Repair or Restoration - which will it be?

You’ve got a nice vintage sports car, but it hasn’t run in many years.  Auction prices for these cars are rising.  Should you restore the car to show condition, or just fix it up to drive it?

Here at Robison Service we see situations like that all the time.  Sometimes the prudent course of action is clear, but other times it’s hard to decide what to do.

Sitting in the garage, it's a memory or a dream, but making it real may cost more than you think . . . 

In today’s market, the cars that bring those jaw-dropping prices on the televised auctions have been meticulously restored and detailed.  We do that level of work but owners must understand it comes at a price, as compared to basic mechanical repair.

Let’s look at the restoration or repair of a Jaguar XKE front end as an example.  This photo shows a typical old unrestored Jag; this particular car arrived here a month or so ago to join two other similar specimens in line for fixing up.

The problems in this front end are pretty well visible. The brake rotors are rusted. The rubber boots on the ball joints have rotted away, and the joints are loose.  The brake calipers are frozen from lack of use.  And the wheel bearings are sloppy.  The fix: a complete front end and brake overhaul.

If this was a modern Jaguar, we’d be able to do this repair in a day, using complete hubs and exchange brake calipers.  The parts would pop off and the new assemblies would slide on.  Old cars don’t usually go that smoothly.   We  can’t simply buy new brake calipers for an old XKE; the calipers the car has must be rebuilt.   Same for the hubs.  Everything is more time consuming because we repair, rather than replace.

In addition the scope of these jobs tends to expand when compared to service on a new car.  For example, we might need to replace the steel brake pipes if they don’t unscrew.  We might struggle with rusty parts that won’t come apart, and we will spend time cleaning things up.

The one-day job on a newer Jag may become a two or three day job on an older car.  Here's an example of how a simple task like "do the front brakes' expands from fitting front pads and rotors.  You pull the rotor and hub off the car, and the bearings are galled and the grease is chunky.  Add a few hours to rebuild the hubs.   When you remove the brake caliper for access, you see the rubber hose has cracks.  Add some time to take it off.  When you remove it, the steel line to the master cylinder snaps. Add half a day to run a new line.  When you go to bleed the system you feel a "bump" when pushing the brake pedal.  On closer examination, you find the master cylinder was corroded inside and the extra push of bleeding has pushed it over the edge.  Add a few hours to replace the master.  Do this at all four corners of the car, and you've added several thousand dollars of parts and labor to a seemingly simple job.  Every job on a vintage car has the potential for this kind of expansion.

So far, all we’re talking is mechanical repair.  What if the goal is restoration?

That adds a whole new level of complexity, because everything has to look new as well as function 100%.   That affects every single task.

First of all, when the area is stripped down for service, we now have to look at the underlying frame or body area.  Is it rusty?  Does it need paint?  Several days labor may be expended preparing the front frame to be serviced.  In many cases we spend more time on the cosmetic restoration of the areas being serviced than the repairs themselves take.

It’s no longer enough to simply replace parts.  Parts may not be available new, or else the current replacement part is a low quality reproduction you don't want to use.  It may be "new old stock;" a part that sat in a warehouse forgotten for fifty years, and it may not be good anymore.  Parts are a major hassle for vintage cars.  In the end, we often find ourselves making parts ourselves, or doing our own machining and rebuilding.  Once again that eats up time and money.

In this shot you see how a simple brake repair has expanded.  The brake caliper pistons are corroded and leaky.  The parking brake has worn out. The hubs need overhaul.   "Simple" jobs are rarely simple on a forty-year-old Rolls-Royce



When restoring, a simple functional repair is not enough.  We must also return the appearance of the parts to a new condition.  That may mean corrosion repair, cleaning, painting or plating.  We may choose to use techniques that were not available when these cars were made, in the interest of finish, performance, or durability.  A good example would be powder painting.  We may need to find alternative processes because the old ways are no longer done due to safety or environmental issues.  Examples of that are lacquer painting or cadmium plating.   All that adds labor time, wait time as paint and plating is processed, and of course there is the cost of it all.

The one day job on a modern Jaguar becomes a week, maybe two, maybe more of restoration work on the vintage car.   Always remember this:  restoration means bringing back the appearance and the function.   A true restored car drives like new - maybe better than new.  It doesn't just look good.  Painting over worn out parts is not restoration, though it's all too common as a means of cutting costs.

Service and repair is usually limited in scope. Restoration isn’t.  You can’t restore the front frame of a vintage car and ignore the back.  You need to keep going.  The result can be beautiful, and impressive.  But it is very time consuming, and time is money.

Repair work is guided by our knowledge of good practice, and we have many opportunities to save money.  Restoration is often guided by that car make’s Concours Judging Guide, and we have to follow the code strictly if we are to deliver good value in the end. 

It’s very common for a big British sports car restoration (Jaguar, Austin Healey, Jensen, Aston Martin) to eat up 1,000-2,000 hours of labor.  No matter how reasonable the labor rate is in your area, that makes for a big bill.

Wood steering wheels are beautiful, but they were seldom original.  Opinions about these custom touches vary from owner to owner, and car make to make.

Some cars will justify that work.   A rare Jaguar – a 120 roadster, a three-carb XKE – or an exotic Aston Martin may fetch $150-250,000 when restored.  For those cars, a very high level of work is justifiable. 

What about their little brothers – Triumph, MG, and  other cars that are so much more common?   They may be a little simpler to restore, and parts will cost less, but a top quality restoration will still eat up 1,000+ hours of labor.  If top quality examples of your make only fetch $25k it’s hard to justify restoration unless you do it yourself, as a labor of love.  Indeed, that’s what many of these projects are.

The XK120 above has been in the same family for sixty years now.  How do you put a price on that?  If you're in it forever, nothing but the best will do . . .

The final car I’ll consider is the top end – Rolls-Royce and their ilk.  These are much more complex cars, with higher standards of fit and finish, more expensive materials, and “more car” in general to work with.  Where a Jaguar can eat up 1,500 hours in a total restoration the Rolls-Royce convertible may consume 3,000, maybe more.

Values of finished cars vary wildly.  A 100-point restoration on a Silver Shadow may still fetch only $50,000.  A one-off Phantom drophead that was only a little more work to restore may be worth ten times that much in the end.  In that world you need to pick your projects carefully if value is your goal.

And then there’s the custom job – the times we are asked to take a car that was built as one thing, and make it into something else.  We make 88-inch Land Rover hardtops into 130 inch pickups.  We make stock Rovers into fire-breathing rock crawling monsters.  We put Rolls Royce leather and wood into American iron that newer saw anything but Detroit vinyl.

For those people – and indeed for most of our clients – cash value isn’t the goal.  Rather, the value for them is the joy they get owning a fine one-of-a-kind piece of automotive machinery, and using it for its intended purpose.  Most of these projects are Dad’s car; Grandpa’s car; the car we first dated in; or something else that gives that particular vehicle special significance and a value that goes beyond dollars and cents.  And those owners tend to be our happiest clients.

So what’s the takeaway from all this?  Think carefully about what you want.  Don’t confuse mechanical fixing up with concours restoration.  Don't confuse nicely painted but worn out junk with restoration.   If you want a custom job, think that through before you begin.   Remember that different people are happy with different jobs, and there are no right or wrong answers, provided the work you choose is done well.  That’s what we take pride in most of all.

If you’ve got a project you’d like to discuss, call me at 413-785-1665 or email Robison@robisonservicecom

John Elder Robison

J E Robison Service

347 Page Boulevard

Springfield, MA 01104

Brake Failure - don't ignore the lines!

When’s the last time you inspected your brake lines?  Never, you say?  Maybe it’s time for a quick check . . .

The lines below were photographed on a 2004 Land Rover Discovery that was ten years old in the late winter of 2013.  The vehicle is in good shape, not rusted or damaged.  But it does live in New England, and that means the bare metal underneath is exposed to snow and salt.

We see a lot of "winter vehicles" this time of year at Robison Service.

Modern cars have pretty good corrosion protection for frames and bodies but we often see “other metal” left totally bare and unprotected.  That shows pretty clearly in the steel of the brake line ends.

Do you see the dampness - the darkening on the curved rubber hose - that's brake fluid seeping out.  And look at the deterioration of the top right fitting!

As you can see, the steel crimps at the ends of the rubber hose have rusted and swelled, and the connections have started to seep.  You wouldn’t feel that as a driver, and the level wouldn’t drop fast enough to put the BRAKE fluid warning light until a few months had passed.  This is a dangerous situation.

Why, you ask?

The connection between the rubber hose and the steel crimp has obviously begun to fail.  The steel crimp is clearly weakened.  What do you think might happen in a panic stop, with 2000 pounds of pressure in the brake line.

Bang!  Fluid sprayed everywhere and a line that blew off the clamp.  No brakes and a car rolling free, half a second from crashing.

And that’s the end of the brakes, the car, and maybe the driver too.  Sure, you could pump the pedal and get some brakes back, but with half a second in an emergency . . . that’s how many accidents happen.  At sixty miles an hour you're covering a hundred feet a second.  How much "think, react, pump" time does that give you, on a crowded road?  Mechanical failure has probably caused far more crashes than you’d think.  Many times the area that failed is subsequently crushed in the accident and it’s impossible to figure out what happened afterward.  The driver says “the brakes didn't work” but he gets surcharged anyway unless he can prove it.

And with brakes being brakes, he might not even be around to do that, if they failed at high speed!

For that reason, I urge you to check your car for incipient safety failures like this.  While you’re under there, take a look at the fuel lines.  Modern cars run 40-70 pounds of pressure, and gas spraying at high pressure near a hot exhaust is even more of a hazard than failing brakes.  It’s not too comfortable climbing out of a car when the floor is burning beneath you.

The picture below shows the cure for this car – a set of high performance braided stainless brake hoses from our friends at AtlanticBritish.  This hose kit is half a day to a day’s work to install depending on rust – there are a total of six flex hoses on a Discovery.  If your steel lines are rusty, the job can expand dramatically.  The flex lines are out at the wheels - easily accessible - whereas the steel lines are tied to the frame; carrying fluid from the master cylinder to the four corners of the vehicle.  The steel lines are much more inaccessible, as they were threaded through the frame early in the car's production process.  Replacement of steel lines can easily eat up several days of additional labor.  The photos in this story show a Land Rover but most other cars are similar.  Rolls Royce – with three times as many hoses – is notably more work but they don’t tend to be as rusty either.

On most cars a set of hoses won't set you back much more that $200.  It's pretty cheap considering the risk of letting them fail. 

This is what the new lines look line, installed, for comparison:

In this particular vehicle we had to change three steel lines.  The remaining lines were okay.  Seeing the deterioration makes me wonder how many other ten year old cars are out there, uninspected, on the edge of catastrophic failure.  

It’s something to think about, the next time your car is on a lift

John Robison

J E Robison Service

Springfield, MA 01104

413-785-1665

Land Rover Defender restoration at Robison Service

Here at Robison Service, winter time is restoration time for many of our clients and their cars.  We take projects in the fall with the hope that we'l scoot them out the door - finished - by the time spring weather arrives, a few months from now.

Here's a glimpse into some of our activities in the Land Rover world

This is an engine from a 1994 Defender that's undergoing a frame-off restoration.  After ensuring the core was good, and no rebuild was needed, we've stripped this motor to the long block and removed all the discolored and salt spotted aluminum.

We bead blasted everything, and finished the aluminum in a clear ceramic that looks like fresh aluminum, but it won't fade or discolor.  We finished all the black in semi-gloss powder, and changed the gaskets, hoses, and ancillary parts . . .

We did the same thing on the axles, stripping them to the casings, which were cleaned and powder coated.  Land Rover left a lot of this metal bare when the vehicles were new, but we finish it all.

Here's Joe Brick, assembling away . . .

This Defender got a new cross member and we remade the tubular rear bumper.  The old parts were totally destroyed by rust

Here's the frame-off restoration that I mentioned above.  We've just installed the drivetrain, and built up the axles and hubs.  A set of wheels and it's ready to roll!

This Series truck is here for wiring repairs, and eradication of rodents . . . .

Here we are mocking up a new set of jump seats for a Nantucket beach Defender . . ..

Here are the newly built brakes and hubs.  The actual hub was bare metal originally, and we finished it in flat black ceramic for looks and corrosion resistance

Here's a rebuilt and refinished swivel . . .

We've had a lot of trouble with steel fuel lines rotting away.  These stainless lines are a bear to bend and fit, but they'll never rot!

Here's Joe working on a wiring harness - something that's a lot easier to do when there's no truck in your way

How do we keep track of what's tight and what's loose?  We mark all the fasteners with paint once they are torqued.  Then an inspector can look under the car and pick out unpainted bolts.

We use high heat ceramic to finish the brake drums, and black paint and u-joints for the driveshafts

Here's a resealed and prepped engine, seen from below

A recent arrival . . . .

 Swapping a rear main seal in a V8 is a lot easier when the motor is on a stand . . .

Paul has a pair of rusty battery covers, ready to blast and powder coat.  We'll be able to save them.

Meanwhile, we fit the sound deadening panels and rubber for the floor . . . . 

And so goes another week at Robison Service

Are you thinking of a Land Rover restoration project?  Give John a call, 413-785-1665.

Visit our regular website at www.robisonservice.com

Visit us for real at 347 Page Boulevard, Springfield, Massachusetts

So you want to buy a car . . .

We’ve all heard expressions like, “pretty low miles on that car, if you believe the odometer.”  How do you know if an odometer reading is true?  My first and best advice is to look at the whole context of car, environment, and deal.

One owner cars offered by franchised dealers of the same make are usually the safest deals, and they often come with certified warranty, but they are also often more expensive.   Late model used cars at reputable used car lots are also often safe, because of the source.

You see, many 2-3-4 years old cars find their way into the used car marketplace simply because their original lease ran out, or the original buyer defaulted on his payments.  Those cars often have nothing whatsoever wrong with them; they just aged out of their former homes.

One problem to look for in lease cars is neglect, or substandard service.  When someone knows they are only renting the use of a car for a set period they don’t tend to care for it as if they’d own it forever.  Lessee cheapness and neglect often comes back to bite unsuspecting second owners, and it often happens much later in the car’s life when they have no recourse.

Older used cars are even more of a problem, because they tend to be sold off when they have problems the former owner doesn’t want to fix.  In my experience, very few people trade in a 10-year-old car because “they just want a new one.”  They may say something like that, but underlying the words is usually a mechanic’s warning that the car needs a few grand in work soon, and they decide to bail.  Such cars are often patched up and resold, leaving the new owner with a pile of unexpected repairs.  I suggest you examine any used car that’s more than three years old very carefully for that reason.

The best older cars come from sellers whose circumstances may have suddenly changed.  A guy who just got a promotion and won a company car may be a great fellow to get a 7-year-old BMW from.  Estate sales can be good too.  Repos are often cheap, but also often neglected, damaged or both.

The more owners a car has had, the more suspicious you should be.  There is little incentive for an owner to alter the odometer while he owns a car.  The incentive appears when it comes time to sell, and the more times a car has been sold, the greater the chance someone engaged in deception.

Cars that were leased are more likely to have incorrect odometers.  The reason: many leases had stiff penalties for driving cars more than 10 or 12 thousand miles a year.  Some motorists – realizing they will owe thousands in mileage penalties at lease turn in – will pay hundreds to roll the odometer back instead.

Odometer fraud used to be a crime of professionals.  Crooked car dealers would buy high mileage vehicles at one auction, shave forty or fifty thousand miles off their odometers, and resell them for a substantial gain at another auction a few hundred miles away.  Integration of auction databases and better record keeping largely put an end to that practice.

Today those crooked dealers are more likely exporting the cars they “clock” or set back because other countries seldom check odometer records back here in the US.  Their activity props up auction prices on high mile luxury cars, but that support comes at the expense of the ultimate retail buyers, distant though they may be.

Today’s lease car odometer fraud is much more likely to be an individual crime, which makes it much harder to detect.  When a person leases a brand new car, and turns it in three years later with 32,000 miles there is no way to tell if it once had 60,000 instead.  Or is there?

There’s no title history to follow, but many cars have service histories if only you can find them.  Services like CARFAX are doing a better and better job of collecting records from state inspection stations, repair shops, and other business that record mileages on cars they see.  Discrepancies in their reports can tip you off to an odometer problem, but you have to be careful because a casual reading at state inspection is more likely to be erroneous than a sworn odometer statement when a car is sold.  A car that had 30,000 miles in one inspection, 80,000 at the next, and 40,000 today could well be a case of observation error, and not fraud.

The best situation is to buy cars from sellers who are up front, and who have full service records for the life of the vehicle.  That way you are assured of both the odometer reading and the quality of care the car received.  Unfortunately, that situation is not all that common in the car world.

Given that reality, I strongly encourage anyone buying an expensive used car – classic or otherwise – to have it inspected by a professional.  Look for wear in the seats and on the body (or evidence of recent fixing-up) that might suggest high mileage.  Look at tires, belts, batteries and other components to see if they are original, matching, and correct.  There are a thousand little clues that an expert may spot that suggest one car is good and another should be avoided.

Finding a qualified inspector presents its own challenges, since there is no good system for certifying expertise in any particular make or model.  The best cure for that is still to establish a reputation with a shop you can trust, and buy local – restrict your search to cars the shop you trust can check out. 

In the end, that is your best assurance.  A local shop that does all your work – and does it right - has a strong incentive to be vigilant when inspecting a car on your behalf.  After all, if the car has big problems after you buy it – and they did not predict the trouble – you will likely hold them responsible and they may lose your business.  A distant inspector knows he’ll never see you again, and has no tie to you beyond the inspection fee you paid.  With no disrespect to distant inspectors intended, who do you think will be more careful?

John Elder Robison is the founder of J E Robison Service in Springfield, MA.  They are independent specialists in fine European automobiles and they’ve been known to dabble in other makes from time to time.  Find them online at www.robisonservice.com