What would you do differently???

Good question, looking back it is simple now but not so obvious then. One of the main things would be not to order parts as I go. Postage adds up fast! Maybe a list on the wall of parts and part numbers I need as I work, then once the break down is complete find the best supplier for each part and order them in one hit.

Sounds stupid but one of the hardest things for me was simply cleaning parts which also I found to be one of the main jobs of the restoration. Even with the abundant info on sites like this, working out which cleaner and method to use on particular parts. Autosol, Ranex, metho, degreaser, nifty, novus, ultra sonic, tumblers and the list goes on and on. What works with what is something that just takes time I guess. It was bit disheartening to try a product and find that part covered in rust the next day so then you have either buy a new one or strip it down again paint, plate or clear coat it. So frustrating and time consuming!  

I would defiantly spend more time on the cabinet prep before painting. A lot of sanding and patching between paint coats increased the paint time greatly. Also had a paint cracking issue which I think was from poor painting technique. I was happy with the final product though but it could be done in haft the time I recken.

And lastly each to there own but after I tried both the dry and wet cabinet art application method the dry is the way I'll do it from now on.

So mainly things that I was only going to learn by giving it a go.