Just bought a 56 Oval in need of a complete restoration. I plan on doing most of the work myself and learning as I go along. I've bought all the book though don't have them yet but can anyone who's done this before at home tell me a good order to start with ?

Start at the ground and work ...... up ......?

You could do worse than reading dasdubber's 63 ragtop resto thread here:
http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=21201&page=1 

hth

Seperate pan from body

HAve a look at this
http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/album95?page=1 

they are the pictures from Alan (Dasdubber) rag

Go to any of Dasdubbers posts in mambers rides and copy what he does

Also look here
http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=24785&page=1#pid190416 

Jon had NO experience and has done a wonderful job
He did some night tech courses
Have a look at the panel beating and channel replacement
Brilliant

Good luck

ah so u got Judys oval
i had dibs on that bug for years LOL and of coarse it came up for sale at just the wrong time
good to see it went to a good home
GL with the resto

Yeah Dub74L it has definitely gone to a good home. Got it shipped down to sydney and recieved it today. Big job ahead of me but can't wait. I check out the classifieds maybe once a month a just checked at the right time to see it for sale. I hadn't planned on doing this for a couple years to come but when you see the opportunity you have to take them. All the best mate.

[size=5]Hi M....Glad to see my girl is going to a good home...Annie was going to be my resto but I bought another in better nic than Annie...am sopleased you have joined here...now I can keep in contact with her ...keep me posted ...Judy[/size]

If you have not done something like this before I would start with the 4 guards

Unbolt them and remove the healights and taillights

Paint strip back to bare metal inside out out and do the repairs / welding filling etc etc on these

appy 2 pak undercoat and put into storage and see how long this has taken

dont go pull or stripping the entire car and get dis heartened with the project as it will take up lots of room

so of my project have taken several years to do depeneding on time and funds available 15 years for the Sea Blue 3 years for the Orange smoothie 3 1/2 years for the 56 Oval so this will give you an idea

then when there complete do the engine lid and bonnent same as above

then the doors

Good advice Dave

Buy lots of those zip-lock freezer bags and a big black texta pen; put all the nuts and bolts in them as you take them off the car and write what the bolts etc came off

for got to say you also have to work out how you want the car either stock or modified do you have all the right bits to do the correct resto and if you dont makea listing of the bits need and you can start shopping for them while yr doing the guards

also if your going to take it back to stock or modify the car you can start purchasing all the rubbers and trim panels and necessary bits dto do the assy when after you have the car painted then it wont be a big cash outlay all in one go

I suggest you get a WCM catalogue from Vintage 02-9789-1777 and usea highlighter pen to mark each part number thats applicable to your year model car and body type then you can start buying these and or deciding if your going to use the old ones or buy

If you have never welded before and are plannning on tackling this yourself i would reacomend doing a TAFE evening coarse , they even have a Basic panel beating coarse.