Ah, the project car. Who among us can resist the thought of buying a once-dreamy, now dilapidated car for cheap and restoring it to road worthiness with little more than wrenching skills and automotive know-how? A junker rolls into the garage, some weeks or months later a wonderful runner rolls out, and you triumphantly cruise into Cars and Coffee with a smile as wide as your resurrected runabout’s grille. The dream!
… But one must know one’s limits, and that brings us to our Ask:
How Much Project Car is Too Much Project Car?
I’m going to go out on a limb and say the high end of the “sure, I can handle that” spectrum is represented by the irrepressible David Tracy, who didn’t flinch at the thought of not only returning what most of us would consider un-rescuable junk to reliable runner status, but flying to Australia to do it. On a deadline, no less!
Oh look, an absolute maniac. Click the image to begin your Project Cactus experience.
As for the low-end of the “I got this” spectrum, there’s me. If the “project” is more than fresh fluids, brakes, tires, and simple stuff like a fuel pump, alternator, or thermostat, I’m out. The wrenching is over my head, but even if it weren’t, I haven’t the space or time for more than that much investment in a car project.
How about you—where’s your too-much-project-car line, and what factors draw that line? If those limitations could be magic-wanded away, what kind of projects might you take on then?
To the comments!
I will never ever, for as long as I live, buy a car with rust problems. I have great sentimental attachment to a very rusty 1972 Super Beetle and everything else on the car is in good shape apart from considerable rust. It’s too much for me to tackle myself given a lack of space, skills, and time. Mechanical, electrical, upholstery, all of that I can do, or have already done, on the Beetle. I will gladly pay a professional for the rust repair. When I can afford such an expense.
I haven’t said no to almost anything I’m interested in, if it’s cheap enough.
That’s probably why I have 20 cars, and I think only 2 of them came to me in functional condition…
Rust, and rarity are my project stoppers. I wanted a fiero as a first car what stopped me, a bad Clutch. A lot of times I deal with people buying vehicles with rusted out frames usually from a state that does not have inspections. It comes to my state and I have to give them the bad news that they did not look at the vehicle hard enough.
me: ugh, I still need to make bushings for the 411
also me every time I see something even more old and obscure: I crave punishment and I need this
*Imagine* the amount of Big Stef Energy from like, picking up a crappy Tatra. IMAGINE.
Rust = Too Much Project
If I’m going to have something as a long-term project car, I’ll make the extra effort to buy it from somewhere without winters and road salt. I bought an S13 from FL and bought my Miata from Los Angeles. Getting them home was still less of an expense or hassle than repairing rust.
I know some people want to save every car, but I can guarantee there is a rust-free version of the perforated rust mess you’re looking at somewhere in the US.
Seconded. I bought a running 280Z with a clean interior and “minor rust”. It’s been disassembled for 2.5 years for body work and cost me over 20k$.
There is no such thing as ‘minor’ rust on an early 80’s Datsun / Nissan (post 1984).
I had several S12’s purchased in the Northeast before I smartened up and bought the S13 from far away.
It was a mid ’70s one which has to be even worse
Rusted out floors and frames = NO. Missing components = NO.
NFG components = NO
Except motorcycles
My brother brought home an Austin Healy 100-4 in pieces in the back of our pickup truck. He restored it to its former glory!
I always think it is related to the amount of enclosed storage + work space you have. It is likely a bad idea if you have to store things you are working on exposed to the elements (sand, moisture etc).
This.
I’ve never had anywhere properly enclosed to work on / store cars. I used to live about a 45-minute drive from the parents’ farm, so I could at least work on a car in their barn, but it still had to get there under its own power.
Everything I’ve bought has been a runner and driver, and has driven home in the first place. They just turn into projects later.
I currently have a Renault Clio RSi parked in the corner of the communal parking outside my flat. It looks amazing, but it’s got no alternator while I await a replacement voltage regulator. It only lasted a couple of weeks after purchase, too.
In my situation it’s all about anything that can be put back together between sessions in a way that it at least looks presentable / not obviously being worked on.
If I ever get my own driveway you can bet I’ll have something on jack stands with parts strewn about the place on a regular basis though.
For me, enclosed work / storage areas are a definite for a long-term project. I need to be able to leave it in-place without being in the way other cars or storage.
Yeah. I don’t have to worry about enclosures for crapcans here as much, but I’m at capacity at the moment space- and money-wise.
Apparently, “mostly-there Buell XB” is too much for me, since it’s been sitting in pieces in the garage for probably a year. Still, it’ll be really cool when it’s put back together. I mean, it even has a name (Finn) and a backstory.
My daily driver is a ’94 Dodge pickup that started as a 2WD single-cab, cut in half and welded to a ’99 quad-cab rear, on a ’96 2WD frame converted to 4WD using original bracketry cut from a crashed ’95, with a ’96 bed, the front axle is from the ’95 as is the transfer case which was converted from an auto-trans-type unit to fit a manual, the rear is random Craigslist-sourced as are the seats, and the trans is a ’94 NV4500 manual rebuilt with an upgraded mainshaft. Wheels are 18″ from a 2015 (I think) on custom machined steel spacers. The Cummins 5.9 engine is rebuilt with Mahle pistons, Hamilton cam, ported head w/ stud fastening, Banks intake, advanced F.I.-pump timing and 30psi boost. I paid for block machining and a buddy sprayed the paint in his home booth ’cause I was pressed for time, otherwise all work is mine, an 18-month side project and my first diesel. Now, let me tell you about my hot rods…
The truck of Theseus?
I am not a man for whom the word “wrench” is a verb. As such, anything other than routine maintenance is “too much project” for me — and I’m even outsourcing that routine maintenance to a mechanic.
I very much appreciate cars. I love seeing interesting machines do their thing. I am always appreciative of someone who clearly put a lot of work into a car and who displays it at shows. But for something that I own? I want simple, reliable, and dependable.
Rust has always been the killer for me, I’ve looked at junked vehicles in no salt, no seawater areas and been puzzled why they got junked. If something is structurally solid it can be put back on the road or track, just takes money and time. How much do you have? (-;
The bunch of pipes they call the internets has sure made a difference in sourcing stuff.
My only projects these days are minor stuff, small what if’s and annoyances.
I’m also not beyond farming stuff out to people I trust.
How much is too much. . .right now, pretty much anything. Between work and more work, kid, kid activities, old house that needs lots of work. . .I have a negative balance in the time bank. I even sold my last project vehicle (still sad about that. . .). My next project car will most likely be on the Peter Vieira end of the spectrum.
This is exactly my situation (and I know we’re not alone). Probably not starting another project until the kids are old enough to help.