The Psychology of Aston Restoration
The Oscar India project has been through it’s ups and downs (and as a result has taken far too long). I think much of the delay is down to the psychology of car restoration.
The chassis welding on the OI went quickly as I have a lot of confidence in mild steel welding. The biggest delay was down to welding the aluminium wings back on. My thought was “Oh my god this is an Aston Martin and I can really screw this up if things go wrong”. It took a couple of weekends to learn to weld aluminium, but it must have taken me a couple of months to build the courage to weld the wings back on. But it all turned out OK in the end:
Another mental block of mine is blending in metallic paint. That’s a job for this week. Fortunately in this case I have a backup plan - if it doesn’t go well we can take the car to a paint pro for a full respray (which would also help with other parts of the car that have a little bubbling or dents).
I’ll have to paint the door shuts whatever happens so may as well attempt blending in paint over my repairs. I’ve nothing to loose. And that’s the thing. It’s something that has to be done, and it’s not a problem if I screw it up, so it happens quickly.
I’m not sure of the answer to this car restoration psychology issue. For the most part it’s good to treat the Aston like any other car - after all it’s got MGB door handles and steering column so why not pretend the rest is MGB?
The other way around is thinking up back-up plans for when things go wrong. For chassis welding it’s no problem - you can get better at welding and then try again, scrap the bugger, or send it to someone else. For visible repairs it’s a bit more of an issue, but again for the most part you should be able to give it a go and if it doesn’t work there is bound to be someone else who can sort the mess.
Really there is no reason for anyone to share my psychological issues. I’d encourage any owner or enthusiast to get stuck in. Nothing can go wrong - you’ll most likely get things right with a little research beforehand, and if anything does go wrong there will be someone who can sort it out.