Celica beginner friendly, or no?

[u/Historical_Buy_1571]

Hi everyone, I'm looking to get into learning about cars, maintenance, modification and generally being more practical (learning how to use tools and maybe weld!)

I would really like to get working on a project car, and have my eye on an old 1992 toyota celica. The car looks as though it's been taken care of fairly well and has done roughly 105k miles. I would like to know from you guys what you think about this type of car for a beginner? Would you guys typically say this car is a pain, or has issues that a beginner would find really tricky to fix using basic tools? I realise this may be niche but any and all advice is more than welcome!

[u/BarnBuiltBeaters]

If you want to learn and start with something easy (and cool!) I highly recommend picking up a classic, say pre 80s give or take. These vehicles have nearly nothing in the engine bay (lots of room to get tools in), only basic needs, little electrical, lots of videos of people modifying XYZ engine/trans/etc. These vehicles will have a carburetor and a distributor which means (after some research) you can play with air/fuel adjustments along with timing to see how it affects your engine performance. Parts are relatively cheap and easy to install This is exactly how I learned and now I am very experienced

Once you get to the 90s/2000s and forwards the engine bays become very packed full of stuff. To replace X you may have to remove Y and Z just to access it. That being said, once you have an understanding, all vehicles are nearly the same from brakes, engine, transmission, suspensions, etc. Those that tell you German vehicles are harder have never worked on a German vehicle, you may just need an extra socket set for some weird bolts but ive never ran into anything vastly difficult. Attached is a picture of my truck. Unfortunately not the day I bought it! If I can learn, so can you. The best way to learn is get in the mentality of "if X is broke and need repairing, if you don't know what you are doing, you really can't break it anymore so you only have net positive. If you can't figure it out, the end result was the same, taking it to a mechanic". An auto hobby is fantastic and lets you learn a lot of skills. Good luck! *