So you want to own an old car with style? How to start your search

If you love old cars but don't know a lot about them, you might assume that you can't own one without spending big, big bucks.  Not so fast - there are a lot of cars out there that you CAN afford to buy, and some that you can even afford to maintain!

The market for old cars varies a lot. Too keep things simple, I'll define old cars as ones with carburetors, not fuel injection.  So think further back than 1984.  If you want seat belts (optional in some cases) and air conditioning, the farther back you go, the tougher your search.  Seat belts didn't become standard in cars until the mid 1960s.  Air conditioning was pretty rare in cars up through the 1970s.  So your first step should really be to list some "must-have" features you want in your old car.

Ask yourself how you will use the car -- do you want to tow a trailer with it? If so, you need to know what that car's towing capabilities are.  Do you want to drive it in parades - be sure it's not prone to overheating.  Do you want a pristine show car that you will baby and worry over, or a "driver quality" car you can park at the grocery store without worrying too much?  Do you want a completely original car, one that has been "restored", or one that has some customization or safety modifications?  How many people do you want to be able to have ride with you - if you have a family, will the car or truck have enough room for everyone?

Generally speaking, price equates to popularity and condition (and time of year).  A late 1950s to mid 1960s convertible will usually be priced higher than a nice two-door coupe; and a station wagon will usually get a higher price than a 4-door family sedan.  A car with a V8 engine will usually be priced higher than a car with a six cylinder or smaller engine.  But a lot of price variability has to do with condition.  Thanks to televised auctions, a lot of people with old buckets of rust that haven't run in 30 years think their car is worth $50,000.  Yea, right.  Having owned about 10 old cars over the years, I can tell you that it's cheaper in the long run to buy a decent, running car than a car needing a lot of mechanical or body work.  If you are patient and not impulsive, you'll probably get a better deal on a convertible in the fall or winter than you will in the spring or summer.

If you are seriously considering getting an old car for occasional pleasure driving, your goal should be to become a budding expert on the car of your dreams before you do any serious car shopping.

Get online and search for different makes and models of cars.  Google is your friend here.  Do image searches on Flickr or other photo sharing sites. Look at a lot of pictures.  Look at eBay and craigslist ads for a 50-mile radius around your area over a period of time to get a feel for what's available, what is selling, and what isn't selling.

Depending on where you live, the availability, condition, and value of old cars will vary, sometimes by a lot.  Make a short list of cars that appeal to you.  Try to narrow your interest to a particular make (Ford? Chevy? Buick? Chrysler? Rambler?) and model (Mustang? Impala? Corvette? Thunderbird?).

Do some more searching and see if there is a car club near you specializing in the kind of car you are interested in.  Contact someone in the club, and start networking to find people who wouldn't mind helping you find some cars to look at.  Go to some club events and meet others who own cars similar to what you think you want.  You really want to find someone knowledgeable about the common problems found in the make/model/year of car that interests you.  You want to learn if a car is easy or hard to find parts for.  What will it cost to insure the car?

Find a local repair shop with someone old enough or experienced enough working on carburated cars and non-electronic ignitions.  Think simple.  The challenge is, a lot of technically trained mechanics have never worked on an older car.  Ask around.  Go to a car show and talk up an owner of a car you like.  Usually you can find at least one person who can point you to a trustworthy mechanic who knows and works on old cars.

Once you've narrowed your interests to a particular kind of car, one of your first goals should be to find someone near you who would go with you to look at cars for sale.  Or at least get a referral to a nearby mechanic or old car expert who can evaluate an old car for you. Spending $100 - $200 on a comprehensive inspection before you buy is a smart investment that could save you from buying a car with hidden, high-dollar problems.

Be realistic about your abilities and buy the best condition car you can find for the money.  Driveways and garages and backyards are littered with projects that turned out to be overwhelming after the "project" was dragged home.

Diamond-Shaped Vintage Clock Gets a Face Job

I picked up this great looking clock on Etsy months ago, but when it arrived, the careless seller had allowed some of the packing tape to get stuck to the face.  So when I tried removing the tape, it took part of the woodgrain face too.  Argh.

I put it aside for a while, and finally decided the rest of the clock was just too great to not have on display.  So I had another project on my hands.

Sorry I don't have a complete set of photos to document what I did, but I'll explain the steps.

First I carefully removed the hands and the movement.  All of the pieces got bagged and labeled.  I used a very small flat head screwdriver to carefully pry up the numbers and other pieces from the face.  Each piece had two small plastic prongs on the back which go into corresponding holes in the face.  That work left me with just the blank, tape-damaged face you see here.

Next I cleaned the face and used some spray primer to give myself a good base to work with.  After that I used some black spray paint to coat the face and let that paint set up for a while.  I toyed with keeping the face black, but I decided this was a good opportunity to try doing some faux wood graining.  I found a wood graining kit on Amazon and using some leftover wood stains I rubbed a couple coats of stain on the face, trying a couple stain colors to get something I liked.  Before the second coat dried, I used a wood graining comb to introduce the look of wood grain.  I let that set up and decided to rub on a couple more coats of stain.

After that all dried, I just reassembled the clock.  I did have to use a small pointed pick to open up the tiny holes which held the prongs behind the numbers and other pieces that went around the clock's face.

So here's the final product, now hanging above my office door at work.

I'm pretty happy with it, but I can see that faux wood graining like anything else requires lots of practice and experimentation.

Vintage Wheelbarrow Gets a Facelift - Just the Right Size for Gardening

Everything you buy in 2012 is either biggie-sized, jumbo, über, or super triple huge, even wheelbarrows. 

So when I saw this nice vintage all-metal wheelbarrow at the same estate sale last weekend where I scored the great Homecraft patio furniture, well, I pulled five bucks out of my wallet as fast as I could!  Whenever I see one of these it's usually rotted and rusty and falling apart.

As you can see, it must have spent most of its life in the garage because there was very little rust on the thing. Sometime recently, however, a bit of water or something damp sat in it long enough to give it this one area of surface rust.  


After neutralizing the rust with some Naval Jelly, I knew it would need fresh paint to preserve the metal and get rid of the rust spots, so I chose to tear it apart, clean up and repaint the parts rather than try to get my touch up painting efforts to match the original shades of red and white.

Here's the end result.  Now, She Who Must Be Obeyed has an appropriately sized wheelbarrow for her gardening.

Vintage Sunbeam Electric Lawn Mower Project

When I picked up the old TV cabinet a few weeks ago from Nick who posts over at Decades A Go Go, he also sold me this great vintage Sunbeam electric lawn mower.  I've been looking for a retro mower ever since I saw this incredible beauty I posted about a couple years ago.

I never knew Sunbeam made a mower, but a little research suggests these were made in the 1950s and into the 1960s.

Instead of having a single large cutting blade underneath, the Sunbeam has two small blades.  I tried it out in our front yard and it cut pretty well!

I plan to take it apart and clean and repaint it with the original colors.


The handle pivots in both directions so you can actually reverse your cutting path by walking around the mower and repositioning the handle to push back the way you came. I guess since you're relying on a long electrical extension cord this reverseable handle is intended to help you move the mower around while minimizing the chances of tangling the cord.

The push handle is going to be the biggest challenge since it's plastic and as you can see, it's really grimy. 
I'm hoping I can match that light blue color if I decide the handles need repainting. Stay tuned!

Project: Refinish Lane Acclaim tables, part 2

OK, picking up where we left off on the project last time --

Next for the two-tiered end table, I hit a few spots with 220 grit sandpaper, and then went over the whole table with extra fine 0000 steel wool.  Then I wiped all areas down with mineral spirits and let the table dry, which didn't take long.  Here's what it looked like at that point:

As you can see, the side wood and dovetail areas are much lighter from the stripper.  I debated with myself and decided that I would not re-stain at first.  

I've had good success with Howard's Restor-A-Finish.  This stuff will cover up small scratches and bring back some color, so instead of using a stain, I wiped the whole table down with the Walnut variety of Restor-A-Finish and let that sit for about an hour.  

Then I wiped off the excess, and at that point, this is what it looked like:

The light areas are still not nearly as dark as they were before. 

But honestly, I like it this way, so that's all the staining work I'm doing.  Sorry if you were hoping I would figure out how to get it back to the exact finish it was originally.  Oh well.  My table.  :-D

To finish the table off and protect it, I'm using  this Minwax product.  

I like that this stuff wipes on. No brushing or spraying to run or streak.  Grab a clean cotton cloth, wipe it on, let it dry, do a once over with extra fine steel wool and wipe down the whole table again so you don't have little steel wool fragments laying around, then repeat with a second or third coat of the Wipe-On Poly and I'm  done - except for masking off the leg bottoms and adding a coat of black paint, which is how they were originally.

So here's the two-tiered end table after two coats of poly and with the black paint renewed on the legs.

(That lump on the chair on the left is just Miss Patchelina - she thinks that Z chair is hers. Ha!  She is sooooo wrong.)

I'll be finishing the coffee table the same way, and once that's done look for final photos of that table too.

Overall I'm happy with how these turned out.  

If I wanted the tables to be darker as original, I would suggest  not using strippers but lightly sanding and refinishing with a dark stain like walnut, and probably using multiple coats to get the darker look.

Vintage 1961 Chevrolet Car Dealership Christmas Poster

Here's another of the items I picked up at Hershey back in October. It was in among a big bunch of old Chevrolet dealership advertising posters that someone had preserved for 50 years. It's big - but luckily I found a poster frame that would fit it. So while the finishing work in the basement is sucking up a lot of my free time, this is the one Christmas decoration we have up in the house.

I love the starburst ornaments, and the whole illustration just looks great. And isn't that headline cool? "So acceptable" is a phrase you would never see in an ad today, when absolutely everything is incredible, stupendous, amazing, or awesome.

Who do you think this ad was aimed at? In the early sixties, car dealerships almost exclusively targeted men as buyers. Do you think many men gave their sweethearts ice scrapers or mudflaps as gifts? Really?