- Back in May I made a
$3,400, 18-foot long, 4,250 pound mistake. It looks like this. I thought that buying a 70-year old car and getting it running
again was gonna be easy. After all, that's what YouTube channels like this very one I'm
on said it wouldn't be. - It's really not that hard. - But seven months later,
the car still doesn't run and I'm feeling discouraged
and in over my head. So where did I go wrong? Well, here's a hint. When you buy a project car,
you're not really buying a car. So how can you avoid my fate? Well, I'm gonna reveal my
secret project car shame and tell you I'm gonna get
this one back on track. - Thanks to Keeps for
sponsoring today's video. (grunts) 2000. Ah, I agree, Dave, very impressive. You know, ever since my accident, I've been doing physical therapy
with this jazzy Jerry guy, and if I'm being honest, this guy's got what I call the three L's. He's got looks, he's got legs, and most important, he's got locks. And I'm not talking about Smoky Sal, man, I'm talking about thick,
luscious, follicles, the kind I used to have until I became one of the two out of three guys to experience male pattern
baldness by the time I was 35. Look at me, I'm 42 and
I'm falling apart here! What the (bleep)! I wish I had Keeps when I was your age. They got these fancy doctors who consult you in your hair loss right over their online interweb thingy. And then they ship you
your hair loss medication right to your front
door every three months. That must be nice. That's less time it's taken
to get a new Up To Speed. Get with a James, I'm trying to get some
of this pain in my life. Now when you're ready to take
action and prevent hair loss, go to keeps.com/wheelhouse50, or click the link in the description to receive 50% off your first order. Okay, now let's sit back, relax, and enjoy my nephew's little show. You know, he's famous,
he's got his own t-shirt. Maybe uncle Jeremy will
get his own t-shirt. Who knows? - Just to be clear, the 1952 Chrysler Imperial
I bought some months back is not my first project car. And frankly, I should have known better. Way back in 2008, before I
even had my driver's license, my dad called me over to look at a car he found on Craigslist and I knew I had to
have it at first sight. The gaping maw and quad headlights were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Right then and there I said, "Hell yeah, dad, that's the one. I want it." A few days and $1,500 later, my entire net worth at the
time, I was the latest owner of a 1962 Dodge Dart 4-door. I guess I have a soft
spot for Mopar Sedans. We parked the car in my parents' side yard and I started wrenching on it. So why am I not dallying that thing today? Well, I made a very poorly-timed decision. After we brought the car home, my dad and I started talking about what we should do with it, right? The Dart was pretty dang straight. Rust was basically limited
to the passenger floorboard, which could easily be replaced. It also had the Chrysler 225 Slant-6 in it which is legendarily bulletproof. So the decision was, do we repair the rust and get the car driving as is, or do we go a little crazy? We went crazy...
(car engine roaring) or at least planned to. We bought a 440 big block
that once powered an RV. I got a front disc brake
conversion kit for safety. And we stripped the interior and paint. My dad even built a
rotisserie from scratch so we can more easily
work underneath the car. Things were going great. I was gonna have the coolest car in my high school parking lot, no doubt. But then the economy tanked, (mechanical whirring) and that kind of put a stop to the build because there's
no money to keep going. In the meantime, my grandpa
gave me his old Taurus. I drove that through high school. I graduated high school
then went to college. Came home from college,
went back to college. Started interning at Donut. Finally finished college then
started working at Donut. And that whole time Dart sat right here. Doesn't look that much different, does it? It probably would have
if we had just decided to fix that frickin'
rusty floorboard instead. I remember as a kid
reading Hot Rod magazine and people would say that a car took them eight years to build and I just couldn't understand why. How does it take you eight
years to put some bolts on a car and paint it? But I was a kid. I just didn't understand. It's not the labor itself
that takes a lot of work, but rather the life that
happens in between that does. Dart, I will come back for you. This is my 1952 Chrysler Imperial. And believe it or not, it was actually one of the
most sophisticated cars in America at the time of its debut, second only to Cadillac. Now, the Imperial name was
known for being super cush and as such, this car has
some very cool features like power windows. It has an automatic transmission, it has power steering
and a very cush interior. Ah, don't mind the junk. Chrysler even made a longer
version with room for eight in a Sedan, which is pretty crazy. The Imperial was a pretty baller car and I bought this one
for two main reasons. One, I love the patina and two, the 331 Hemi under the hood. This was a pretty
important feature for me. Back when "Up To Speed" was on,
I wrote a bunch of episodes, including the Hemi episode and I vowed that I would
someday own 331 car. And here we are. I got what I wanted but I also got a lot more
than I bargained for. Most of my problems so far
have stemmed from what I think is the biggest speed bump
in project car ownership, and that's overestimating
your own abilities. Now, to give myself some credit,
on my own show by the way, I started out pretty strong. I refreshed the ancient drum brake system with some new wheel
cylinders, springs, and shoes, so now it can stop just like my progress
did right after that. The main issue right now
is I can't really tell what else needs fixing if
the engine doesn't run. I've completely stalled, thanks to myself thinking I knew how to
do stuff that I don't. It was entirely my fault. Lots of people will tell you
that old carbureted engines are easier to work on than
modern fuel injected ones. That's pretty much a staple
piece of online car advice when someone is asking if
they should buy an old car. And it's true, older
engines have less components and kinda go together like Legos. But what usually isn't said is that putting something
together is way different than diagnosing a problem. Foolishly, I figured,
"Hey, I'm a car YouTuber, these issues will magically
reveal themselves to me and I'll have a running car by Christmas." I was wrong. It takes a lot of real hands-on experience to diagnose many significant issues, especially ones with carburetors, and that's experience
that I just don't have. These pieces of antique
engineering don't care how many articles you've read
or videos you've watched. If you haven't put in the work, they're not gonna wanna work either. I purposely haven't made any content with the Chrysler, okay? I didn't want to have to
buy a project car as a hobby then turn it into my job by
having to make videos about it, because that kind of defeats the purpose of buying something for fun in my opinion. The car itself is in very good condition. There's very little rust,
the body is straight, and the interior had to have
been redone at some point. That was actually one of the
main selling points for me, so I didn't want to have to redo an interior by myself, okay? I definitely don't know how to do that. The Imperial also came with
a bunch of new and old parts. It was a complete project car package, ready to park it in your buddy's side yard because you don't have
room at your apartment, which I immediately did
after purchasing it. Thank you, James. At least that part was easy. So with my reality of
project cars in mind, what can you learn from my experience to put yourself in the
best position for success? What are the little things that probably aren't on your mind when
you see that busted Chevelle for a nice price or that Eclipse GSX in
your neighbor's yard? I think the most important thing
to consider is your budget. If you can only afford to buy a project but not get it running or
keep up on maintenance, just move on. A car that you can drive and enjoy is gonna make you way happier than a car just sitting ever will. This also applies to daily drivers. Keep in mind that
nothing is more expensive than a cheap luxury car. The maintenance is going to kill you. You also got to keep in mind availability. What if you found a
super rare car for cheap that only had a issues. It might be a big pain if you don't know what you're doing, okay? It was only after I bought the Imperial that I started to think, "Where am I gonna get
parts for this thing?" The Imperial is not a popular car. And I actually did have
a hard time finding parts until I learned that my car is basically a dressed up Chrysler New Yorker of which there are many
OEM parts available. But if there weren't, I would
have been pretty screwed. Keep in mind that a less common car may be more expensive to restore because replacement
parts are less plentiful and might not have a
robust aftermarket as well. I think another important
thing to consider is whether or not the car suits your actual desires
in the first place. A few weeks after buying the Chrysler, GM happened to lend us a CA
Corvette, which was awesome. I took the vet out to
Angeles crest and realized, "Oh, no, I wanna car that I want to take here every weekend." And the Chrysler isn't, shall we say suited for the twisties. If I really wanted to, I bet it would be possible to outfit it with some sort of modern
suspension system, but I neither have the money nor the skill to facilitate that. If you're on a budget, it's a much better option to buy a car that is already designed
to do what you want to do rather than spend a bunch
of money modifying a car that's not meant for
your chosen discipline, and most likely performing worse than a dedicated car would anyway. Of course, this doesn't really apply if you have a ton of cash because you can usually
throw money at a problem until it's solved. I also highly, highly
recommend that you don't buy someone else's project if
you have a little experience. You don't know where they left off or if they did a good
job in the first place. And if you're not careful, their rust bucket will
become your rust bucket. Take it from me. But besides budget, I
think the most valuable piece of advice I can give you, one thing I hope you remember
is to be honest with yourself about your ability. How much do you really know how to do? I will concede that a lot of mods are super beginner friendly, okay? Things like wheels, suspension, even seats and steering
wheels can be done by novices. It's really not that hard. There's a lot of guides
online how to do that, including our own show, "Money Pit". And I actually encourage
you to do these things because one you're making a car
your own and that's awesome. And two, you're learning
how your car is put together which will help you diagnose
problems down the road because you can more
easily visualize the cause. But things like bodywork
and serious engine issues do take a lot more experience. You're probably gonna need help with those if you want to do it right,
take it from me as well. Now that I've imparted some
hopefully helpful advice, there's still something bugging me, okay? I have the feeling my project car problems isn't completely my fault. It's actually Zach Jobe's fault
and Emelia Hartford's fault and Dave Freiberger's fault, sort of. In the age of YouTube and social media, the project car as a concept has become romanticized to a degree. For the most part, when you see a build on Instagram or YouTube,
you don't see a majority of the work that went into it. It's simply not possible
to condense days, weeks, or months of work into a 20-minute video. And hell, Donut is guilty of this too. With "HiLow", we shot
over four weeks of footage to make 16 episodes. At least we showed how much we struggled. Turbo week alone aged me three years. Our car might be broken still. - No! What failure looks like. - The longest week of either of our lives. - And to "Money Pits" credit, that might be one of the more realistic project car series out there because in real life (bleep) happens and it makes it into the episode. - I debated this for like 10 minutes and then I just went based on
what the picture looked like. - But even when we do
screw up, and show you, the problem still gets resolved
by the end of the episode and everything is okay. - All right, so that does it. That's the whole cooling system. - I don't think I'm wrong when I say that this might set some
unrealistic expectations for the average side yard
mechanic like myself. I think I fell victim
to this romanticization. The Chrysler is only
the second project car I've ever taken on myself. I don't really count Low car because we worked on it as a team. It's a team effort. But I forgot that this time around I would basically be by myself. I imagined the finished product without fully considering what
it would take to get there. As a community, I think
we got to break free of this romanticization beamed
to us through our screens and be honest with ourselves. We can't deny the truth that project cars are always gonna be a challenge. I mean, it's in the name, "project car". If you're thinking about
picking up a project car, which I still recommend, keep
this advice in mind, okay? When you buy an old car like this, you're not buying an object. What you're doing is you're signing up for an experience, okay? It's like a lot of different
monetary commitments in life, like a gym membership or school courses. These things have the
potential to make you happy or make you feel fulfilled or
even make you a better person. But part of that transaction is that you got to hold up your end of the deal and put in the effort as well. Despite all my whining, I still really, really love my Chrysler and I really, really want to drive it. It's plush, it's got that
Hemi V8, and it's just unique. It's not gonna be LS-swapped
or wide-bodied or caged or vinyl-wrapped, anything like that, it's gonna be mine. I just want to get it
running so people can see a 70-year old car on the road and I also want to apply
that experience of driving it to future videos. After that, maybe a lower
it, fix these rough spots, get some cool wheels and be
the King of Patina Instagram. Who knows? I don't know. But I can't do that until
I'm honest with myself and realize for that to happen, I gotta put in the work. (energetic hiphop music) - Shirt, you're finally here! It took forever to design these things but the results are amazing. This is truly my favorite
shirt that we've ever put out. That's what happens when you
keep getting better at it. We got two different color way. They're both black. They got different coloring, sorta. Got the yellow and white or green and red. And both of them are fired. Better order both of them now 'cause they're not gonna last very long. Oh, I'm already 12 of them, myself. They're premium right now, so go get them while you still can. Donutmedia.com. Tell them, James said it. There's actually no way
that you can do that but maybe tell yourself under your breath (low voice) when you hit the cart. (hiphop music) - Thank you very much for listening to my weird project card diatribe. Kind of a different video this week, but you know what? Had to be said. If you'd like to see more videos, hit that "Subscribe" button, please. Like this video, if you did. It surprisingly actually
really does help us out. If you're looking to get a project car, check out this episode of "Money Pit", which is the complete buyer's guide on how to get a good one. Very, very helpful video. I should probably watch
that again, actually. Check out this episode of
up to speed on the Hemi. The episode that started it all. Be kind. See you next time.
