What are you going to build your daughter

My Daughter has been around cars Her whole life...

Learned to drive in my Beater Daily '67 VW, Which caught fire about a month after she got her License.

She bought a '62 Falcon & drove it about 2 1/2 years, Recently sold it & bought a '55 Ford Sedan.

We have been Gathering parts since she was about 13~14 & recently built a '27 T Roadster Pick up useing all Pre 1950 parts.

 

If that's the biggest disappointment she ever delivers, consider yourself lucky.

JH

 

a few days ago ,i was talking to the guy next door .he has 2 girls ,6&8 years old.there are alot of girls around that age on our block .we decided to put my deer stand in the tree between our houses.set up there with guns and a spotlight..

 

You guys are crazy!!!

I don't have kids, but if and when that time comes, I'm looking at a 10-15 Volvo like this '06 S60.



Why? ABS, front and side air bags, 4 wheel disc brakes, colapsible steering column, three point seat belts, reinforced seats, a roof structure stronger than required and a 5 star crash rating. After being in the insurance business for 25 years, I can tell you an old car is not what I want my kid in when they (not if) wreck it. And giving a kid a car with any kind of horsepower at 16 is just irresponsible. I'm sorry if this goes against the coolness grade but go look at vintage accident photos and see how many dead people there are in what is now a minor accident.

I like old cars. I'd want my kids to like old cars. But if I'm buying, they will get the safest, slowest to moderately powered car I can find. I'll let them make their own decision (and spend there own money) on an old car that (to paraphrase Ralph Nader) is unsafe at any speed once they are older than 18. I'll be more than happy to help them with it but I ain't buying. I look at these toys like I do alcohol. There is a time I trust them to be responsible with something like this. 16 & 17 isn't it.

This is a car with lots of power, manual steering and manual brakes. If an adult has a difficult time controlling one of these, why would you put your kid in one???



The Corvette was a tire blow out at 50 MPH. Would your kid have the experience to get this safely pulled over?



...and another for grins and giggles. What kid isn't going to try out the loud pedal in one of these?

 

My daughter said she would not be seen driving an old car so she ended up with her moms honda. all her friends have new cars why cant i attitude i guess, but she likes me to pick her up from school in the 51 ever so often. now that i think about it all the boys dig the hot rod so they come over to look at it and her too.

 

i guess im the bad parent ,my son has a Shelby Mustang.

 

My daughter graduates thursday the 29th. She's getting a '68 Buick
Sport Wagon factory 400 4bbl, 340Hp/440 ft lbs.,Turbo 400, 10 bolt 3.64 posi. Factory light green metalic with black interior, a/c and original Buick installed 8 track, black plate Ca. car. We've been fixing all the little problems, but the car is a low mileage survivor, and yes it has the all important roof windows. Next its getting Torque Thrust D's and dual exhaust. I bought it for myself and she wanted an old Volkswagen. She took a liking to the Buick and thats ok, cause she'll be surrounded by some good ole American Iron, and for a 4300+ lb. tank, it aint no slouch.

 

It all comes down to the parents. If taught right, they'll be fine. I'm not saying accidents won't happen, but accidents can happen in ANY vehicle. I grew up with 300+ hp under my foot and I have never gotten a ticket because I was taught right. Have I had accidents? Yup, but learned from them. Don't try to hide from them. The major catasrophies happen when you're screwing around. Don't screw around and if you want to race keep it on the track or stay off the road.

I guess I had bad parents and I'll be a bad parent too.

 

LOL... Me To !! Lotsa tickets, Only 1 accident though...

Its hard to drive a '67 GTO while sleeping !!

 

Umm new cars are not slow.. That volvo has 257 HP and 0-60 in 7.3, faster than my first car (firebird formula) and faster than a lot of stock musclecars. It my have a million airbags, but it still has the horsepower.

 

The 250hp Volvo & a 250hp hot rod can both hurt you.

Good parents will teach their kids to be responsible & careful no matter what they drive.

The Volvo is loaded with safety features that our earlier cars lack. If the kid likes the car, how can you fault a guy for putting his kid in the Volvo?

I can't.

JH

 

I built this for my daughter, started when she was a sophmore in high school, finished when she graduated college. I always thought these trucks were ugly but she liked it and it's grown on me. Pretty cool when she's cruisin and she tells everyone that her dad built it for her.

 

Chastity belt.

 

It's all about respect & responsibility, confidence, control.

As parents we are responsible for installing these values & qualities, dude, while I appreciate the intentions behind surrounding your children with the best & most current crash ratings, "smart" braking systems, superior handling etc... I can't completely agree.

See, it's all in perspective, how you look at it. in many ways I would have to argue that starting a young driver in a machine that practically drives itself, the safe & secure life pod... well I would have to compare it to learning math with a calculator.

"susy, what's 4 times 8?" "um, I dunno, you got a calculator?" "yes but susy, do you know how it works? can you figure it out in your head? do you have the skills or do you simply have dependency on this calculator?

When you drive an old car in tip top condition, tight steering, fresh brakes, good tires etc... when you drive that old car, that's exactly what you are doing, you are driving it.

You are an operator of that machine, you feel the road, you feel the mechanics of the machine, you become intimate with the function & the understanding of being a driver. You get to know the machine, it truely has handling charactoristics, there is feedback through the steering, the left front drum brake sometimes comes in a little before the right, you know this, you are the driver, you adapt.

You become familiar with the mechanics of it all, there is more to learn, it takes "practice" to drive that 3 on the tree. So you practice with dad in the car, he teaches you, you learn.

In all of this I believe there is huge value. there is an experience here that has for the most part become lost today.

My daughter will have a little "hot rod" it won't be fast, but it will be solid, it will be mechanically sound, she'll have fun with it because it's "cool" or "cute". It will be what she learns on. It won't be a winter car for her, she'll have something modern for winter & poor weather driving, probably her mothers daily driver handed down.

But she is interested in old cars & for the moment it's still cool to hang out with dad, so I'm gonna run with it. She'll help build it, she will understand how it works, she will understand it's limitations & the dangers. She will learn how it compares to todays models in the way of overall construction, safety, handling etc.

I don't think any of the parents here are handing over a loaded handgun to an inicent todler which is somewhat how your message reads. For the most part this love of cars is a culture that most of us grew up with & we know & appreciate the value that comes with the intimacy we have with the machines we operate.

Each to his own, personally I choose the fun & individuality of the "hot rod" for my daughter & It will come with all of the necessary hands on training.

 

Volvos are overrated. I watched a beater Chevy S-10 take out a Volvo. So many dynamic forces involved, you can't plan for everything.
Best bet is well-taught drivers.

 

Pre-66 VW beetle......

 

Well said. I agree completely.

 

My 17 yr old daughter wanted a Mustang. I bought her a 68 289 loaded car that needed resto. One she found out how long it would take, she choose to sell it and buy her Toyota.

My 1.5 yr old daughter will be getting my wife's 67 Bug if she wants it.

My 3yr old son has laid claim to my 36 Chevrolet Truck as his.

The one in the oven will get.....guess I will have to buy another project.

 

A chastity belt....

John

 

My daughter and I have been talking about this a lot lately. Now that the car I've been working on since she was born is finally on the road (she just turned 11) she's really excited and loves old cars (for now). I'm making her a deal if she can get straight A's for her first year of Jr. High I'll take her around and well buy a project car we can both work on.

The best part is letting her start up my 54 and show her friends, she lights up like the sun!

 

I don't think getting a girl (or even a boy sometimes) an old car, especially one that needs a lot of work, around age 14 is going to go over very well usually. I've seen lots of parents do this and expect that the kid is just going to fall in love with it like they did, but its usually not the case.

I've got my 3 year old in the garage with me sometimes and I hope she gets the bug, but if I never get her involved until she reaches 14 or so, she's probably not going to be thrilled in her first car being something old that I would like.

I've got 11 years or so to see how this experiment turns out though.

 

my 9 year old stepdaughter wants a t speedster. and i was thinking teaching her stick would be tough, but i really dont want to think about teaching her planetary i can bearly do that

 

Bars for her window!!!

 

I would argue that there are more accidents because cars have gotten too safe... or at least people's perception of it. It's too easy to turn your brain off (or turn it to other activities) when driving a new car. With an old car you kinda have a better feel for all the physics and inertia and all... you gotta carry your brain with you when you drive it. Putting kids in something like this teaches them to pay attention to the car and the surroundings when they're driving.

 

My daughter turns 16 in less than a month. We bought her a 71 VW. She had seen it for several years and said it was her dream car. It came up for sale at exactly the right time so we bought it. My son will be 15 in Dec., We are hopefully going this weekend to pickup a 390 and a flatbed to go on his 60 Ford pickup he bought when he was 12. He wants to be able to pull a horse trailer and we figured the 390 ought to get it done. His loves are football, team roping and cars. It don't get any better than that.

 

Look, I'm not trying to be overly preachy. I will say this and let it be.

1st, this isn't just about their driving. They are on the road with others who may not give a damn. Those driving drunk. Those who street race. Etc. You can talk about 3500-4500 lbs of steel to protect you, but the reality is a car that won't 'give' means that the first thing to absorb the impact is the driver. Many of these older cars don't have belts, or the ones they do have are 40 years old.

There was a Duesenburg in Ann Arbor, MI that had just gone thru a $1M+ restoration. The guy who did the restoration decided to take his family for a ride in it before returning it to it's owner. While minding his own business, the car was T-boned by someone who ran a stop sign in an S-10. That Duesenburg weighed over 4500 Lbs. It was rolled from the impact, ejected everyone (3) in the car who were all dead on arrival. That great American steel didn't hold up.

I understand the "Hey, it was good enough for me" attitude. I don't ride a bicycle with a helmet, and I doubt I'd say to much to a kid, mine or others, for not wearing one. I was one of those kids bouncing in the back of my mom's station wagon before seat belt laws. I get it. But the last thing I like to see are disfigured steering wheels, hair in the windshield and blood running over the seats and door panels.

Your kids rely on you to tell them the car is safe. They don't know what safe is. There is an old saying that "The more things change, the more they stay the same". You are now your parents. You tell your kids the same stuff your parents told you. I got the same safety lectures at 16. And I still went out and drag raced on the street. The difference between now and then is that the streets are more congested with more cars and traffic. The room for mistakes is far smaller. And those who say, "Oh, that isn't my kid", I only say that you are nieve.

I still read the Detroit newspapers via internet, and see what happens in the Tampa/St. Pete area and can tell you this stuff happens on a regular basis. Who wants to be Hulk Hogan or his kid right now? Kids do drag race on the streets (not so much the girls) and they do drive with out seat belts (and get ejected).

As an age group we didn't have cell phones and Ipods to distract us. The worst that we had was a cassette or 8-Track that needed changing.

My suggestion isn't hiding them from old cars. But let them make that decision on their own at an age they are allowed to make it and they can pay for it. The guy who built the F-100 has the right idea. The started the build and it was completed while she was in college. And sorry, but the parent giving their kid a 300+ HP car like a Mustang GT, GTO, etc. IS putting a loaded 3800 Lbs gun in their hands.

A friend's wife has a son who just turned 16 and got his licence. The kid is going to an upscale private school in the northern suburbs in Detroit. Because this lady wanted to keep up with the Jones', she buys this kid (against the advise of her husband and I) a new Honda Civic Si. This car has less than 3000 miles on it and it's already had two of the expensive Michelin Pilot Sport tires replaced and half the rear end ripped off after he pulled out in front of a Ford Explorer. My suggestion was a 10 year old Neon or Escort. This kid's mom is afraid to make the claim on the insurance company on a $3500 claim because he's on her insurance.

Look, you guys do what you want, but the worst argument you could ever make is "It won't happen to me!"

My name is Tom, I'm 44 and I'll drive the wheels off my Studebaker Daytona when it's finish, even without modern safety equipment.

 

So far both my daughters like to go out into the garage with me (3 and 12yo) and actually help. My oldest wants a bug, so we are looking at different styles. I'm hoping for a 60's style but she is also looking at the newer ones. Either way she is going to help pay and help work on it. Thankfully she is ok with this.

 

Um, yeah. OK.



You could argue all you want but the numbers don't lie. There are three times as many cars on the road now than in 1970. Accidents and fatalities are less than half of those in 1970. While you're teaching your kids in this fashion, what happens when they fail the course?

 

Tcoupekyle is still in high school, and he got hit a few weeks ago in his '65 Ford by an 18 wheeler! Ripped the bumper of the big truck, minimal damage to Kyle's truck. I feel a lot safer in my big Chrysler with nothing but steel and a seat belt than I did in the puny little fwd Cougar with ABS, dual airbags, etc.