Men who started a project car or worked on a car of their dreams. Did you finish and how are things going for it?

16 comments

1. I always have a project car (always convertible) that I slowly restore over a few years. I keep it driveable as much as possible. I’ve finished 4 now(all of them) and often end up selling them. I like working on them more than I like driving them. My wife does most of the driving for the project car. I am trying to get rid of the current one because it is done but my wife enjoys it too much and doesn’t want me to sell it.

   I also have boats that I like to work on. I’d like to focus my efforts on my boats

   I do this as a hobby, not to save money. I will say daily driving a project car as your only car is a horrible idea if you work in the office at all. In my profession, it doesn’t look good to call out because you broke your car again. Its also no fun to have to repair it under a tight deadline because you need it to actually get around. My wife and I each have a reliable car, in addition to our project car. The project is often reliable and gets daily driven in nice weather, but its not our main form of transport.

2. I used to but with everything so expensive now it’s hard to drop a grand on something like new suspension. Mostly focus on just having one rig as my daily and budget a whole weekend to a project so I can still get to work on Monday. Plus insurance for two vehicles adds up quick

3. My shitter of a escort cossie is now a 100k+ concourse show peice

4. It’s never “finished” but it was done enough to start driving and showing after 8 years. Right now, I’m swapping the engine, so it’s out of commission again. It’s a labor of love, and a gambling habit would be cheaper 😂

5. It’s always broken but it’s fun when running.

   I bought a Honda civic as a daily cause it never dies.

6. I built an Exocet from a 1990 Miata donor. It was a great learning project, but I decided to sell it to fund finishing my basement.

   My “project” car now is a 1997 Viper. It really just maintenance this one though.

7. I have a 1973 Dodge Charger as a project car. It look more like a piece of scrap metal then a car, so, no I am not done with it.

   Bottom line is you build those car as hobby, I work on it when I feel like it, it must not become a chore or you will just sell it as a non complete project.

   You need a garage, you need tools, you need time. It will never be completely finished. It will cost you a lot more money then buying one already done and you will have bleeding finger. But it will be yours and you will be proud of your work.

8. bought a 1980 911sc about 2 years ago – Spent about 5500 fixing the transmission, adding a new short shifter, shift linkage, fixed wiring problems, some gauges and clock. Some gauges in the car still don’t work, air con is dead, and sunroof is dead. Car runs pretty good but car loves to leak oil. Mechanic said, “they do that.” Not really worth doing a full rebuild, car works great for what it is and totally love it. Will probably keep it forever.

9. Years ago I had a Opel Ascona B from 1980 as a project, wanted to make it look like a classic rally car, super fun but had to end it, found the frame had rust and at the same time came upon hard times financially so I couldn’t afford to continue

10. Not sure if it qualifies as a “project car” as I bought it as “weekend fun car”, but I have a 2001 Volvo P24 S60, which I bought on my 19th birthday (on the day, which we didn’t celebrate on the day that year due to my sister being hospitalized).

    There has been a lot of things I wasn’t to do to it, but I haven’t really gotten to do much of it yet, mostly because of economic reasons.

    Let’s just say I have had the rug pulled from underneath my feet a few times.

    But I have certainly enjoyed it and I continue to enjoy it.

11. Well what car did you get op?

12. Haven’t finished fixing my first project yet. Decided to buy another project to add even more stress. Now the wife is upset I got two paperweights lol

13. Purchased a K5 Blazer from an old dude years back, literally my dream truck. Currently it’s been sitting in my parents driveway for 3 years waiting for me to get the time to drop the engine in. Been saving up and getting parts here and there because I want factory oem stuff and they aren’t common anymore. I’ll let ya know when it’s actually running and driving lol

14. It’s almost finished honey, I promise you’ll have your parking stall back by the first snowfall.

15. My husband bought a 92 acura integra for $300. He was so excited to completely rebuild it and had so many cool ideas. The weekend after we got it, we gutted it completely to get all the new stuff into it little by little. After that, he never touched it again. Three years later, the city towed it and I haven’t seen it since. I have no idea what ever happened to that thing haha.

16. Bought my 99 GSR and it needed valve seals so of course I swapped the stock cams for 98 spec ITRs and the intake manifold for SK2 parts, decked the block, milled the head and went to CTR pistons at 82mm bores. But what’s the point of all that unless I put in a 255 Walboro fuel pump, Golden Eagle fuel rail, an Aeromotive FPR and RX7 injectors right? That stock flywheel was awful heavy so why not throw in a Fidanza 7.5 lb with a 6 puck sprung clutch from Clutchmasters? With a little more power it seemed crazy to not upgrade the suspension to a full 98 spec ITR setup and Mini Cooper/ITR front brakes and solid engine and trans mounts. Drove that for a couple of summers but it was a miserable, high-strung daily and with no AC it would get ugly on a rainy, hot day. The solution? More power of course! Skunk2 manifold off, JRSC with methanol and full 3″ exhaust on. The SC was a used unit that already had a stepper pulley so imagine my surprise when the first drive registered 13 psi at peak. Of course, then the drive belt started to slip at max boost anyway so nbd. Parked the car for the winter before COVID and it sat for 3 years. Mice got into it, ruined the interior and a bunch of the wiring, the weather accelerated the rust (when I parked it, it had just over 400,000 kms) and now its probably not safe for the road. If I had just replaced the valve seals I’d probably still be driving that car every summer. Worse, it’s currently moldering in my work’s vehicle compound where I get to see it every day as a reminder that sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone.