I have no auto knowledge whatsoever, and have the desires to buy a super cheap car and fix it up to driving capabilities because i need a car over the summer for school and don’t have a huge budget to get one. I was hoping someone could either deter me from this idea of advise me on how to learn and obtain the parts and general know how to get this project accomplished.
This doesn’t sound like a good idea. You might be able to buy a $500 car and get lucky, not having any problems for the few months you need it. Or you might just be wasting your money, as a $500 car can turn into a much larger investment, in terms of time and money than you can not afford. Perhaps you should consider buying a quality bicycle.
Check with any of the community colleges around you to see if they offer any auto maintenance classes. They can give you some real insight into what you may be getting into before you buy a real money-pit. With no auto knowledge, it’s like jumping into the deep end of the pool to learn how to swim. Not a good idea.
After that, you’ll need to find a car that is fairly easy to work on and get a service repair manual for it.
Find a decent American-made car that meets your tastes and budget (parts for American cars are going to be cheaper on average). Then take it to a mechanic and pay them to inspect it for major problems. If they tell you it needs typical things, like brakes, exhaust, tires, etc, but doesn’t have transmission, engine, or electrical problems, then this is probably a good starter car. Then track down a shop manual for the car, one published by the manufacturer, not an after market one. Get yourself a decent, basic set of tools (take a trip to Sears), and have at it. Nothing will help you learn to do automotive repairs faster than doing automotive repairs. It’s not rocket science and a great deal of fun, and over the long run you will save a ton of money doing repairs yourself. You can use part of those savings to pay for trips to a mechanic when you run into a serious problem that is beyond your skills.
Also, find a salvage yard in your area, one that let’s people come in on Sundays and strip and haul stuff for a small flat fee (usually it is something like $50 for what you can carry in your hands). Before you buy the car, take a trip to the yard and walk around and see how many of the same vehicles they have on hand. A good choice for a car would be one where you see quite a few of them in salvage yard. Now you have a source for certain parts (like engine control modules, for example) which can be very expensive to buy new. Over time, you’ll get a sense for things that are good to have around (like ECM’s). You can go in on a Sunday with a friend and strip a few of them and throw them in a box at home. And, of course, doing this will also let you experiment and see how things are put together, without having to experiment on your car to start.
Lastly, there a hundreds of excellent web sites for DIY auto repair. Sites that will give you detailed information of performing certain types of repairs. Familiarize yourself with several of them.
Good fun.
Forgot to mention two things: First, when you take the car to a mechanic to have them look at, take it somewhere where they do state emissions inspections. Ask them to check the car to see if it would pass (hopefully you live in a state where this is not done by the state). If they won’t, at least limit your selection to cars with a recent certificate. This will ensure you don’t immediately run into expensive problems just to get it registered for use. Second, if you can stand the lower mileage, get a bigger car, SUV or truck. Small cars can be particularly challenging to work on because of cramped quarters. And many were manufactured without any consideration for how hard maintenance would be. The fact that the spark plugs are inaccessible didn’t matter when they dropped that shiny new engine into the car when they were making it, but it will matter to you. And you don’t want to have to disassemble half the car to change a water pump, if you can avoid it, nor do you want to have to have a lot of specialty tools so you can reach that last bolt on some part.