Anyone else like older cars?

[Sheilajeanne]

5 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

It is an excellent example of that the A in Volvo stands for Aerodynamics ;-)

Have never seen one of those on this side of the pond! My husband had a white Volvo 740 station wagon, though, which he loved. He kept having problems with it, and when he took it to the dealer, you could almost always count on the bill being $1,000. Volvo in Canada seemed to think their cars were on par with high-end cars like the Mercedes, and charged us accordingly. 

One day when the car quit on the Don Valley Distressway, and I was very lucky to be able to coast to the side of the highway without getting hit, they refused to even give us a ride home. We were over 20 km. away, and the taxi we called refused to take us because we had our German shepherd with us. The tow truck driver took pity on us, and gave us a ride. 

Due to all the problems, I traded it in when he died. Still, I couldn't help but shed a few tears as I walked away from it. He'd had it throughout our entire marriage, and as he drove away from the dealership after buying it, the salesman said to him, "Good luck with your courting car!"   

[Frodo]

1999 Ranger  my daily ride

 

[chuck123wapati]

I've never owned a new car, and I've never seen the need. My newest was a 2003 Pontiac minivan bought in 2012 still driving it today.  Never taken a vehicle to a "mechanic" my dad started me out in his shop at the age of 14, wrenching at flat rate. lol. Meaning that if the books, Motors Manuals back in the day, say it takes an hour to fix, then you get paid for an hours work, no matter how long it actually takes you. Breaks were on your own dime!!

[chuck123wapati]

On 4/17/2025 at 5:22 AM, Sheilajeanne said:

Have never seen one of those on this side of the pond! My husband had a white Volvo 740 station wagon, though, which he loved. He kept having problems with it, and when he took it to the dealer, you could almost always count on the bill being $1,000. Volvo in Canada seemed to think their cars were on par with high-end cars like the Mercedes, and charged us accordingly. 

One day when the car quit on the Don Valley Distressway, and I was very lucky to be able to coast to the side of the highway without getting hit, they refused to even give us a ride home. We were over 20 km. away, and the taxi we called refused to take us because we had our German shepherd with us. The tow truck driver took pity on us, and gave us a ride. 

Due to all the problems, I traded it in when he died. Still, I couldn't help but shed a few tears as I walked away from it. He'd had it throughout our entire marriage, and as he drove away from the dealership after buying it, the salesman said to him, "Good luck with your courting car!"   

One of my first cars was a '62 Volvo, loved that butt ugly thing. Dad bought it for me for 50 bucks, I had to replace the timing chain before it would run.

[Northmount]

6 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

wrenching at flat rate. lol. Meaning that if the books, Motors Manuals back in the day, say it takes an hour to fix, then you get paid for an hours work, no matter how long it actually takes you. Breaks were on your own dime!!

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.

[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!