On my Benz, I've now put on something like 2k miles. Lessee... $1500 purchase price, $70 aux water pump, $30 speakers (do those count?), ~$12 in oil so far, $280 winter tires (again, do I count those? tires that came on it are new, just not good for winter, so I'll be putting those back on in April), $20 heater fan rebuild kit, $20 heater valve ... I think that's it. So still less than $2k so far.
It has now busted through its backyard exhaust patch it came with. I'm not addressing that yet, though. Its just before the first muffler. Inspection is good till 2011, so either I'll fix it before that time or before selling, whichever comes first (like that's a riddle). :shades:
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
My brother STILL drives the 1985 Chrysler Fifth Avenue
My parent's neighbor had an 86 5th Ave bought new. He put over 250K before any major trouble (reverse got cranky). I remember it had awesome tufted leather seats and frigid A/C (I swear today's cars don't get as cold).
I swear the AC in the Ciera we had when I was a kid was better than most modern cars. Seems odd to think about it, as the car itself was pretty boring.
The Chrysler Airtemp in the '63 Polara my family recently sold was the same, you could hang meat in there! The '96 Suburban, on the other hand, was a disaster, it couldn't keep up with Texas heat, AND the evaporator would ice up on long road trips, requiring periodic shut downs. :sick:
Interesting point you make about the evaporator. I have a '99 and '02 Blazers, and both of them will freeze up the evap. But both will freeze you out in a Texas summer.
I'll see if the LeSabre is on Ebay now. It's an old lady car pulled out of a garage: black on black with no glop top and dog dish hubcaps. It's a very basic car. This guy sticks with simple domestic cars and has a pretty good nose for them. As far as I know, he's never bought anything that was screwed.
I think '96 was the first year for the 'new' freon, so they may not have had it figured out completely. My worst experience was driving a total of 8 boys and their dads to the old Texas stadium in August in rush hour traffic, never could get it below about 85 :sick:
first, I got the DeSoto towed off to the mechanic. Hopefully it'll be roadworthy by April 2, my 40th birthday. And, ironically enough, Walter P. Chrysler's birthday!
And finally, FINALLY, that dude I sold my '68 Dart to finally came and picked it up! I kinda miss it, as I went through hell and back with that Dart, and it's been a part of my life for 17 1/2 years. But it also hasn't run since 2001, and it's got 338K miles on it, and it's just time to move on. So, while I was a bit sad to see it go, I was also humming "Na-na-hey-hey-good-bye" as it got towed away...
I can't believe the guy finally picked up the Dart, even though he paid for it (what?) a year or so ago.
Yeah, it was around New Year's that he paid me in full for it. He kept saying that he'd come get it, but would always come up with some plausible excuse, like losing his garage space when he had to fix his daughter's car, and then one day he was going to pick it up, but his daughter's door got kicked in and the place burglarized, so he had to secure it, and the last was that the truck he was going to use to pull it away with died on him. I called him yesterday and told him that the thing is starting to get in the way. I've been having to drive around the thing, on the grass, which wasn't so bad during the summer, but now that growing season's over, everything's getting wet and soft. I almost got my '79 5th Ave stuck in the yard trying to go around it last week, so I'd had enough. Plus, I've been wanting to get more gravel delivered so I can widen my driveway, but where I wanted to dump it was roughly where the Dart was parked.
Another problem, is that the house two doors down from me is vacant, and the owners are starting to use it as a bit of a junkyard. There's a partially dismantled 80's International school bus, plus a couple of handicap vans, and a few wrecked cars on the property...all of them untagged. My neighbor, who's between us, wants to call the county on them. Actually, one of my roommates does, too. But I've been begging them to hold off until I got that Dart out of here, because I was afraid that if the county came sniffing around, that Dart would draw attention. It had gotten to the point that a wild honeysuckle bush had sprouted beside it, and grown taller than the car. Amazing, how fast those things grow!
"But I've been begging them to hold off until I got that Dart out of here, because I was afraid that if the county came sniffing around, that Dart would draw attention."
Same kind of thing happened in our neighborhood. One neighbor does ZERO upkeep to his yard, so the city inspect his yard...and everybody else's, when he complains he's being singled out. Surprise, we all have to trim our trees back from over the street :mad:
And the neighbor? His yard still looks like :sick:
Surprise, we all have to trim our trees back from over the street
Why? Trees look nice when they overhang a street... especially when they do so on both sides and form a complete canopy over the road!
We used to have massive maple trees down the main street of my town (Helix, Oregon) that were a century or more old, and they covered the whole road, which was probably 60' wide. I have fond memories of riding down that street on my bicycle in the cool shade on hot summer days....
Unfortunately, they were getting toward the end of their lifespans in recent years and were removed in order to rebuild the sidewalks and curbs. When the city rebuilt, they took tree growth into consideration (which was not done the first time) when replanting and placing the walks. Maybe in another fifty years.....
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
huh? I can't imagine why, given a.) good luck finding parts, b.) the choice between that hulk and any number of (potentially fun and/or fast or pretty) five THOUSAND dollar jalopies waiting to be fixed up, and most importantly, c.) what the hell do you do with it once it IS fixed up? I mean, you wouldn't use it commercially, you can't drive it anywhere and you can't keep it in 99% of driveways or garages in the U.S. Odd marketing there, with the requisite owner-is-dreaming price. :confuse:
and they covered the whole road, which was probably 60' wide
Oh just what I would want... more leaves to rake and more bird droppings to clean off the car. Trees look nice, but between them tearing up the sidewalk and everything else keep them in the backyards. I currently have to take one out that the previous owners put too close to a retaining wall in my the corner of my yard. So not only do I have to pay for tree removal I have to put on my mason's hat and fix the wall. :sick:
That Dart wasn't sunk into the ground, was it? I can't wait to see the DeSoto when you get it up and running. Will you bring it to the Carlisle Chrysler show?
Nah, I had moved the Dart onto my gravel driveway back in early 2008, so it was easy for the tow truck to just back up and get it. As for the DeSoto, if it's roadworthy by then, I'll have it at the Mopar show!
Cool! I can't wait to see it!!! I love those Exner Mopars!
I'm surprised nobody has a scale model of the 1957 DeSoto. Danbury Mint has two of the 1957 Chrysler New Yorker and two of the 1957 Chrysler 300, several variations of the 1958 Plymouth, and even a 1956 DeSoto.
1) The Dart is gone to its new home 2) The DeSoto has gone to the mechanic for a freshening up 3) The 'Trep is waiting to be picked up now that it has been totaled
Sounds to me like you've got quite a lot of space to fill in your yard! C'mon, get moving and get a replacement for the 'Trep already.
Price for the Diamond T truck is crazy. It's probably worth that all fixed up and running, but certainly not as is. It's going to have to grow more weeks I'm afraid.
Probably worth $1000---should be easy to fix up cosmetically, but I bet the wiring is a rat's nest and there's no functional bed.
The 'Trep was the victim of a hit and run while parked. Because it's a 9 year old Dodge with 150K on the clock, Andre accepted $2K in return for the car and the title.
He's now getting pestered from about a dozen of us with advice on what to replace it with.
'm sorry to hear it, Andre; I hope you were not injured!
Thanks. Fortunately, the car was unattended in a parking lot when someone pulled a hit-and-run on it. Damage isn't all that bad, but at 10 years, 150K miles, it was enough to total it. I would've been tempted to buy it back and fix it up myself, but the salvage laws in Maryland are kind of a pain and try to discourage that.
When the city rebuilt, they took tree growth into consideration (which was not done the first time) when replanting and placing the walks. Maybe in another fifty years.....
I've been planting oak saplings all about in the yard. I've been finding them coming up in inconvenient areas like under my grandmother's deck, my neighbor's flower garden, etc. I'm probably going overkill with 'em, but as slow as they grow, I'll probably be dead by the time they're big enough to worry about!
There's one oak tree that came up in my grandmother's yard near the property line that's maybe 18 feet tall now. Well, I found and old picture of the DeSoto taken around 1991 in that same part of the yard, and the tree wasn't there then. So, if it takes 18 years just for that, I guess I'd better be patient!
Haha; I'm in Fairbanks, Alaska.... I know exactly how you feel! Trees take a LONG time to grow here. I have a few elm trees (Siberian, not American) that I planted from seed nine years ago. The biggest one is now about the size of a silver dollar at the base, and is about 10' tall. I remember being so excited, about three years ago, when that one finally grew taller than me!
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
Oh, hahaha.... so that comment I quipped about only imagining you in a Chrysler 300, if you were to buy a new car, could have been construed as more than just an offbeat comment? Sorry 'bout that....
I always find it frustrating when a car meets its end in such a way. I still have not quite made amends with the loss of my '96 Outback.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
Sometimes those trees grow to a point they're a danger. The neighborhood around my workplace was built-up around 60 years ago. As part of streetscaping, trees were planted in voids set aside in the sidewalks. Those little saplings grew to mighty oaks in six decades. One had HUGE roots that upheaved the sidewalk by at least a foot. This huge tree became top heavy and fell on top of a Dodge minivan last month. Wish I still had the picture. The van was flattened like a soda can.
Per 'Trep replacements, how about a V-6 Lucerne? Try to get a 3.6 as I think the 3.8 is no match for the Lucerne's size. I was thinking how more sensible a Lucerne would've been than the Cadillac DTS I instead purchased. Funny, I'm sure everybody would love to see you get some kind of hot rod Poncho or Mopar muscle, but I see you were thinking more like 4-cylinder Altima, Fusion, or Honda in another post. How about a 4-cylinder Malibu?
I don't believe the 3.6 is available in the Lucerne. It had the 3.8 and the Northstar originally. Then last year it got the 3.9 from the Impala. I have driven the 3.8 and the V8 and can tell in that car the V8 is the only way to go IMO. Much more reifined and powerful for not that bad a hit in FE.
Call me nuts... but the 80s LeBaron has a mid 90s Pontiac CD player in it. What a hack job that must be. Otherwise, nice survivior. My stepdad had a Chrysler that talked....Annoying to say the least "A door is Ajar" "Your fuel is low" oh the 80s.
Hahah; I remember watching a movie oh-so-long ago, called Gleaming the Cube, with Christian Slater, that had a car like that in it. At one point, the door to the car gets ripped off by a post or something, and the car keeps repeating, "Your door is ajar, your door is ajar...." :mad:
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
I had my project car out in the cold today...I swear, the car doesn't seem to be aging in a physical sense, just getting older. As long as it keeps running and driving as decently as it does...I can't see why I would even think of any kind of restoration.
Yep...it's about as old as the car too. A kind of dorky thing I bought when I was a teenager, right around the time I bought the car itself...both are hanging around due to sentimental attachment now :shades:
That is cool...most of those early Supras were automatic. Condition looks very nice. I like the period wheels too.
When I was in high school a kid I knew found one of those Supras...maybe even the same color as that one. It was nice when he got it...not so nice as time passed :sick:
wow, very nice. Strange how exotic 'EFI', electric windows, a button-tufted vinyl interior and a crank sunroof were for US-bound Japanese cars were back then. The styling for its time was top-notch, though.
Last night on "Pawn Stars" this guy brings in what appears to be a Shelby Cobra body to the pawn shop. He got it on a lien sale for overdue storage.
What was there was an aluminum body and front and rear suspension---that's it---no interior, drivetrain, gauges or paint.
Well the pawn shop guys don't know diddley about Cobras so they take it to a Vegas Cobra expert. Everyone is initially dubious since there are a gazillion replicas out there, some of which do work in aluminum.
Anyway, I'm lookin' at the car through the TV screen and I'm thinkin' "you know, this car looks pretty real".
SURE ENOUGH, the VIN #s are all there.
Guy (clueless) sells it to the pawn shop for $30K; the pawn shop invests another $80K or so to restore it (with a big-A 427 aftermarket block, and replica parts).
So the shop is into it $110K. Of course, it's not going to bring the same money as a correct Cobra, but still, he's going to come out pretty fat on it.
Why can't I find things like that in storage yards?
All I find are things like 1/2 a rusted Triumph Spitfire or a '95 Taurus with 4 flats and different colored doors
Oh that's not exactly true---I do get lucky once in a blue moon.
I saw that show (real coincidence, since that's the only episode I've ever seen), and was also amazed that they stumbled onto a REAL Cobra... :surprise:
How much would that chassis have been worth untouched? I wonder if they might have netted more just selling it that way?
I was thinking the same thing...a thick spoked wheel with a bare metal finish. I think those wheels might be a few years newer than the car. They are still cool in an 80s way though.
Comments
Sounds like he really knows cars. I'd be worried about the why behind the 'not starting'.
Shifty Sez: "Expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed"
** TRUE STORY (eye witness)--- friend of mine bought a very clean Volvo 240 that wasn't starting---seller said it was "running rough".
He got it started and the engine shook like holy hell. The whole car vibrated.
He took the head off, only to find NO PISTON inside one of the cylinders and a leather belt wrapped around the crank pin oil galley.
(I found him a good used engine, eventually).
Now that's a horror story.
On my Benz, I've now put on something like 2k miles. Lessee... $1500 purchase price, $70 aux water pump, $30 speakers (do those count?), ~$12 in oil so far, $280 winter tires (again, do I count those? tires that came on it are new, just not good for winter, so I'll be putting those back on in April), $20 heater fan rebuild kit, $20 heater valve ... I think that's it. So still less than $2k so far.
It has now busted through its backyard exhaust patch it came with. I'm not addressing that yet, though. Its just before the first muffler. Inspection is good till 2011, so either I'll fix it before that time or before selling, whichever comes first (like that's a riddle). :shades:
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
My parent's neighbor had an 86 5th Ave bought new. He put over 250K before any major trouble (reverse got cranky). I remember it had awesome tufted leather seats and frigid A/C (I swear today's cars don't get as cold).
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Uh-oh, that aroused my curiosity! Tell Andre all about it!
And finally, FINALLY, that dude I sold my '68 Dart to finally came and picked it up! I kinda miss it, as I went through hell and back with that Dart, and it's been a part of my life for 17 1/2 years. But it also hasn't run since 2001, and it's got 338K miles on it, and it's just time to move on. So, while I was a bit sad to see it go, I was also humming "Na-na-hey-hey-good-bye" as it got towed away...
I can't believe the guy finally picked up the Dart, even though he paid for it (what?) a year or so ago.
I was saddened to part with my '80 Volvo 240 after 21 years of ownership, but I can honestly say I don't miss it much now.
Yeah, it was around New Year's that he paid me in full for it. He kept saying that he'd come get it, but would always come up with some plausible excuse, like losing his garage space when he had to fix his daughter's car, and then one day he was going to pick it up, but his daughter's door got kicked in and the place burglarized, so he had to secure it, and the last was that the truck he was going to use to pull it away with died on him. I called him yesterday and told him that the thing is starting to get in the way. I've been having to drive around the thing, on the grass, which wasn't so bad during the summer, but now that growing season's over, everything's getting wet and soft. I almost got my '79 5th Ave stuck in the yard trying to go around it last week, so I'd had enough. Plus, I've been wanting to get more gravel delivered so I can widen my driveway, but where I wanted to dump it was roughly where the Dart was parked.
Another problem, is that the house two doors down from me is vacant, and the owners are starting to use it as a bit of a junkyard. There's a partially dismantled 80's International school bus, plus a couple of handicap vans, and a few wrecked cars on the property...all of them untagged. My neighbor, who's between us, wants to call the county on them. Actually, one of my roommates does, too. But I've been begging them to hold off until I got that Dart out of here, because I was afraid that if the county came sniffing around, that Dart would draw attention. It had gotten to the point that a wild honeysuckle bush had sprouted beside it, and grown taller than the car. Amazing, how fast those things grow!
Same kind of thing happened in our neighborhood. One neighbor does ZERO upkeep to his yard, so the city inspect his yard...and everybody else's, when he complains he's being singled out. Surprise, we all have to trim our trees back from over the street :mad:
And the neighbor? His yard still looks like :sick:
Why? Trees look nice when they overhang a street... especially when they do so on both sides and form a complete canopy over the road!
We used to have massive maple trees down the main street of my town (Helix, Oregon) that were a century or more old, and they covered the whole road, which was probably 60' wide. I have fond memories of riding down that street on my bicycle in the cool shade on hot summer days....
Unfortunately, they were getting toward the end of their lifespans in recent years and were removed in order to rebuild the sidewalks and curbs. When the city rebuilt, they took tree growth into consideration (which was not done the first time) when replanting and placing the walks. Maybe in another fifty years.....
Oh just what I would want... more leaves to rake and more bird droppings to clean off the car. Trees look nice, but between them tearing up the sidewalk and everything else keep them in the backyards. I currently have to take one out that the previous owners put too close to a retaining wall in my the corner of my yard. So not only do I have to pay for tree removal I have to put on my mason's hat and fix the wall. :sick:
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Nah, I had moved the Dart onto my gravel driveway back in early 2008, so it was easy for the tow truck to just back up and get it. As for the DeSoto, if it's roadworthy by then, I'll have it at the Mopar show!
I'm surprised nobody has a scale model of the 1957 DeSoto. Danbury Mint has two of the 1957 Chrysler New Yorker and two of the 1957 Chrysler 300, several variations of the 1958 Plymouth, and even a 1956 DeSoto.
1) The Dart is gone to its new home
2) The DeSoto has gone to the mechanic for a freshening up
3) The 'Trep is waiting to be picked up now that it has been totaled
Sounds to me like you've got quite a lot of space to fill in your yard! C'mon, get moving and get a replacement for the 'Trep already.
Probably worth $1000---should be easy to fix up cosmetically, but I bet the wiring is a rat's nest and there's no functional bed.
He's now getting pestered from about a dozen of us with advice on what to replace it with.
Thanks. Fortunately, the car was unattended in a parking lot when someone pulled a hit-and-run on it. Damage isn't all that bad, but at 10 years, 150K miles, it was enough to total it. I would've been tempted to buy it back and fix it up myself, but the salvage laws in Maryland are kind of a pain and try to discourage that.
I've been planting oak saplings all about in the yard. I've been finding them coming up in inconvenient areas like under my grandmother's deck, my neighbor's flower garden, etc. I'm probably going overkill with 'em, but as slow as they grow, I'll probably be dead by the time they're big enough to worry about!
There's one oak tree that came up in my grandmother's yard near the property line that's maybe 18 feet tall now. Well, I found and old picture of the DeSoto taken around 1991 in that same part of the yard, and the tree wasn't there then. So, if it takes 18 years just for that, I guess I'd better be patient!
I always find it frustrating when a car meets its end in such a way. I still have not quite made amends with the loss of my '96 Outback.
Per 'Trep replacements, how about a V-6 Lucerne? Try to get a 3.6 as I think the 3.8 is no match for the Lucerne's size. I was thinking how more sensible a Lucerne would've been than the Cadillac DTS I instead purchased. Funny, I'm sure everybody would love to see you get some kind of hot rod Poncho or Mopar muscle, but I see you were thinking more like 4-cylinder Altima, Fusion, or Honda in another post. How about a 4-cylinder Malibu?
I don't believe the 3.6 is available in the Lucerne. It had the 3.8 and the Northstar originally. Then last year it got the 3.9 from the Impala. I have driven the 3.8 and the V8 and can tell in that car the V8 is the only way to go IMO. Much more reifined and powerful for not that bad a hit in FE.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Stripper
Beast
Another 80s Mopar for Andre
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Yeah, its only 110 hp, but still kinda cool.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
When I was in high school a kid I knew found one of those Supras...maybe even the same color as that one. It was nice when he got it...not so nice as time passed :sick:
What was there was an aluminum body and front and rear suspension---that's it---no interior, drivetrain, gauges or paint.
Well the pawn shop guys don't know diddley about Cobras so they take it to a Vegas Cobra expert. Everyone is initially dubious since there are a gazillion replicas out there, some of which do work in aluminum.
Anyway, I'm lookin' at the car through the TV screen and I'm thinkin' "you know, this car looks pretty real".
SURE ENOUGH, the VIN #s are all there.
Guy (clueless) sells it to the pawn shop for $30K; the pawn shop invests another $80K or so to restore it (with a big-A 427 aftermarket block, and replica parts).
So the shop is into it $110K. Of course, it's not going to bring the same money as a correct Cobra, but still, he's going to come out pretty fat on it.
Why can't I find things like that in storage yards?
All I find are things like 1/2 a rusted Triumph Spitfire or a '95 Taurus with 4 flats and different colored doors
Oh that's not exactly true---I do get lucky once in a blue moon.
How much would that chassis have been worth untouched? I wonder if they might have netted more just selling it that way?