Why I love driving a 40 year old truck

[Russianwolf]

Now, I miss my 2002 Dodge Ram a good bit. It had leather interior and all the trimming and was great to take on long trips. But when I had to get rid of it and I replaced it with a 1970 Jeep Gladiator pick-up some people thought I was nuts. But not only does the Gladiator have character that today's truck just can't match with it's classic front end and brow over the windshield, but there's nothing fancy about it. No power steering, no AC, no emission. Nothing to get in the way.

I went out a couple months ago and tried to tighten the cables on the starter on our Saturn Vue. After a lot of looking, I finally found it on the bottom near the firewall. COVERED BY SEVERAL CROSS MEMBERS AND INACCESSIBLE. okay. Later I bought plugs so I could change those out since the car has 60k (now at 85k). Went and looked and couldn't figure out where the plugs even were. Called the dealership and "to replace the plugs you have to remove the top half of the engine" WHAT? "but they are good for at least 100k" okay. So I gave up doing anything more basic than changing the oil on that one.

Now my Gladiator is a different beast. A couple months ago the front driver's brake line gave out on me. So I pull it off and while I'm at it notice that the passengers looks old too, so pull it off too. Go to the parts store and after a bit of figuring I bring home new lines and a bender. Couple hours, and the front line are fixed (spent at least 2 hours getting them off as I was fighting through 40 years of rust). So I go to have it inspected today. Passed without a look at anything. But on my way home the brake pedal hits the floor again. I make it home (for those that don't know how, please learn to drive a vehicle without brakes, as you never know when you will need that talent. Standards are much easier than Autos in this category) . I go grab one of the boys next door as an assistant and have him press the pedal while I look. Sure enough, one of the line at the rear had that same 40 year crusty look and was spitting at me. A quick trip to the parts store and an hour later, fixed.

Now try that on your Saturn or any newer vehicle, if you can even FIND the problem under all the other stuff they put on.

And the best part about my old girl. She only cost me $600 2 and a half years ago. I might, with gas, have $2000 in her to date.

[smorris]

I had a power wagon years ago like that. I could fix anything on it in a few hours and did on several occasions. I even did field surgery on it when we were 4 wheeling. Gotta love the days when you could actually work on your own car. Need the engine fixed, pull it and rebuild it over a weekend.

[crokett]

Old cars are nice if you have the luxury of time to fix them and flexibility if you break down en route to somewhere. When I was young and single I had both. Now I'd much rather be doing something else than fixing my car and I don't want my family stuck on the road. So I buy new enough that they won't break down.

[shoottx]

So I buy new enough that they won't break down.

So what is that?

[cabinetman]

I remember the days when cars had points and carbs. The engine was easily identifiable. The only shrouding I remember was from the fan. As cars got newer, they also got less user friendly. I remember cars I had that required a full trunkload of tools just to go anywhere. Simple fixes were roadside accomplishments.

For the last 15 or so years LOML has been successful in convincing me to stick with new, or newer vehicles that had a warranty. I'm also a believer in:

.

[ironhat]

I remember the days when cars had points and carbs. .

I can's say that I miss having to replace the points and plugs every 12-15K. Do remember trying to get the points to full open? "Turn the key again. Again. Again... Almost... just a tap. Da!n! Again. Again". Nope, don't miss it.

[jonmulzer]

I don't miss points OR carbs! My first car was a '69 Camaro Z/28. It was far from being a numbers matching car so I did not have to worry about being historically accurate. As little as I drove it after the first year I had it I had a horrible time with points and the carb. I pulled both and replaced them with an HEI and Mini-Ram EFI. She started with just a bump of the key after that, throttle response was better and the idle smoothed out a bit (but not too much, hehe).

I am all for EFI and electronic ignition, I could just do without the cramped engine compartments and Big Brother modules.

[dbhost]

Aside from the water sealing that Jeep did way back when, and the solid front axle on a 4x4, I wouldn't trade my fuel injected F150 for a carburettor equipped anything. Not saying those old Gladiators aren't sweet. I had a CJ-7, my brother had a full size Cherokee, my uncle had a Waggoneer (pre-AMC). All were great vehicles, all had electronic ignition for GOOD reason... Those old points systems did NOT work at all well...

My CJ-7 with the 4.2L (258 C.I.D.) inline 6 was retrofitted with Chrysler's MPFI injection from the Chrysler performance parts catalog. It had more torque and HP than a comparable era 4.0 Wrangler... And the Dana 300 T Case certainly was stout..

I guess I am really liking cushy as I get older. I knew it would happen, I just never imagined this age would happen this soon!

[crokett]

So what is that?

Well for one thing new enough that I don't worry about brake lines failing.

I generally buy a year or two old. Let somebody else take the biggest chunk of the depreciation on a new car but the car is still new enough for me to get several years out of it. I bought the Vibe new but that was because GM let me use their money for free while I did it.

[Pappy]

The last 'rod' I owned was a '71 Firebird Formula with a transplanted HO 455. The carb was never a problem, but the points distributor was. She always bogged down coming off the line. The guy I traded her to switched to an HEI and solved the problem. That was in the days of the 55mph limit and the shift kit wanted to go into high around 60-65. A real steady foot could get it to shift and back down to 55 without downshifting. A slight touch of the throttle kicked it down to second to pass. Step on it hard and the 60's on the rear left a mark on the pavement!

I have a non-matchong numbers '65 Chevy PU waiting for the time to tear her to the frame. Power train will be a '72 4-bolt 350, 700R4, and 3.07 gears. I will update to HEI distributor but stay with the carb. I picked up a Carter AFB Competition carb at as swap meet for $15. (That is the original design that is now made and sold by Edelbrock.)

[JimD]

My son has a Ford F-100 that is older than he is. It's a mid 70s and has electronic ignition but nothing else - no AC, no power anything except I think steering or maybe it's brakes, 3 on the tree, and a 300 in 6 cylinder. He is on his third engine. He had to hop it up, despite my input that this is no hot rod engine regardless of what he does (it has tons of torque but little horsepower). He put the first engine back together and got about 200 miles before the cylinder wall on #6 broke up. Then he bought a 240 that was running but only barely and wasted a little money. The third engine seems to work. It is bored 60 or more over with a hotter cam, better intake and headers and has 9 to 1 or a little higher compression. I still wish he had stayed stock but I'm happy he finally has something that runs. If he had waited until he had the money and a place to work on it, I would have had no real issue with the project. For a college kid, he had a mess but he worked his way through it. He replaced some brake lines and did some suspension work but it still needs a lot of help. An old pickup like this is an opportunity for a lot of work - but it can also do some. Right now he is driving it to work because the 1997 Suzuki I gave him has clutch problems (mechanism - it's hydraulic) and also is throwing trouble codes indicating it needs the back oxygen sensor or possibly the catalytic.

I'm keeping an old car around just-in-case he or I need it.

Jim

[jackellis]

I miss not being able to do basic maintenance on my vehicles (assuming I had the time), but on the other hand, today's cars are cleaner and typically need less routine work. In California, we can drive old cars and choke, or drive new cars and breathe.

[Woodshark]

Have you noticed how reliable the average car it today? When I was young, if you got a car to go 100,000 miles without the engine failing apart or the body rusting away it was cause for a major celebration. Now todays cars can pass that milestone and still run and look amost new.

Now I'll admit in my younger years to rebuilding engines and fiddling under the hood to much. Now, I don't miss it at all. Ok, maybe that Dodge Dart with the slant six. Now that was a easy engine to work on. Lift the hood and there as tons of free space around the block with everything easy to get to.

Our new cars, with all the sensors, electronics and dodads will run for a long time before they need service. But when they do..... you can't just open the hood and do a quick fix with old screwdriver and bailing wire.

Cake or eat it too?

[sscherin]

It's been proven that a well tuned old car in good running condition can pass smog even without cats. Now start throwing in Cams and other go-fast goodies and that goes out the window

I built a fairly mean 70 Firebird myself..
.060 over 455 (468 inch)
9.5-1 CR
Solid 288 .512 lift cam
Edelbrock Torquer II Intake
Modded Holley 3310 carb
260+ CFM 6X heads ported by SD Performance
HEI Ignition

TH-400 w 10" Continental 3k converter, full rebuild and shift kit done my me
3.42 posi rear
275-60-15 Drag TA/s on Custom 10" Rally II rims.

It ran 12.34 @ 108 with fuel delivery issues.. The guy I sold it to fixed the fuel issues
and ran 11s with it.

That thing even got 13mpg on a run up to Canada and back. (with occasional blasts to 100mph)

Other than that I've had about 30 cars ranging from the 60's to 2004..
The new ones are much more reliable but the old ones were more fun..

Right now I'm having fun fixing old motorcycles..

[pelligrini]

My daily driver is a '69 Camaro. I put in a GM Perfromance crate 350 in a couple years ago. I don't have to get into my toolbox as often anymore, but it still stays in the trunk. That's the third engine (second one I put in) since I got it in '88 or '89, second tranny, can't remember how many clutches and starters.

New cars with warantees are nice, but once it runs out repairs get difficult and expensive. Especially with all the luxury items like AC, power everything, motorized windows, etc. Our Taurus is starting to have all sorts of things starting to malfunction.