We can’t stop you from diving headfirst into that project car and tearing it down into its most basic components as quickly as possible.
However–as we’ve discovered over the many years of working on numerous project cars–this approach can end up costing you in the long run, as when it comes time to reassemble your project, you could quickly find yourself scrambling to remember where all those parts go.
The best way to strip down that project, then? We cover that in the latest update for our 1960 Austin Healy Sprite, which you can read now over on Classic Motorsports.
Do you have tips or tricks you use when disassembling a new project car?
Time and space. Stripping a production car into a race car produces a massive amount of items that need space. Yes a lot of those items have value but storing them until they can be sold brings up the question of where to put them.
Personally I found a market for mine before I started. But some things ( like wire loans) have nearly zero value. And is best dealt with by chopping out in convienant sized pieces.
I prefer the ADHD way. Let bolts fly. Then make multiple trips to Home Depot for those random bolts you can't find on the garage floor anymore. (And then get mad that Home Depot "doesn't carry automotive bolts.")
Big clear plastic bags , marking pen and stickers.....
now I would probably get a camera and SD card and only use it for that project ,
this goes DOUBLE if its a rare car and no one else will remember how it goes back together ,
I go with the "throw it all on the floor then try to pick up most of it later" method.
In hindsight maybe this is why projects take me so long.
I keep sandwhich bags as well as the little clear plastic tackle boxes. Everything gets a tape label. I'm super anal when it comes to dissasembly and it seems to pay off.
Fitzauto said:I go with the "throw it all on the floor then try to pick up most of it later" method.
In hindsight maybe this is why projects take me so long.
When you are building a race car, that's the best method. 90% of what you throw on the floor doesn't go back on the car.
When I was racing I did the labeled storage shelves and boxes and then bags labeled for small parts. Mainly because many parts were reusable or needing to maintained and I had hard schedules to get the car running again.
Now when I do a major job, I find I usually have some broken part or something I need to maintain. And while getting to the known bad part I will likely replace anything else hard to get to. Including bolts so most stuff goes in the recycle pile. Far less in the reuse pile and a bunch of new fasteners and parts.
buzzboy said:I keep sandwhich bags as well as the little clear plastic tackle boxes. Everything gets a tape label. I'm super anal when it comes to dissasembly and it seems to pay off.
I eventually learned that I can keep a dedicated box of sandwich bags right there in the garage.
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