Documenting Your Restoration
Restoration basics, classic car restorations, classic spares
Photographing and documenting every inch of your car through its restoration
can be painstaking and boring, but it will be well worth the effort. Not
only will it document how far you have come, and how you got there, it will
also provide an excellent basis for negotiating the value of your car when
you sell it.
It is best to use a digital camera, because you can immediately check to
see if the photographs you are taking are good enough. You can also load
the images onto your computer and adjust the light and size of your images.
Save each photo as a file you can easily retrieve, so that if you need to
send one to a supplier or repairer you will easily find what you are looking
for.
Make sure your pictures are clear, detailed, and overlapping. You don’t
want to miss a single part so err on the side of caution when overlapping
your photos. All side, rear and front photographs should be backed up with
detailed close up shots. Photograph how things fit together, how they come
apart, and the condition of every part.
Never remove so much as a nut without photographing it exactly as it is
in place. Also document the process of removal, and record where and how
it has been stored.
It can be tedious and time-consuming, but the advantages to having a library
of images recording your restoration job are immense. You will be able to
quickly and easily check back to see how something was done in the past,
you will be able to prove a restoration job to a potential buyer, and best
of all, you will be able to look back and admire all your hard work.