New to Restoring

[Slapstick16]

Just looking for some insight. I'm not the greatest with cars since my experience is limited. However, if I can take it apart I can put it back together. I have done most of my general maintenance on my vehicles and some of the work on my first car which was a 1980 Mercedes 240D. I am looking for a car to restore with my son. My question is what car would be best to start with being newer to restoration? Things to consider would be cost efficiency, easy to work on and find parts for. I know a lot of people suggest mustangs which may not be bad since we have a Mustang graveyard near by. I have found a couple cars that are pretty low cost that come with engines and transmissions but are currently not running for really low cost, but researching them it seems their return value is kind of low so I just don't want to get myself in a situation where I may lose value on the vehicle or end up spending way more than what it is worth. The 2 I have found are a Plymouth Special deluxe 1950 and an Austin America. Both are priced at $600. Both will need rust removal and interior. The rest would be finding parts. Any suggestions of other things to look for. I am in Missouri and it seems like there are several classics in the 4 state area so I can locate almost anything. Also if anyone if familiar with pickup trucks that would be my preferred restoration. Thanks in advance.

[carbuilder2002]

At the age of 24 I aquired a 1964 3.8 E Type Coupe Jaguar that looked an easy running restoration and had I been happy to have a car that ran but had some issues that would have been the case. Trouble is once you start restoring a car you can get into a vicious circle where only 0 defects will be good enough so it ended up an 8 year full stripdown and complete rebuild down to every last fixing and many atthe time unavailable body parts having to be fabricated from scratch. Morale is set what you want to achieve and keep to those limits or it can get out of control.

[Stealthee]

Originally Posted by carbuilder2002

At the age of 24 I aquired a 1964 3.8 E Type Coupe Jaguar that looked an easy running restoration and had I been happy to have a car that ran but had some issues that would have been the case. Trouble is once you start restoring a car you can get into a vicious circle where only 0 defects will be good enough so it ended up an 8 year full stripdown and complete rebuild down to every last fixing and many atthe time unavailable body parts having to be fabricated from scratch. Morale is set what you want to achieve and keep to those limits or it can get out of control.

So much truth. I tried to make a long story as short as possible, I bought a 94 Dodge Stealth in 2002. Had lots of trials and tribulations over 8 years and after breaking transmission number 5 in early 2011 I parked it until I could afford to fix it up right.

Between not having time and not having money I didn't get to do much, and then I lost my garage when I had to move in 2014.

I got moving on the car again in 2015. My original plan was to pull the engine and trans, fix the broken trans, regasket the engine, clean up the engine bay and repaint it while it was empty, then put the engine and trans back in, make the car drivable, then start on the rest of the body.

That WAS the plan. After the engine was out I started finding more things that I didn't like how it looked so I figured, while its apart, might as well do this, then that led to finding more and more and more things. Next thing I knew the car had zero suspension under it.

Life got in the way yet again and the car sat some more. I got back on it hard in 2017. It was then that I found rust in the floor pan (caused by a leaking crappy aftermarket sunroof) It was pretty significant so I started looking for a parts car to cut patch panels from.

I ended up finding a rolling shell that was a super clean southern car and it came with a title. After a lot of discussion with some family car guys that knew what my car meant to me and some internal debate I decided to start over. I took the "new" car and stripped it to nothing, painted the engine bay, undercoated the entire underside, converted the front end, then started bolting in all my new/rebuilt suspension pieces I had from the original car.

After a death in the family in early 2018 hit me kind of hard as well as dealing with other issues I didn't get much done for a year. Finally around Thanksgiving 2018 the garage at my cousin's had an open bay and with their help and encouragement we got the car pulled in so I could finalize getting engine and transmission in and get it running.

Between lots of working late, cold weather, figuring out some wiring differences etc, I finally started it late April 2019. I got it legal in August after getting some other things sorted out and drove it occasionally, but it still was 5 colors.

I lost my job in early April this year so I had more than enough time to get the body finished. I fixed the broken fiberglass hood, added "wide body" over fenders to the rear quarters, along with multiple other things and finally got it painted in early June.

My restoration took 9 years to complete, and its still not "done" I can say though that I learned many things along the way. Before this I had never done real body work and never painted a car. The only paint experience I had before was when I did the engine bay.

If you're curious this first picture was the day I got the shell dropped in my driveway. The second is from a few days after I got it back together with the original car I started on all sad and stripped in the background

[Stealthee]

I'd like to add separately that don't go into a restoration if you're worried about losing money, because its guaranteed you will lose money. Over the 9 year "resto" on my car I spent probably close to $10k and that doesn't even include my time or more tools. You do a restoration for the love of saving an old car. Almost no one makes money on a resto.

[Slapstick16]

Originally Posted by Stealthee

I'd like to add separately that don't go into a restoration if you're worried about losing money, because its guaranteed you will lose money. Over the 9 year "resto" on my car I spent probably close to $10k and that doesn't even include my time or more tools. You do a restoration for the love of saving an old car. Almost no one makes money on a resto.

I understand I will be losing money especially since I will be getting the tools needed. I guess my main concern is there a car that is best to aim towards for easy to find parts so I am not spending an excessive amount on parts alone. This is mostly a build for my Son and I to pull him from games and also teach him to work on cars. I'm self taught on a lot of my repairs with some help from friends or other family members. I'm the youngest of 3 I had probably 6 non running cars before I turned 18 and I managed to make 5 of them run. Then my dad would sell them before I even got to drive them more than around the block. I have some wiring experience then general maintenance and common repairs. Starters, alternators, water pumps, oil ect. pretty basic stuff. So Nutshell what is a good car thats cheap with lots of common parts that is 1970's or earlier?

[Dapper1]

I'm also new to restoration, I actually just brought my first car home today. I chose mine, not by what is cheapest/easiest to restore, but by what I truly wanted to work on.