I am in the market for a classic-ish car to learn how to work mechanically on cars. I want to spend around $4500 including the car, parts, tools, etc. for a mini restoration. Does anyone have any suggestion on particular cars that would be good for this (or trucks)? I have looked at Jeep CJs, Alfa Romeo Spiders, Chevrolet Covair.
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You've got $4,500 to spend on a bit of a project car - what are you buying? @tribe
I think that there is a fair bit of missing information from the request to really be able to give a good answer. The worst thing you can do is get in over your head. It will be very unfun and way more expensive then needed.
What is your baseline knowledge of working on things? Do you have a basic set of tools? Is there a space available to you to get stuff done? Indoors or outdoors?
If you have zero experience and only held a wrench one tome 5 years ago, I would first focus on building a great foundation. Take a chunk of your budget and start buying some basic, but quality tools (No harbor freight junk). Get a nice tool box or kart with a work top. After you have some basics fine any cheap and simple non running engine. Im talking about a lawnmower for $10 at a yard sale type of thing. Sure it is not as sexy as a project car, but the principles are all the same. Learn to get that going again. If you fail it is something that can just be thrown away.
If you have some experience, but looking for larger project it is important to be honest about your time. Is this project also going to be used as your primary form of transportation or is this a second vehicle?
Also, what type of driving do you enjoy and see yourself doing after the project is complete? Goal to do autoX events or weekends away deep in the woods?
Space to work on the project is key. Doing a motor swap in a parking space on the side of the street is not fun, no matter what some youtube video says.
Basically if you did not TLDR, I am trying to say you need to define your world honestly and figure out what actually fits into it. This should all be fun, not stressful
Where are you located? if you are down for all my silly questions, I can look for some examples and we can keep the conversation going.
I would say that I am experienced with working on things and know my way around lots of machinery. That being said, I know lots about cars and how they run and how the engine works, but have never physically worked on my own
I mean I have a 30yr old daily already - a Jetta mk2 that I mod and fix and bought for a grand, was in a bit of a rough mechanical shape but now it is great (fixed everything for around 500$ and for now modded some things for another 500$ cause parts for it are dirt cheap). Very easy to work on too and even though it is not fast by any means it handles beautifully cause of its suspension and weight. I really recommend it especially if you want a safe and fun project that you want to daily (it is from 1990 but it is the end of the production so it is really just a car from the 80s, I think 80s cars are a sweet spot when you want a classic daily car, classic look and driving experience while not being really harsh or well just annoying also in some ways). When it comes to tools for older cars a simple set and a jack is pretty much everything you need even for bigger jobs. Idk what to recommend other than my car really since it is my first serious project but man, when it comes to buying a project car just buy what you want to build, it wouldn't make sense to build a car and then regret not buying a different one, just be safe with it and don't buy a money pit haha, alfa spiders must have expensive parts and they are deffinitely not easy to find when it comes to OEM
Old Mercedes or Bmw or Honda
~2k usd for this 2002 Honda City 1.5 VTEC MT.
I'd spend the remaining 2.5k for mods such as remapping, repainting, performance intake/extake