Project Suggestions for a Newbie

I've been a vw guy since I had a license but a few years ago two friends and I turbocharged a tercel with parts we had laying around. 
Beating people with a tercel in a drag race is great because if you win you're a champion and if you loose no one gets to brag about being beating a tercel.

More practically if you're a Toyota fan just build a toyota. Maybe an mr2 as mentioned or a celica? 
90s Toyota motors are cheap because they never blew up. Your first project could be doing a valve job and light port and polish on a head then doing a head swap.

I love the look of the Toyota MR2 Spyder much more than the Miata. It looks like they are pushing $10K so it would be a somewhat expensive start for a fun project car. What sorts of interesting mods can be done to this platform? I know nothing about them. Links to builds would be great!

In reply to Lutefisk :

The more you take off the faster they go:

The MR2 Spyder is a great candidate to swap from its original Toyota engine to the larger 2ZZ Toyota engine!

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/pimpm3-buys-another-mr2-again/177478/page1/

If you can dovetail your wife into the project by going Miata, then you have your Answer.

S197

Huge aftermarket and should be plenty of used parts available.

Should be good examples around yet.

I'm really digging the idea of an MR2 project car. I need to do a LOT of research on these things. The early 2000's convertible models would make my wife very happy. She likes the look of that much more than the Miata as well. It appears that the early 90's with the stock turbo command a super premium price.

The other car that SHE mentioned was the Toyota Supra. She always wanted one of those. Do they make for a good project platform? EDIT: Oh good lord are they EXPENSIVE...scratch that idea!

If I may, don't go swapping engines without a lot of fabricating skills.  Little things like throttle linkage can beat you senseless it may be going sideways or backwards from what you need and the ratio may be completely wrong so unless you can solve all those problems off the top of your head stay away from swaps because that's the easy part.  
   Another thing. Don't listen to experts on the subject.  Things they do are second nature to them.  But will confuse and frustrate you.  
      Magazines and video's make things look simple that aren't. 
    Let me me tell you the easy way.  Find someone to show you how.  Go to events where you think you'll be interested  try to decide what interests you.  
   Anything worth doing will take time and money.  Plus you're going to have to accept some things that you'll want to improve later. 
  Accept it at this stage forward progress is more important than perfection. When I started out I did some crude things but the more I worked the better  my work got. 
     You'll never get good until you start. 
   Here's a little advice. If you want a fast car start with a smaller car.. The  bigger the heavier the car the more power is required to get performance out of it. I. Fact a lot of guys put powerful engines in big heavy trucks exactly so they don't actually have to go fast . 
 

@frenchyd That's also sound advice. Since the most I have ever gotten into an engine is removing a valve cover, should I maybe simplify things and look for a vehicle with a blown motor and just cut my teeth rebuilding it? Any suggestions on vehicles that would work well for this? They certainly don't need to be sporty or anything...even a daily driver.

Lutefisk said"Are there any good links to what can be done with a Miata? Are some years 'better' than others?

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/the-life-and-times-of-miata-338/160276/page1/

To quote " Miata is always the answer"

From this...

To this. Lift kit,rebuild engine. It is my DD. 

The neighbor down the road from me has had this MR2 sitting untouched since I moved into my house 13 years ago. Its pretty faded and has a flat tire, which makes me think that they would probably be open to selling it. Based on the picture, it looks to be an early 90s. I realize this is just one picture and I don't even know what condition it is in, but should I go and introduce myself to my neighbor down the road? Anything stand out good or bad from the picture?

T-tops on the car. A plain flat roof is more desirable but rare. T-tops leak so look for damage to the interior.

Generally, it looks like a nice car.

Do you live in a rusty climate?  Check for extreme underbody rust.

Good advice on checking for T-top leaks. I live on the Southern edge of the rust belt so that will be my main concern. I hate rust.

My second main concern is that I have not seen this car move in 13 years. That's a bit scary.

Since I know almost nothing about these cars, what are some desirable vs. undesirable things and trim options to look out for? What is a 'ballpark' price range for such an example...assuming it does not have any major issues.

In reply to Lutefisk :

Like you may have noticed with the Supra, exceptional version of these SW20 MR2s are reaching the pricing stratosphere like $40k+.  That then tends to result in everyone who has a model in the crap-osphere to think theirs is worth at least half of that.  Don't be surprised in the owner wants $20k for it.  Yeah, a car that you might be thinking should be worth $2k and might still be worth $5k in this craze-osphere new market.  

I was thinking it would be worth more like $750. I may be in for a rude awakening. I guess I won't know unless I ask.

Were these considered collectible 15 years ago? It has sat outside for 13 years that I know of. If I owned something collectible, I'd at least park it in my barn or put a dang cover over it.

For <$10K I can buy an early 2000's Spyder convertible that looks much nicer.

preach (dudeist priest) said:

nocones said:

In reply to Lutefisk :

What about Air Cooled VW.   A Baja beetle could do most of what you want (except go really fast).  Or something like a Ghia or thing would be cool.  

Simple to work on.  Very easy to understand approachable motor to work on.  Huge aftermarket. Pretty affordable parts.    If you want to go crazy after you get the car setup there are Thousands of swap options for full engine swaps.  

Dan is correct. Maybe the easiest platform to build and learn. So much can happen too, for example: that air-cooled flat 4 loves boost for some reason. Also look at Baja Class 11.

How to Keep Your VW Alive PDF version of the book that taught me aircooled VWs and a ton of what I know about internal combustion engines.

My wife bought the hard copy and started reading it for learning and fun (Muir writes well), she now wants a 1600 dual port to rebuild so she can get hands on experience with the book. She wants to build it for a future Karmann Ghia.

This, this and all of this.  If you want to get your hands dirty and learn get an old VW and start to play.   Get the Muir book, it can turn anyone with a modicum of sentience into a reasonable competent wrencher on the platform.

I'd start with a Baja beetle build up.  Stage 1, get it to where you like it drive it, off road it, party with it.  Then stage 2 you can engine swap it.  Put a 2.2 subie in it and experience all the giggles.   Lots of upgrade options along the way like disk brake upgrades, suspension tinkering etc.   Its a very versitile platform and very easy to learn on.

Second on that list would be a early CJ7, pretty dang simple but many options to play and upgrade.

An old VW Beetle would be kinda cool, especially converting it to a 'Baja' Beetle. However, aren't they kind of expensive now since they are sort of in a collector status? If we are talking $5K plus for a base vehicle, then there might be other vehicle options in that price range that I would prefer. If they could be had for $2-3K for a decent frame and body then this would be very appealing.

The Jeep CJ7 speaks to me a little more from the 'style' perspective. What year range are we talking? What types of engine modifications do people do (recall that this whole thing started to try to get experience rebuilding and/or modifying an engine)? What kind of prices do people get for them?

EDIT:  Oooh, it looks like you can do a Cummins 4BT engine swap in the CJ7...that would be really interesting!

Mercedes Om606 is worth looking at as far as diesel swaps too.  And diesel Mercedes are easy to work on in general, although older ones aren't very powerful.

Two generic points I'd like to make based on my nearly 50 years of goofing around with cars:

1)  Only get a project car you are really excited/passionate about. Do not pick something because the collective says it's what you should choose. There will be a lot of down days working on anything, and if you aren't in love with the idea of a Miata or Checker Marathon you will lose interest before it's ever completed. 

2)  Do not plan on doing an engine swap as your first project. Even something with a 'kit' available will require engineering and probably some fabrication, because rarely do the kits come with every hose clamp or bracket you need. Changing one engine for another of the same is enough work for most people. Sticking something in a car that it never came with just quadrupled the time it will take to get it running. 

1980s Toyota Celica Supras are kinda cool.