Great thread. Brings up som not too distant memories. I'm only 27 now, but My dad bought my 71 barracuda in 1974. Drove it till 1983 and parked it under a tree in his parents yard with many dents and dings. Slowly it deteriorated. he always kept it running, but hte transmission eventually quit. They bought their current (1st) home in 1986 and it had a garage. So they fired up the old barracuda and drive it about 2 miles to its new home. My dad weather all kinds of criticism from family members who tried to pressure him into selling the car. Once it got to it's new home, it sat undisturbed and burried in the tiny garage until 1994. By then it didn't run, if it did run, it woudln't have moved anyway. there were fist sized rust holes in the quarters, one fender, one floor pan and trunk. My dad, always the faithful one jokingly told me that if I could get it running and back on the road by the time I got my license, I could have it. that was all the push I needed. I had the car running with in a month. I did some first time body work and a home made pain job on it. Put in a salvaged automatic transmission, and made it somewhat roadworthy. The problem was I was still only 16. I had a whole year to go before I got to drive it. So I yanked the engine and rebuilt it. Replaced jsut about every mechanical part on the car including the brakes and front end. I learned everythig as i went, and when I had problems, I'd read up on it. I read articles in magazines and tried new I deas I came up with. If it ran better, great. If not, I put it back to the way it was. So once i got my license, it was in pretty good running condition. The body was nothing to be proud of, but atleast I had a cool car in highschool. I drove it for a year and a half, never once let it get dinged up. then I bought a new truck after graduation. I parked the car in the garage and went ot work on a serious restoration which is still in the making. I do things as I can afford them now, and I still learn as I go. I wish this site had been available to me back in 1995. You'll never know what is possible until you try. Buy a Factory Service manual to go with the car. The only thing I had for many years was an old Chiltons manual. Learn how the car works, and you'll begin to understand what components should be donig what. Good luck with it. On a side note, I have friend who was in a similar situation. He was a old car lover from birth. He had several news paper routes growin up and saved his pennies to buy a @#$GM@#$ muscle car. It was a 1967 Chevy Malibu. HIs dad had a concourse national show winner 57 bel air. He and his did worked long and hard on that car. Converted it from a 305 TH350 to a 350 700R4. It got 28mpg hwy and had a $10,000 paint job on it. It had power everything. the cut up a el-camino for its AC components. This was a nece car. He had it about a month, and crashed it into a fence going around a curve sideways. Bent up the frame and everything. His dad opened up his wallet again, and got the car fixed, but made him buy a different car for his daily driver.
