What is a good restoration car for a beginner?
There are a number of good, older cars that are suitable for a beginner’s restoration project. First of all, you will want to select a car for which a good number of parts are commercially available. The best car to select for a beginning restoration will most likely, therefore, be a domestic vehicle, and not, for example, a European or Japanese car that will be difficult to find spare parts for, and, generally speaking, more complex to disassemble and reassemble than is the typical American automobile. Good examples of cars to restore for which parts are commercially available are typically ‘Muscle Cars’ or ‘Pony Cars’ manufactured in America in the late 60’s, 70’s, and very early 80’s. Examples of this type of car include the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Barracuda, Plymouth Roadrunner, Pontiac Firebird, and the Pontiac GTO. Parts for all of these cars will be commercially available, and inexpensive compared to having to order in parts from overseas for an older Japanese or European-made car. Muscle and Pony cars are generally seen as being more desirable to own and more pleasurable to drive than more common vehicles available during the same time periods, and, again, will be easier to find parts for.
A typical restoration costs a great deal of money. Be ready to pay at least $20,000 USD for a restorable muscle or pony car, plus an additional $15,000 to $80,000 for the parts you will require to properly restore your automobile. You will also require a garage or covered area in which to keep your automobile while you restore it, as well as a variety of tools required to dissassemble and reassemble the vehicle. If you have no previous mechanical experience it is most likely better to have a professional restore your vehicle, which, depending on the condition of the car, will typically cost between $80,000 to $250,000. If you are determined to restore the vehicle on your own, it is best to purchase a manual for that particular model of car that will explain to you how to easily disassemble and resassemble the vehicle. Haynes manuals tend to be excellent for this purpose, as they are specifically aimed at readers who do not know much about cars or are not mechanically inclined.
Any way you choose to go, you will end up with an eye-catching ride! Restoring a car is an exciting venture, and, if you do it yourself, yields a great sense of accomplishment.
You may start off in a small car for a begineer. The above answers have indeed given good options as a learner car but these cars may not come cheap. There is a driving school in kentucky which uses the ford fiesta hatchback as a learner’s car and you can choose from hyundai, honda civics, peugeot, suzuki etc.
If you are planning to buy a bargain used car for a beginner, you can take a look at http://www.automotix.net/bargain_cars/for_sale.html which includes a plethora of such low cost cars as well.
There are lots of good cars for restoration. If you are a beginner you will probably want something that is easy to find parts for and get advice on, you may also want something cheap. A good car is the VW Beetle. There are so many other people out there with Beetles that it is fairly easy to find parts for it. There are a number of classic American muscle cars, Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros, but good examples of these can be expensive. Plymouth Dusters and Dodge Darts are often overlooked as restoration cars. But that is only if you want to go down the muscle car route. If you are more into European cars a Porsche 912 is an option. It looks like a 911 but has a smaller engine and is less complicated. Although a Porsche 914 is also an option. If you like Japanese cars then the Datsun/Nissan Z car is a good choice. There should be a number of choices for parts for the Z car so it should not be too difficult to restore. An example of a bad car would be one of my favorites, a Jaguar. These
