Restoring an old Nissan Skyline is a great way to learn a lot about motor engineering, to create a wonderful motorcar, and if you get it right to make a lot of money too. Certainly it is not a game that will appeal to everybody, and it can be a risky business for if you get it wrong or run out of patience, enthusiasm or money part way through the project, then it won’t be only time you will have wasted; you are likely to have wasted a considerable amount of cash. The message is to be certain of your final goals, timescales and potential costs before you commit yourself.
If you really do have to close down the project before it is finished, and sometimes life changes in unexpected ways, then if you are lucky some of your work and expenditure may be exploited by selling on your partial restorations. In fact, sometimes it is possible to start off your project using the bones of someone else’s abandoned one. Search the web for partially restored Skylines and you should find plenty of examples, sometimes at bargain prices. Obviously you will need to apply a due amount of caution and find out why the project was abandoned, but it could be just what you are looking for.
Also it is worth looking at a number of Skyline restoration projects that have been completed successfully. Most restorers are more than happy to show off their work and what they have achieved.
You have to start somewhere...
The biggest enemy of all in any car restoration project is rust. Generally you will find all the parts that you need, but replacing rusty wheel arches and body panels can be very tricky. In some future posts I will return to this issue and see how various Skyline restorers have found solutions to the various problems they have encountered.