Project for me and son and make a few quid
Discussion
My 15 year old son is planning to go into the garage/mechanic trade. He'll be looking for an apprenticeship next year.
Any ideas on a good project for him in the mean time. I'm handy with spanners, so I guess it'll be joint project
Ideally it would be something that we could turn small profit on - after all that's what a job is about.
I did consider building one of those Mx5 kits cars but the budgets added up and the re-sale was probably below the parts cost. I' thinking more mechanical than welding up an old midget of something. and nothing too challenging and long projects - I want to finish it!
Shed made me wonder about rebuilding a RX7....
Do do I just trawl through ebay for sometime with a failed MOT......
Any interesting thoughts?
Any ideas on a good project for him in the mean time. I'm handy with spanners, so I guess it'll be joint project
Ideally it would be something that we could turn small profit on - after all that's what a job is about.
I did consider building one of those Mx5 kits cars but the budgets added up and the re-sale was probably below the parts cost. I' thinking more mechanical than welding up an old midget of something. and nothing too challenging and long projects - I want to finish it!
Shed made me wonder about rebuilding a RX7....
Do do I just trawl through ebay for sometime with a failed MOT......
Any interesting thoughts?
How about another angle -
He's 15 so he'll be able to drive in a couple of years (or less depending how close to 16 he is) -
Why not buy something you can do-up and restore for him as a first car? Something he can learn to drive in etc. You probably wont "make" any money, but in the long term it should minimise the costs for a first time driver, and who knows, come sale time you might cover some of your outlay
He's 15 so he'll be able to drive in a couple of years (or less depending how close to 16 he is) -
Why not buy something you can do-up and restore for him as a first car? Something he can learn to drive in etc. You probably wont "make" any money, but in the long term it should minimise the costs for a first time driver, and who knows, come sale time you might cover some of your outlay
I'd go for a proper classic, something like a Morris Minor Traveller which is a basic car he can learn a host of skills rebuilding, he'd be able to drive it at the end (before you sell it) and parts aren't too expensive.
Might be worth flicking through some of the old Wheeler Dealer type programmes to see what's involved.
List of all the projects episodes with price of restoration and sale price are here!
Morris Minor Traveller example here
Decent restored ones go from anything from £8-16k!
Might be worth flicking through some of the old Wheeler Dealer type programmes to see what's involved.
List of all the projects episodes with price of restoration and sale price are here!
Morris Minor Traveller example here
Decent restored ones go from anything from £8-16k!
Edited by g7jhp on Friday 31st October 11:36
CallorFold said:
How about another angle -
He's 15 so he'll be able to drive in a couple of years (or less depending how close to 16 he is) -
Why not buy something you can do-up and restore for him as a first car? Something he can learn to drive in etc. You probably wont "make" any money, but in the long term it should minimise the costs for a first time driver, and who knows, come sale time you might cover some of your outlay
^ This. It's what I did, back in the '80s.He's 15 so he'll be able to drive in a couple of years (or less depending how close to 16 he is) -
Why not buy something you can do-up and restore for him as a first car? Something he can learn to drive in etc. You probably wont "make" any money, but in the long term it should minimise the costs for a first time driver, and who knows, come sale time you might cover some of your outlay
Not only will he have the pleasure of driving a car that he's rebuilt, but the theory goes that it'll help to temper some of the youthful exuberance, when he remembers the amount of work that went into it, so (probably!) reduce the likelihood of him smearing it over the scenery.
That theory didn't work with me, and that first car got wrapped around a dry-stone wall, a Volvo 740, a six-week old Golf... in separate incidents. And STILL it got sold in one, working, bit!
Another option would be to find some supermini type car that has been poorly modified/barried such that no-one else wants to buy it and then have the project of putting it back to standard to either drive youselves or sell on.
And you can sell the removed parts on ebay as the 'profit' part.
And you can sell the removed parts on ebay as the 'profit' part.
I'd restore an old Mini personally. Me and my Dad did one when I was 17, great fun, cracking little cars when running well and parts are readily available for just about anything, it'll give a broad range of experience too - the engine/transmission, interior work, body work/welding and you can replace things like the wiring loom/brake pipes ETC to get him into the more fiddly (but still fun) stuff.
I really want to do another, argh!
Values are solid too, we bought a shed for £300 in 2007 and a similar car now would be kicking the arse out of a grand.
I really want to do another, argh!
Values are solid too, we bought a shed for £300 in 2007 and a similar car now would be kicking the arse out of a grand.
I think any "old" car is going to need some welding so it might be worth looking at your local colleges to see if there are any evening classes he can do. I did one about 20 years ago - it was about 10 weeks long & you learned the basics of Arc, Tig (or Mig - I can't remember now) or gas. I really enjoyed it so ended up going back and doing all 3. Think I got a qualification of some sorts as well.
I'll throw my hat in with a Mk 2 Golf. Plenty of them, parts are easy to get hold of, mechanically tough but fairly easy to work on & don't seem too bad for rust etc.
If you did keep it at the end, you should be able to insure it for a 17-year old whereas I think you might struggle with something like an MX5 or an E30. Obviously don't get a GTi 16v.
I'll throw my hat in with a Mk 2 Golf. Plenty of them, parts are easy to get hold of, mechanically tough but fairly easy to work on & don't seem too bad for rust etc.
If you did keep it at the end, you should be able to insure it for a 17-year old whereas I think you might struggle with something like an MX5 or an E30. Obviously don't get a GTi 16v.
I know it's the standard answer on here but why not a mk1 mx5? Find one that's failed it's mot new brakes, exhaust, service the engine etc... You may have to go some basic welding but that will be a great skill for a new apprentice. Parts are cheap as chips you may not make much but it's an easy cheap car to start on.
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