First here I would like to stop and say this guide is intended to help the average Joe or Jane that has always wanted a cool car. Weather it be a Hot 32 Vicky or a 911 porsche, they all have a place in my book. I have built or rebuilt over 300 cars from a 1964 Morgan ( thats a strange little hand built job that looks like a cross between a old MG A and a dusenberg but smaller) to a 28 ford model A leatherBack  from a 1993 fleetwood custom coupe to a Hot 34 Chevy, a tubbed 69 Camaro to a (one of my fav) blown  513 powerd 49 Ford panel truck. So Lots of experience with many different makes.

    I am a restorer / Hotrod builder with a personal 22 yrs experience. I Have seen alot of great cars done by home restorers and many more ugly money pits. I have had perspective customers show up at My shop with projects they just bought and were surprised at the cost of such a venture. They bought a car to build without any expert advise and assumed Its easy everyones doing it, That guy at the corner shop does it and he didn't even make it out of high school. I did make it out of high school but some of my best employees could not even spell employee.

  To this I first recomend  You need to find out what would your dream car be , (not) I found a great buy on a rambler convertible It would be a great first project.  My reason would be If you have a dream car and you arn't building it but you are doing something for experience You will get bored with all the work it takes.YES work, lots of it , and lets not forget the money. if you just buy the materials to do a decent paint job and you do all the work yourself it could cost from $450 - $3000 depending on type of primer, color and paint manufacture. You can get away with a cheap laquer primer from autozone but it does have shrinking problems and can crack after a few years in the heat. You could opt for the best primer on the market (  I will let you find out for yourself what that is I have a favorite and the guy in the next town has His also and it is different). Next color;  if its red it can cost up to $250 a quart and so on .. So I always ask are You SURE you want THIS car. Ive asked this MANY times  even if it ment loosing a job, better loose a job on a car than chase after a customer that has started something He won't finish.

 Next a REALISTIC financial plan. Yes a  financial plan, find out what you can afford, REALLY . Then figure out what you can do yourself. If you want a cherry 1970 Roadrunner but cant REALLY DO A GOOD PAINT JOB AND I MEAN A SHOW JOB  plan on buying a car that needs very little more than a paint job. Metal work and body work is the most important thing on a car. It will show poorly if done wrong .You also will not have the pride in it  if it is not G strait shiny car. This is the most expensive part of the job. Lets say you can buy a strait car for $4000 or a needs much metal work for $1500, buy the strait one. the metal repair can cost way more than $2500, ofcourse that depends on how bad and what You can do. I've built cars for customers that  have had $ 12,000 or more in metal and body work just to get to primer.

  At this point I would recomend finding a shop or individual that does metal repair to help evaluate weather you are buying a great project or a metal money pit. Thats not to say It can't be done but it can get very expensive. I will also say that I started out as a young guy loving cars and I did my own paint and body work. I  learned and liked to do it so much that I built a large business; thus a person with no experience  but the will and patience can do a great job. You just have to be patient.  well look for part 2 soon