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What was your first car? What happened to it?
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replace Carter 1YF, fuel pump, adjust valves. Lots of fun. First car I bought (USAF) on my own was '54 Olds 98 2 Door hartop with 4 bbl carb and hydro for $275 from Staff sergeant. Would burn rubber on initial launch. Lots of tickets
'55 BelAire was sold in 1964 by my Dad for $450.00 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Zero to 35 it was slow, but 35 to 120+ was pretty quick. 9.5 mpg city, 10.5 highway, using premium leaded if you could find it. The owners manual said it liked to drink 98 octane but I never found anything higher than 92. It had a 25 gal fuel tank. You could land small planes on it if you ran into the wind.
I sold it for $400 in '78. I never mention it anymore to my dad; whenever I did he gave me grief for selling it. What he'd do with it is beyond me. But it was a great car.
Now I have a '99 Chrysler 300M I bought new. It's only my 4th car, including that old Imperial. The average mileage of the three I've sold has been 157k at an average of 10 years old. I plan to increase both averages with this car.
Igor
The Special Deluxe was the base model of the Buick mid-size line (i.e. Skylark). Despite its base model status, this was still a very attractive car with its teal blue mist finish and white enamel top. It hard a medium blue vinyl interior with AM radio and power rear window. It rode on 14" Goodyear bias-ply white stripe tires with full wheel disks. My car had Buick's 350 (5.7 litre) cid V-8 with 2 bbl carb giving a very respectable 230 hp. It was mated to a Hydramatic two-speed automatic that was damn near indestructible.
This car handled very well and could hold its own in nasty N.E. Pennsylvania winters with merely the application of snow tires. Despite its antiquated all-drum brakes, the car could stop on a dime. Gas mileage (regular leaded) was a very respectable 19 mpg for a 1968 intermediate which would be bigger than today's full-size car. My brother, using the appropriate additives, was able to run the car using regular unleaded when leaded gasoline was phased out in Pennsylvania in the late 80s.
Repairs were a snap. This car was beauty in its simplicity. All engine components were easy to identify. Today you open the hood of a car and you don't know what you're looking at. Replacing a water pump took a mere 20 minutes! I would dread having to perform this task with today's cars. Spark plugs? No problem! Parts were cheap and plentiful. Repairs can be done by anybody with rudimentary mechanical skills. Besides replacing the water pump, the car asked nothing of me except basic maintenance, (oil change, transmission fluid change, belts, brakes, etc.).
There was plenty of room for cargo in the back. Perhaps much more than a modern SUV. I was almost able to haul the contents of entire college apartment in the back with the rear seat folded down.
One of the things I didn't like was access to the spare tire. The spare was stowed in a compartment on the right rear of the car and required the strength of Schwarzenegger to lift from its deep well. If that wasn't bad enough, removing and replacing the jack was also a chore.
Ergonomics were a joke in 1968. The seats had about as much support as your average park bench. Your back would hurt after a while on long trips. The heater controls were two tiny thumbwheels you had to constantly crank to get to the proper setting. The horn button was a longitudinal piece in the lower bottom 2/3 of the steering wheel that required one to take his hand off the wheel to activate. You almost needed gorilla arms to reach the radio. I later hung an AM/FM cassette unit from the bottom of the dash. I didn't want to remove the original Sonomatic radio with its cool "BUICK" lettering on the buttons.
Two other things were that the shine on a teal blue mist finish doesn't last long and required me to polish the car every two weeks and that bias-ply tires don't last as long as today's steel-belted radials. As an aside - don't mix bias tires with radials. It will very adversely affect handling.
I drove this car until I bought my first new car in 1987 - a black Chevrolet Caprice Classic and gave the station wagon to my brother. Unfortunately, my brother doesn't maintain cars very well. The body began to rust and the car soon lost all of its hubcaps but despite his neglect the car still ran until 1992! Even then all the car needed was a new battery, but the body was pretty much shot. Mechanically, the car was still bulletproof. After the wagon went to the boneyard my father gave my brother his old 1981 Ford Thunderbird. My brother later said, "I should've kept that station wagon. It was a much better car!" If you can still find one of these Buicks - go for it and keep it forever!
For those who would like to see an old picture of it, please go to the following web site....
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=263307&uid=81123
-David
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Ah, the mistakes we make when we are young and need money...
I was only 13 when I won it so my sister got to use it until I got my license at 15. I slept in it the first night that I had it. No, it's not that weird if you're a 13 year old kid. lol
Anyway, it was a light blue, it had air conditioning, chrome, it was the loaded model. It had the 2000 cc engine giving a enthusiastic 110 horsepower. Oh, and the automatic transmission.
I had this car until 1980, when I sold it for $150. to a former Vega owner. It took me all through my teen years with many many fond memories. I lived in Columbia, South Carolina when I got it. I ran it all through the south and all the way to New York, when I moved here. I ran this car all the way up I-95, doing 70 mph with no problem. With a bad cam, and leaking oil like a sieve. The oil would run down the fenders it was so bad. I would pull into the gas station and say, "Fill it with oil and check the gas."
It looked like hell when I sold it. She had been rear ended, the front fender was smashed up from a parking lot incident ( thats another story), the master brake cylinder was bad, the brake lights... what brakes lights!, the banging cam shaft, (its third), but, she ran.
I now have a 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII that I adore. I only hope that this one treats me like the Pinto did... loyally
Loaded w/AMC's big block 390 V8/315 hp, Carter 650cfm 4bbl, Hurst Competion Plus 4spd. w/Borg Warner T-10 tranny, 3:54 twin grip posi rear, A/C, tilt wheel, power steering/brakes. LOVE THIS CAR & glad I never fell prey to getting rid of it for something different. It's a summer driver only car that I will be taking to cruise-in's or plain ole joy rides w/the wife as I have been doing for past 30 years. Yea I'm that young!! Bought it when I was 18.
Ray T.
With that car you didn't WANT to go more than 10 miles from home.
Regarding the Olds, I'm not sure it's a good idea to even do a valve job on a tired engine, especially if the rings are suspect. I did that once and turned a decent-running Chevy with no obvious blowby into something a mosquito abatement district could use.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Unfortunatly I was rear ended with
only 37 miles showing on the odometer.
Dave
bumper guards and diamond shape white walls by
General Tire. I paid cash for it ($1400) and
it fit my budget for a used car at the time. I
only wish I had $250 more at the time so I could
buy the car I really wanted, a 66 Red T-Bird with
white vinyl roof and interior. The Nova was a
dog, I only had it for 14 months before I traded
it in for my first new car, a 75 Mercury Monarch
with soon to be re-called Firestone 500 tires!
Everyone raved about the straight six that came
in my Nova but in retrospect I shoulda got a
V-8, T-Bird that is. I often think about how the
purchase of my first car determined the entire
timing of all my future car purchases. If I went
with the T-Bird I probably would not be in the
market for a new car in 1975, etc. etc.
Jerry
Ray T.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Most domestics went to 12 volt in 1955, some sooner than that.
This would have been in about '79, I was 15. So, a five year old car barely worth $50. Way to go Chevy!!!!
It had rust, rust, and rust.
The engine lasted for a while. But then in good old Vega fashion started to use a LOT of water and oil. I literally went through a 55gal drum of oil in a year and a half! I used to carry 6 gals of water in the trunk.
The last six months..... I would crank the engine over and water would shoot out of the exhaust pipe. Then I could get a cylinder or two going. Sometimes by the time I got to school (8 miles), I could have all four going. It would take a mile or so to get up to speed with 2 or 3 firing. It also had constant steam coming out of the exhaust. It would take me two "hops" to get to my girlfriends 18 miles away. Stop halfway, totally overheated, get some water in, go the rest of the way. Talk to her parents while the car cooled down, put some more water in and off to the movies!
I sold parts off of it for about $200. So, all that fun and a profit too.
My husband's first car really belongs in this topic more than mine, because it's a '49 Chevy that he still owns. Needs some work to be safe on the street, but that's our next project. That will come before we buy a house, I'm guessing. And it's name is the Walrus, because of the tusks on the bumper. For anyone who's interested, you can see it here.
http://www.billtanner.net/walrus.html
Yeah, if your Chevy's condition is as good as it looks I wouldn't rush into restoring it. You could easily get buried in that car. Use the money on a down payment for a house--it'll appreciate a lot better than an old Chevy.
speedshift, you're right about submerging in restoration, given the opportunity. That's why we're only concentrating on the mechanical stuff for now. We sold his house, so we have the down payment for the next house, but we don't want to sink it into the Walrus and be stuck in my townhouse. No garage is a big problem. The carport is fine for our daily drivers, but not for the Walrus. Although my neighbor has a '48 Chevy in his carport, under a cover.
Over the seven years I owned it (until my first son was born)I depolluted it, exchanged the two SU carbs for three Webbers, put on headers, a hot cam, Koni shocks, 7" western dish chrome rims, 215/60 Eagle GT's, anti-sways and Recaros. Everything else was stock, so it had the originally designed bumpers and original ride height ... before it became the monster 260, 280.
The car was perfect. Reliable as hell and rode like a slot car amusement ride -- great neck snap.
Cried when I sold it, but figured I got a kid out of the deal, so what the hell.
Now, I've got two teenage boys and I'm just waitin till they're through with college so I can buy a toy (Z06 convertible, TT, Boxster S, Z3, etc.)