My son does have a lot of work, sweat and tears in this car. Those of you who saw the threads the last 2 years saw him and his buddies build a lot of this car. Even so far as to primer it ready for paint and put 3 different engines in and out in and out.
I am sure that has a lot to do with his respect for the car.
And, we only paid $3000 for the car 2 years ago as a complete running 318 car.
By doing ALL the work ourselves, we have $8000 in it now as a sassy grass green, 440, full race 727, 3:91 sure grip, Hurst ratchet shifter, comp cams .525 lift cam, billboards, wing, new interior,frame connectors,side exhaust,rally hood. Best investment I ever made in father/son time.
Buy your teen a muscle car? DEFINITELY, but buy one that wont break the family money wise and make sure its one that turns them on cause its a lot of hard work and time spent, then let them work on it and do it their way.
Does he burn the tires? yeah. We live in a very small town, so nothing goes unnoticed.
All the cops (3 of them) know where this car lives.
One night a cop knocks on the door, when I answer, he asks "do you know where your son is in that piece of crap green car?" I know he,s a gear head deep inside.
I said, he's out cruising with his friends. The cop says: "yeah, I know I tried to pull him over and he eluded me". I had to give him some crap, so I says: how can you loose a bright green cuda in this small town, you can hear the exhaust 5 blocks away. He kinda smiled an said: "well some traffice got in the way" "I did not see him doing anything wrong, just wanted to talk to him and tell him to make sure and keep it safe" "so when he comes home, tell him I want to talk to him". I agreed totally, told him to scare him good. My son (16 years old at the time) drove the cuda down to the police station the next day on his own to talk to that officer. Pretty mature I would say. Honest to God true story.
