Does restoration/rebuild change the 'character' of a car?

Hi all, loving my new car, brings a smile to my face every time I overtake someone, but…it needs quite a bit doing to it.

So, for example, at some point I need to get a respray, some muppet has done a crackingly bad job on 2 of the panels. Now, if I went for a shell respray and took it all apart, would it ever feel like the same car again? I'm no mechanic, so if you think about all the seals, even down to the tension on all screws/nuts/bolts etc, would I end up with a different feeling car - it's surely impossible to put it back together as it was done in the factory, so the question is as above, does the 'feel', the 'character', the drive of the car alter? Even if it's done 'properly', does it feel different? If so, better? (tighter, smoother etc) or worse or just 'different'?

I want to keep the car as original as possible (I don't mean parts/paint etc), I mean in the drive, the look etc.

Umm-ing and ahh-ring about what to do with my lovely lovely car so your thoughts would be much appreciated.  

Matti

PS, how do you get a photo embedded in here, can do photobucket URL etc, but other people seem to be able to embed, am I being thick?

im guessing its like anything, as long as you know what your doing, taking it to bits shouldnt make much of a diff!

besides, the chances are that its probably been taken to bits and put back together to some extent over the past 25-30 years any way!!

my advice would be to replace anything rubber that looks slightly worn (20+ year old rubber/mounts won't be very good), clean and grease screw/bolt threads and replace washers

make sure everything is done up to what the haynes says (or a 'grunt' or 2 tight if it's not specified   )

also grease up mechanical parts like the window winder mechanism, door catches/locks/hinges

all of the above will help the car feel newer/smoother/tighter depending on the part  :wink: when I did the wishbone bushes on mine it improved the feel of the drive by a mile!

apart from that keep a good general maintainence and replacing old fluid (especially the brake fluid) and it'll drive nice for a long time  :y:

I do understand your concerns, my mk1 was pritty much original. The only things that had been done before were a bonnet and front slam pannel repair / respray. This was in 1992 and due to a land rover reversing into it.

The paint work that was repaired was a slightly different colour and had stone chipped very badly.

I made the difficult decision to have the bonnet, slam pannel, windscreen pillars (two bubble at the base of the screen) and sunroof (slight dint) resprayed. To do the bonnet properly they had to spray the wing tops so it all blended properly.

If the bonnet etc hadnt been done before then i probably would only have had the tiny rust bubbles sorted and left the rest. There is a lot to be said for a totally oringial mk1 1, there are fewer and fewer remaining. But only you will be able to decide if having paint work etc done will take the sparkle away from you.

As Phil says, I'd definitely replace the suspension bushes, and the top mounts if they look worn (use Febi top mounts not ones from GSF). This will definitely improve the feel of the car.

I'd also replace the brake flexi hoses, unless they've been done recently, just for peace of mind. If you upgrade to braided ones you'll also improve the feel of your brakes. GSF do a set of Goodridge hoses for ?30.

HTH

Rich

Thanks all, appreciate your thoughts. Don't want to be anal about it, just want to keep my nice car nice!

we're all the same  :wink:

noticed your in Oxfordshire! come down to the next Berkshire meet if you can make it, we're a friendly bunch, nice drive with some good roads! perfect excuse to take the Mk1 out

If your interested I'll be updating the Berkshire region and putting a post up in the regional meets for details