Issue 1: Tinkering
From Beater To Beauty: Restoring a Car
For years, tinkering enthusiast Hannah Carson dreamed of restoring a car from a battered shell to a high-performance driving machine. D-I-Y managed to catch up with her recently and find out how she turned that vaporous vision into a solid steel reality.
* D-I-Y stands for Do It Yourself
How did you get started?
I love to learn about how things work and it's always made me happy. As a kid, I was really curious and I played with blocks a lot. Looking back, I think that helped me build some basic mechanical skills that definitely drove my interest in tinkering.
I also remember messing around with broken items around the house, and after a while I began to tinker with things that didn't even need repairs! My grandfather was always fixing stuff around the house and working on his model train set and I would tag along and just watch as he worked.
One of the benefits of dedicating my life to learning is that I feel like I have these "eureka" moments where I suddenly understand a skill much more clearly. Anyway, getting started with the car ended up being easier than I thought it would be! I just found an old car and bought it. Once it was on my driveway, I realized that there was no backing out! I decided to begin with the body work so that I could see a big difference straight away.
So you finished the bodywork and then tackled the engine?
Yep. Once I had sanded, buffed, and primed the car for painting, I turned to the engine. That can be some messy work! Once, when my grandfather and I were working on the car together, the engine suddenly spit out a cloud of exhaust into my face. Needless to say, I was quite shocked!
Did you have any help on the project?
Well, my grandfather worked with me on the car itself, but I also have several friends who are tinkerers, and my dad once restored a car so I was able to get some advice from them before we started. When I asked my dad for some instruction, he actually sat me down and provided some great tips on the car and tinkering in general!
Then you were ready to paint, right?
Well, I was getting ready to paint when some friends came over and really wanted to check out my new remote control helicopter. So I ended up getting sidetracked and we played with it for hours! THEN, I had to do an emergency repair on the dishwasher; I'm happy to report that it has never run better! Then... finally, it was paint time!
What color did you go with?
It was a hard decision. I was torn between a nice British racing green, a sleek black, and the color I ended up picking-an ultra-vibrant canary yellow with black racing stripes. It's gorgeous!
Tell us about your first drive.
It was awesome! I couldn't wait to take it for a spin and actually went out that very night. I was pretty tired and a bit lightheaded, but I'd waited so long to get into that driver's seat. It's funny, when I first started, I had thought that I might sell it when I was done, but now I think that I'm going to hang on to it for a while and enjoy it. At least until I decide to start another restoration project!
