In no particular order, mostly relating to choosing the right bike:
1. Be realistic about the skills and resources you have at your disposal.
2. Sit down and cost everything out before you start. Knowing what stuff costs to repair/replace allows you to make far better decisions.
3. Work out what standard/budget you want to build it to.
4. Don't get locked into the one bike, and don't get locked into fixing everything. If you discover serious/expensive faults, go and buy another one (component or whole bike).
5. Your first resto will be the hardest, most expensive and probably the lowest quality.
6. Don't kid yourself that it's a money-making exercise - it's the opposite. If you're not in it for the love of it, do something else.
7. Learn to look past cosmetics. An original condition, low-hour bike with faded plastics is a MUCH better starting point than a flogged out POS that's got new tyres and shiny plastics.
8. Know what the hard to get parts are for your particular model.
9. Beware "just had full rebuild". Lots of sellers blatantly lie. Again, an honest, slightly downtrodden bike is far better than a pig with lipstick.
10. Enjoy the process. If you're halfway through and it's pissing you off, ignore it for a week/month/year.
11. Try to stick to one active project at a time. It's ok to be collecting parts for another project while you're working on the first project, but only one bike should be on the work stand at once.
The possible exception to this is if you're doing two similar bikes and are doing the "production line" restos on both, but I'd still avoid it.
