[stag] Restoring a Stag that has been sitting for decades

I have owned four Stags, all had sat for decades. When a car sits this long,
everything needs to be rebuilt, repaired or replaced. Your goal is not to just
get the car running, you want it to be trustworhty, roadworthy and durable.
--You will replace or reline the fuel tank, replace the fuel pump and replace
the fuel lines from back to front.
--You ought to replace the brake master cylinder, rebuild the booster, rebuild
calipers, replace the rear wheel cylinders and all flexible hoses.
--You will replace every bush in the suspension system, every seal in the
differential and transmission and inspect and replace the U-J's as needed.
--Engine-wise, you won't know where you stand until you get the heads off. If
they are shot, they can be rebuilt, anything can be done to them to fix them.
Mine had all new combustion chambers made. The bottom end is fairly straight
forward, but the timing chains can be a bit tricky. You will replace all that
stuff.
--The cooling system will need going through; ideally a better radiator would
be made and a new water pump installed.
-- The power steering rack will need rebuilding as will the pump. And you will
replace the steering hoses.
-- You will need a complete new exhaust system

This is the major stuff. But there's more, plenty more. We haven't even gotten
to the cosmetics yet.
I find the restoration parts available today are of marginal quality and
oftentimes you need to make "adjustments" here and there to get them to fit.

The Stag is a complex car that is difficult to work on. Most all of your parts
will come from England, making things very expensive.

However...let's just be really clear about this: The Stag is a wonderful car.
The luscious sound of the V8 at around 4,000 is one of the finest noises to
come of England and rivals anything the Stones or Beatles ever did. It's
glorious.

Styling-wise, the car is a masterpiece of beautiful design details and perfect
proportions. A freshly restored or nice original Stag is stunning from every
angle.

It is a special car. It doesn't make financial sense to restore one. And yet,
the first time you drive it after is fully sorted, you will be glad you did.

Richard Truett, Detroit

Indeed. As I wrote, this is a very stupid investment, but a wonderful passion. You could go buy one for about half of what you will be paying, but that will not be your gramp's car, now will it?

If like me, this is your only car and you are driving it nearly daily (much easier for me, in Los Angeles, than for most of you) then you will not have many days go by without getting into a conversation with someone about the car.

And on only one occasion have I had some guy who I suspect had never seen a woman naked want to take up an hour of my time discussing how cool my car is. Mostly it is real cool.