Hot Rod Restoration: Overall Assessment of Exterior

Video Transcript

"Hi I am Joel Jones, I own Jonesies Inc., a company that specializes in automobile restoration and customization. Now we are going to continue talking about the condition of the sixty-five suburban. You want to make note of all the major dents and then use your own judgment on whether or not you think you can repair those dents or if the panels need to be replaced. This fender right here has some rust holes right there and you are going to want to take your screwdriver and determine how extensive that rust is and then it also has a big dent right there and then a pretty serious dent right there so this fender probably would be most cost effective to replace. The door on the other hand, doors get to be very expensive, the front of this door is got extensive damage, it has a lot of holes that mounted different model mirrors on, but the trim itself is in exceptional good shape. This is anodized aluminum that you can polish up and have it look absolutely perfect. Also, the door handle itself, the chrome is in mediocre condition, there is some pitting right there, again you have to weigh the cost of whether or not this is good enough for your restoration or you want to have it replaced. The windshield obviously needs to be replaced because it has multiple rock chips and it is cracked all over. In addition the rub is so old and so hard that it is cracked substantially also. But one good thing about this is this stainless steel trim piece, this stainless steel trim piece is in excellent condition, it can be polished and brought back to make it look better than new. Okay now we are going to look at the condition of the door itself, the door opens really, really well and it closes really, really well so the hinges on the door, you can check by shaking them up and down, these feel really, really tight. You want to check all the functionality of the windows, the door handles, the latches because all that stuff is very, very difficult to find. This window works exceptionally well considering that there is absolutely no window felt in it whatsoever. The wing window is really tight, this is going to take some work and some time to get that to function correctly. Then you want to kind of move in and do some more assessment of the rust on the door. As you can see this door is completely rusted out, I mean there is big gaping holes there and then there is also humongous gaping right here. This door needs to be replaced but internal workings of the door are functioning really well and the hinges are working really well. We have got the door open and you can see there is extensive rust in this rocker panel, the screwdriver you can dig it down in there and it is just crumbling with that pressure. I want to note how terribly this window rubber is, I mean it is just cracking and falling off. So all that is going to need be sourced out and found so that it can be replaced. The glass itself appears to be all okay, there is some scratches, there is some dings in it, so it is going to be a personal preference on what your quality level needs to be. This is flat glass so it can be reproduced at almost any local glass, auto-glass repair facility. You want to continue down the side noting any obvious signs of rust, this is really common problem place for rust on these suburbans. This one is actually in really good shape, there is no major rust holes that we can see, it is completely solid underneath there, none of it is rusted through and so that is a good thing for this rig. We are going to continue doing the assessment of this suburban and I want to point out that this tailgate rear glass is extremely difficult to lift up. These hinges need lubrication horribly, this prop-rod is non-functioning and this prop-rod is not even working at all so you are definitely going to want to make a list of that, make a note of that being of a major source because this is suburban only, no other vehicles have these hinges so you are going to have to really potentially scrounge to get good quality parts to do those and then also one of the funny things you find on some of these vehicles and I have no idea how they got here but this vehicle has bullet holes in the tailgate. Everybody thinks that these would be really, really difficult to fix but they are no different than a regular rust repair, you just have to make a patch and weld them in and then smooth them out. Wheels and tires are the number one thing that you can change on a classic vehicle or any vehicle for that matter that alter its overall appearance. It can set the mood for the whole entire vehicle. These tires are absolutely in horrible condition, they have got cracking, the wheels are rust is flaking off them but the thing you need to determine is the actual lug nut pattern so that you can go and you can shop for wheels that have that specific lug nut pattern and you also have to decide whether or not you are going to keep that lug nut pattern or you are going to convert it over to something more common. Five lug patterns you can get almost any style wheel you want, six lug patterns are a little bit more, you are going to be more restricted and then the tire size, are you going to have the same size tires on the front and the back or are you going to have larger tires on the back than the front. That is pretty common for vehicles to have larger tires on the back, especially two wheel drive vehicles. The last few things you are going to want to consider are all the stuff that is underneath the vehicle, you are going to want to put your coveralls on and get under there and look and inspect as many of the mechanical systems as you possibly can, brake lines that are rusted out, rubber fuel lines that are rotted out and then you want to write everything down and take as many pictures as you possibly can because even though your time frame is going to be short when you are looking at the vehicle, you can spend a ton of time at home reviewing all of the photos and your lists to determine whether or not this is a project that you want to take on."