Buying Your First Classic Car

Summary: For most people, owning classic or vintage cars is a dream-come true. Owning classic cars are considered a luxury. It is very expensive and most people cannot afford to buy one, much more to restore one. If you are considering buying a classic car, you should first think about your budget, how much are you willing to spend on these antique machines? There are some people who spend their saving just to own one. Vintage cars can also be an investment. After you restore on...

For most people, owning classic or vintage cars is a dream-come true. Owning classic cars are considered a luxury. It is very expensive and most people cannot afford to buy one, much more to restore one. If you are considering buying a classic car, you should first think about your budget, how much are you willing to spend on these antique machines? There are some people who spend their saving just to own one. Vintage cars can also be an investment. After you restore one, the market value of the car would be better than you imagined. Depending on its model and condition, classic cars can be a potential profit maker. These classics are usually sold in auctions and there are many classic car enthusiasts out there willing to spend a fortune on these cars. However, before buying one you should consider the following: Keep in mind that what you want to buy would be described as a collector car. Decide what car fits your budget. This will probably eliminate those vintages you drool about in major car shows, unless you are very rich. Just one of those cars you see in major car shows can cost you at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. Researching on where to buy classic cars is not easy. You have to spend a lot of time and effort just by searching one of these cars. Remember that these cars are not manufactured anymore and you do not often see these on your regular used car dealership. You would probably find one on junk yards or on old people's houses that do sell or throw these classics away. You can even get them with a bargain price. However, these cars are probably covered with rust already and have engines that are in bad shape. Another good way to look for a classic car is by going to auctions. If you can afford to travel, take time to go to car auctions in different places. This will give you a chance to offer a bargain for it. You can also opt for a classic car that is in good condition and less restoration will be required. If you found what you were looking for, compare them. If you are a mechanic you can probably do the comparison yourself, if not, try to bring your trusted mechanic along to help you decide which one to buy. Always remember that the less restoration required the better. After purchasing the car, the next step would be restoring it. Be prepared to spend a lot of time and money on this phase, since good car parts for classic cars are hard to come by and are usually very expensive to manufacture. Obtaining the car parts necessary for restoration will be very time consuming and will require you to make many calls in shops that sells antique car parts. One way of easily obtaining classic car parts is by searching in the Internet. Here, you can obtain hard-to-find parts for the model of your car. If you do not find one, you can ask a machine shop to manufacture one for you. All you have to do is bring the old part to the shop and they will do the rest. If you don't know much about repairing cars, much more restoring it, it is probably best if you hire a mechanic to do the restoration or go to one of those classic car restoration shops. These kinds of shops are usually very expensive and not recommended if you bought the car for investment purposes. This is because some classic cars restored are valued less than what it costs to do the restoration. After the restoration and paying huge bills for the mechanic or restoration shops, you can now fully enjoy your vintage car for years to come.