My Love/hate Relationship With Old Cars

A beautifully designed car is a sculpture on wheels. I've always been fascinated with the way cars are designed so differently throughout the eras. Many of them are so much more beautiful than the common ones of today. Many old cars I wish I still owned. There's a good old saying, "They don't make them like they used to," and one half of me wishes they still did, and the other half is very thankful they do not!



I grew up in the late 80s early 90s. The cars of this time saw lots of technology improvements, but many of them lacked the form and beauty of a late '50s roadster. Cars of the 90s were just bland and plain to me. Going to my first classic car show made me fall in love. I was very enamored with all the chrome and tailfins they used of yesteryear. Why couldn't cars of today have that same style? I longed for a unique car that didn't keep up with the modern day status quo. I dared to be different. I wanted my very own classic car.



The first car I ever drove on a roadway (not legally) was a Willys MB military surplus jeep. My first classic car I acquired was a '53 Willys Jeep pickup truck. I inherited it from my grandfather after he was sick of maintaining it. And he no longer needed a farm vehicle. When I got it, it was in good running shape, but the body was mangled badly from hauling rocks and 48 years of abuse.



I spent 5 years restoring that old jeep. It's now got a light yellow finish and looks good enough to go to shows. The restoration process was a royal pain in the ass. I apprenticed with a professional car restorer and hot rod builder. Along with restoring my Jeep, I helped him restore a '56 T-bird and a '75 Rolls Royce Corniche. Dealing with rusty bolts, corroded rubber, faulty wiring, dents, having to purchase rare and hard-to-find parts, the whole thing was lots of work that put me to hell and back. It didn't help that my boss I worked with developed an alcohol problem. I'd have to purchase a handle of cheap vodka so he would get off his ass and help me do work. I'd be lucky if he wasn't tanked by 3pm.

So much body work, it was a nightmare. I think I would have had a more enjoyable time building a rat-rod and just leaving the rust appearance. It would've looked like a gnarly off-roader. And just spent more money upgrading the motor and making it more efficient.

I've driven other old cars too. And one thing they all have in common is a carburetor. God I hate these things. It's a miracle we were able to get cars started 30 years ago in the cold. My Jeep in particular has an older fuel system, which requires me to use 100% petrol gasoline rather than the 85% petrol 15% ethanol that we have today. That kinda gas is hard to find. Plus when I'm driving down the road, it sounds like a propeller airplane, making it tough to listen to music or talk to your passenger at 45mph. Nobody appreciates how peaceful and quiet newer cars are. Old cars also have 4 wheel drum brakes as well, I hate drum brakes! They are a pain in the ass to take apart, they are clunky, and they don't brake nearly as well as disc brakes. My Jeep keeps on having electrical wiring problems with the turn signals. I bet none of you have ever had to stick your arm out the window to indicate left or right turns because your turn signals went out. Hand signals have become second nature to me.



And I truly hate hearing these modern-day car drivers who never been in for a ride in a vintage car who tell me to "Keep it all original." Yeah, sure, if they want to maintain a: 6-volt electrical system, crappy carburetor, no seat-belts, no radio, seats with hard metal springs, no power steering, no radial tires, no power brakes, rubber floors, a cardboard glove box and sun visors, and pay extra for 100% petrol fuel, go ahead and be my fucking guest, otherwise blow me. A car of that pristine original condition would be useful in a museum, but not when you gotta drive it every single day.

I can't help it though. I still love old cars, but they are a pain in the ass.

 

.....carbs work fine with ethanol ime, it just eats them, like everything else.

It's not that hard to install an EFI conversion, if you so desire.

Keeping it original doesn't matter - keeping the ability to go back and always making sure that the original parts stay with the current owner of the vehicle is very important to me.

You sound like maybe you'd do better with a less special car, that's still an old beater to work on. The whole point of having a willys or something is to have it original, modern jeeps kick their ass in terms of offroad ability, if you want to upgrade the engine to make it more powerful and efficient and whatever else, and you want disc brakes, and all that.... there's a million and one vehicles that you'd be perfectly happy in. Not like the willys meets your tailfin styling criteria, either.

 

Well, seeing how my stock F-134 engine gets 12 mpg and I struggle to get the old truck up to 55mph. Yeah I think some modding is essential. It may not have the fins, but I've settled for all the chrome, solid metal dash, and the split windshield. I'm looking keeping the same motor but converting it to a diesel where I can get up to 25mpg. It's been done before and I'm researching how to do it the right way. From the outside, the truck has its solid original appearance. The interior is custom with actual carpet and upgraded upholstery which quiets down the car ride a bit. Part of me wants to sell it and get a different classic ride all together, but it's a family heirloom and all the time I spent on it really makes it difficult to even think of doing something like that.

I dunno what it is, but I've ran partial ethanol through that thing plenty of times. And it still dirties up my carb in that thing. I've had to rebuild and clean it out a few times. I used to own a 77 corolla with a carb and filled it with part-ethanol gas with no problem. But I was advised against using ethanol based fuel for the willys.

 

A quiet jeep with carpeting?

Oh great, just what everybody wants....

Seriously, a jeep is not the vehicle for you.going as slow as 55 isn't the issue, going as fast as 55 is the issue in one of those - speed is not safe with the wheelbase and minuscule weight. If listening to the vehicle isn't plenty of entertainment, you shouldn't have a willys - it's okay to really upgrade and restomod stuff, but that would be like converting to 12v - carpet and a modern radio are a whole different matter, and somewhat outrageous in a willys.

No offense, but it really doesn't sound like you have the appreciation for vehicles to justify driving that - it's not that it needs a few mods to be what you want, it's that what you want is diametrically opposed to what it is and what it will always be. It's a vehicle to chug along in because you love it and the driving experience - if you don't, for fucks sake, get a car you like driving, why are you torturing yourself and ruining a classic vehicle in the process?

 

LOL no I think you are misunderstanding me. My jeep is not an open-top convertible like an MB or a CJ. I would never do that to one of those. It's a pick-up truck with a fully enclosed cab, like this one: http://image.hotrod.com/f/12293581+w660+h440+cr1/0901clt_01_z%2b1951_willys_pickup_truck%2bfront_view.jpg

I didn't fancy up the interior up to luxury car standards.. It's not a quiet rider by any means. All the rubber and cardboard had deteriorated by the time I got it, and it truly needed some TLC. I still haven't put in the radio yet; I keep putting it off. However I did enhance a few things to it such as convert the 6v to 12v system and replaced the aging generator with an alternator; it helps the truck start up faster and allows the heater and defroster to operate more effectively. It also helps the engine add power to the battery more effectively. I upgraded the front axle with front ball and socket type suspension. And I added turn signals. I kept the thin tires, original rims, brass radiator, 3 speed transmission, and everything else looks the same. You couldn't tell it's been changed looking at it from the outside.

 

Howdy 6.

I had a '53 Willys station wagon type with a 283 in it. Wish I'd kept it, but then I could say that about many of the dozens of oldies I had.

I had a 50 olds and a 49 Olds and the engines were(as you may know) 304 inches and when it was hot, they had a difficult time starting with the 6 volt systems. I found a mechanic that changed my systems to --surprise--8 volt systems. Didn't have to rewire and it really brightened everything up!

But being born in '39 , so, so many cars from the 30s, 40s and 50s were still widely available and dirt cheap. For example, I bought my first car in '56--a '37 Plymouth coupe

when I was a junior in high school for 25 bucks. It was pristine. That 50 and the 49 Olds were both acquired for 200 bucks.

Nothing like the sculptured cars of the 50s, with the massive grilles and fins. All cars today look like jelly beans to me--all the same.

It's funny, I'll be watching some movie or TV show and a little bit of a car will show in the background and I'll say--"oh, there's a 58 Chevy or whatever car happens to show a little of itself. My kids always say--" how in the hell do you know that?" Ahh--youth.

3 '37 Plymouths, 55 Merc, 40 Plymouth, '49 Olds, '50 OLds, '47 Ford coupe, '61 Chevy Impala, '64 Olds 442,'39 La Salle, on and on and on. Have the '67 AMC Marlin presently.

The good old days!I Guess these will be the "good old days" to the kids growing up now. But the cars sure ain't the same.

 

To me the good old days are the 90s... My car would have been new when I was a little kid.

Remember how waaaaay back in the good old days, cars had automatic seat belts, as was briefly required by very annoying legislation? I have just such a classic. People just a few years older or younger than me don't have the common sense to understand that the seat belt is moving for a reason (they closed or opened the door) to accomplish a goal (buckle them in), and do stupid shit like unbuckle it from it's track and then not be able to get the right twist to make it re-buckle, or duck and let it go over their head and then start trying to figure out why they're not buckled in - then instead of pulling it over their head they unbuckle it for no reason, and get confused about where it goes, like it would have to go somewhere other than the buckle it was already on, for some reason.

 

There is an old car show here every summer, and one can see such beautiful works of art cars driving around.....It is called The Rhinebeck Car show. I am not sure what years these cars are.....reminds me of Great Gatsby, and the cars are immaculate....perfect....well kept.......
I hate the way most cars look today.

 

Well that's good about it not being overt, but you know what I mean.... it's a bit of an exercise in futility to try to make it a quiet comfortable ride - and aren't those just a slightly different body on a willys jeep? Either way, it's the sort of vehicle that's great fun to drive if you want to enjoy operating it and playing with it, but will never even compare to it's contemporaries in terms of comfort. There's lots of really cool big or luxury cars with styling you'd probably appreciate a lot more than the willys, from what you've said about your tastes - stuff that's already relatively quiet, or that has lots of room for actual noise dampening sheets and such if you want to restomod it.

If you had something that was more your speed as a daily driver, you'd also probably feel more apt to appreciate the willys experience when you do drive it.

 

a car is a pain in the ass with four wheels on the bottem.
if they didn't require any kind of fuel or maintainence and there weren't any laws about them,
THEN may be they would be the magical freedom machines people are conned into buying them for.

i've always had older light trucks, because i refuse to indenture myself any more then i have to,
and i don't have much use for anything i can't take out on the back roads, dirt roads and no roads,
and have it still mostly keep going.

as an infant i thought they were really neat. car was the first recognizable word i ever spoke.
when i started seeing what is done to the world for the sake of them, i've sort of considered them all,
old or new, unless i could do something useful with them, pretty much a bunch of crap ever since.

i don't like old cars or new ones. the idea of independent personal mobility i love.
but a decent system of public transportation can give more people more of that,
then slaving to keep a car running, whether working on it oneself, or working the extra hours, to pay someone else to do so.

 

That's a badass truck! I'm a Jeep fan. I've had them for years.


When I was in high school I drove a 1972 Ford panel van. Paid $300 for it and put on maybe 30k-35k miles on it while only having to change the water pump in it once. Otherwise, it ran like a champ and you can imagine the things that happened in the back of that thing.

I still have a 1979 VW bus but we don't drive it very often anymore.

 

My first car was a station wagon in 1975. For a short moment in time, it was cool but only because I could carry all my fellow nerd friends around with me to nerd events. Then, Disco hit. The nerd bus had to go. Call it fate, but I answered an ad for a Mustang (69 coup with the lame 6 cyl engine). I didn't have all of the money, but I went to have a look anyway.

He was selling it so they could get a car that was better for a family, he and his wife just had a son. So when he saw my nerd wagon, he told me that's exactly what he was looking for. We traded cars on the spot. Which meant that I had almost $200 to blow on my new wheels at the auto accessories aisle at K-Mart. I also bought a hood scoop for the pitiful engine and some Radio Shack speakers, the 8-track was pretty good already. After Disco, I joined the military (bad idea) and ended up with several different cars.

For a while they all merged into a streamlined series of used bars of soap, on wheels. The style from Detroit were boxes of joy-free living and the Japanese were right on their heels emulating a bad mixture of American and European artifacts. What they were turning out was not rolling works of art. That time seemed to have passed. I was further disappointed by the drying up of the custom car market. Everybody was sifting to "restoring" cars so they looked exactly like every cookie cutter that rolled off the line. I quit going to car shows.

More recently I bought Jane, my wife, a Nissan 370Z as a graduation present. She never would have bought one for herself though she loves a fast car that handles. We've had it a couple of years now and she only has 30,000 miles on it. Personally, I don't care for the styling all that much. But it handles beautifully and has excellent power. Far more than she needs for her 6 mile trek to work.

I recently had to drive to a meeting in another state and took the Nissan. It was the first long trip for the car. And the first time I had to drive 6+ hours in a few years. So it was like wearing a glove the whole way. It was a tad harsh in the construction zones, but it was nice being able to take advantage of gaps in traffic or just haul ass. I saw a car show in Atlanta a couple of months ago. It's at a museum called the High! The show is called Dream Machines and only scratches the surface, but it's worth a web view at least. Some folks did see them as rolling works of art!

 

So what did you do with the Mustang?

 

I always wanted to drive a Willys truck or wagon with a 283 to see how it compared to the performance of my F-134. I bet it performs better, but not by a whole lot. The station wagons they built were sure cool as well.

My most recent repair I had to do was the brake lines and the master cylinder. There was a 5 second brake delay when I drove my Jeep last. It was sure scary driving that thing. Yesterday I had it on a hoist and we had a very difficult time bleeding the brakes. They were clogged with sediment and junk. My buddy gave it a try by stomping as hard as he could over and over on the brake pedal, then suddenly it popped and shot dirty brake fluid all over the place.

Looks like you lived an excellent life owning all those neat historic vehicles.

 

After many years of abuse I sold the Mustang. Back then it was just another cookie cutter old Ford. Gasoline was still well under $1

 

Well, I sure had access because of the times. Big mistake with the Jeep was driving over Donner pass in the winter in it--when the heater

wasn't working! Covered in blankets and changing hands on the steering wheel to try and keep a warm hand to drive. Really-really dumb. But,

I wish I'd kept that Jeep. -------------------- Once while driving through Colorado, a back U-joint went out. I took the one off the front

installed it on the back driveline and carried on.

 

I've never had a jeep of any sort but I do love an ole car. It's fun and frustrating having them.

Nice ass talking roorsack

 

I remember my grandpa telling me about a time long ago that he bought some land and there was an old abandoned car sitting on the land. I don't remember what kind of car it was but the trunk had a leather top instead of metal. He only thought to tell me about it because he had just seen the same kind of car auctioned off on tv for some insane amount of money and he was saying how much he wished he would have known what the car would be worth one day.