8 Reasons to Buy a Project Car

I truly believe that most people have the means to save enough money to buy a project car, even if it may be molasses slow. Not the car, I mean building it. It took me a few months to get the $350 I used to buy my first Lexus LS400 - a sad, crashed car that I wasted a ton of money on little by little.

Lexi the First. Her spirit lives on in the 1996 in the form of a part I moved.

But by the time that car died, I had found another LS400 for... You guessed it... $350. I had that saved up for a timing belt change (good thing I later did it on this new 1996) so I used it to register the car instead, junked the first lemon which was a 1995, and used that money to patch up a misfire on the new car.

Now, I just haven't had a lot of money to spend on anything other than bills in a long time so I fixed the car in steps. I did the spark plugs first, then I got the timing belt and water pump done because I had bought the whole kit before and the belt on this car was going out aswell. This car is called Lexi II - an homage to the original car - by the way.

Next thing I did, still having a random misfire issue (I talked about this in my Phase 1 article), was change out the fuel pump followed by the spark plug wires. That eliminated the misfire. I noticed there was corrosion on a couple contacts of the distributor caps. If I get similar symptoms in the future - and rarely, it does seem to change idle for a second - I have a new set to change it out to.

I invested about $3,000 into Lexi, the first car. Was it worth it? I drove it more than a year and I developed my skills from barely being able to do brakes to, if I really needed to do it, a timing belt now. That money was completely well spent. I learned so much and not only about cars in general but the LS400 specifically.

Lexi the Second in her current state at the time of this article. Brings a lot of joy.

This is how, thank God, I was able to find a worthy LS400 to invest money into. You see, just from driving the car in the parking lot, I knew the issues this car had were minor. My initial guess ended up being the actual problem. So I was very happy with that. The actual symptoms were bad. Bad enough to probably make everyone else that looked at the car run far away, leaving it for me. Thanks.

Total investment to get a well-driving LS400? Don't forget the things I've done to it already. About $1,250.

So far, how many reasons is that?

1. I learned to work on cars.

2. I learned what to look for in cars I'm buying (potentially leading to a career flipping cars for anybody - you can see how that's a positive).

3. I got my dream car - and this is no lie, that the LS400 has been one of my top if not top dream cars since I noticed it 10 years ago.

4. I gained confidence in myself. This is a strong experience in life - to know you can achieve something, such as rebuild a car, that you didn't think you ever could.

5. Personally, even though I knew this already, going through this experience made me appreciate the things I have that I truly need yet I retained the opinion that we shouldn't be attached to things. For me and my wife, however, this car is our lifeline as far as getting to work and everywhere else so it has a certain special value unlike your average iPad.

I was sitting there, trying to think of a car I could write about, when I realized that I wanted to share something different today. I hope to encourage you in this hobby because it is healthy. There are more reasons.

6. The closest times I've had with my own pops was going to rallycross a 1989 BMW 325iX. It can be a bonding experience. If you're a father, please teach your son to work on cars. It's a necessity - at least the basics.

Let me take this time to bring up the fact that a project car doesn't have to be a restoration project or whatever. You can build a rallycross or autocross car, just a fast car for the street, a VIP car, drift car, whatever man. It's a project. Decide what kind of car you actually want and I suppose your ingenuity and finances will determine how fast you get it on the road.

Don't forget that you can always have one that drives that you work on occasionally. This doesn't have to be a roller - daily drive a Celica or something. Just not the newest one...

7. You work outside. You move around and expend some energy while at the same time using your mind. You're thinking about what you're working on, learning (you're always learning because you're always getting better), and performing something physical. Why do you think mechanics have Popeye forearms? It also clears your mind which is helpful for anxiety, for one.

8. Because it's fun. Building the car you want without giving a crap about what others think (be sensible... no ricing...) is rewarding in and of itself. You will probably get looks and questions and probably meet people.

And we all know cruising is fun and so is... Hauling a$#! Thank you for reading dear fans. Please be safe. Please don't drive wreckless - I only have about 14 readers, I need you.