Classic car owners can become a restoration “expert” by following a simple tip before getting started on repair work, according to Car SOS hosts Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend.
The duo have urged historic vehicle owners to take precautions before “pulling it apart” by taking images of the car in one piece.
Owners should also work on the car in sections instead of one big project to break down the work into manageable chunks.
Tim and Fuzz have restored hundreds of vehicles on the popular Car SOS where they make deserving motorists’ dreams come true.
However, the pair claims it is not out of the reach of ordinary road users to become top mechanics and restorers if they break things down slowly.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Fuzz said: “Take photos of everything before pulling it apart. Then you’ve got a chance to put it back together so it’s like a multi-layered jigsaw puzzle box.”
Tim quickly agreed with his co-presenter, stressing that motorists could tackle larger builds if they made it more manageable early on.
He told Express.co.uk: “My advice would be to take it down into bite-size chunks. Cover up the rest of it so it’s not too over-facing and deal with each bit in a go.
“See it as 100 different projects as opposed to one big terrifying project made up of 20,000 parts. Literally hide it, cover it.
“Take off the heater box, take off the cylinder head, whatever it is, work on that and hide the rest of the car.
“See it as a series of chunks, work your way through it and before you know it you’ll have a finished car and you’ll be an expert.”
A Footman James Indicator survey has previously found that for most road users maintaining and restoring vehicles formed an important part of owning historic machines.
However, the survey found that only 34 percent of enthusiasts were willing to tackle the maintenance themselves.
A further 26 percent said they would do some jobs at home but would rely on the support of specialists for more complicated parts.
Meanwhile, around 13 percent said they had handed over all work to specialised workshops and five percent to non-specialised garages.
Research by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) found historic owners spent an average of £4,223 on their vehicles every year.
This equates to around £351 per month meaning motorists are not shy to splash out on long-term projects.
