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ENTHUSIAST SITES:
I really dig sites that document other enthusiasts who are
restoring their old cars. I'm constantly on the look out for sites like mine where a
restoration is thoroughly documented from start to finish. If you have such a site and
would like to be listed here, drop me a line
any time. These are some of the very best I've found on the net:
| Tom
Yang's Ferrari Restoration: Tom's detailed on-line diary was the
inspiration for my site, and his project is truly remarkable. Imagine buying a 1963
Ferrari 330GT America that has been in boxes for 23 years and trying to reassemble it
yourself! If you're thinking about restoring a car, but wondering if it is beyond your
abilities, check out Tom's site and be inspired. It's only fitting that I should put his
link first. |
| Bill Stoneberg's 1950 Buick Wagon Restoration
is a site very similar to this one where the complete frame-off restoration of a 1950
Buick Super woody is chronicled. A very easy-to-read and informative page. This is another
good place to go if you're looking for inspiration. |
Rex Stubbs has a neat site
featuring his 1939 Buick Special
4-door with a Holden body. It's undergone a complete ground-up restoration
down under in Australia. Make sure you take a look at the interior in his car--amazing!
He's inspired me to look into leather for my Century. |
| Jyrki Pykäri from Vantaa, Finland is
building a way-cool '46 Buick
Roadmaster Sedanette custom. I really admire his incredible workmanship and
the high standards of his construction--he uses lead instead of Bondo and makes his
own patch panels! His rodstoration diary is quite detailed. It's interesting to see
what obstacles our friends across the world face, and the lengths to which they go to
solve them. It helps keep my problems in perspective, to say the least. |
| Bill McKenna has restored
a '59 Cadillac
sedan and is now working on a '63 Jaguar E-type coupe.
His site documents each step of the restoration very well, and has been a must-read for me
for several months now. You can see the evolution of his skills and ambition, as well as
his restoration philosophy. Bill gives you the feeling that anything is possible--he's
fearless about trying new tools and developing new skills. Nice site. |
| Jeff Ramin has a written a very good on-line
journal of the restoration of his '68 Plymouth Barracuda. Jeff
is another first-timer who did a very nice job with a minimum of specialized tools and
equipment. Take a look--it's worth it. |
| I really dig Roy Newton's Hot
Rod Garage, which has a lot of great technical information and the build-up
of his budget '46 Plymouth hot-rod. He'll answer your technical questions, too, so take a
look. |
| Ken Carr has an all-original '41 Roadmaster 4-door sedan
that's just too nice to restore. He acquired it recently and is working on cleaning it up,
installing new wiring and basically making a decent car into a VERY nice car. Ken
says he'll be updating the site regularly with more photos and information. |
| Yann Saunders maintains the outstanding Cadillac Database
and owns a nice original 1942 Cadillac 75 sedan (one of 65) that he's preserving. I
enjoyed reading about the acquisition of the "Black Pryncess"
and his trials and tribulations trying to keep her on the road. Cadillacs and Buicks of
this vintage are quite similar, so it may be of value to check out the site if you have
either marque. |
| Don Dillard runs Don's Hot Rod Page, and
has some awesome projects going on, including a '32 Ford Roadster and a '57 Cadillac Coupe
DeVille. He's also a very good writer and does a lot of documentation on his projects. I
spent a lot of time on his site and thoroughly enjoyed it. Nice work, Don. |
| Jeff "Yardley" Holthenrichs has a
great site dedicated to his beautiful 1969 Riviera. I
spent a few hours exploring his site the other day, and even though I don't own an old
Riv, I was fascinated. If you have one of these cars, or just want one, Jeff seems to know
as much about them as anybody, learned mostly from experience. |
| Sandy Reda runs Sandy's Garage, where he
documents the restoration of a '70 Plymouth Road Runner HEMI, apparently one of 57 made
that year. His website is pretty thorough in its description of the project, and is one of
those sites that you can explore for hours and not see it all. He's also got some cool
navigation, so check it out! |
| John Henry runs The Bug Shop, a vast page dedicated
to Volkswagen Beetles (and VWs of all types). Like the other sites I have listed here, it
is extremely high-quality and technically oriented. You could spend a week straight
reading it and not see everything it has to offer. He's inspired me in more than a few
ways, so take a look. |
| Mike Hayes has restored a 1969 Chevrolet Impala
from the ground up in his garage, including the paint. His site is well documented with a
lot of photos and description. The results show what you can do if you're willing to learn
new skills and try new things. (Added 9/12/03) |
| Larry R. Kephart is restoring "BillyBob,"
a 1955 Chevy pickup truck. He's doing it old style and his restoration diary is quite
detailed and updated frequently. (Added 1/1/04) |
| Scott "Scooter" Nelson is building a
way-cool '33 Ford 3-window coupe highboy, and has documented the entire project from the
start. In fact, he claims that his "Project
33" is the world's first fully-documented street-rod build-up on the 'Net.
And since he's an Internet developer, the site is first-class all the way. One of the
nicest I've ever seen, in fact. (Added 1-12-04) |
| A fellow named Kevin E-mailed me the other
day to tell me about the custom
'51 Mercury lead-sled he's building on a Lincoln Town Car chassis. I checked
it out, and I'm really impressed with his project. I'll definitely be watching his
progress. |
 Wow,
wow and wow! Think you've got talent? How about building an exact replica of a Shelby Daytona
Coupe, hand-formed aluminum body and all--yourself! Have I said wow
yet? A gentleman named Chuck, who is not a metalsmith by trade or training has
achieved what may be the most impressive project I've ever seen in my life. You
have to see it to believe it. |
| This link is long overdue: John Grimestad
is restoring a '57 Chevy Bel-Air 2-door he has named Project: Rust Bucket.
Ambitous? Yes. Fun to read? Absolutely. Good luck, John! (Added
8/11/04) |
| Here's another overdue link: I see Josh Wilmes's
Fiat 1500 Cabriolet
restoration on my referrers list almost every day and it seems like he's doing a heck of a
job on his 1966 Fiat 1500 Cabriolet. (Added 9/21/04) |
| Stephe Boddice maintains an excellent site
dedicated to Rolls-Royce vehicles.
I originally found his site when doing a Google search for replacement insert-type rod
bearings. The detailed rebuild of a Phantom
III V12 engine is impressive. No wonder those Rolls-Royces cost so much--why use one
piece when 16 will do the job? There were parts on that OHV pushrod V12 that I couldn't
even recognize and would have looked more at home on a locomotive. Cool! (Added
11/15/04) |
| Herman
Desser's 1948 Cadillac
Convertible project looks
awesome (though there are only photos at this point). I've long thought that the '48-49
Cadillacs were some of the best-looking cars to come out of the '40s. These were some of
the first modern-looking cars and introduced us to the tailfin craze of the '50s. (Added
12/30/04) |
| Robert Budd has
created an outstanding website dedicated to his 1956 Buick restoration. The cool
thing is that this was his first car when he was 16, sold it, then found it again. Better
yet, he has taken hours and hours to scan all the factory literature and documentation
surrounding the 1956 Buick lineup. An incredible resource for Buick fans. (Added 1/27/05) |
| Greg Roselle's project is a 1936 Buick
Special 4-door sedan. He's starting with a very solid, original car and working on
it little by little. The format of his page will be familiar to my readers, too. (Added 1/27/05) |
| Caroholic.com is one man's site
dedicated to all the cars he's owned. I especially like the restoration diary of his 1939 Packard 120 coupe, which is
absolutely stunning in its new maroon paint. (Added
3/1/05) |
| George Teding is restoring a 1965 Mercury Comet. He E-mailed me
about the rotisserie plans and I took a look at his site. He's definitely been doing his
homework from the lessons learned at metalmeet.com.
Another amateur showing that anyone can achieve great results if they put their minds to
it. (Added 3/1/05) |
| Bob Shafto has owned his 1936
Pontiac coupe since he graduated from high school in 1965. Now he's restoring a 1936 Pontiac convertible coupe to
match. It should be a beautiful car when it's done, Bob! (Added
3/1/05) |
| This site is looong overdue: The GM Futurliner Restoration Project.
The Futurliners were built by GM in the 50s to showcase their products at auto shows.
These incredible art-deco behemoths are some of the coolest RVs ever built, and a group of
volunteers has undertaken this massive project purely for the love of the hobby. Nice
work, everyone! (Added 3/1/05) |
| Per Ornberg's (Dual Carb Registry #04-025) 1941 Buick Special sedanette. Per has
updated his site in English so you can better read what he's doing without an awkward
translator program. I love
seeing what our friends in other countries can do once you realize that many of the parts
and services they need are harder to find than they are here in the US. (Added 3/18/05, updated 2/21/06) |
| Here's another
cool project from Sweden (those guys can sure work the sheetmetal--I guess that's what
they do during those long, cold winters!). This is the story of Evita, PG Tälth's way-cool custom 1946
Buick Roadmaster convertible. The workmanship on this car is just incredible,
and now that he's got paint on it, the quality of his work is obvious. (Added 4/25/05) |
| The Kimini 2.2 is a mid-engined, tube-framed,
carbon-fiber bodied Mini Cooper. Ever wondered what it was like to build your own car from
scratch? Wonder no more. Very neat site with lots of detailed photographs. (Added
10/6/05) |
| Cobra Lads follows the exploits of Andy
"The Butcher" Dunn as he builds his own JBL Cobra replica. Fun to read and
there is also a lot to learn from his experiences. These are his stories... (added
10/6/05) |
PROFESSIONAL/TECHNICAL SITES:
| Auto Restorer On-Line: Tremendous site for the restorer,
featuring technical information, links, project cars (this is where I found Tom Yang), and a myriad of other
sources for the auto restorer. Valuable. (UPDATE (12/6/02): I
have recently published an article at Auto Restorer On-Line
that you might want to check out if you're looking to get into the hobby.) |
| The Guild of Automotive Restorers
is a top-flight restoration shop in Canada that does outstanding work. David C.
Grainger has written a series of
restoration articles that cover everything from disassembly to chrome
plating. Very well written by a man with the knowledge to do it right! |
| Buicks.net is all about Buicks, featuring articles, message
boards and a classified section just for Buicks. |
| Len Stuart runs Autobodystore.com with
a very active bulletin board. Answers to all your bodywork questions can be found here, as
well as all the supplies you'll need to restore your car's exterior. |
| PreWarBuick
is "...an album of Buick automobiles and trucks built from 1904 to 1942,
hundreds of pictures, lots of useful links, the "What's Leaking" column, and 14
great Feature articles. This site celebrates these wonderful cars and the people who
appreciate them." |
| Wow! That's all I can say
about this absolutely breathtaking Jaguar
E-Type restomod performed by Classic
Jaguar. I stumbled on this diary of the car's construction by accident during
a Google search and I have to say
that seldom have I seen such amazing craftsmanship. Search around the site, and I'm sure
you'll find equally beautiful creations and additional detailed photo logs. If you aren't
impressed by this, then nothing can impress you. Incredible! |
| Well,
this is about the most amazing thing I've seen this year. Hot Rods and Horsepower
is making brand new all-steel '32 Ford bodies, including the
famous 3-window coupe. It's always been one of my dreams to have a hot '32 3-window,
chopped, full fenders, black with flames and big-n-little Halibrands, but I just couldn't
bring myself to cut up an original and fiberglass is just, well, fiberglass. Now I don't
have to worry about cutting up an original car, and I can get all-new sheetmetal, to boot.
I think I know what my next project is going to be. Beautiful work, guys! |
| Adam Martin
maintains the Buick Parts Directory,
which covers virtually all Buicks made. He also has links to other enthusiast sites, Buick
specialists and Buick news. Be sure to check out the gallery of readers' cars, too! |
| If you are a restorer or just have interest in metal shaping, MetalMeet
is the absolute best place to get friendly, expert advice as well as a community that
shares secrets as well as common knowledge. A bunch of really great guys. (Added
8/9/04) |
| Here's one of the coolest sites
I've found: www.garagejunkies.net. I've
been waiting all my life for a site like this where lunatics like me can get together and
dream and talk about beautiful workshops for our cars. Between the excellent advice and
beautiful finished garages, there's definitely something here to inspire you. (Added
4/21/05) |
PARTS & SUPPLIES:
| The Eastwood Company: If you
don't know about Eastwood, you should probably learn before you turn another bolt on your
project. Incredible selection of restoration tools and supplies. |
| Buick Parts Cars, Inc. offers a tremendous selection of
reproduction and NOS Buick parts. |
| Bob's
Automobilia specializes in pre-war Buick parts and literature. |
| The Buick Farm is an Internet-only source of exclusively NOS
Buick parts. But be warned--when their supply is gone, it's gone! The Buick Farm
has been very helpful in getting some very hard to find parts for my restoration. |
| Kanter Auto
Products carries a very good selection for American classics, including
engine rebuild kits, brake rebuild kits, suspension components, even upholstery kits. They
have a free catalog, as well. |
| TP Tools
is another great tool supplier for the restoration hobby. I bought my blast cabinet and
supplies there, and I'll definitely be going back. They're local to me in Youngstown, Ohio
(about 45 minutes away), so I save on shipping, too! |
| Caswell
Plating offers dozens and dozens of kits for plating virtually
anything. I have their Copy-Cad kit for replating the cadmium-plated parts on my Buick,
and I'm impressed. They have a very informative message
board that will answer all your questions. By the way, they also offer very
reasonably priced buffing and powder-coating products. |
| Bill Hirsch is probably a familiar name to you
if you've been in the car hobby for as long as I have. Hirsch Auto offers a vast selection of
restoration supplies, including the best engine enamel I've ever used. They also sell
quite a bit of leather and other things that will assist your restoration efforts. |
CLUBS:
| The Buick Club of America is still the biggest and most
widely-recognized Buick enthusiast organization in the world. I'm a member (#38767)--are
you? |
| The American Automobile Casting Numbers Club (AACNC) is a great
resource for information on engine casting numbers for virtually every American car made. |
| The Dual
Carb Registry strives to locate and document 1941-42 Buicks equipped with Compound
Carburetion. Registration and participation are 100% free. |
| The Buick
Car Club of Australia is home to a great bunch of enthusiasts, and it's an
outstanding web site as well, created by my friend from down under, Rex Stubbs. (Added 10/20/04) |
| Adam Martin of the Buick Parts Directory has recently started the Buick Centurion Registry, dedicated to
1971-1973 Buick Centurion vehicles. Based on his work with the Parts Directory, I expect
this to become a great resource for owners and enthusiasts. (Added
2/04/05) |
E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net
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Last modified on 02/21/2006
Thanks, Fidget!
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