THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Let's move away from the actual car now, and consider where you will be working. In an ideal world you will have use of a double garage because once you start dismantling a car, the amount of space it takes up seems to grow exponentially. We have seen some phenomenal restoration results achieved by people working in a single garage, but it is not easy and you will often have to push the car outside to create enough access to work on it. As such, your work schedule will to some extent be at the mercy of the weather. You can get free- standing garages that are essentially big frame tents. These are insecure and draughty, but can offer some weather protection if they are anchored down properly.
Working in a proper garage should have the bonus of a proper concrete floor. Working outside, you may find less ideal conditions underfoot, with gravel proving highly adept at hiding dropped fixings or small tools. However, there is a bigger problem with working on a soft surface such as gravel or grass, and that concerns safety. As Roger Parker explains: 'It is vital you consider the surface upon which you are jacking up a car and putting it on axle stands, especially when working outside. Ideally this needs to be on a flat concrete surface, but many drives are tarmac and the driveway- quality tarmac is far too soft, especially in warmer weather when you will soon see the jack and stands sink to varying degrees. My way around this is to use an 8x4 sheet of ply, cut in half so that it is easier to
store, move and handle. These are then placed on the tarmac before moving the car over them. Even thin 6mm sheets will spread the loads and prevent drive damage, but 9mm thick is better. However, additional square pieces of ply would be needed as a base to axle stands that have no formed feet as they have higher spot loadings that would tend to cut through the ply.'
One other consideration should be storage. As mentioned earlier, the space taken up by a car grows considerably as you dismantle it. If you don't have room in the garage, then being able to squeeze some shelving into a shed will be of great help. A loft is also a bonus for large, light and clean components such as seats, and hopefully it will keep them away from mice or other critters who might want to move into them, or chew them up for bedding.