Reminiscing about older vehicles

[ultrarunner]

My 72 slant 6 was the $800 car I drove for 20 years... half the time towing a 5x9 box dump trailer with lumber, concrete...

 

[Rustyiron]

A couple years back I went to see a 56 T-Bird in Marin County north of San Francisco... the older guy had it 30 years and it had been in his garage the last 10 and not driven.

We rolled it out and got it started... sounded real good.

Soon several neighbors came out and down to a last one I and he were getting lectured on how irresponsible it would be to put this car on the road... environmentally irresponsible.

I wonder if any of these ahole's thought about the "enviromental cost" of making all that steel, wire, glass & rubber again? Maybe not so on an antique, but that foolish cash for clunkers deal:confused2: They just need to get over themselves, better yet "off" themselves. They are using O2 and expelling dangerous co2:thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

No... there are a lot of strange things around here...

Wood burning a public enemy number one... old cars need to be off the streets and put in museums... then there is no longer being able to buy paints for do it yourself restorations... plus 40 years and growing emission testing.

I'm not that old but have sure seen a lot!

 

[TomSeller]

A couple years back I went to see a 56 T-Bird in Marin County north of San Francisco... the older guy had it 30 years and it had been in his garage the last 10 and not driven.

We rolled it out and got it started... sounded real good.

Soon several neighbors came out and down to a last one I and he were getting lectured on how irresponsible it would be to put this car on the road... environmentally irresponsible.

That would be about the time I'd jump in it, fire it up and give it an Italian tune up.

Reminds me of when diesels were a lot slower and I would have some fancy car get right up on my tailgate..... I'd just downshift and engulf them in a cloud of diesel exhaust. They always backed off. This was back when diesels billowed out lots of smoke.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've wondered what ever happened to the live and let live philosophy that was so prevalent in California in the 1960's...

 

[ovrszd]

I've wondered what ever happened to the live and let live philosophy that was so prevalent in California in the 1960's...

I think the underlying message here is that it never existed. Only if you live and let live to suit the dominant crowd. Otherwise, you are a loser that needs corrected.

 

[smilinjak]

Bruce your "A" banger couldn't have been any newer than a 31, just or older than a 28. Did you ever use the hand crank? That was a skill that I never wanted to use enough to get good at it. You only forgot to ****** the spark once. Usually after the cast was off your arm and your thumb had healed you parked on a hill to be sure it wasn't necessary to use the stem winder.
I think our progression of vehicles was very similar. You covered most of the important amenities of the early ones. Chevys with manual chokes shouldn't have had back windows because in cold weather you had to pull the choke out til your hand hit the back window, farther would have been better.

Smilinjak

 

[bcp]

Never had to crank the Ford "A" but always cranked the John Deere "LA" and "A."

Much later I had a VW with a bad battery and a long time to payday. I got pretty good at quickly jacking up a rear wheel, giving it a spin, and starting it.

Same with a Land Rover, but it came with a conventional crank to go in the front, which I used in the same situation for a couple of weeks.

You get pretty good at finding parking spaces with a downslope to use instead.

Bruce

 

[TomSeller]

Never had to crank the Ford "A" but always cranked the John Deere "LA" and "A."

Much later I had a VW with a bad battery and a long time to payday. I got pretty good at quickly jacking up a rear wheel, giving it a spin, and starting it.

Same with a Land Rover, but it came with a conventional crank to go in the front, which I used in the same situation for a couple of weeks.

You get pretty good at finding parking spaces with a downslope to use instead.

Bruce

I parked at the top of a hill for years and compression started every day. My gauge didn't work, neither did the radio. So I got good at listening for the gas to slosh from one side to the other. When it didn't, I pulled into a gas station to add $2. Good times, those days.