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Recommend me an old muscle car/car with balls
precisionk
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So looking into buying perhaps an old muscle car and or a car that has alot of power underneath just for the sake of perhaps doing some restorative work and learning more about cars in general.
This is purely for fun with no real reason to have one but to have something that someone would consider a classic.
Anyone have any recommendations? Needs to be older then then say the 1980's and perhaps could use some work as I am only looking to spend say a few thousand on it as I hope to drive it for fun in the summers and work on it at the same time.
Any recommendations on models?
This is purely for fun with no real reason to have one but to have something that someone would consider a classic.
Anyone have any recommendations? Needs to be older then then say the 1980's and perhaps could use some work as I am only looking to spend say a few thousand on it as I hope to drive it for fun in the summers and work on it at the same time.
Any recommendations on models?
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You know, the car from Mad Max.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Cockload of options there.
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Pontiac Tempest GTOs, those are the ticket.
Or a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 painted yellow.
but for toying around with, I'd say that might be a more complicated car.
I knew a guy with a 79 mustang that was fairly easy to work on and was easy to find parts for. At least at the time it was.
This, or a garbage truck with options. :P
Lime Green with a black strip
I came in here specifically to recommend a Grand National. They are seriously awesome cars. Relatively difficult to find though, most people who have one aren't looking to get rid of it.
Some people have tried to keep these cars in good condition, others have let them fall apart and you would have to spend some time just to get it in drivable condition ala Home Improvement.
Anything with a 350 from chevy is pretty much guaranteed to be able to be made fast. They made, what 90 million of that engine? It's one of the most popular engines of all time and a great engine to cut your teeth on. It was in just about everything and you can use a crazy amount of parts.
You know, the turbo-charged 2.3 mustang that was around in the mid eights is supposed to be able to be made fast with decent mods and low cash. There's a good website out there at: http://www.turboford.net/index.shtml.
The Buick grand national is a turbo charged car that's supposed to be fast and crazy. The car darth vader would drive.
Or get an old civic and dump in a newer engine and powertrain. What, that old hatchback, crx(?), is supposed to be fun. Sure, you're making around 200 hp but your power to weight ratio is stupidly high. Add in a power adder(NO2, turbo, etc) and you'll be smoking corvettes.
Shit, I'd go to a book store and look at the automotive section. Look at the books that deal with moding cars, find a book about a car you like, and then go buy it. Follow the book!
...are you just trying to find some old big block beast with a carburetor and wrench on it? Start looking in auto traders or craigslist. They'll be sure to mention the displacement in the ad. Hope you got some money, time, good tools, and more money and time. Get the service manual if you can. Save a lot of trouble.
I had a 351C '72 mustang that was a lot of fun. Fast, big, and noisy with some glasspacks...Shit, now I wanna start saving my pennies to get one.
The Roadrunner. An attempt by Chrysler to return to the days of the cheap and powerful muscle cars. They were produced in quantity with a number of engine options. Including the 426 Hemi.
The Dodge Charger. An iconic car from the 60's and 70's. Featured in Bullitt. The General Lee. And the choice of Miami based spies.
mabe an old Holden Torana HQ model. its cheap but cool. come in 4 door and 2 door (rare)
Go for one of the Pontiac Trans Am Firebirds
Im going to get one one day. Totally badass. If you can, get the knight rider conversion too!
If that doesnt interest you, go with the DeLorean as Mike 'Danger' Powers suggested
3 grand is a tough price point for anything "classic". It's probably possible but the cars in that price range have likely been beaten to hell and/or have at least two major flaws (rust, bad paint, major electrical or mechanical problems, bad interior, salvage title, and so on).
The most important thing to consider is that you don't want to bite off more than you can chew on your first fixer-upper. Getting a car that rolls but not much more into a condition that a normal person would consider "driveable" is difficult and expensive for people with the mechanical knowhow to do most or all of the work in their garage with tools they already own. It would be nigh impossible for a first-timer. I know I certainly fell into that trap when I picked up my old '75 Porsche 914, and that thing was in fine shape when I got it. Just maintaining it and replacing some hoses and stuff was a huge challenge.
My suggestion is to save up until you can afford something around ten grand. At that price your options open up considerably. You'll be able to get something that doesn't need any major work, something you can jump into and drive right away while you ease yourself into the process of maintaining and improving a project car. Of course, if you're willing to stomach something from the malaise era (1980-1990) you can probably get into something for three grand- but there's a good reason those cars aren't collectibles. Most of them aren't very good.
As for specific suggestions, you can't do much better than a late 60s / early 70s Ford Mustang. They made a ton of them, parts are cheap, they're easy to work on, and they're neat-looking.
Another budget option that I just thought of is an old VW Beetle. Hell, they only just stopped making them- the old-school Beetles were produced in Mexico as recently as 2003. If you're into that, try to find one newer than 1967. They're dirt cheap (a lot closer to 3 grand than 10), dead simple to work on, they sound great (who doesn't
Hmm. I've kind of talked myself into one now.
+1 for the VW Beetle. One of my mechanic buddies taught himself all the basics about motors by taking apart and rebuilding an old VW beetle engine on his dining room table more times than he could count. Every time the car broke down he said he and his dad could lift the engine out, take it completely apart, and put it back together...voila! running car.
I'm partial to cheapo import cars with newer engines so long as you keep the vehicle tasteful (not Fast and the Furious style). Remember that even if you buy an older car there are plenty of places that can build you a custom powerful engine for it in the future. You can do plenty to engines to make them faster, so I would focus on finding something from that time with the best suspension. Having a custom suspension built just to handle the engine would suck.
PS: My grandpa bought his T-Bird (his childhood dream car) from an estate sale after one of his friends passed away. Sometimes rich people collect these things and when they die their family just wants to get rid of them.
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The OP actually says "perhaps a lot of power". i.e. not necessary
The OP wants to learn more about cars in general.
Actually he said "So looking into buying perhaps an old muscle car and or a car that has alot of power underneath" and a Bug falls into neither of those two categories. It's never been a muscle car or one with a lot of power.
Because I'm making a gay joke at the expense of the Beetle, which ranks with the Mini Cooper and the Mazda Miata.
And besides, what else do you do with old muscle cars? Other than show them off for being awesome. :P
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A Beetle is an excellent place to learn, if you feel like going that route. The bonus is they are still making parts/ panels for them, so you can pick them up easily enough. I'm going to do one when my boys are old enough, so I can teach them how to fix things themselves.
Besides that, I am also looking at doing some sort of old muscle car. I'm thinking a Challenger, but what I really want to do is one of those old 'Family Trucksters', wood paneling and all. It'll be deliciously tacky
Also, it would be nice to work on something with some space under the hood for once.
You can find a sweet 77-79 Trans Am for $3000 or less. I'm really partial to Firebirds.
I'm not much help if you want older, though. I love the older cars, but I've never owned one or been in a position to even think about owning one, so I keep my mind off of them other than drooling.
Having said that,
Chevelles are bad. 66-68 are my faves.
Monte Carlos
Mustangs
Man, it goes on and on.
If I had unlimited funds,
67 chevelle, with a blower sticking out of the hood.
Or, a 240sx - LS1 conversion.
porche aircooled (and some water cooled) engines of the same vintage are drop in replacements.
spoiler for a hilarious beetle vrs mustang video.
seriously. huge community, readily available parts. vw's are kinda like tinker toys for older models. as in you could pretty much drop any engine or most parts into almost any other vw. and there is nothing funnier than burning out and pwning people with a super beetle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_928
I really have to suggest both of these. 80's RX-7s are quite cheap and a nice example of a first generation one can be had for $3,000. Look for a GSL or GSL-SE model in those. Parts are pretty cheap and they're quite easy to keep running.
Aircooled VWs are great starter projects too. Parts are abundant and cheap. they're really easy to work on and there is quite a few of places on the web to learn about them. unfortunately a non rusty example will probably be a bit more expensive than 3 grand.
Before it was this:
It was this:
Late 60's/early 70's models are your best bet, ones for $3k will need pretty extensive work to make look nice, but you should be able to find one that at least runs.
Edit:, Something like this:
Hey, I know a guy who used to have one of these. He sold it when he found out how much little stuff like headlight replacements and dash pieces was costing him.
That's the bad thing about working on old Porsches. It's horribly, horribly expensive.
Also, further engorging material within spoiler
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Home Inspection and Wind Mitigation
http://www.FairWindInspections.com/
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Nope. That's why I just bought a 2005 M3 to join the '65 Comet. Though my Comet isn't as clean as this: