Or buy a complex 80’s Japanese classic with a windowed motor because it is “cheap” and then spend the next 15 years working on and occasionally driving it.
Find a car you like and figure out what you want to use it for. You discover you like RWD cars, and the 240sx sounds pretty sweet to you, plus you'd like to go drifting. Boom, the first two things covered.
From there, just drive it. If its driveable. I'd recommend starting with a car that works first, lol.
Become YouTube certified.. buy a cheap running driving beater and fix it up. Find easy mods to do online.. Ive had a 98 Mazda b2500(ranger) for 8 years and have turned every bolt on it at least once. Started with suspension mods, swapped the rear drum brake open diff 7.5" axle to a 8.8" disc brake axle w/ limited slip diff, sway bar. That lowered the rear 5"~ so I had to buy upper and lower control arms and lowering springs for the front so it matched. Various different sets of wheels and tires.. it was super slow but it handled so much better than stock. Then I turbo'd the stock engine, blew it up pretty much instantly. Threw some cheap forged internals in and went with a bigger turbo.. blew it up like 5x over the next few years. Ripped it all out sold off what was worth $$ and started ls swapping it. Learned so much, still learning! Hoping to finish the ls swap in the next couple months and daily drive it again. So much fun along the way and meet awesome people
This is the way. Start with basic maintenance and repairs, teaches basic skills and allows you to build your tool collection as needed. Then just keep taking on bigger repairs/upgrades.
Buy something you liked as a kid that has a solid body and start trying to fix or improve things and you’ll get into it and start doing your own research. Cars that are easy to work on with lots of aftermarket stuff like a jeep with the 4.0, foxbody mustang, non turbo Subarus or 1st and 2nd gen Miatas for example
Get a cheap car that runs but has simple issues, get a basic tool kit.
Use said toolkit to figure out and fix those issues. Find some friends who seem to know some things about cars, shout them some beers to help you out if you have no clue.
If you can’t find friends, YouTube is also your friend.
I also have a 64 chevelle that was passed down to me (full restoration project no where near done lol) and 2 motorcycles with one being a project and the other being a rider.
Buy car you like. Buy it mostly because how good it is looking in this specific color. Realize what a lemon you just bought. Double down and spend 3x the original purchase price to make it run including upgrades.
Youtube, look up the car you like and watch other people build it. Look for builders who are details and explain things. Cross reference different channels, look up how to’s and keep learning
It's difficult to do but find a running, simple car. I have an '87 Cutlass that runs. It is my 3rd Cutlass, so I'm familiar with them. But one reason I have one besides my love of g-bodys is that the car is mostly mechanical with basic electronics. I've read and watched a lot over the years but I know I need to just get my hands on it to really understand what I'm doing. With this running car, I can diagnose what isn't perfect while also seeing the car's systems operate. I'm learning as I go, but I've also got an Olds expert who owns a shop about 10 min from me for when things are beyond my abilities.
For me, it was a lot of self-teaching, trial-and-error, making friends at car meets, and youtube. Then I landed a job at a toyota dealer, learned a shit ton, then started attending trade school for auto repair.
I started working on my own bicycles at like 8, my own dirtbike at 14, then my first absolute shitbox car at 16. Mind you most of this under the watchful eye of my dad, making sure I wasn't fucking things up. Basically since the late 2000's it's been all YouTube, even working on dumb niche shit like a first Gen BMW mini, everything I've needed has been on YouTube.
Starting later in life with no knowledge I'd say buy something ridiculously common and easy to work on, like a civic or a Miata. Then do the basic maintenance it's going to need right off the bat, changing oil, replacing suspension components and other small things like that. When it's running and driving well look up the most common and easy mods to do and start there. This will be things like aftermarket intakes, exhausts, coil overs, upgrading sway bars etc. While some of that might sound complicated, it's actually pretty simple once you've got a bit of experience.
You can do almost everything you need on an early 00's jdm car with a $60 socket set and another $40 in pliers and screwdrivers. The one big thing I'll say you should buy being inexperienced and getting into it is torque wrenches, 1/4" and 3/8" at minimum, most stuff you need a bigger torque wrench for you can just Gutentight it and be fine.
I started real small. Customizing bicycles. Then minibikes. Then just putting wheels on my daily.
Next thing I know I've got a car on jack stands 5 years. Ooops
I started with simple maintenance things. I started to learn and recognize what the different parts of the car and engine are. Now on my 7th project and it is basically a complete restoration. Read a lot and watch a lot of how to videos.
You start watching the market. Make a list of things you want for your car and a budget. I wanted easy parts availability, v8, manual, rwd, car.
I ended up picking up another Mustang.
From there, start finding problems and researching how to fix them.
I started with hot wheels as soon as I got my grubby little hands on them, graduated to Legos, parents got me a subscription to Hot Rod magazine when I was 6 to help encourage me to read. They knew I was a car junkie already. Built model cars for many years, by the time I was 12, older friends had cars. I would help them out, auto shop 9-12th grade, certificate in auto from the local community college, worked outside the field for a few years then went professional at age 27. Wrenched for a living for 22 years. Got burned out and left last summer.
Where do you start now? Go to car meets, find people with like interests. Get to know them. Join a club for a make/model you like.
If you got a few hundred dollars to blow get something that's headed to the junk yard and dismantle it fastener by fastener and sell anything that might be of value if you want to.
Full send dude. Take it all apart in your garage and hide the wheels so you’re forced to learn. Otherwise the garage is unusable until you get it all put back together. No better way to learn than a wife yelling at you to spend time in the garage to fix that POS.
I'd recommend starting with the car you drive. A lot of "boring" 4 bangers are a joy to work on because parts are easy to get, things are easy to reach.
Buy a quality jack and jack stands, and a ratchet with a set of sockets.
Start with changing the oil on your car, then have a look at your service schedule in your owners manual (which is quite easy to find online for common cars). What else needs changing? Spark plugs are usually easy on inline engines.
You'll build confidence in your mechanical skills. Then you can get something more interesting.
And keep in mind some stuff is just better to get done professionally. Certain jobs are just too much of a hassle or require equipment too expensive to buy for just personal use.
Reading. Find a car you like, read more. Buy car, do oil changes. Change spark plugs. Drive. Learn how to do brakes. Drive.
Or buy a complex 80’s Japanese classic with a windowed motor because it is “cheap” and then spend the next 15 years working on and occasionally driving it.
Find a car you like and figure out what you want to use it for. You discover you like RWD cars, and the 240sx sounds pretty sweet to you, plus you'd like to go drifting. Boom, the first two things covered. From there, just drive it. If its driveable. I'd recommend starting with a car that works first, lol.
Become YouTube certified.. buy a cheap running driving beater and fix it up. Find easy mods to do online.. Ive had a 98 Mazda b2500(ranger) for 8 years and have turned every bolt on it at least once. Started with suspension mods, swapped the rear drum brake open diff 7.5" axle to a 8.8" disc brake axle w/ limited slip diff, sway bar. That lowered the rear 5"~ so I had to buy upper and lower control arms and lowering springs for the front so it matched. Various different sets of wheels and tires.. it was super slow but it handled so much better than stock. Then I turbo'd the stock engine, blew it up pretty much instantly. Threw some cheap forged internals in and went with a bigger turbo.. blew it up like 5x over the next few years. Ripped it all out sold off what was worth $$ and started ls swapping it. Learned so much, still learning! Hoping to finish the ls swap in the next couple months and daily drive it again. So much fun along the way and meet awesome people
This is the way. Start with basic maintenance and repairs, teaches basic skills and allows you to build your tool collection as needed. Then just keep taking on bigger repairs/upgrades.
Buy something you liked as a kid that has a solid body and start trying to fix or improve things and you’ll get into it and start doing your own research. Cars that are easy to work on with lots of aftermarket stuff like a jeep with the 4.0, foxbody mustang, non turbo Subarus or 1st and 2nd gen Miatas for example
Get a cheap car that runs but has simple issues, get a basic tool kit. Use said toolkit to figure out and fix those issues. Find some friends who seem to know some things about cars, shout them some beers to help you out if you have no clue. If you can’t find friends, YouTube is also your friend.
I started with the gambler 500… started as a $500 off road project, now I’m 12k deep lmao
I also have a 64 chevelle that was passed down to me (full restoration project no where near done lol) and 2 motorcycles with one being a project and the other being a rider.
Buy car you like. Buy it mostly because how good it is looking in this specific color. Realize what a lemon you just bought. Double down and spend 3x the original purchase price to make it run including upgrades.
Join a car club. Find a buddy and help out. You guys can swap help with each other
Youtube
Youtube, look up the car you like and watch other people build it. Look for builders who are details and explain things. Cross reference different channels, look up how to’s and keep learning
It's difficult to do but find a running, simple car. I have an '87 Cutlass that runs. It is my 3rd Cutlass, so I'm familiar with them. But one reason I have one besides my love of g-bodys is that the car is mostly mechanical with basic electronics. I've read and watched a lot over the years but I know I need to just get my hands on it to really understand what I'm doing. With this running car, I can diagnose what isn't perfect while also seeing the car's systems operate. I'm learning as I go, but I've also got an Olds expert who owns a shop about 10 min from me for when things are beyond my abilities.
For me, it was a lot of self-teaching, trial-and-error, making friends at car meets, and youtube. Then I landed a job at a toyota dealer, learned a shit ton, then started attending trade school for auto repair.
I started working on my own bicycles at like 8, my own dirtbike at 14, then my first absolute shitbox car at 16. Mind you most of this under the watchful eye of my dad, making sure I wasn't fucking things up. Basically since the late 2000's it's been all YouTube, even working on dumb niche shit like a first Gen BMW mini, everything I've needed has been on YouTube. Starting later in life with no knowledge I'd say buy something ridiculously common and easy to work on, like a civic or a Miata. Then do the basic maintenance it's going to need right off the bat, changing oil, replacing suspension components and other small things like that. When it's running and driving well look up the most common and easy mods to do and start there. This will be things like aftermarket intakes, exhausts, coil overs, upgrading sway bars etc. While some of that might sound complicated, it's actually pretty simple once you've got a bit of experience. You can do almost everything you need on an early 00's jdm car with a $60 socket set and another $40 in pliers and screwdrivers. The one big thing I'll say you should buy being inexperienced and getting into it is torque wrenches, 1/4" and 3/8" at minimum, most stuff you need a bigger torque wrench for you can just Gutentight it and be fine.
Find out what you want ti DO First!!! Then find the funnest option you can afford! Its all about Budget and Time!
I started real small. Customizing bicycles. Then minibikes. Then just putting wheels on my daily. Next thing I know I've got a car on jack stands 5 years. Ooops
I started with simple maintenance things. I started to learn and recognize what the different parts of the car and engine are. Now on my 7th project and it is basically a complete restoration. Read a lot and watch a lot of how to videos.
You start watching the market. Make a list of things you want for your car and a budget. I wanted easy parts availability, v8, manual, rwd, car. I ended up picking up another Mustang. From there, start finding problems and researching how to fix them.
I started with hot wheels as soon as I got my grubby little hands on them, graduated to Legos, parents got me a subscription to Hot Rod magazine when I was 6 to help encourage me to read. They knew I was a car junkie already. Built model cars for many years, by the time I was 12, older friends had cars. I would help them out, auto shop 9-12th grade, certificate in auto from the local community college, worked outside the field for a few years then went professional at age 27. Wrenched for a living for 22 years. Got burned out and left last summer. Where do you start now? Go to car meets, find people with like interests. Get to know them. Join a club for a make/model you like.
If you got a few hundred dollars to blow get something that's headed to the junk yard and dismantle it fastener by fastener and sell anything that might be of value if you want to.
Y O U T U B E
Full send dude. Take it all apart in your garage and hide the wheels so you’re forced to learn. Otherwise the garage is unusable until you get it all put back together. No better way to learn than a wife yelling at you to spend time in the garage to fix that POS.
I'd recommend starting with the car you drive. A lot of "boring" 4 bangers are a joy to work on because parts are easy to get, things are easy to reach. Buy a quality jack and jack stands, and a ratchet with a set of sockets. Start with changing the oil on your car, then have a look at your service schedule in your owners manual (which is quite easy to find online for common cars). What else needs changing? Spark plugs are usually easy on inline engines. You'll build confidence in your mechanical skills. Then you can get something more interesting. And keep in mind some stuff is just better to get done professionally. Certain jobs are just too much of a hassle or require equipment too expensive to buy for just personal use.