So my 9 year old wants a car!

My 9 year old has been wanting a real car to customize. He has a bunch of great ideas. He also want to learn to do metal work and weld! I very excited he is in to cars my 18 year old has no interest at all. I just got to keep him interested in the good old metal cars. It must be all the car shows we watch together. Any ideas on a cheap starter project I could get for him. I've been looking for the last couple of weeks. I did found a Crosley wagon but way over priced IMO. I'd like to keep it old, small & cheap!
KING

 

Get him a falcon. Fun little cars for not too expensive. Plus great on gas and if it gets totaled, oh well!

 

nah, get him a steel deuce coupe. they bolt together, and if it gets totalled, well...

i'd get him something you can flip quickly.... if i recall MY son's attention span, once the "shine" wore off, it became a dust collector.

 

man thats is great!! a new young gun to keep the wheels rollin.im happy for you.i have a grandson who loves mustangs.i dont where he picked that up from because we owned alot of cars but no mustangs, at the time. well i friend took on in for payment on some machine work he had done for a boy and wanted cash instead. sold it to me cheap.has a strong runnin 302 and body is great.just gotta sand and prime and paint. has a fair paint on it now but need alot better one.anyway the plan was to paint this car and sell it.grandson seen it and went nuts over it. would sit in the driver seat and make noises like vroom vroom lol.he was being a butt one day and i told him if he would behave i would give him this damn car. well i thought he just forget about it and i would end up sellin it anyway. no way.he dont forget shit.it now as been his car for 2 yrs and now hes tellin me it time to paint it.well for his 5th birthday i told him id have paint on it before next spring.happy boy now!!!!~ i gave it to him just after his 3rd birthday.he can pick out any yr. mustanf they ever made when he was 3.i know it sounds like bs,but its the truth.and he only likes old cars.not new. they are ugly he says. god i love this kid.now if he will stay interested in old iron this will be the best part of my life.!!!!

 

Get him a King Midget!!! When I was 10 I spotted a hot rod for sale, just couldn't get my parents to buy it for some reason....

 

Cool! I know the feeling of being excited that your boy is interested in cars. My seven year old boy spends lots of time looking through my old car mags and drawing cars. I gave him a 59 Biscayne 2-door sedan to work on (partly because he is interested and partly so I don't have to claim so many). I can't wait to work together on it.

 

I hate to say it but it makes sense (to me anyway)...get him an old vw bug...he can learn all the basics real cheap and if its a total disaster then its no biggy, the only bad part is an extra set of metric tools!

 

Good for you guys...LOL...this is great. 3, 5, 9 years old...awesome.

The influences can start very early. It sure did with me. This is my earliest memory of having an interest in hot rods.

When I was 3-4 years old, 1960-1961, we lived in a big two-story duplex. We lived on one side of the house, and the owners, Clarence and Alice Nedro, lived on the other side with their 3 teenaged boys and one girl. When the men were at work, my mother would often visit Mrs. Nedro...usually sitting at the kitchen table...playing cards, drinking coffe, and chatting...and I'd be there too. The Nedro boys were what we used to call "greasers"...black leather jackets, greased hair, ciggs in the t-shirt sleeve, etc. And old loud cars with big spots of primer on 'em. One day, as Mom and Mrs. Nedro visited, I heard a loud roar from outside. I went to the window to see. Alice's youngest son, Joe, and a couple of his friends were bent over the engine-bay of a late '40s Ford coupe, revvin' the crap outa the flathead. I clearly remember thinking it was so neat...wow. I also clearly remember my mom saying, "Ricky...get away from the window." I'm not sure why she said that, but I think it only helped to increase the mystic for me. Regardless...I swear that was the start of it...way back then. I was hooked.

During that same time period, during the warm months, I also enjoyed sitting outside on the porch steps on nice Sunday mornings, and watch the people arrive at the big old church across the street. It was like a ritual with me for a while. They'd line the street out front with their nice big 40s and 50s cars. Everybody dressed up...hats, veils, fancy gloves, etc.

 

My dad was not a car guy so I was on my own from the very beginning. Neither of my boys have any interest in anything other than basic transportion (boring!). I think a young boy showing signs of being the next gen hot rodder should be encouraged, schooled, and helped along...to a point. Let the boy earn some of it, I mean work for the cash it takes to buy, build, and modify. This is the best life lesson I ever learned from my dad, makes me appreciate what I have and not take it for granted.

 

That is awesome!

My nine year old took the tranny out of my daily vw with me just loosening the bolts and pointing the way.

It is truely fun to share things with them.

When the daily is done then we move onto fixing some of the PO issues on the Bel Air.

 

my 17 year old has been going to shows with me since he could walk. I told him he could have any car he could afford when he could pay for it himself. This fall at 16 he bought a 1965 Ford Galaxie with the money he makes working as a farm hand. He got permission at his high school to use it as his auto shop project and had a friend from School come get it with a trailer. I think I may have taught him right. He wants to build it as a Watson inspired cruiser.

 

My Dad got me a 30 Ford when I was 8. I'm now73 and loved every bit of it. I found out later he had a plan. If he got me a car, I would go crazy on it and leave the girls alone. It worked for a while, and I had a great time fixen and breaken and learnen. I still drive a 29 Pk Up daily. If your boy is really into cars, you won't need to wonder where he's at in the evening. Iceman

 

I bought my son a 1933 Chevy 5 window coupe in 1992 for a father son project.
He came out to the shop one night and told me " don't to put the gas tank behind the seat. That is were the stereo is going" and then walked back in the house. I sold it the next day.
I did buy it back a few years later for ME

 

i was 13 when i got my first father son car a vw bug its good 4 a kid ,parts are all over and cheep they have a ton of mags out which when i was a kid was the best part dreaming of all the things to do and last you have to work on them all the time so when he is ready for the hot rod or custom he will not let it rot away

 

I think it would be terrific for you to get him something to work on, especially if you are right there guiding and helping him. Both my Sons had projects way before they were old enough to drive and I never worried one second about them getting into drugs or any trouble........I knew where every penny they had was going. It taught them responsibility, planning, and saving up for something you want.

I started building cars when I was 11 and one time a neighbor commented to my Mom that we "really had a lot of old cars on our property." My Mom, bless her soul, came back with "Yes, but I know where he is every night."

Find out what kind of car turns your kid on (it may not be what you would like, but that is ok) and help him find it and fix it up. You will be thankful you did when he gets in his teens.



Don

 

My 9 year old was always helping me while building my roadster.
When he was 18 we built him his own roadster as a Father/son project.
The fun & skills that I taught him followed him through life as he is now 53.

His latest adventures & skills are evident at: www.americanbeautyboats.com

 

that's awesome! my dad's always told me he's glad I was into cars cause if it were up to my brother he would have been s.o.l.

my son is only 3 but we've been working on cars since he was born, so hopefully he'll be into them like we are...

 

Don't get me wrong...I love bugs. But for a "first car" I would lean toward a Falcon/Comet, Chevy II, Corvair, or even a Valiant/Lancer. The early 60's mini-Mopars ar so ugly they're cool. (Not meaning to offend anyone!) And a step up would be an early Tempest/F-85/Skylark.

My dad did the same for me at 14. He bought me a 46 Chevy pickup as my first car since I had shown interest in older trucks. It gave us something to work on together, and he knew it would keep me occupied and out of trouble. Seems to have worked out just as he planned....I still have the truck 35 years later, and I don't have a police record (discounting traffic violations, of course)!

 

Buy him a lawnmower...get it running and then let him earn a few bucks to buy a go-kart. He's only 9, cars a few years away. Its not likely he'll want to work on something for 6 years before he gets any enjoyment out of it...basic flathead knowledge, might come in handy down the road.

 

9 isn't to early to start learning the fun stuff. My 11 year old daughter has been in the garage with me on the Chevy since I started on it. Last weekend, she made the jump from practicing with the MIG on scrap to actually welding up a body brace for the car.

Between working on the Chevy with me, the car shows, and SOMEBODY giving her a ride in a lavender Olds convertible (no names, but her initials are DENISE), I think we just might end up with a real deal hot rod chick for life.

 

Wags 66 and I have alot in common, my dad didn't either, in fact he didn't uses wrench's at all, I was 9 when the chicken farmer down the road from our farm had a 31 coupe his boy had tore apart and he wouldn't sell it to me "to young" so I went back with my Red Ryder BB gun and shot out the windows, he and my dad were going to teach me a lesson, They made me buy the car, 50 bucks, towed it home behind the old 8N Ford tractor, Dec 12 1961, got it running when I was 12, flathead at 14, 312 at 16, 289 at 18, began a lifelong love affair with the Model A, Hot Rods aand the best teacher a boy could have, I'm close to 60 now and still going at it, and yes none of my kids (4) want anything to do with it (there loss), so encourage him I know it will keep him out of trouble, it did me.

 

My wife and I talked about it and have decided to have him wrench on the drag car we have. We plan on doing a refresh on the engine and do some bracket racing with. The new engine is in the planning stages rite now. That should keep him busy.
Brian