Biggest piece of advice I can give is, for the very first car DON't build one from the ground up...........either start with mostly finished project or a car that is already done. I know that may come across as being negative and trying to discourage anyone from building their own car, but I think you have to know how to walk before you run.
Let me sound like practical old Dad here for a minute. Anyone who has completed a car from scratch will tell you it takes a lot of all the following:
1) A big place to do it. I have built cars on a dirt floored single car garage many years ago and it is no fun. Until the car is assembled it is laying all over the place and takes up a big piece of real estate. A two car garage or carport is at least the minimum space that can be considered comfortable.
2) Tools.........not just wrenches and screwdrivers, but tools to cut, weld, and fabricate steel into the shape and parts you want. Every new piece of equipment we buy becomes " how did we ever live without this one?" The right tools make the job easier, faster, and more professional looking. Right now we have way more money in our tools than in our cars, and there are still a lot of things I want badly.
3) Skills. Before you even think about engineering a car from nothing you need some basic mechanical and metal working skills. You need to understand WHY certain parts have to be installed in a certain way to give you the results you want. Especially in the early days of this rat rod craze we saw some very good examples of how NOT to build a car. Things like box wrenches used for steering arms, crow bars for draglinks, plumbers pipe fittings used for steering U joints, and welds that were simply goobered up on top of rusty metal. Thankfully most of that has gone away.
4) Patience.........it is going to take WAY longer to get your car together than you ever thought. You have to accept that and not get discouraged. My 27 took me 6 years to build, my Son's 30 is heading for 5 years and isn't done yet, etc.
5) Money..... junkyard scrounging and freebies only go so far. At some point you are going to have to buy some new parts and hardware and you will be amazed how much money you spend on bolts, nuts, sandpaper, saw blades, and stuff you didn't figure into the build. Every time we go to Lowes, Home Depot or Ace Hardware we drop between $ 25 and $100 on stuff that leaves the store in a very small bag.
Now, if you view those comments as negative, they aren't meant to be........simply meant them to be realistic. I have seen so many first time rodders get started with all this enthusiasm to build their dream car and then bail out because they found out they were in over their heads. I've bought a few cars from these guys for pennies on the dollar.
The reason I suggest saviing your money until you can buy something that is basically done or actually running is that in most cases you couldn't duplicate that car for the money he is selling it for. No one EVER gets out of a car all the money they dumped into building it. Look at some of the cars that sell for $ 20-$30,000 on Barrett Jackson. No question the guy spent much more than that building it.
So, to get back to my original suggestion, find a decent almost done or done car, make some improvements/ changes to make it your own, and use it as a learning experience and stepping stone to move on to the next car. No, that first car won't be your ultimate dream car, but it will be lots of fun and teach you a lot. If I would have done that 50 years ago when I started playing with these things I would have been on the road much faster and not wasted half the money I did on false starts and mistakes.
Don
