Car Rebuilt question

Hi everyone, I am trying to learn more about cars by trying to do a car rebuild. My thinking is to get a used car with a blown engine (hopefully, only a blow head gasket) for cheap and fix it and built on it. I kinda want it so that I can use it while I improve it. Is there a better way to do this? I was wondering is there anything I should definitely stay away from that would require too much money? I don't mind putting in a lot of time, but I am a student so I rather not buy new parts or have a lot of things machined. I am currently looking on Craiglist for basically the newest models (turning out to be '93 - '00) that has a blow head gasket from Honda or Toyota for really cheap. I am staying with Honda/Toyota because of good things I have heard about them, but I am pretty inexperienced with a lot of models so please let me know what would be a good models to look for and to stay away from. Thank You

Stay away from old Lotus Esprits!
Hahaha!
I learned a lot about mechanical repair from my first car (not a Lotus). But there was nothing thing wrong with my 4 wheel victim when I first got it.
The normal maniac teenager course of events like-- running it into curbs, wear and tear from auto-x and drag racing all my friends, wore out parts on a regular basis.
Naturally when a part failed, I found a way to put a more high performance go fast replacement part on it, which kept my interest high.
Had to test it out by driving it even harder!

Haha. I will keep that in mind.
How long/extensive was you rebuild? I am hoping to spend a little over a month on it. Not sure how its gonna work out.
How did you go about it? (junkyard car, used car...etc). If you don't mind me asking, how much did it end up costing outside of your budget?

Haha. I will keep that in mind.
How long/extensive was you rebuild? I am hoping to spend a little over a month on it. Not sure how its gonna work out.
How did you go about it? (junkyard car, used car...etc). If you don't mind me asking, how much did it end up costing outside of your budget?
Budget?
I was a teenager in the 70s living at home and going to school and work.
All my spare money went into it. Have no idea how much.
Drove it for about 7 years then sold it. I'm sure I lost a whole bag of money on it.
But that's OK as it was my fun-toy hobby-car basic-transportation car.
All my current cars run. and are reasonably reliable.
I don't think I would ever buy a non-running car.
If the car doesn't run, you can't road test it to see if the brakes work, or the transmission or rearend, or some such is any good.
So if the car doesn't move, you can't get a feel for HOW dead it really is.

Budget?
I don't think I would ever buy a non-running car.
If the car doesn't run, you can't road test it to see if the brakes work, or the transmission or rearend, or some such is any good.
So if the car doesn't move, you can't get a feel for HOW dead it really is.

That is a very good point. I didn't even think about that.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. good luck !

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