I did this with my sons first car too. Buy them a nice clasic car and rebuilt it. My sons was a 1968 mustang and it turned out great!!! For my daughter we went with a 1979 fiat spider 2000. Me, my dad and my kids do this as a summer project and I found they learn to respect and take care of there vehicle. Lots of hours really goes into these restorations but it's hours spent as a family. It's also great to see a car transform. First the 1968 mustang then what you all really want to see is the fiat. My youngest daughter has all ready found the vehicle she wants. A 1955 ford truck.

Now the spider it. This is what we started with

A few pics of body work and tear down

We put new break lines, calippers, rotors, and pads on. New clutch, rebuilt transmission. And have just started on the motor. But the body work and interior has taken most of the time.


Now off to the paint booth

Painted under hood and jammed first. And BTW my daughter picked out the color and I think she did a GREAT job on color choice!



And the now the body

I will continue posting up pictures as we go through the rest of the car. I just want to thank you, I have asked questions and needed a few parts and you all helped me get and answered what I needed.

wow looks great. Lucky daughter to have that car. Also lucky daughter to have a father so dedicated to family values.

Got it back home. Daughter proud to call it hers now. Lol still a lot of work ahead of us but it's nice to start seeing results.

Thank you spider2081 For your kind words

Very nice job!!

As a side note...it was my older sister who purchased the Fiat which has now been in our family since '88 or so. She wasn't much older then 17 at the time-very similar to your daughter! What a great story!
All the best,
Gabriel

We are making great progress!! The thing i'm finding is it take more time trying to find or fabricate parts then to install them. Lol!! For expl. The clips and rods in for the door locks took me all day to fabricate the parts to make them work. Here are some pictures of the car now we are getting all the exterior chrome and badges on.

It's funny I didn't realize until I started looking through the pictures how much the color of the car changes depending on the time of day I took them. When the painter was mixing paint we had him add a lot of green pearl and silver metalic to it. Early in the morning the green really shows through but by mid day the silver really takes over, And by evening the color shows the blue.

Stunning car, great results although i'm not in favor of the door edge mouldings, but that's just me. Your daughter is a lucky girl to have such a car and such a dad.

Great job on the Spider Brian. Most of us wish we had a great dad like you. Your kids are sure showing their true colors...Tang, Spider and an old Ford truck. What a great driveway you must/will have.
As far as the door edge moldings, I'm with Ari.
But considering it's the daughters' car and women like to shop, at the mall, with other door dinging shoppers (big honkin' SUV types)...good thinking!

Thanks for the comments. We debated the door edge molding, but my son in his Mustang answered debate. He wished the Mustang had some type of door guard. He has had a few chips in his from parking lots. Also where she is only 16 it will be parked in the high parking lot for 2 years while she's at school. That is probably worse then the mall.lol

I needed parts for my side molding and found these folks had everything. Don't know if you need anyting.

http://www.customautotrim.com/body-side ... n-molding/