I got my first car in 1993, I was 15 at time and the vehicle was a non-running 1974 Ford F-100 2WD. It was about as basic as you could get, 3 on the tree, no power steering, no power brakes, no AC, lap seat seat belts, no radio. It had a rather gutless 2bbl 302. My father and I fixed it up over the course of a few months. We had it repainted (the paint job’s cost was more than the purchase price of the truck) We decided that the 302 wasn’t up to the job so we bought a 390FE 4bbl big block, rebuilt it and swapped it in. We also had the rear 9 inch rebuilt and had 4.11 gears installed. We had the seat reupholstered and repainted the interior. I drove it for about 2 years in highschool and was able to surprise many a japanese sport-compact in the stoplight grand prix. Of course it only got 7-9 MPG, on high test gas. And because we neglected to install a bigger radiator, it overheated in triple digit weather. But it was quite reliable, nothing ever broke on it. My dad still has it, but he just uses for trips to the dump and to haul around lumber and stuff like that.