Thread: Father Son Project..........NOT.....

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I guess that I have been blessed...sort of!

When my son was 14 and starting to think about cars I noticed neighbors and friends buying newer, shiney cars and trucks for their kids. I'm sure some of them put some sweat equity into them, but...

Anyway, being a gearhead (without much $$$) I came up with a deal for my son. If he would put his money ($600) and his spare time into the effort, we would find whatever kind of rig that my son liked and build it into something no one else has or perhaps has seen. The tail end of the deal was that after he graduated from HS if he went to Vocational School, Community College or College that we would buy him whatever type of rig that he wanted and we would keep the build.

So he found a '48 Chevy 5 window pu up in Friendsville, TN and we bought it and the trailer that it was on and brought it down to central florida. 16 months later he drove it too school. The first day he drove it we were outside watching him back it out of the garage, he'd done it thousands of time before, and watched him crease the front fender on the garage door jamb.

I freaked out, shook my head and went to work.

Now is when my son started to show his true colors. After school he went over to a friends house whose dad had some tools and knew how to use them. He beat out the crease, sanded and polished the garage door paint off of the truck and had the truck home and done by the time I got home.

So you know what he got when he graduated from HS? A pickup with air conditioning!

Later tried a similar deal with my daughter on the same truck which didn't work out so well, but at least she gave it the old college try.

My son is over 25 today and will probably never build a car again, but at least he did it once...And I have pictures!!!! Some with both of us in them!!!

Here is a shot of the '48 after the kids left and I rebuilt it again.

Originally Posted by Mr Blue

Barb,
Seems to me a place to stay and warm meals is all the payment your son should need. Crazy to think you have to pay for the help and adding your injury into the mix he should be there for you in my humble opinion.
Don Jr.

Yeah, what he said.

thanks tech. but i do not know what to do with him some days. he is a good kid but he seems to like to push my buttons. and there are days that i push back verbally. but when it comes to my car and him helping me it is a battle. so i figure out how i can do things by myself. when it is done and he wants to take it somewhere i am going to charge him for the privelege. then when he complains i am going to tell him that if he had helped me when i needed him the ride would be free. but since he charged me for the work i am returning the favor. and he will want to drive it as there will be nothing like the monte around here.

Originally Posted by jyardgirl

thanks tech. but i do not know what to do with him some days. he is a good kid but he seems to like to push my buttons. and there are days that i push back verbally. but when it comes to my car and him helping me it is a battle. so i figure out how i can do things by myself. when it is done and he wants to take it somewhere i am going to charge him for the privelege. then when he complains i am going to tell him that if he had helped me when i needed him the ride would be free. but since he charged me for the work i am returning the favor. and he will want to drive it as there will be nothing like the monte around here.

Just as long as it doesn't get wrapped around a phone pole or rip the side out of another vehicle. Been there, done that, just ask tech

as far as i have heard in my small town charlie is a excellent driver. he goes just below the speed limit and takes off at stop lights like he has some sense. now what he will do in the monte is yet to be seen.

Same story here,3 boys,3 girls.oldest (boy) just turned 36,youngest (boy) will turn 21 in August. I make all of the boys do their own repairs with my guidance although none of em are what you could call mechanics, but at least I think they could get by without having to pay a mechanic when I'm gone. None of em would have anything to do with going out to the shop to help me or learn. And every one of em when they started into their teens seemed to think I was the dumbest SOB on earth. But I look back to when I was a teen and remember I didn't want to hang with or help my Dad either, it just wasn't kewl. Back when they lived at home trying to get them to do something around the house that involved work was like pulling teeth,although now I could call em up to help with something and they would be right over, cept that youngest one whos still living @ home. He still requires a club to the head every once in a while. Far as the weed, it befugles the hell out of me why you can buy a 5th of whiskey, but go to jail over a joint.

Just wanted everyone to know I read all your words and understand. I know you can't force anything on em, I never tried, at least interests and such. Overall he's a good kid, maybe more responsible than I was at that age. And you never know in a few years he might be pestering me in the garage. My grandson, 2 next month, His son followes me around like a pup. Has to sit in the hot rod every nite. I wonder how much he will remember years from now. I guess it was my daughter, and it got me to thinking, too much, this morning and probably getting a little depressed. He used to come to the races with me, but due to NASCAR reg's couldn't get into the pits. I got him a race cart and he did pretty good. We had a fire in the shop and lost everything, or he might have raced alot longer. I know he has his own life and mistakes to make, and I can't do much. The harder you push, the harder they push. Oh well.
Too tired today, but I'll probably post some direct replies to your stories and comments tomorrow.

I'm down to my last hope......I have 4 daughters, none of them interested in the cars, except to drive and me to maintain......lol

I then had 4 grand daughters, none have shown an interest, although one is only 5 years old, so who knows?...2 years ago, the grandson came along...he seems to love his toy cars and trucks.......good sign.

My four kids only have interest in driving their cars and not working on them. They are spread out all over the country, all but one. So I am close to two of my grandchildren. I thought it would be my grandson as I've built the GTO for him. He's only 8 so it's mine till he graduates. Now it's looking like the 5 year old granddaughter has an interest. I'm hoping she still does later on. But that's alright if none of them do. Maybe in time.
I'm also hoping that nobody is blaming the catnip (weed) for the reasons why things are happening to their children. Maybe something else went wrong and they just have to get away from that. It's not the best thing in the world, but it's alot better for them than alcohol is. You can still maintain with it compare to drinking. Take it from someone who has been getting away from something for 40 years. Peace

Originally Posted by poncho62

I'm down to my last hope......I have 4 daughters, none of them interested in the cars, except to drive and me to maintain......lol

I then had 4 grand daughters, none have shown an interest, although one is only 5 years old, so who knows?...2 years ago, the grandson came along...he seems to love his toy cars and trucks.......good sign.

Look around the neighborhood. Maybe there's a kid, who's dad doesn't understand his love of cars. :-)

When I was just out of high school, my dad wired a guys garage for a welder. Dad came home and said this guy was building an old Ford or something. Dad had told him I was crazy about cars... and the guy said I could stop by to see it if I liked.

I spent the next couple years helping him to build his Max Wedge powered B/G Austin. It eventually it got an injected Hemi clutchflite, and would run on the record! :-) Car-maniacs of all ages will find each other!

Good thread - and yep, saw my kids in several of these posts and my stories would be a repeat of others. Two of the 4 like cars, the others - if it wont start, call for help. Right now, all are too busy pursuing careers and raising their own kids much as I had to while they were growing up as money and time were both short plus I traveled a lot.

I am on the son end of this. My dad (parents) never pushed anything on me. Quite the opposite actually. I remember growing up wanting to learn about cars, but never asked. By the time I was born my dad wasn't doing much with cars. The GTO had basically been parked and the '35 made the move from my grandparents summer place in NJ to our house in VA in '91, but only because my uncle was taking over the summer place year round. I remember sitting in the '35 several times and once wiping the whole car down with a paper towel in the garage because it was dirty and I wanted to do something on it.

My only advice (of course take into account I am about half as experienced as most of you ) is to feel out their interest to see if its there and if not, move on to something else you can share and maybe one day they will come around. I can only imagine how many miles the '35 would have if we had started when I wanted to way back when, but it took one of the worse times in my life to create one of the best. In 2004 I totalled my '97 Camaro SS. I had worked hard to pay most in cash and borrowed the rest from my partents. My dad made a joke about putting the engine in the '35 and a couple years later after graduating college we started fumbling through it all.

Thank you all for reminding me these are times I will never forget. Sometimes it's too easy to get mad along the way or not be happy with the progress, but I have to remember that it's all for fun and good memories

I guess the bottom line is that our job as Parents is to simply provide our kids with lots of love, good examples, a respect for others, a sense of self worth, and some life lessons so that they will become productive, law abiding, caring, and loving adults. Anything beyond that is gravy. We have to understand that although they came from us they are totally different and independant people.

Last Sunday I stopped at a restaurant to eat lunch on my way back from a swap meet and they sat me at a booth near a family with two young kids. Sometimes I wish they hadn't done that because as I get older misbehaved kids get to me more and more. However, this family sat there and conversed and interacted as if there were 4 adults there. The Mom and Dad had a pleasant conversation going on with the Son and Daughter, who were very well mannered. At the end of the meal I said "I hope you don't mind me saying it, but you have two very well mannered children." They thanked me and the Dad said "Yeah, but it's a struggle every day." I said "Sure, but it is a lot of fun too."

All I can offer as advice (coming from a Dad with two now grown 40 year olds) is that none of us Parents had any real training for this job, they didn't come with an instruction manual........we just do the best we know how. We also take the lessons our Parents taught us and use the good ones and reject the bad ones to apply to our own kids. There are going to be rough spots along the way, and some tense moments, but it all comes with the territory.

I wouldn't have traded it for all the 32 Fords in the world.




Don

very well said don. there are some things that my son and i do get along with each other doing. we seem to like most of the same movies. we fight good naturally over what radio station in the garage we get to play. we have active discussions on politics and religion. so i guess that we have a good relationship. as long as we are not working on cars.

I have my camaro and Jeff has his. We each work on our own cars (he does more than I do lately). We'll help each other when there's a bigger project to do. Jeff wants to work on his car this month (he's taking vacation days to do it) so we'll need to pull my car out, put it in the sign shop temporarily and run his car in the fab shop. I'll be helping him do some TIG welding (might even give him some TIG lessons). In return he's got to help give both spaces a thorough spring cleaning. In the summer when we go to the track we split driving duties in return for me hauling his car with my truck. When his rear end broke we split the cost for a 9". He didn't ask I offered because I was the one that broke it.
Jeff usually comes to me with car questions and & usually go to him with computer questions, it all comes out in the wash.

We do a lot of bench racing and telling each other what we plan to do with our respective rides. He is looking forward to getting my car to the track, that day will come.....someday.