Curbside Commentary: Back In The Day, People Didn’t Actually Restore Old Cars

By
– Posted on November 8, 2024

 

Back in the day, people didn’t actually restore old cars. At least not in the way they do today.

Nowadays, a restored car means that it has been completely rebuilt. The engine, transmission, and drive train have been rebuilt to like-new specs. The bodywork has had any rust or damage repaired with down-to-bare metal refinishing, followed by numerous coats of the appropriate color paint. The chrome work has been replated. The interior has been reupholstered with appropriate materials, and the various accessories such as the radio, heater, and clock have been returned to full functionality. The car should appear as it did in the dealer’s showroom when it was new. Actually, most fully restored cars are finished to a higher standard than those found in a factory-fresh vehicle.

In many cases no expense was spared during the process. Certain models were worth quite a bit of money once completed. However, now the cost of rebuilding has become so expensive that it will often exceed the value of the car. The value of many collectible cars has been dropping lately from the heyday of the hobby a few decades ago, and fewer full restorations are being performed.

However, reading through my collection of my Old Cars Weekly anthologies, I learned that keeping costs contained was very important to collectors back in the ’50’s, 60’s, and ’70’s.

I managed to find copies of these anthologies in an old bookstore many years ago. I had subscribed to this magazine for several years in the 1980’s, and I still might have a box of them stored in my garage or attic.

I found this book to be quite amusing from the standpoint of today’s attitude toward restoration. Back then almost all old cars were pretty much worth very little. Because of this, nobody wanted to invest much money in their repair, rebuilding, or restoration. These cars were not seen as investments; old cars were a hobby. No one was going to make any money off the average old buggy, and you tried to keep your expenditures to an absolute minimum.

The point was to find a pristine, well-maintained, original example. An “Uncle Daniel” as I once heard them referred to. I remember reading an article in one of those Old Car Weekly anthologies about the disposal of a fellow enthusiast’s estate. Many desirable cars were auctioned off. For the most part, his surviving friends were satisfied with their purchases, except one guy who got stuck with a “dog,” a car that needed mechanical repair. It was pristine in appearance but it was an “oil burner,” a real embarrassment to the buyer.

It’s kind of hard to believe that in the early 1960’s these Pre War Classic cars were only around 30-40 years old. Most of the desirable post-war cars were just old used cars. The life span of these cars, and in fact new 1950s-’60s cars was pretty short. Most cars would require a valve grind at around 30-40,000 miles, and a complete overhaul before they reached 100.000 miles. Back then, anyone who drove a car with that kind of mileage was either eccentric or just as poor as a church mouse. Or maybe just elderly.

After all, lots of older folks didn’t buy into that myth of planned obsolescence. You bought a car, you kept a car, you fixed a car. None of this keeping up with the Jones nonsense. A 1940 Ford was a good-looking car when new, and still is. You would still see many cars from the Forties and Fifties parked in the driveways of some of the neighborhood’s more senior citizens. Even better was when the garage doors opened to reveal a gleaming 1930’s beauty that had been lovingly maintained by its now elderly owner.

As always, buying the best car in the best condition you can find is always the best idea. And there were lots to choose from. Just keep your eyes on the Obituary column! New cars were coming on the market all the time!

Not to say that these cars were always so well maintained back in the day. Money was tight, especially during the Great Depression.  Many of these old worn-out cars of the ’20’s and ’30’s were consigned to the scrap metal drives of the times.

I found several copies of “Motor Service” magazine at an antique sale. This was a trade magazine sent to mechanics and service shops, not circulated to the general public. This copy was dated March 1935.

Besides the well-dressed motorists quizzing the master mechanic on the front page, there was a thorny question posed in the article: “Fit the price of the job (repair) to the value of the car.” When you have a prospective client with a four or five-year-old car worth maybe 85.00, there isn’t much chance to sell him on a complete motor reconditioning job for 65.00. The article goes on to detail a less expensive alternative that would call only for a light cylinder hone, new rings, and a spring piston expander insert. It doesn’t name this reduced cost, but I would figure that this could only have been priced at around thirty bucks. Maybe less.

Bill’s answer to the well-dressed motorists on the cover was that they needed a Ramco Overhaul. The ad claimed it could be completed for half the price of a 40-75.00 rebore job. These prices seem ridiculously low to our modern eyes but at the time you would be lucky to bring home 5.00 a day.

Even after the post-war recovery and economic boom, many people were still interested in low-cost methods of keeping their old beaters on the road.

There were lots of young men being trained as mechanics. Photos source: Pinterest.

 

If the car was an oil burner there were inexpensive strategies to fix the problem. A ring and valve job consisted of grinding the valves seats, honing the cylinders, expanding the pistons with an internal spring steel insert, or “knurling” the piston skirts to raise the surface of the metal. If the oil pressure had been low, then a set of new replacement main and rod bearings would be fitted. Maybe even a new or rebuilt oil pump would be included, if you planned on keeping the car for a while.

If not, then a can of “Motor Honey” could be added whenever the motor was down a quart. This would probably reduce the blue cloud and quiet a few knocks for a bit. Back in the ’30’s, ’40’s, even into the ’50’s, labor was very cheap, but parts were very expensive. So there were many ways to rebuild, re-bush, and resurface whatever parts in your motor were worn out. Engines were routinely “torn down” by the corner gas station mechanic, resulting in an overhauled motor. Not a “rebuilt” or “remanufactured” motor. Re-manufactured usually meant that precision machining had been done to restore the internal surfaces of the motor. This was often done at a factory-like facility.

Photos source: Pinterest.

 

Of course, there were wreckings full of banged-up cars that could provide a used but still running engine, that would provide a few years of additional service. It was faster and cheaper to swap out a complete engine, and this required minimal mechanical expertise. Any components that were needed to repair a car were also available, and the parts were inexpensive and could be used on different model year vehicles. Lots of tires, batteries, starters, and generators were available. Body parts were plentiful and these parts, unlike with modern cars,  could be bolted on by almost anyone.

Of course due to the low value of older cars, and the plentiful supply, anything beyond a minor fender bender meant that the car would be scrapped. Another example of why almost any car could be easily located and bought cheaply.

Depending on what the motor needed, a new gasket set, with new main seals would reduce the embarrassing drips of oil wherever you parked. Brake shoes could be “re-lined” with new friction material. You could rivet this on yourself! A rebuild kit for the wheel cylinders and master cylinder only cost a couple of bucks. Add a set of recapped tires and you were good to go.

This was the strategy followed by the bucks down motorist, and it was also followed by the old-time restorer

Steps would be taken to preserve the original interior panels and upholstery. Old leather seats would be treated to softening and rejuvenating lotions. Cracks would be stitched, and voids would be backed up by sewing in canvas to the underside of the original upholstery coverings. Worn, or torn cloth coverings would be replaced by available non-original fabrics, or the covering would be removed from the seat and patches sewn in.  Every effort was made to preserve the original interior, whenever possible, in order to keep costs down.

Likewise, the original paint was buffed and polished and only touched up as needed. Because older cars had separate fenders and other body components, it was possible to touch up and repaint only the necessary areas.

Of course, if the paint was too far gone, or the restorer was real fussy, there was always Earl!