This is a great article.  The NA and NB Miatas are wonderful, but undervalued cars.  They are perfect for the novice home mechanic, because they are so beautifully designed and so wonderfully simple.  Hopefully, your son will learn the joys of driving something that he has repaired.   Have patience with the boy, Larry.  It may not be easy, because it takes a long time for a young boy to learn the patience and skills needed to be an adult and a mechanic.  But my father taught me how to build things and how to work with tools and I am forever grateful.  Hopefully, your son will be too. ... View more

I must add two more essential measuring tools.  One to measure the shank size of bolts and nuts in SAE & Metric.  The other is a thread pitch gauge.  I have thread pitch gauges for both metric and SAE, but use the metric gauge far more often.  ... View more

We purchased a VW Fox wagon for my wife in order to avoid running her E21 BMW in the winter salted roads of Upstate NY.  We found the Fox on a local used car lot.  It had been in some kind of front end collision, because the front clip was from another car and the Fox had been repainted.  I can't remember the asking price, but it was astonishingly cheap.   We used the car for two years before giving it to her son.  It handled well in snow and never broke.  It was easy to service and held up very well.  But while it was fun to drive in the beginning, it began to feel like an incredibly BORING car over time.  Certainly not a car that you would want to take on an interstate trip.  ... View more

This beautifully written story takes me back 20 years to the deaths of my own parents.  They died 6 weeks apart.  Like Sam, I was young and felt so much of my own life ahead of me.  Yet I knew that something that had always been, would never be again.    We knew that our mother would die many months ahead of the fact and that our father would never survive the loss.  After their passing, everything still seemed much the same, yet everything was different.  This story reminded me of those feelings.    Please accept my sincere regrets for your loss. ... View more

Kyle is a very thoughtful and intelligent writer.  I always enjoy his columns and they often evoke a reaction in me.  In this column, he writes about the pros and cons of vintage car ownership, as if it's a choice.  For me, it wasn't.  From my very earliest recollections, I have been a car fanatic.  There was no alternative path for me.  It was always going to be cars and motorcycles.  And because I wasn't born into a rich family, I always lusted for the cars in the back row of the used car lots.   I was raised in a working class trades family.  Everyone in my family worked with their hands.  So if I was going to love cars, I was also going to work on them myself.  There are some pros and cons about that.    I wasn't raised to wear a suit, white shirt and tie to work, but somehow that happened.  I can't tell you how many professional meetings I attended on Monday mornings, where it was clear that I was the only one who had been working on greasy cars all weekend.  I was often embarrassed by that grease that just wouldn't come off my fingers.  One of the cons of classic car ownership is that class thing.  Some people simply look down upon those who get their hands dirty.   That is even true among some members of the car community.  This next comment is going to piss some people off, but when I was a member of my local Porsche club, there was a very distinct sense of awe mixed with contempt by some of the members when they considered those (few) of us who worked on our own cars.    In many ways, it's a lot easier or at least more natural to own a classic if you can rebuild it yourself.  It gets expensive and frustrating when you have to rely upon someone else to fix that old machine in your garage.  And driving a car that you have restored has to be one of the most satisfying things that I can think of.  It takes a lot of skill, discipline and determination to tear apart a car and get it back together again.   Restoration of old cars gives us all a little more self reliance in a complicated world.  For me, the Pros far exceed the Cons.  Thanks for your article, Kyle! ... View more

I own a 1987 BMW 325IS and a 1988 K75S motorcycle.  I see the similarities between the two.  Both are light, have silky smooth acceleration, great handling and braking.  Both have high quality components and are relatively easy to service and repair.  Both are great fun to drive or ride. ... View more

This is a great article, Rob! I have been there. I am into German cars from the 1980's now, but spent decades restoring A body MOPARs in my less affluent youth. Like you, I dragged parts cars home, scavenged all of the regional pick & pull yards and saved all of the parts that I thought I might someday need. The inevitable day arrived when it was time to thin out the pack. Like you, I spent hours cleaning up and separating the wheat from the chaff. Although old Dart and Barracuda parts aren't as desirable as BMW stuff, I had some very rare and NOS parts. I had NOS front fenders, early disc brake systems, fast ratio steering boxes, four speed transmissions with Hurst shifters, early Formula S and high performance parts galore. I packed it all up in my pick up and U-Haul trailer and drove down to Chryslers at Carlisle. My wife and I spent the weekend in the hot sun and sold what we could. Before heading home, I carried away good used fenders, dropped them off in other booths and ran away. When I got home, I calculated my take from the sales and subtracted the cost of gas, rental trailer, nasty hotel, tolls and food. I hardly broke even. I would have done better by taking it all to the local junk yard. ... View more

Perhaps I can add a couple of additional reasons why subtle modifications make more sense than going radical. The first is that after market parts often don't fit properly. How many times have you purchased an exhaust header and had it bolt in without requiring modifications? How many times have you installed an after market anti-sway bar that didn't fit properly? If you are experienced with fabrication, many after market parts are a starting point to get to the upgrade that you want. Another reason is that you better keep very careful records of your upgrades. Years later when you're rebuilding that system again, it becomes exceedingly difficult if you didn't carefully record the parts that aren't OEM to the car.  Maintaining good records of after market upgrades is also a big favor for the next owner.  For example, I installed front disc brakes and dual master cylinder in a 65 Dodge Dart.  It required me to source rear brake cylinders from from an early '70's Dodge half ton truck for brake proportioning.  Without good records, the next owner might have a major headache trying to identify the source of the custom brake cylinders.  The more radical the customization, the more complicated long term maintenance can become.  ... View more

Kyle is right on!  If you watch Bring A Trailer, you will see Resto-Mod Broncos with Coyote engines that are often selling for over $100K.  What are people going to do with these trucks?  They are often heavily modified in ways that make them useless.  They have too much horsepower for something that sits up so high.  The high center of gravity doesn't make them better at off roading.  They will still get stuck in sand, snow or mud as soon as the differentials are buried.  They will be dangerous on the road with all that horsepower and high center of gravity.  The original Bronco design was superior by far, although not as flashy.  ... View more

Kyle, sometimes it helps to step back and redefine the problem.  Maybe the problem is simply that your garage is too small.  I've expanded my garage space twice over the years, which has often solved my problems.  The real problem, is that any garage that you build or acquire will be too small in three years.  Science has proven that to be true.   However, you have empathy from me.  I have five cars and three motorcycles and only four of them are running at the moment.  One of my cars is a Miata, which always runs.  Another is a non-running E30 BMW that I spent 150 hours and lots of money restoring just a couple of summers ago.  It's a Motronics problem and I'm having trouble getting up the energy to start the diagnostic process.  But I'm many years older than Kyle and tire easily.   I propose two symptoms of automotive masochism,  although there certainly are more. 1. If you buy anything old and British.  If you are young, the purchase might be simple inexperience.  If you are old enough to know better, it's automotive masochism ( or AM, as it's now called). 2. If you buy a car, truck or motorcycle thru the internet.  Every single car or motorcycle that I have purchased thru the internet has arrived in much worse condition that what was described.  I live up north in snow and salt country, so if I want something that's rust free, I need to get it out of the south.  Whenever I buy some vehicle from an internet seller, I now fully expect to get screwed.  But it's rust free.   Because I'm old and wise now, I determined only to buy very high quality cars that other people have spent too much money restoring.  But when I buy them over the internet, I end up paying for a restored car and then having to spend a couple of summers rebuilding them anyway.  I might have AM, but my wife has another name for it.       ... View more

I owned a '99 Tacoma that was very much like Aaron's.  They are FANTASTIC little trucks.  They almost never break and are very easy to service.  Just don't forget to grease the universal joints on the drive shafts.  Almost no one thinks to do that job.  Upstate New York salted roads finally did mine in.  Now I own a 2014 Tacoma, but it isn't nearly as nice.  The new version has all sorts of electronic features that no one needs and is missing some features (like intermittent wipers), that everyone needs.  It's porky, ugly and slow.  So, hang onto your pretty '98 and enjoy its simplicity.   Second point....The New York State inspection is very stringent.  I own a 2003 Miata that is also a wonderful vehicle.  But if I unhook the battery, it takes thousands of miles for the intermittent monitors on my emission control system to set.  No code, no check engine light and the car still runs beautifully.  But an OBD II scanner will show that the monitors aren't ready.  The car has been back at the dealership and at numerous repair shops after failing the state inspection, which requires that no more than two intermittent monitors can be "not ready".   No one can say why this car takes so long for the monitors to set properly, but they eventually do.  Unfortunately, if something happens to cause the car to lose battery power prior to the yearly inspection, I will have to pay up to $450 to a mechanic to look for a solution.  Only then will the state issue a special waiver for me to obtain an inspection sticker.  If I lived a few miles south in Pennsylvania, it wouldn't be a problem.     ... View more

@qualicas  makes an interesting point that if you buy the better car, you end up doing much of the restoration anyway.  I kind of agree.  But it's important to note, that good paint on an old car saves you about $10K in restoration cost.  That's what a repaint costs today.  You can do a garage job, but it will never be the same as a repaint done in a paint booth.  I've repainted a number of cars in my garage.  Orange peel and bugs in the clear coat are signature characteristics of my paint work.  If the leather interior on a BMW or Mercedes is still in good shape, that will safe you between $3K and $6K for rebuilt leather seats.  But qualicas is correct that most 30 year old cars normally need a lot of work.  All of the rubber bushings in the suspension on my 300CE were shot.  Most rubber bushings on a 30 year old Mercedes will probably be past their prime.    Parts for Mercedes Benz are incredibly expensive.  I reduced my costs by avoiding Mercedes parts in favor of OEM suppliers to the greatest extent possible.  Bosch, Bilstien, Febi, Lemfoerder, Meyle all make Mercedes parts for about half the price of Mercedes.  But the costs still add up.  It's possible that Mercedes aficionados may reject a car that hasn't been restored with genuine MB parts, when it's time to sell.  But a beautiful MB 300CE just sold for a little over $6K on Bring A Trailer last week.  So, it that's the going price, I wouldn't be selling my car anytime soon.  It's a great driving car, anyway.  So, I have no desire to sell it. ... View more

I don't know......I used to believe that the best way to obtain the car of my dreams was to buy a basket case and to rebuild it.  I also believed that my sweat equity would deliver a great car for less.  But time after time, I have proven myself wrong.    That is especially true with German cars.  I currently own an '87 325is and an '88 Mercedes 300CE that were purchased needing restoration.  Both were straight, rust free cars with basically good (but leaking and neglected ) engines.  Both had drive lines that were good, but needing service.  Both were neglected, but not abused.  Yet, by the time I had invested 100 to 200 hours of labor, my parts costs escalated the total price way above what I could have purchased a better quality car for.  I now have about $30K in my beautiful 325is and $25K in my 300CE.  I could buy cars that are almost as nice for far less.   Granted, my cars are fully reconditioned and I have paid attention to all of the details.  That means new suspension, brakes, leather interiors and repaint.  It means that every rubber or plastic part that I removed was also replaced (when available).  I also have an intimate knowledge of my cars that only comes with tearing them apart and putting them back together again.  However, it's not a good way to save money on the car of your dreams. ... View more

While I'm on the subject, allow me to rant some more about lessons that new home mechanics might expect to learn. Some days you will get into a project that simply wouldn't go well. The Karma is bad. Things aren't going right. The seasoned mechanic knows when to stand up, pick up his tools, wipe them off and put them back in their proper place. It's then time to clean up the work space, turn out the lights and close the garage door.  Sometimes struggling on simply doesn't result in progress.  Tomorrow the job will go better.  This is what the experienced home mechanic has learned. ... View more

One more comment, If I may.....If you are a new home mechanic, you will make mistakes. You will break things.  You will screw stuff up in tearing things apart and in putting things back together.  Just about everything can eventually be fixed, anyway.  The mistakes are learning experiences.  Don't be afraid to screw up.  Even experienced home mechanics find that car repair can be two steps forward and one step back.  Most old men who have spent their lives restoring cars have many stories of mistakes and setbacks.  It's part of the hobby; not something to be afraid of. ... View more

There are some excellent comments and suggestions listed above.  I began working on cars in the early 1970's.  Back then cars were simple.  But more importantly, a home mechanic could buy a basic tool kit and service manual for under $50.  You needed a 3/8 and 1/4 drive socket set, a flex bar torque wrench, screw drivers, feeler gauge, pliers, timing light, duel meter and a tool box.  With a little more than that, you could perform much of the service on your car.  Now, a young person will need far more in the way of tools to maintain many of today's cars.  That is probably a major obstacle for young people today.     I would like to add a few more recommendations.  1. Purchase a car that is easy to work on.  Not every desirable car in good condition should be a candidate for the new home mechanic.  An NA or NB Miata is both simple, dependable and fun to drive.  A Miata is an excellent car to learn mechanics.  An E21 BMW is also an easy car to maintain.  They were the first 3 series cars.  German cars built after 1990 become far more complicated and difficult to repair.  Both the BMW 320i and the Miata tend to be inexpensive to purchase. 2.  When I first started rebuilding cars, I couldn't afford highly desirable cars.  I sometimes encountered car snobs who were smug about being better mechanics and owning better cars.  You would often find these people in speed shops.  Some car clubs and automobile web sites suffer from the same "I know more than you" snobbery.  Avoid them, whenever possible.  Find supportive groups of car friends.  It helps to repair cars with other guys.  You can work on each other's stuff and learn from each other.  Volunteer to help other people work on their cars.  You will learn from those experiences. 3. Get the service manual for your car.  I often buy two different manuals for my cars, just in case I don't understand one, I can check the second.  Also, You Tube offers videos on car repairs that can be very insightful.  Do your reading and research before starting a job for the first time. ... View more

When the first Taurus came out in the 1980's, I was too poor to afford one.  But I rented them when I traveled interstate to visit family.  Hertz rented 3.8 liter Taurus LX sedans and I would put 2,000 miles on one in just a few days.  $25 per day with unlimited miles.  At the time I owned an old Land Cruiser and a V8 Dodge Dart, so the Taurus was incredible luxury for me.  It had cruise, air, a stereo and comfortable seats.  They were able to cruise at 70+ miles per hour.  Taurus's are much maligned today, but I felt very special driving them back then.  The "jelly bean" body style was revolutionary and impacted other brands.  Body styles quickly changed from boxy to rounded in response to the Taurus's popularity.   As soon as they became affordable on the used car market, I bought my first one; a 1989 3 liter GL.  I've owned seven of them in total and every one was a great car.  Some people will rant about the 3.8 liter head gaskets or the weak AXOD transmissions, but we never had any trouble with any of them despite over 700K Taurus/Sable miles.  Diligent service is probably why.    A few years ago, I began looking for another old Taurus.  I wanted an SHO, but didn't want to change the timing belt in that tight engine compartment.  Working on a 3.8 is hard enough.  I ended up with a 1992 3.8 LX with four wheel disc brakes and the premium sound system.  It was a one owner car and the first owner clearly loved the car.  I think the second generation body style is gorgeous.  I also own a 300CE Mercedes, an NB Miata and an E30 BMW,  so I'm not only attracted to cars that no one else likes. ... View more

I owned a '71 Land Cruiser for about 18 years.  I bought it in 1979 and the floors had already rusted out of it.  But it was still a lot better than the CJ Jeeps of the time.  I used it for many years as my Upstate New York winter vehicle.  Back then, I was still storing my favorite summer cars during the winter months.  Every September, I would pull the Land Cruiser out of storage and begin rebuilding it for the upcoming winter.   They were tough vehicles and I loved mine.  But they were anything but upscale or luxurious.  Even with a Man-A-Fre exhaust header, the thing would SCREAM at anything over 55 mph.  By the time I sold it, the thing had dozens of metal patches and plates welded onto the body.  They didn't handle salt very well, but went thru snow and mud with ease.  I still miss mine, but don't know what I would do with it if I still had one. ... View more

I have a 1971 BMW with over 100,000 miles on it.  I've owned it for 25 years this August and it would make it from NY to California today without a doubt.  I wouldn't, though. ... View more

I've restored a couple of SOHC CB 750s.  It's important to note that Honda parts are very expensive.  To do a proper restoration, you often have to buy a lot of fasteners and they can really add up the cost.  Often the Philips head screws on old Japanese bikes are blown out, because people didn't realize they are actually Japanese Industrial Standard heads, which are different from Phillips.  Finally, a CB 750 exhaust system will set you back well over a thousand dollars today.  You can easily sink $7K to $8K in a CB750 to make it a #2 bike.   Twenty years ago, I purchased a K5 for $750 that was in fair shape.  I have $8K in it today.   Despite their advanced design in the 70's, they never handled all that well and despite the disc brake up front, the caliper needs regular attention or they wouldn't stop that well, either.  I prefer to ride my BMW R75. ... View more

Sam, you should have talked to your father before buying a British bike. You always love them in the beginning. After that, you go into the "I'm going to get it running again" phase. Then you sell it to someone who will love it in the beginning..........get how the cycle goes? Because I'm an old man who grew up riding British bikes, I've owned a bunch of them and experienced the love and exasperation they offer. I hope that you own whitworth tools. I sold mine off a few years ago, so that I would no longer be tempted to buy anything old and British ever again. Just the same, I will still cross the street to admire a British bike or sports car. You never get over having put your hopes on one. But they always let you down in the end. Now I ride German bikes. Old German cars, too. Good luck to you. Owning a British bike will give you something to talk and write about for many years to come. I have a lot of British bike stories. All of them are about how terrible they are. Just don't try to take it too far from home. ... View more

Actually, there are numerous collectable cars with 6 cylinders.  Porsche makes a car called the 911.  There is another car called the Mercedes SL300, which is worth some money.  Some very desirable BMWs have in-line sixes.  The Datsun 240Z is growing in value.  One problem is that American car companies don't know how to make desirable 6 cylinder cars.  If it's not an 8, American companies can't do it right. ... View more

I'm with you!! Rebuilding the front seats on an old car or truck is a must. ... View more

I really like your truck, Kyle...and I like what you are doing.  Vehicles from the '80's & '90's are very cool.  They are still fairly analog compared to today's high tech stuff, while being dependable and fun to drive.  When I find a car or bike that I like, I tend to keep it for many years.  As with Kyle, all of the details on my vehicles must be attended to over time.    I currently own cars from the late '80's thru early 21st Century.  The rubber and plastic parts on these cars are starting to get old, so whenever I'm servicing or repairing them, I replace all of the rubber and plastic parts that are still available.   The one downfall of the obsessive attention to detail is when the home mechanic gets too deep into a project to get out.  One of my best wrenching friends suffers from this.  He is a much better mechanic than me.  He is an excellent engine rebuilder.  But when he buys a car, he may tear it completely apart and never get around to putting it back together.  The little details needing attention will bother him so much, that he feels a need to address it all at once.   I attack a restoration in stages.  I will rebuild the front end before rebuilding the rear.  I take one section apart, restore, reassemble and move on to a new section.  A restoration might take two years or more.  I don't attempt to attack all of the work needing to be done at once.  Kyle appears to do the same thing.  He seems to obsess over one area at a time. ... View more

I owned a 1996 Porsche 911 (993) that was both wonderful and terrible.  It was a stunningly beautiful car.  It melted my heart to look at it in my driveway.  The interior was also beautiful, with rich black leather.  It was scary fast and could do 60 mph in first gear with 5 more gears to go.  It handled much better than earlier 911s. Here's the bad part........first it was that the car was very mechanic unfriendly.  It was difficult to perform the most simple tasks that should be easy.  It seemed to be designed to be difficult to service, unlike most German cars from the 1980's. The 993 Porsche had a strange mix of crude technology.  It had two distributors that were synchronized with a little rubber belt.  You had to remove part of the exhaust system to change the spark plugs.   Then there was the Porsche security system.  It was inflexible and required your subservience.  You followed the rules or paid the price.  Every time that you turned the car off and removed the key, you had to lock and unlock the car before restarting.  The car had to be locked after you shut it off.  In your drive way, in your garage, everywhere.  If you failed to follow the sequence, lights might flash and the horn might blow.     I kept the car for less than a year.  ... View more

Dear Kyle: If you ever dare to own an old British motorcycle, it might cause you to better appreciate Italians.  I have owned a number of Triumphs and BSAs over the years.  I never fully realized how awful BSAs were until I rebuilt an A65 vertical twin.  Now that I've seen the insides of one, I know why you can't keep them running. ... View more