When I was 16 I bought a non-running 1967 Beetle. It had dropped a valve, and with some guidance from the husband of one of my mom's friends and a Chilton's manual, I got it running. It was so noisy until things got broken in that when I went to a drive-up window to order fast food, I had to shut it off so that they could hear me order! But it ran, and I had my own car - I was king of the world!
When I was about 18, I bought a 66 Bonneville. Still have it. I wanted to put better heads on the 389 - both for a bit of flow, and to lower the "muscle car" compression down to cheap gas. I bought a pair of 6x heads from a guy in Ontario, brought them back to PA, had them surfaced, and I installed them one afternoon. The next day I drove it to FL for spring break. I stopped a few times to get the valve adjustment just right, but it made the trip beautifully.
Oh wow, I just remembered my ACTUAL first big project. Trying to remember if I've shared this before.
I bought a 4cyl Monza with a rod knock from a friend for cheap the summer after HS. I was working at an oil change place and the owner was happy to let us wrench after hours. His opinion was that I should drop the pan, change rod bearings, and see what happens. MY opinion was that I should swap in a 305 and I somehow hooked up with someone who had crashed an original V8 Monza and kept all the parts needed for a swap.
Someone had a 305 in a Firebird he was replacing, so he drove it to the shop ("Lube It All") and we pulled his engine in the parking lot. He took his nice M/T valve covers but a mechanic next door sold me a pair for $10 that he must have pulled out of a landfill - when I tried to clean them up with a wire wheel, I started putting holes in them.
I spent the whole summer cobbling it together after hours. I actually took a few (illegal) drives with it. Upset the neighbors (long chat with a local cop about that one). Sold it at a loss at the end of the summer.
My first big project was in the mid 70's was converting a '66 Mustang with 200 cid in line 6 with a three speed and really bad 4 lug brakes to a built up V-8, 4 speed toploader, 5 lug brakes w/ rear end from a V-8.
Also added GT350 springs and shocks. Quite a learning experience. I assembled the engine, rebuilt the transmission, Holley 4 barrel, headers, Edelbrock hi-rise, 11:1 pistons, better cam.
1985. I pulled the 350 Olds diesel out of my 1981 Pontiac Grand Prix and replaced it with a 327 Chevy, TH400 trans and swapped the 10 bolt rear end for a 12 bolt with 3.xx gears and a Posi-Traction center section.
In reply to Motojunky :
Like minds! Built from the Spec II/Telefix catalog with all of their "go-fast" goodies. My first track bike.
This was my first big race car project.
While my fabricator made all the parts I was the one who assembled everything and set up the car.
It was incredibly fast (set a new lap record for the class) but it was a really expensive car to run.
This car needed a lot of TLC...in the days before Internet searches. Lots of Sunday newspaper classified detective work, junk yards and swap meets.
Purchased for $2200 missing most of the Shelby parts. Eventually sold it to fund down payment on our first house.
This is all cleaned up for sale (still wrong wheels but otherwise complete).
When I was around 11-12, I used $200 of my hard-earned paper route money to buy my first project vehicle: a janky, non-running go-kart. It looked sorta like a Manco kart like this one:
I really wish I had pics of the actual unit, but I don't. On the floor board, it had a giant decal of a cheetah's head with a Rambo knife in its mouth. It was the coolest decal I have ever seen to date, and I would totally like to put one on the hood of a small, red car. The engine was a 5hp Tecumseh painted red, white, and blue. My dad and I got it running and we would take it to a family friend's place where they had a huge, open parking lot behind his house. That poor Tecumseh saw hours of flat-out throttle until one day it decided to snap the rod in half. That made some interesting noises!
We immediately dragged it back to the friend's house, pulled the engine, and tore it down. That was the first time I had done that, and I was fascinated by the carnage. I was hooked.
Soon after, another friend of my dad's scored us a running, low hours 6hp Tecumseh Snow King off of a dead snowblower. We swapped it on and holy hell, did that kart FLY! That was my first-ever engine swap, but not my last!
I lost interest in the kart after getting a car a few years later, so I sold it. But man, it was fun, and I learned a lot from playing around with that thing.
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