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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...