About This Site

2027 marks the 15th year that Restore-An-Old-Car been on the internet; in our own small way helping classic car enthusiasts to repair, restore, and maintain their old vehicles. There are now over 125 pages and 500+ images of automotive history and how-to articles for old cars, trucks, and Jeeps!

About Me

I'm Mark Trotta and reside in central North Carolina, USA. In between working a full-time job and raising a family, I restore old cars as a hobby, as well as repair and maintain our daily drivers (mine, wife, kids).

Although I've owned and restored quite a few classic cars in my time, I've never had the luxury of keeping more than one or two at a time. I'll drive them for a while, then sell them and move on to another project.

Learning To Weld

I learned to weld out of necessity. Back in the nineties, my first full restoration was a 1970 Chevy El Camino. It had rust spots everywhere and needed major sheet metal repair.

Since I didn't have the money to pay someone to fix it, I enrolled in a vocational school and learned how to weld. MIG welding is the easiest welding process to learn and is required for any automotive sheet metal work.

The Camino was my 'work-horse' and daily driver for 13 years.

I have also restored several classic motorcycles. One of my "keepers" is this 1961 Harley-Davidson Servi-car, which you can read about here.

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Daily Drivers

From 2003 to 2025, my daily drivers were a 2001 then a 2008 Ford Explorer Sport-Trac.

Aside from getting me back and forth to work faithfully and comfortably, my Sport-Tracs have transported bicycles, motorcycles, go karts, kayaks, kids, lumber, mulch, furniture, kitchen appliances, engines, transmissions, tires, wheels, and on occasion, a few trips to the local dump.

Ford Sport-Trac Review

My present daily driver is a 2016 Jeep Wrangler.

2016 Jeep Wrangler Review

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Thanks for visiting our site!

You can contact me at: Mark @ Restore-An-Old-Car.com