New to forum and hot rods

[Mike P]

Welcome. The other members have pointed you in the right direction to get started and it does look finding one in your price range is definitely doable.

I kind of keyed in on this statement of yours "...I would want mine to be a real daily driver..." which slants my perspective somewhat.

Before you jump in with both feet I'll throw out a few thoughts for you.

Even with an updated suspension and brakes these cars often will not handle, ride, or stop as well as many of the new cars. Don’t get me wrong done properly they will do well but may not be what you are expecting. You might want to get a good test drive in the one you finally choose to buy prior to finalizing the sale and determine if it is really what you want.

The quality of the build should be should be the primary concern when you are looking at the car. This is a lot more involved than determining that the paint is shiny and the upholstery is nice. The mechanical aspects will determine if the car is fun or a nightmare money pit. There are a lot of nice looking cars out there that at best a cobbled together and in some cases downright dangerous. I’ve seen far too many recently purchased cars go thru my shop and others that were far more project cars than drivers when they came in. For the amount of money you are planning on spending, pay someone who is knowledgeable on modified cars to give it a complete inspection.

The amount and type of driving you will be doing should be a big factor when looking at the car. A big high compression engine with low gears and non-overdrive transmission is a lot of fun if you only take it out on Saturday night but you may not want to fill it up with premium fuel every 3 days if you’re driving it everyday.

Finally you may want to do a little bit of looking into insurance especially if you do use it as a daily driver. Many regular insurance companies will not provide full coverage on a vehicle that old. Stated value insurance policies are generally reasonable in price but often place restrictions on the total annual mileage, storage, and limit the use for things like taking it to work.

[markodom]

Wow that is alot of good info.

I should explain what I would use the car a little better than my orginal post. I would not be relying on it as my daily driver, but would want it to be built so I would be comfortable driving it to work a couple days per week. I like to go pretty hard when I'm having fun, a good example is my wife and I have taken our Harleys to Sturgis 3 times straight thru in one day and that is 1045 miles (best time is 14 hrs 45 min.). So this car would be like a Harley trip I could take my 5 and 12 yr old kids on.
(I think it is a law somewhere if you mention kid or grandkids it must be accompanied by pictures.)

[IMG][/IMG]

PS It looks like i already struck out on one of the cars in my second post. It sold this weekend to Tony Stewart at the Barrett Jackson auction.(knew I did like him for some reason). According to the B-J web site it went out of my price range anyways.


Thanks for the welcomes, looking forward to the day I can post pic of my ride.

Mark Odom