Technical Wanted your opinion

The opinions will be many and varied. The real question is are you and creative person? Like getting dirty? Enjoy problem solving? Do it yourself kind of guy. Takes alot of commitment to get a car thats been sitting awhile to roadable condition but under the right conditions is most the fun if your that guy.

 

I agree with what most have said here. If you're just getting started in the hobby, you'd be better off with a car that needs minor work. If it was a complete car that was close to being driven and needed floors, that's a good start.

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Great advice if you got the $$$$ for the initial buy in , a lot of guys don't , like me but that's how I learned. Good thing I didn't have all the negative comments about taking on a rough build the first time I did , like he's getting ! I hope he's really excited about the rust bomb , I would be ! Fixing rotten junk like this cool '41 has allowed me to save cars for myself (and friends ) that so called "professionals"were intimidated by.


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Try turning the phone around........

 

Yea. that sounds really great. As he has already said, he plans to have the heavy bodywork done by a shop. By the time a shop has this car in primer, he would be able to pay the buy in on the most expensive of the cars I picked for him twice over. REALITY CHECK.

 

Do you like 41 fords? They are not very desirable. If it Ned s floors, it very likely needs a lot of other rust repaired. Then there's wiring, trim, upholstery, paint, etc. Tou will have a ton of money and TIME in a car that will NEVER be worth close to what you have spent on it. Look for something better. Spend more money up front on a better, closer to finished, more desirirable car ( or truck). You will be glad you did. Working on old cars is fun, but it is hard, skilled work too. Don't start in a hole-that car is most likely beyond your level, no insult intended. Buy the right car, not just any car.

 

skills aside, lets look at the DIY approach realistically.
OP, got a mig welder? No? gas outfit? No? how about decent quality hammers and dollys? Vixen files? Good selection of clamps? Angle grinder? How about a good sized compresser, water separator, and a selection of paint guns?
Now honestly, you will need at least SOME of this stuff even if you buy something that is close to finished, then theres the time it will take you to learn how to use all of the above.
is this your first car of many? Or do you just want a cool hot rod?

 

Now where is the fun in that ?
And not to mention: no new skills learned.......
I wouldn't trade what I have learnt over a lifetime in the way of skills, for a ready built car.
But a good way to learn (if you have no ability at all) is to buy a running car and make small changes as you go.

Added to that, if no one built their own cars, there would be less off them on the road.......

 

I'm not as green as you think. I've been working on cars all my life. I've built up quit a collection of tools over the years and what tools and resources I don't have I have friends and family that can help. All my life I've been obsessing and studying about building cars. The car is mostly complete just sitting in piles. From my observations, other than the floor boards up front and in the trunk its a rather solid car

 

Sounds good. In a previous post you mentioned that you might "farm out" some of the major body work. This is leading us to believe you are getting into a really expensive endeavor that's over your head, and that you might want to quickly have a running/driving car, and I believe that's why you're getting a lot of hesitation.

A lot of people come on here talking about buying an old car to fix up, then also ask questions like; "how much will a shop charge to do the body work and paint?" "Where's a good transmission shop?" "I don't own a welder, can someone fab a ch***is for me?" "How can I get a ***le?" "I just want to get on the road" "how much can I flip this car for?".....then they disappear after a few posts.

In another thread you mentioned that the owner wants $1500, that includes a lot of extra parts. I would say that if you are going to buy it, then dig into this project and use it as a learning experience to practice and educate yourself in; welding and body work, rebuilding a gearbox yourself, dis***embling the engine and putting back together a long block after a machine shop does it's thing, re plumbing brakes and fuel lines, rehabbing the interior yourself, etc., etc., all yourself without "hiring out", then the guys might be singing a different tune.

But if your like a lot of other guys that think it's going to be EZ, hire everything out, then they are probably right about buying a car that's farther along.

Myself, I would buy it and consider it a challenge, not worrying one bit about being successful at fixing it or reselling it. How else are we supposed to learn how to do this stuff if there isn't a mentor handy?




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I tell my customers to NEVER, EVER buy a rusty car if they plan on me building it. Makes no sense, it always ends up more costly for my labor then the additional cost of buying a clean, rust free car to start with. I just finished a rebuild of a very rusty OT 67 Camaro. I warned the customer it was a mistake but he wanted to have me build it anyway, we ended up with 15k in parts and labor in rust repair only. Add in the price he paid for the car and we could of bought a nice clean rust free builder for half the price.
If you have the skills/ tools or want to learn to do it yourself that's different. Save money by buying a cheaper rusty project and fixing it in your "free" time (free being a key word here) then you'll be dollars ahead, once you send it out to a pro shop your throwing dollars away.
That said, I admit we are spoiled out here in the desert. Good rust free projects are not hard to find around here.

 

I'm doing floor pans right now in my '50 shoebox coupe. Great place to practice, 'cause all my boogery welds will be covered up eventually. I do plan to farm out the rear quarter panels though. That stuff is out of my league. I say go for it.

 

Another key to this process is NEVER build an unpopular body style unless you plan on keeping it forever. It takes just as much time and money to build an ugly car as it does to build a desirable one.

Gary

 

From a beginner floor boards are the easiest. Spot welds and cutting rust. Bad welds end up being hidden and you gain a lot os grinding experience.

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as long as you can do the work yourself, knock yourself out. That's not what you said when this thing started, and the responses are based on what you told us.
Could it be that what you said at first is accurate, and you DO need to farm out the heavy bodywork, but you want to buy the car anyway, and you are trying to justify it to yourself? Because that would be a big $$ mistake.

 

Floorboards? You're kidding right.

Take a look at this old heap which I consider to be a good start then rethink your question

.

 

To put the value versus cost in perspective , there is a complete , sitting in showroom 41 Ford , 6 cyl at Gateway Cl***ics .........looks completely done , the dealer is making a profit and you can have it for $13,995 ...or make an offer . A 41 isn't exactly a heavily sought after car .
http://gatewaycl***iccars.com/detroit/1941/ford/deluxe-S850.html

 

I have to chuckle about the comments of not popular. Own one and you'll see lots of them out there. I've been able to easily sell any 41 I've gotten my hands on. In fact last year I sold a 41 2 dr sedan quicker and for more money than a 46 bus. cpe. Granted the body was better on the sedan but it sold 2 months quicker and for almost a grand more.

 

Very well put. "EXPERIENCE=FUN"

 

See I would take a 41 over a 46-48 they are more pe***e and refined looking. If you like the car and the challenge I would go for it. I have started with worse and doing the work myself finished them to useable vehicles and learned along the way.

 

Take a number, who wants to rub my nose in it first. I think I got a little carried away with that 41. Something this weekend told me to take a closer look, and I did today. Got the door to open and after digging through the couple of inches of dirt I got to the floor and was able to push my hand through the floor with nooooooo resistance.
On the bright side I found a pretty solid 47 coupe roller.... Fingers crossed

 

My coupe started off the exact same way. The guy that I got it from even cut the top off. Lucky for me he kept it and I took it and welded it back on. Fabbed my floor boards. Took me 5 years to collect original parts, door, trunk deck lid, windshield, dash(s)I have 5 now. And now you see it in my avatar except it is now on a 28-30 ch***is instead of a 1982 Mazda PU frame. The thing is not to be afraid to spend the time or money to do it. Learn and gain experience.

 

Glad you looked further instead of wearing rose colored gl***es. No nose rubbing needed.

 

If you are intent on doing this project...which I think you could if it's what you really, really want .... remember, you don't want to put the time, effort and $$$ into a car project, ''if'' you find mid-way thru' it, ....that you are not able to finish it for whatever reason....better to start on something easier if you feel you can't find the determination 1/2 way thru it, of what is needed beyond your skill levels....a lot of guys get overwhelmed right in the middle of a build, running out of steam because of the uncertainties. I always tell people to make sure have the right frame of mind to attempt a build, from whatever level is required...otherwise, it will only cause a headache and leave you not wanting to finish it...losing the focus of why it was started in the first place....anyone can learn the skills along the way, but if it's not planned into the build and pre-evaluation, it can get out of control real fast---------- just my opinion

 

topher5150 where are you here in W. Mi.?

 

Grandville

 

I've tossed a few cars together. Every car is buildable but that car needs everything. If you know what your doing and have the tools that would be a time consuming and money consuming project.

I'd say try to find a car that is complete, relatively solid and at least yard drives. It'll still be a lot of work but you'll be able to break it down into managable tasks and get some instant gratification which is very motivating. I'd hate to see you get burnt out on a huge project.

 

My advise is to find one that is complete and needs less work,if you do not know too much it might get overwhelming and you will end up giving up. Save your money and find one that is drivable and do little things to it.

 

Well,******, that one's not got much rust on it at least.



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and as time p***es, you will be SO GLAD you did. Really.