Anyone else like older cars?

[AEBL]

I had a shade tree mechanic friend who worked on all sorts of stuff. Wouldn't blink to yank out an engine and put a new one in, he was quite amazing. I was with him learning how to do some of the amazing car stuff one day and a guy drives up with a Volvo and the blower motor for the heater/AC was broken. He told the fella "buy a new car." I was shocked! I thought he could fix anything! We asked him why, and he said that you basically have to dismantle the entire inside of the car to get to it. He figures that when Volvo made cars, the first thing that parts started to get bolted on to was the blower motor. 

[mbnaegle]

The late 1940's till the early 1950's are my favorites, though anything older than 1960 is cool to me.

I grew up around them as my Dad used a 1953 Ford F-100 truck as his daily vehicle until about 2005 or so. He was friends with the guy that bought it new in Arizona, restored it in the late 1980's in California, wore it out again, then around 2012 started restoring it again here in Texas. It's about 3/4's done and since he passed a couple years ago I've been finishing it.

My brother had a 1959 Chevy Apache long bed he's restoring.

My very first car was a 1954 Chevy 4 door 2100 I got for $300 around 2001. It's in pieces everywhere but someday will be fully restored. It's sea green with not many factory options.

Around 2004 I got a 1953 Chevy 4 door 2100 too. Very rusty, but I got it running by the time I was a Senior in high school and have tried to keep it running since then as a daily driver, other than being down a few times for bigger issues. When I can I'm getting sections of bodywork done, chrome re-plated, and in general it's getting an ongoing restoration without a full teardown. It's black with lots of stainless and chrome, and has a lot of factory options like a Powerglide automatic, skirts, visor, radio, heater, spotlight, automatic headlight dimmer system, and some other stuff.

Both of my cars I'm keeping stock with their old 235 straight 6 engines, although the 54' I'm souping up with a bunch of old 50's engine upgrades. My dad's old 53' Ford is also staying stock with some work truck upgrades it's picked up over the years. I like keeping them original, but also intend to regularly use them and not just keep them in a garage. That's how I justify putting money into them, as they're still plenty capable and otherwise I'd have a car payment for something newer.

[chuck123wapati]

14 hours ago, Northmount said:

Good mechanics usually beat the flat rate, so could pick up a couple hours extra most days, sometimes more.  My brother did really well on flat rate jobs in the 1960s.

Oh yea you can certainly make alot of money if you are good and know the shortcuts, so could i, but at 14 lol it took a few months and a few tips from dad. He did give me the easier jobs. My first real test was a Triumph Spitfire that swallowed a valve. I'll never forget that, and I didn't beat the book lol.

[billybopp]

27 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

Oh yea you can certainly make alot of money if you are good and know the shortcuts, so could i, but at 14 lol it took a few months and a few tips from dad. He did give me the easier jobs. My first real test was a Triumph Spitfire that swallowed a valve. I'll never forget that, and I didn't beat the book lol.

Oh yeah.  Spitfires were a TON of fun to drive, but they could be a nightmare to fix sometimes.  Same can be said for a lot of European sportscars of the era.  Back in the 80s, a roommate had a '72 or '73 Spitfire, which I got roped into fixing a time or two.  I had a '73 Fiat Spyder which was just a blast to drive, but a bit of a nightmare to fix.  I also had a '69 911S which was a fun challenge to drive.  Thankfully I never had to do major repairs on the 911, but eventually rust caught up with it which was way beyond my ability & budget to fix properly.

- Bill

[Northmount]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

at 14 lol it took a few months and a few tips from dad

Yes, I spent a lot of time in the shop with my Dad, also a mechanic from about 10 years old and up.  Figured out how to pull a connecting rod on a 52 chevy 6 without having to pull the head and piston.  With the crank in the right position, could pull the piston down far enough to push the wristpin out.  This engine had babbit rod bearings with dippers on the cap to scoop oil from a gallery in the oil pan.  One rod bearing went out every few months.  Lots of practice!

[chuck123wapati]

3 hours ago, billybopp said:

Oh yeah.  Spitfires were a TON of fun to drive, but they could be a nightmare to fix sometimes.  Same can be said for a lot of European sportscars of the era.  Back in the 80s, a roommate had a '72 or '73 Spitfire, which I got roped into fixing a time or two.  I had a '73 Fiat Spyder which was just a blast to drive, but a bit of a nightmare to fix.  I also had a '69 911S which was a fun challenge to drive.  Thankfully I never had to do major repairs on the 911, but eventually rust caught up with it which was way beyond my ability & budget to fix properly.

- Bill

Man, there is nothing more fun than downshifting into a curve and hitting the gas on the way out in any of those little buggers, my brother had a karman Ghia that he let taught me some driving skills in lol. I had an MGB but the Spit was my dream car.

[chuck123wapati]

2 hours ago, Northmount said:

Yes, I spent a lot of time in the shop with my Dad, also a mechanic from about 10 years old and up.  Figured out how to pull a connecting rod on a 52 chevy 6 without having to pull the head and piston.  With the crank in the right position, could pull the piston down far enough to push the wristpin out.  This engine had babbit rod bearings with dippers on the cap to scoop oil from a gallery in the oil pan.  One rod bearing went out every few months.  Lots of practice!

Damn good way to grow up if you ask me. My dad was a Dodge master mechanic, and he worked right across the street from my grade school, so I would go over every day and sweep the floor, and the owner would buy me a soda pop lol.

One year 1970, he let my dad drive a brand new Roadrunner Super Bird up to some snowmobile races my brother was riding in. Man, as a kid, I thought I was the coolest person alive.

[chuck123wapati]

16 hours ago, mbnaegle said:

The late 1940's till the early 1950's are my favorites, though anything older than 1960 is cool to me.

I grew up around them as my Dad used a 1953 Ford F-100 truck as his daily vehicle until about 2005 or so. He was friends with the guy that bought it new in Arizona, restored it in the late 1980's in California, wore it out again, then around 2012 started restoring it again here in Texas. It's about 3/4's done and since he passed a couple years ago I've been finishing it.

My brother had a 1959 Chevy Apache long bed he's restoring.

My very first car was a 1954 Chevy 4 door 2100 I got for $300 around 2001. It's in pieces everywhere but someday will be fully restored. It's sea green with not many factory options.

Around 2004 I got a 1953 Chevy 4 door 2100 too. Very rusty, but I got it running by the time I was a Senior in high school and have tried to keep it running since then as a daily driver, other than being down a few times for bigger issues. When I can I'm getting sections of bodywork done, chrome re-plated, and in general it's getting an ongoing restoration without a full teardown. It's black with lots of stainless and chrome, and has a lot of factory options like a Powerglide automatic, skirts, visor, radio, heater, spotlight, automatic headlight dimmer system, and some other stuff.

Both of my cars I'm keeping stock with their old 235 straight 6 engines, although the 54' I'm souping up with a bunch of old 50's engine upgrades. My dad's old 53' Ford is also staying stock with some work truck upgrades it's picked up over the years. I like keeping them original, but also intend to regularly use them and not just keep them in a garage. That's how I justify putting money into them, as they're still plenty capable and otherwise I'd have a car payment for something newer.

Very cool indeed, keep them alive!! 

[billybopp]

18 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

Damn good way to grow up if you ask me. My dad was a Dodge master mechanic, and he worked right across the street from my grade school, so I would go over every day and sweep the floor, and the owner would buy me a soda pop lol.

One year 1970, he let my dad drive a brand new Roadrunner Super Bird up to some snowmobile races my brother was riding in. Man, as a kid, I thought I was the coolest person alive.

Very cool!!!  That Super Bird would be worth something like half a million dollars now!! 

[chuck123wapati]

56 minutes ago, billybopp said:

Very cool!!!  That Super Bird would be worth something like half a million dollars now!! 

My dad said the same thing way back then.  He said he should buy it and store it away. I'm sure I would have totaled it and died in the process at some point lol. My older brother bought the stock version Road Runner in Plum Crazy Purple, and Damn it was fast enough, when you punched it that hood scoop would come up and got your heart pumping real quick. I've seen the speedo pegged! 

[Sheilajeanne]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

My dad said the same thing way back then.  He said he should buy it and store it away. I'm sure I would have totaled it and died in the process at some point lol. My older brother bought the stock version Road Runner in Plum Crazy Purple, and Damn it was fast enough, when you punched it that hood scoop would come up and got your heart pumping real quick. I've seen the speedo pegged! 

My brother's first car new car was a Road Runner - not sure of the year, but 1970-something. He special ordered a manual transmission and extra stiff suspension. If you were driving on a gravel road with washboards, the car would just about rattle the filings out of your teeth! 

He drove it for many years until one winter, when he was living in Calgary, it got into an argument with a snowplow... Yeah, you can guess how THAT turned out!  

[chuck123wapati]

50 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

My brother's first car new car was a Road Runner - not sure of the year, but 1970-something. He special ordered a manual transmission and extra stiff suspension. If you were driving on a gravel road with washboards, the car would just about rattle the filings out of your teeth! 

He drove it for many years until one winter, when he was living in Calgary, it got into an argument with a snowplow... Yeah, you can guess how THAT turned out!  

 

If a car doesn't make you smile when you get in it and turn the key, then it's not the right car lol.

Fun cars and really cool!!  That suspension is what allowed them to go so fast. Standard suspension back then got spooky at high speeds. I had a '69 Merc Cougar, and you could feel the car start to float at 110 mph.

[Sheilajeanne]

Chuck, the problem with the extra stiff suspension is the car would 'float' when going over washboards! And since we had a lot of relatives that lived on  farms, where there were gravel roads, that was a bit scary, especially since my brother liked to drive fast! 

[chuck123wapati]

2 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Chuck, the problem with the extra stiff suspension is the car would 'float' when going over washboards! And since we had a lot of relatives that lived on  farms, where there were gravel roads, that was a bit scary, especially since my brother liked to drive fast! 

lol wrong car for dirt roads for sure. 

[fredk]

I swopped out my Caddy's shocks for those of a Japanese van. They were a parts match by GM. The Caddy originally wallowed around like a drunk elephant, The harder shocks meant I could take a sharp bend at 60 mph instead of 25 mph

We like stiff suspension on our cars here, especially for competition driving

[Frodo]

3 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Chuck, the problem with the extra stiff suspension is the car would 'float' when going over washboards! And since we had a lot of relatives that lived on  farms, where there were gravel roads, that was a bit scary, especially since my brother liked to drive fast! 

I had a. 72 Catalina that I would drive fast on dirt roads. One day I came around a curve sliding sideways and ran into the front tire of a road grader

I jumped out and told the guy I had not seen another car all day long

He laughed and said me neither!!

 

[Frodo]

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Frodo said:

Georgeous!!!   but the first thing I noticed was the bottle sitting on a new paint job, LOL I hope it was the owner's and not the mechanic's. My dad would have killed me for doing that in the shop.  

[Frodo]

On 5/10/2025 at 5:38 PM, chuck123wapati said:

Georgeous!!!   but the first thing I noticed was the bottle sitting on a new paint job, LOL I hope it was the owner's and not the mechanic's. My dad would have killed me for doing that in the shop.  

Lol. I see your concern, and you are right!!  I know the mechanic only drinks DP. So that must belong to the owner