Your Sons First Car - What Did You Do?

My son is turning 16 and has been "shopping" for a car . He is a great kid, respects his Mom and I, works hard at school and overall takes care of his teenager "business stuffs" without issue.
Because of my passion/business he has always been around old cars and hot rod junk which he really digs. Yesterday he found a project 69 Mustang that would eat up every spare moment of his time beyond school, chores and baseball, which is fine because he has to earn whatever he gets and I like him working in the shop with me. But will the temptation to tear it up be to much for a 16 year old, even a really responsible one?

Thanks for your suggestions Hamber Daddy's.


UPDATE: After much thought and HAMB help this is what we came up with. I found this 70 with a 6 banger 3 speed.... IF he stays out of trouble we will build a V8 for it next year... Alot of work ahead of him but dove into the mice crap and spider webs like a kid on a mission! Latest color combo is - white with a flat black hood (better then last week yellow with stripes)


UPDATE 2: Finally complete and before the deadline.... Wanted to finish out the story with some pictures... Thanks everyone for putting up with my OT Dad excitement.

 

Maybe not if he has to help build it, He will know how much work it took to build. And will have more respect for it

 

I got a daughter. her first car was a 72 firebird. the car is still here and the engine is in my 36 now. she had a lot of fun with that firebird, taught her to drive a stick in it. Let him have an old car to mess with!

 

Whatever you do make them help you build it. Its the main reason I never wrecked my car in school, I knew how much work it was to fix it. I took great care of it(75 Trans Am) and learned a ton when I had to fix it. When I have kids and they are driving age, I'm going to make them build theirs too. It made me respect my car and drive it responsibly.

 

Im 16 and working on my 49 chevy, its been a great learning experience. Ive spent all my nights, weekends, and a couple B-days working. Ive learned that you can't rush anything and to take your time on everything. I'd rather be all greasy in the garage at 7am than all my friends still sleeping till noon. I know it will be very statisfying when its done and just teach him that it will take time, sometimes alot of time. It won't happen over night. I like knowing that i can fix my own stuff instead of taking it to a shop. Also teach him that if he breaks it down the road he fixes it, thats the way ive been taught and i wont just go beat on my truck when its done like some of the kids now a days do to cars that their parents give to them.

 

As a dad who's been through it twice, get him a car to build but get him something safe to drive around, at least for the first year. I wrapped my 67 GTX around a tree at 16 and I thought I was a good driver.

 

My son and I built him a 62 Impala when he was in high school. He helped throughout the whole project and it turned out really nice. He is 32 years old now and still has the car in great condition as well as a knock-down 69 Chev short wide pickup and a traditional 31 Model A sport coupe project.

 

I don't have any kids, so forgive me for butting in. My Dad bought me a 75 Dart for a first car. Rusty, but running. After a weekend it passed inspection. I loved that car and drove it for 4 years before we couldn't weld the torsion bar mounts anymore. I support 100% getting your boy something cool - only this; I spent plenty of time working on that old car. Learning tons. Swapped trannies, learned electrics, painted it, body work, etc. If he can't drive it to school on a regular basis, being "cool" might not be worth the effort to him. And like most red-blooded boys, he'll beat it. '69 mustangs should be bought later with his own money, know what I mean? Lots of cool cars out there in a lower price range that won't break your ( or his ) heart if something happens. Is it sacriledge if I mention fox bodies? and then theres always mopars....forgive the ramble.

 

I think it's important for them to know the value of the car that they have, and whats
involved to take car of one. We found a '95 Jeep Cherokee for my son that seems pretty
solid. He's been doing all the repairs on it. It's not an xpensive car but it should be good for him. God knows I wrecked more than my share when I was his age.

 

I gave my boy a 66 Pont 2+2 convertible I had to drive through high school hoping to spark an automotive interest.
He and his buddies had a blast through high school,but no interest in working on it and after 3 years it needed gone through so it got sold and a nice $1000 Taurus wagon got him through college.
He never got interested in cars, but graduated college, something I never did.

 

When my son starte driving I didn't want him to drive my vehicle because I remember the abuse I dished out on my dad's car. We got him a clean, loaded, high mileage Oldsmobile that spent most of it's life as a salesmans car. The GM 3800 was cheap to run, easy to work on and reliable as hell. It served him well for several years until he got through college and earned enough to buy somethiing more to his liking...

 

While he may only be 4 that gives us 10 years to get the 28 Closed Cab pickup done for him. Be fun to work as 3 generations on this together.

 

I don't have kids and today is a different world so this may not be applicable.
When I was 14 my dad gave me his DD, 68 Bonneville convertible 428 .
he said if you start working on this now you're going to have a very nice car by the time you're 16. It needed completely gone thru and rebuilt. He guided I did the work, it was a tremendous experience. He even watched me make mistakes then " that's exactly the reason I told you like this"

I babied that car and took very good care of it.

 

Well when I first started driving a got a beat up late model pickup from my grandfather. I drove it for two years, beat the shit out of it. I never really respected it. Once I sold it and had to pay for my own car and learned how to repair it when it broke, I still beat the ever living crap out of all of my past cars. I just pay for my tickets when I get them and fix them when they break.

Like 53 Hemi said I am a red blooded American and like if I can quote Ricky Bobby

"I wanna go fast"

Ive wrecked my share and been lucky enough to walk away from all of them; supported almost all of the counties in SC over the years.

Basically what it comes down to is. If my father had the know how, I would have loved nothing more than to rebuild an old piece of tin with him for my first car. I probably would still have it.

 

When I was 15 my dad bought me a 70 nova. This was 1993. The car had been in heated storage since 1972 and looked Like brand new. I had wanted s nova since I was 8 years old... Anyway he said I could have it if I saved my money and put power disc brakes on it so it would be safer. I think at that time the kit he wanted me to get was $2500. So what did I do. I saved up $1000 and bought an 84 Honda. Needless to say he was very dissapiunted and that mint nova sat on jackstands for the next ten years untill he gave it to a neighbor kid. Morale of the story, I was sixteen and wanted to get laid more and party than work on old cars. So my kid at fifteen will be given a not running hot rod of his choice and will hopefully choose to fix it and keep his dick in his pants.... But I have the feeling there will be a clapped out Honda in my driveway

 

I know I will get flamed, but I am thinking standard cab 4 cylinder, 5 speed 4x4 with lowering kit truck. Under powered, most other kids won't be borrowing his truck with the stadard tranny for lack of knowing how to drive one, 4 wheel drive to get around in the winters around here, lowered for better stability, and standard cab for no distractions from kids in the back seat. Think 4 cylinder GMC Syclone. By the way my first car was a 68 Camaro which I had over 10g of my own money in. I treated it with respect but still street raced the shit out of it. It only ran 13.70s at 105 but plenty for a 16 year old new driver.

 

My son worked his tail off pumping gas and saved the scratch to buy a 68 Mustang that had been sitting for 7 years. We worked on it together to freshen it up some for the road. Was not a show car-but was damn nice for a 15 year old who didn't have his licence yet. He treated that car like gold-He knew it was his dime when it broke. The upkeep eventually proved too much for a kid in school to afford and he sold it. Would not have traded that experience for the world-let your kid have the old car-but give him a hand with it-you'll both win.

 

My son bought a 88 s-10 pickup when he was 14, and we did a father/son project, splitting the cost 50/50. His plan was to have it ready for a daily driver when he turned 16. Well, life got in the way, girls, work, sports and I'm sure other things I dont need to know about. He did finish the truck eventualy, and got to drive it the first time, to his High School graduation. He's 24 now, and still has the truck.

 

i never had any children. but my father got a deal on a 61 2 dr biscyane, 235 3 sp. bad motor. cost me $60. my grandfather had a junkyard gave me a low milage 261 6. my father said you get it together and running and past inspection. took me 2 weeks. and no i did not beat it.

 

I still have a few years before it is a major worry but for my oldest I'm thinking a 1990's S-10 or regular cab Silverado would be a decent starting place. Drop it hard, wheel it, paint it, and drive the snot out of it. If he ends up loving it, then we might graduate on to something older.

Hell, a '95 will be 20 years old when he turns 15. This should be a cheap, dependable, relatively cool starting place for a 15 year old kid.

JH

 

Of course the temptation will be there, that goes without saying. But as he does the work and pays for it, that at least will give a moment of pause for him to think about what he is about to do. Now put a Boss 302, 4 wheel disc brakes, and a full cage in it. Yeah that will make it safer...

 

Careful man, I myself set out to "restore" exactly two cars between the ages of 15-17 and both got as far as being torn completely apart and then I said "Oh shit-I'm just a dumb kid with a part time job and no money, how am I gonna pay to put this thing back together"

Maybe your kid is some kind of exception, but most kids are long on ambition, and short on everything else.

I would get him something running and driving that he can just tinker with.

 

I have read all the replies. I appreciate everyone's experience's & opinion's that have responded. My son knows nothing comes without some sacrifice so thats not an issue. I know for myself what would have happened if my first car would have been something like that - instead of a primer grey 57 long bed pickup with a six and 3 on the tree..... but even with that I found my way to trouble....so?
Of course its a different time and my sons not me... I didnt know what a GPA was as a sophmore in high school... but I knew what pants Debbie Bruce was wearing that day to school!

 

AutoArt66, I was so thankful that my sons shared my passion for old cars I got both of them hot rod projects for their 16th B-day. They are now 28 and 22 and very active in our hobby. I would not trade our garage time for anything. They introduced me to the HAMB...

 

Bought mine a Honda Accord as a run about in
(American cars are not cheap here) and he helped
me with projects to learn the mechanical side of things.
Things turned out well and 20 years later, he is yet to crash a car.

All about respect I guess.

 

62 nova, mini tubbed with a ford 9" and a T.C.I. front clip. a snappy 355 and a turbo 350. he didnt want the typical import thing that most kids now a days wants so he saved his $ and bought this when he was in the 7th grade and got it on the road hhis sophmore year. most of the kids didnt know what to think of it when he rolled into school the first day it was on the road. it is still a work in progress like most other peoples and now that he is in college it is taking a little longer then he would like to finish it. all the body work is done just needs a little more block sanding and paint, its already jammed and interior painted. it was great working on it with him and he is pretty proud of it. here is a pic of it in frony of The Bucket of Blood Saloon in Verginia City during H.A.N.

 

I was looking for a 65-66 Mustang fastback when my son was 12 - 13 he always went with me, when he was old enough to drive he wanted a Mustang. We bought him a 67 coupe, fixed the rust and spotted it in, recovered the front seats, paid his insurance for him until he got tickets then he was on his own other than gas money. He is 40 and still has mustangs, 67 GT he just finished last year and a 2011 5.0 GT.

 

My oldest has not picked one out yet, but it will happen soon enough. My daughter, who is 8, already has hers, a '69 MGB convertible. She has the colors picked out. She will be turning the wrenches on it in the next year or so. My youngest wants the '87 Suburban I grew up in.

 

Let your son learn to work on cars & learn the responsibility. Great bonding time with his ol' man too. My son didn't want the 53 Chevy I was going to give. He found a basket case MG Midget instead. We did all the work together. Got it done for reasonable money. He learned a lot and turned out to be far better with a mig than I'll ever be. The car was fun and handled like a go kart. Plus it had no top end speed so I always felt safe (well... sorta). He eventually came around and sold the Midget in order to buy a nice 65 Nova which he had into college. ( I think he just wanted wheels with a back seat). He's now grown, makin' twice as much as dad, has a son of his own, and is doin' a rod of his own. KOOL!

 

16 year old is a tough call. The desire might be there but the attention span might not. Hard for a 16 year old to be patient enough to get thru a major rebuild imho. I tried to encourage my stepson to fix up an old car, like someone else said he was to busy chasing girls and parting. Turned his first 4 cars into junk by the time he was 20. Buy them, blow them up or wreck them, send it to the junkyard and start over. After the 4th one he ended up walking, I wasn't going to help him anymore, I really just gave up. He ended up buying a Toyota Supra from his sister with a rod hanging out of the block (she's hell on cars too!). Bought a junk yard motor for it and borrowed my shop to put it in. I refused to help more then that but after a few nights and weekends he got it running and somehow the light bulb went off, he had a lot more appreciation for cars after that. He drove the Supra 2 years and it was in much better shape when he sold it then it was when he got it. Now at 23 he bought my 66 F-100 as a daily driver and a 64 Ranchero that he's busting his a-- on doing a rotessory rebuild on. Been helping me with my cars for the past year, now wants to build hot rods full time.
Growing up around old cars might make them want them too but don't be to dissapointed if it takes a few years for them to really understand what it's all about.