Other than the monetary exchange a lot of this is in the eye of the
beholder. I once watched in horror as one of the best Healey restorers
in the country cleaned my carbs by blasting the float bowls with
compressed air. Of course this splashed gas all over my 15 coats of
hand sanded (a lot of that work done by me) lacquer. Know what happens
when gas hits lacquer? It wasn't pretty. Don't try wiping the gas off,
you'll just make it worse.
All told, though, I'm now at the point wheere I'll pay someone to do a
lot of things that 20 years ago I would have done myself. I don't mess
with steering and brakes anymore, for example. Safety issues, technical
mechanics like regrinding cam shafts or taking the transmission apart
I'm going to leave to someone who knows more than I do about it. To
each his/her own, but I just don't look forward to lying on concrete for
hours at a time as much as I used to. We have "amateur" fellows on this
list that could out-concours Tanner or anyone else. Maybe we're talking
about the difference not between amateur and professional but amateurish
and professionally done. Either group of people is capable of either
kind of work. "A man's gotta' know his limitations", Dirty Harry in
"Magnum Force", I think.
Bill Moyer, BJ7
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