One thing good about the budget, with these SB trucks, they are fairly cheap and parts are out there, so that keeps the costs from being to high. So is the son coming around and liking getting involved, or do you think he's participating just so he'll have something to drive? Maybe, just maybe, the wife might have had the right idea in this case with your son.
This isn't an ass chewin, its just food for thought. I have coached 10-11yo kids playing baseball, and I have coached 11-13yo kids playing soccer. Some kids just aren't athletically inclined. I even seen brothers, 1 brother was all over it, the other just sit staring at the ball with his arms folded and get scared and run the other way when the ball is coming at him. You could tell which kids wanted to play and which ones didn't. Then you'd have the parents yelling and screaming at their kid. So you knew it was the parent that WANTED their kid to play ball, not the kid wanting to play ball. I had no problem telling parents that their kid didn't want to play and they are not going to perform if they don't want to do it. Then you had the kids that wanted to do it, but just weren't agressive enough or had the confidence to do it. Those kids I could work with, if they want to do it, we can teach the aggression and give them the confidence, but a kid that just flat doesn't want to do it, they aren't going to do it, and if the parent just yells and screams at the kid, its counter productive and goes the wrong way. I told parents, if your kid doesn't want to play, you shouldn't force them to play. We as people are all differant. Some of us are athletic, some are mechanical, some are just smart as hell geeks and care about E=MC2(squared).
I had always preched to my daughter and layed a foundation about education being important and never having to depend on a man since she was in 6th grade. By 8th grade she wanted to play basketball and she made the team barely, as an alternate aka bench warmer. She'd get to play maybe 5 minutes in each half. Not much. Then a girl got hurt and she got to play a full half and another alternate got to play a full half. I didn't want to hurt my daughters feelings and tell her she sucked. But she really did in comparison to the other girls. Talking to my daughter, I realized my daughter didn't want to play basketball, she wanted a scholarship and she thought you had to play sports to get it, so she signed up and tried out. I didn't want her to be discouraged as the bench warmer and lose her self esteem. So I made the suggestion to her, as I did many parents of kids I coached, maybe sports isn't for you. Its not for everyone. You're a smart girl, and she is, straight A her whole life, so you keep those A's going, getting into higher end college level classes in school and with your weighted grade, you can actually be well above a 4.0 GPA and fill out forms now in your freshman year for scholarships, and you can get your scholaships with academics instead of sports. So she did, took trigenometry, biology etc, the tough classes and of 670 kids, she graduated #3 smartest in her class and graduated in a white gown. After her 1st semester of senior, the scholarship offers started pouring in, and pending her final senior grade, as to which ones she'd get. She didn't even have to attend her 2nd sememster of senior year, but to qualify for the best scholarship funds, she took 4 AP classes anyway. Sorry this got so long. I think you get the point by now. Don't be upset your son doesn't get involved or as mechanical as you want. Seems he's motivated by having something to drive, and that's good, that will keep him involved and will look back on the experience some day and be grateful. But just saying, if my kid doesn't want to be mechanical and twist a screwdriver, but wants to be a forensic scientist or a lawyer, hopefully not a crooked one if there is such a thing, then so be it. You older boy might be the head mechanic in a Nascar teams pit, but your other boy might be a brain surgeon. Just saying, don't get disouraged if your son doesn't participate, and don't force it on him, since that will only create bad blood between the 2 of you, and the wife too. KInda goes for everyone the same. We are all differant.
Father/son projects are probably one of the most memorable things a dad can do with his son...My dad was too busy working 2 jobs back when I was growing up, so we never had time together to actually work on "major" projects......
