as possible while keeping it on the road. You’ll appreciate and enjoy its gradual improvemen­t, identifyin­g what needs attention – and what doesn’t. Tackle larger jobs over winter. The danger of stripping a car is that it takes only a day to reduce it to atoms.

It requires many thousands of hours and a will of iron to put it back together again. Tasks escalate: even something that works fine will look shabby and take a week of evenings to make presentabl­e before it can be reattached. The only excuse for dismantlin­g a car is to make extensive welding possible – and it’s best to avoid a car that needs so much work, especially as a first project. Choose bite-sized chunks to go at. Perhaps overhaul the suspension, one corner at a time; make all the doors shut and seal properly; tidy up all the connectors and earths to make the lights more efficient. Rust damage should be tackled in stages. It’s not a pleasant task, so choose just one or two areas to sort at any one time. That way, you can be done with them quickly, rather than end up hiding from a gargantuan and perpetuall­y halffinish­ed job. A respray can wait. Even if a car’s too decrepit to be a rolling restoratio­n, you should still break down all the tasks so as not to be overwhelme­d by the amount of work that needs doing, or by the expense of parts and materials.

Here’s a short list of typical small projects to get you going:

Change oils in engine, gearbox and axle. Braking system: check for leaks and perished hoses. Rebuild complete system over winter. Electrics: make everything work properly, one item at a time. Suspension and steering: check dampers, look for sloppy balljoints and split steering rack bellows / leaking steering box / seized idler. Overhaul over winter. Trace and eliminate water leaks into the body, one at a time. Cooling system: flush, replace suspect hoses, change thermostat, assess condition and efficiency of radiator. I could go on...

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