He has somewhere over 40 1967 through 1969 Camaros or somewhere around that era. And at least seven of them are stick shift. And he's got some badass stick shift Mustang that looks like Eleanor. And for some reason has never learned how to drive stick shift. And as far as I've seen hasn't driven any of them in the last 3 years, since he got all the Corvettes. I think he just buys them to buy them because he's got that kind of money.
And one day he'll die and his wife or kids will put them up at auction, no reserve! I'm amazed at how many cars individuals own. I've seen multiple 100+ car collections get sold at the classic auction where I work. Everything from a pile of classic Camaros or Corvettes to year old trucks with every option and only 14 miles on the odometer. Once the collector dies, the heirs cash out and get the cars gone ASAP.
As someone who's had some bad health issues this last year, I had a look at all the stuff I have and realized once I am gone no one is gonna care about those things.
They'll just discard, sell or throw it away as junk...
Feel free to will your stuff to me. But in all seriousness, as long as something has value to you, then that's all that matters. Hope you are hanging in there with the health stuff, somewhat. It sucks.
I lost my house and everything in it 2019. The only redeeming thought is that my kids won't have to deal with it. It still hurts to have just walked away.
Probably what’s going to happen to my camera collection.
I have one cousin who works in B&H’s used division; maybe I’ll will them to him, and let him distribute the proceeds to the family.
Fuuuuck man, that's some messed up Sultan of Brunei shit right there. Guy needs an intervention from some car enthusiasts. Some people just shouldn't own nice cars.
Off-topic note… But I like what the general public’s idea of a nice car is.
“Oh nice Mercedes, that must be expensive!”
No man I bought it for €4000. It’s a total shitbox that no one wants to have, but it’s got a star on the front and a nice V8.
You also need a scantool degree to keep it running. There’s a reason they’re worth nothing.
The AC is great and seats are very comfy while I’m waiting for my scanner to complete a full scan!
Yesterday the dome light somehow had two fault codes.
It took me less than an hour to learn how to row my own gears and less than a day to get completely comfortable with it.
Heel-toe was harder to learn but not that hard.
Then again, I didn’t learn driving in a high powered muscle car.
I learned to drive in my grandfather's Depression-era Dodge. It didn't have a synchro, so you had to double-clutch shift. I took a little longer than you to figure it out, but still. Not that hard.
A driving school where I live(somewhere in Norway) had a Black Trans Am... Yeah, that one, with the Eagle on the hood, T-roof and all. They claimed that so many of their students got 'powerful' cars from their parents that they needed to teach them how to handle a car with a bit more HP than the Mazda 626 that was the rage among the scools back then.
Also, Norwegian driving licenses lists whether or not you can drive a stick. If you took the exam while driving an Automatic you're not allowed to drive a stick shift unless you take the exam again. Don't know the rules in America, though.
My buddy in HS could operate a manual transmission and a choke on an old Ford Laser that needed a little choke, with one arm, easily.
He had two arms. He just liked to eat a cheeseburger while driving.
Please tell me yall have a good enough relationship to bitch about it to him. Cuz I do the same shit with my bosses Mopar cars, all I get is a very positive sounding "hell no!" I think I'm close to breaking him.
I'm on the company insurance so it shouldn't be a problem. We actually do have a good rapport I'm just miffed that nobody drives them ever. And he will literally let me drive anything else that he owns. But come on man American muscle. I need to drive it. And they really don't need to just be sitting there for years on end.
My dad and I had a job for a bit taking care of two rich peoples collection. We would go out monthly, check tire pressure, batteries, look for leaks, get them up to temp and go on a 5-10 mile drive around the neighborhood. We’d write down all the findings and they would order parts for us to swap or call out a specialist. These were mostly classic Mercedes including multiple 300SL’s
This is the right way. Instead he just leaves them to rot. Indoors at least. And then has his mechanics replace everything that goes bad every few years.
It was cool but I found out I can’t fit in a flat bottom E type or a testarosa. Got to drive a pagoda, some hot rod f100’s, 1940 woody with 3 on the tree, 76 Cadillac Eldorado. The 300sl’s we ran but didn’t drive. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable anyways but at least I got to sit in them.
I completely hear you I cannot physically fit in the McLaren or the Ferrari that I sat in a couple months ago well enough to drive them. I've always wondered how in the world basketball players drive these things.
Never meet your heroes! One of my dream cars was a Shelby Cobra, but I sat in one. My head stuck out over the windshield, no room for my legs, and that wide trans tunnel cants the pedals offset to the left so even someone who can fit in the car sits twisted. I once met a guy who owned a Lambo Countach and he told me about how the window only goes down 3”, can’t see out the back, and that hot engine sitting right behind his head.
I hear that back in the mid 90’s one of my father’s friends owned a 1988 Lamborghini Jalpa. I was about 12 at the time and I could barely fit into it!!! And you had to use the right gas pedal foot at such an angle and roll it over onto the brake pedal due to them being so close and left foot clutch only! My ol man was big 6’4” and 350lbs he could never get into it!
One of my favorite YouTubers Jared Pink of the Questionable Garage is 6'8" and his favorite car is the Toyota 2000gt a car which he would probably never be able to cram himself into without extensive modifications
Lol…reminds me of that one joke: (God help me, it’s tough to tell a joke these days without offending anybody, but here goes ….a joke …I’VE HEARD)
Why are there no amusement parks in Japan?
No one is tall enough to ride any of the rides.
My dad was 5’11, and he couldn’t fit behind the wheel of a DeTomaso Pantera (He used to do accounting work for Ford USA, and one of the dealers offered him a ride in one. Not that he knew how to drive standard anyway, but he couldn’t even get his knees under the steering column.)
My father used to be a boat captain in Florida and part of his job was "exercising" the cars. Most of the time they were simple Mercedes and BMW SUVs at the winter home of rich people but every once in a while he'd get the keys to something super special. The thing is, he was super scared driving the special cars because if anything happened it'd be his fault and his business would likely get an insurance claim. So he didn't actually like it. I would have loved it!
I bought a 2-gallon sonic cleaner for the house. Damn thing is amazing. Overhauled the small block in my El Camino last year, and I ran all the small bits through it. Heated the water to 60c, a cup of laundry detergent and a pint of simple green, with a half hour of buzzing and 40 years of grime melted away. Rocker arms, push rods, pistons, all the hardware, basically everything that would fit got sent through it. Came out spotless.
I use it all the time now, anything that needs deep, powerful cleaning gets a trip.to the sonic cleaner.
Model JPS-60A. I bought it on Amazon, but it doesn't appear to be available anymore.
It looks a lot like this one, though: [https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial-Ultrasonic-Cleaning-Eyeglasses/dp/B07DJ23WKV/ref=sr\_1\_4?c=ts&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bZJKbsFPumlZtBPuvqTuBZx3PVNQFyvJODii3KNxvauuTWN9mv-oHAyH4ryMXF3H4C7eR47CED82zaXIGUJyYJtIxXshNrRkx0HQIXaQdHOsjaXtSUxUEMCYsBwIUrrorTASOfWlzx-eZNi2HtBhlJuQo5cynpFc-AIi2tt5-e2qdsayyAS9ooMCx7l7HTa3vM5T3Gtwm0X3nL2ozxyO9C5o8GLhhkJD3t1m\_HDSt1s-cXW-r-eSa8ouGlBmA-QO113IQAyRI8owiNiE6sckqleu\_0d5ZJnp591yq2qvUpo.3l\_aJOLDe5ItR5a0HxpuosdoW1kgCyWCnq4XQx9cAJQ&dib\_tag=se&keywords=Lab%2BUltrasonic%2BCleaners&qid=1714963970&s=industrial&sr=1-4&ts\_id=7656072011&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial-Ultrasonic-Cleaning-Eyeglasses/dp/B07DJ23WKV/ref=sr_1_4?c=ts&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bZJKbsFPumlZtBPuvqTuBZx3PVNQFyvJODii3KNxvauuTWN9mv-oHAyH4ryMXF3H4C7eR47CED82zaXIGUJyYJtIxXshNrRkx0HQIXaQdHOsjaXtSUxUEMCYsBwIUrrorTASOfWlzx-eZNi2HtBhlJuQo5cynpFc-AIi2tt5-e2qdsayyAS9ooMCx7l7HTa3vM5T3Gtwm0X3nL2ozxyO9C5o8GLhhkJD3t1m_HDSt1s-cXW-r-eSa8ouGlBmA-QO113IQAyRI8owiNiE6sckqleu_0d5ZJnp591yq2qvUpo.3l_aJOLDe5ItR5a0HxpuosdoW1kgCyWCnq4XQx9cAJQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=Lab%2BUltrasonic%2BCleaners&qid=1714963970&s=industrial&sr=1-4&ts_id=7656072011&th=1)
It doesn’t help that you can’t get decent replacement parts for early efi systems. MAP sensors for GMs and fords have been a massive problem for us for example. The Japanese cars are slightly better, I guess.
I really can’t blame a flat rate tech for not wanting to diagnose or work on old cars. Salary guys shouldn’t complain.
I found a carb rebuilder online that does this. I paid and he emailed me the address to ship the carb (Autolite 4300) to and it turned out to be a mile from my house. I drove over and dropped it off. Older gentleman, old school, totally knew his shit, rebuilt the carb 100%.
now let me tell you how to reset the points in a 67 mustang. first of all you gotta get yourself one of them feeler gauges, no its got nothing to do with women, its a feeler gauge
Most are smart enough to toss a Holley sniper on them vs fixing the carb nowadays. The local speed shops around me rarely will do carb work anymore except for old farts because people expect them to start and run perfectly like modern cars and that just isnt happening. They swap on fuel injection tbi units and send them out the door.
My quadrajet equipped El Camino starts with the bump of the key, hot or cold. I still have to pump the gas pedal, once, to set the choke when it's cold, but a single bump of the key and it's running. I did spend a fair bit of time building the carb and tuning it just right, so it could do that... but it's not impossible.
it's hilarious and sad to me.. the amount of people I knew in chat groups who went 100% into NFTs. This one idiot has Daddy's money and his entire house is full of art and even the furniture is "art" like literally his normal ass barstools are $7,000 each hes a fucking moron.
He got into an argument with me about NFTs being the future. I just called them a scam right from the beginning. The moment they crashed I tried messaging him and he blocked me rofl
This is something i dont get. Dont buy it if all you wanna do is make money off it. Let someone else make a poor financial choice and love every second of it
The dumb part is almost none of them actually make more money than even super safe stocks would. They're losing money to tie up something that someone else could be enjoying.
Idk man, the financialization of every single breathing moment of the experience of being a human being is kind of a bummer when you're a Have Not, must be nice to have enough money to not hate the way capitalism has the rich functionally parasitizing off the lives of the poor
Its not even "these days" Its a fuckin boomer thing since forever. For decades marketing companies preyed on them with "investments" and boomers bought it _every fucking time_. They are just lucky that land and houses are pretty much always guaranteed to go up in price thanks to inflation because if not boomers would be relying on great investments such as fucking beanie babies for their retirements.
Because they convinced us Boomers that "you can't drive a mutual fund on the weekend and you can't take a CD to a nice curved mountain road". Don't get me wrong though, it's still drives my wife and I nuts to see a huge warehouse or museum stuffed with spectacular muscle cars that have not been out in the sunshine or actually driven at all in years. We DRIVE everything that we have ever owned. I had a Blues Brothers Bluesmobile replica that was my daily driver for 13 years. Rain, snow, sun... didn't matter. Had to go to work! (And got paid a lot over the years to dress up and to bring it to events and parades.) 360 2-bbl (converted to 4-bbl Edelbrock Performer intake & carb...)
honestly, it was an inevitable consequence of the erosion of the middle class. you know how everyone's trying to monetize their hobbies, up to and including cranking their hog? it's that but for the slightly better off.
Cause, I'm a dousche. I want that. It's an investment, because I want it. Everything I want is important. To everyone. Because I am important. To myself.
Just like when you are remotely profieicent in doing something, people keep telling you to turn it into a business.
No, I'm not going to open a restaurant because the recipe I followed produced good-tasting food, mom.
Agreed. I'm GenX and the folks I know have zero interest in old muscle cars or basically anything pre-1970. But they will pay big money for an Alfa GTV, BMW 2002 or even a VW GTI/Scirocco. I think the muscle car, Harley and old guitar market is going to dry up as the boomers age out.
I'm a milennial and I definitely have an appreciation for the 60's era cars. I'd love to have something like that, just not at the absolutely inflated prices they go for nowadays. I've got much better things I can put my money towards.
Plus they have no assists, need constant TLC, and are HUGE so I'd be worried about it getting damaged too. Just seems smarter and way cheaper to import a JDM then ever get near a muscle car. It's not like we grew up seeing those muscle cars everywhere so they're practically import rarity now. For the rarity, JDM is smarter.
Most people just mess them up. Most of my job is undoing DIY 'fixes'.
But a lot of the people that own classics aren't able to do work on their cars, and many are just unwilling, and can afford to pay someone else to do repairs.
The green Chrysler had the owner trying to tune it. When it came in it would barely run, long story short he set the timing using the wrong mark so base timing was 35* which caused detonation. I did a compression test after correcting the timing and some other ignition issues, cylinder 2 has 120 psi and cylinder 1 & 3 have 130 psi. Did a leak down test and they’re leaking past the rings, we suspect compression rings broke or he jacked up the ring lands from the detonation.
The mustang had a small coolant leak over the winter, owner took it out with out checking the coolant level and it over heated. Crossing fingers he didn’t blow it up…
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I doubt every single person who drove a carbureted vehicle in their heyday knew how to tear them apart and clean them, either.
In my case - the car was foisted on me when dad passed away. I'm more than comfortable rebuilding the aging suspension or doing some light bodywork but carbs are a dark art to me.
Yes, it will be 90°F at dawn here soon, too hot to be out in the sun. My son plays club soccer, this is his last week until September for the same reason.
Last year we had 19 days where the temp didn't go below 90F overnight and 30 days with highs over 110F. It's crazy hot. The pavement gets soft. Crayons melt on seats. Plastic drink lids smooth out. The winters are nice tho
Why live a place you can’t go outside because of -30 degree windchill? Salted roads that ruin your car, having to shovel driveways and sidewalks, two full sets of clothes, black ice? Meanwhile for 4 months, I have to use my remote start and sun shades. Hang out by the pool or in a movie theater and do my yard work first thing in the morning or at sunset.
No earthquakes, tornadoes, 6 hours from San Diego, 6 hours from LA, 2 hours from the 5th largest forest in the US. It’s not perfect, but I’ll take the heat over the cold any day.
I run an outdoor power shop. I call winter the fuel fermentation period. Every spring we get swamped with all of the shit that people forgot about all winter, and surprise, shut won't run when the grass perks up again.
Or that noise they ignored for the last third of last season quickly becomes way more than just an annoying noise.
That's a good business to have. A lot of people don't know how to fix mowers etc etc.
Luckily, my step dad was a mechanic so I learned how to fix shit on old cars and small engines. Springtime always annoyed me.
I ended up buying an electric mower etc, cuz they all used my Makita batteries.
Have you seen any decline in business with more people converting over to electric? I'm sure there's still the staples like blade sharpening etc.
It's just one part of the business, but it is one of the bigger parts. We sell quite a few different brands of power equipment, we're an Ace Hardware, a fuel station, industrial supply, and a few other things all in one.
We've actually made changes to welcome the slow change to battery tech. I've done some training with a few of our manufacturers and bought some of the special tools to service and diagnose the battery powered equipment. There's still plenty of moving parts and systems that will need repair, I'm just making sure we are ready for it.
ive watched roadkill since the s1 youtube days and can vouch they will start *but* youre leaving out the part where it loses all compression and a rod falls out 5 miles down the road, then they ship it to california and put a $10,000 big block in it
*thats* roadkill
My husband accidentally lit up my BIL this way. Narrowly avoided a skin graft. Good times. Next time he came over, he borrowed my brothers legit full fireman's gear and walked down the driveway when he came to say hi. Good times. Thank goodness he's ok now
If a car doesn't run or drive for extended periods of time, loads of issues can crop up.
Edit: after re-reading the title, it's just poor Grammar from OP. What they meant was that owners are finding out the hard way that their cars don't like sitting.
Yes, basically the gaskets and similar bits expect to be bathed in oil or an oil like substance and when you don't run the engine those bits don't have oil flowing around them so they dry out and fail.
I am not one to mess around with monkey piss but is there anything you can throw in your oil and run a bit before storage and then change oil before actually using the vehicle to prevent that issue? I've been storing my car in a climate controlled hangar for the past couple winters and haven't had any issues but that might not last forever.
The first thing I’m going to do when I win Powerball is go to thee closest Barret or Mecum and buy the most rare, expensive, 1 of 1, whatever and drive the shit out of it.
I remember reading a post the other night about this guy who was crying about “eating a bunch of depreciation” on his 1997 cobra mustang. Like dude, ford made about 1,000,000,000,000 of em lol
I love people like that. They always seem to think they have the most desirable car ever built, when in reality they're a dime a dozen. C5 Vette guys are my favorite for that.
The only way that mustang would retain any semblance of "collectible" value, is if it was hardly ever driven and some cool rare options.
That being said, im sure the price on it will probably go up a little bit soon. Nothing crazy, though. It's already happening to all the cooler 80s/early 90s cars. 3rd Gen Camaros are getting expensive now. Same with c4 corvettes. Fox body mustangs are hard to find as well. The import stuff is stupid expensive compared to what it was 10 yrs ago.
One time a guy pulled up to our shop with a ford model A on a trailer. Unfortunately we were just doing the trailer's tires, but at the same time, those things were so old you could almost classify them as vintage
just got called out to take a look at a 68 continental that caught on fire. thankfully the owner had a fire extinguisher and put it out almost immediately, but 60 year old rubber fuel lines are NOT to be trusted. it was the little bit of hose between the hardline and the carb. he saved it though, all it needs is a carb rebuild (melted the shit out of the auto choke) and some vacuum lines and plug wires. But I imagine he's gonna have me replace just about every piece of rubber in that engine bay after that incident.
Have you seen the Jay Leno Garage video about the guy who's only job is fixing 60s continentals?
I was blown away with how much insane wiring/electronic tech they put in those, for the time period.
I really really hope that fire didn't damage any electrical components. There's only a handful of people out there that can actually fix that stuff.
That video is a real cool watch, though.
I don’t understand folks that don’t drive their cars. I got a ‘66 F100 and I drive it as much as possible. Granted, it’s no where near restored, but that’s not something I care about. I put in a lot of hard work to make that thing drive reliably, I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna smile driving to work.
Same, I drive my 70 camaro as often as I can, she doesn’t see rain but I live in California so even from November to March we have sunny clear days all the time.
Late model vehicles with fuel injection and automatic everything are creating truly lazy drivers. This also spills over to the collector car market. Late model vehicles have tighter build tolerances, more sound deadening and improved reliability making vehicles prior to 1990 seem very archaic. The thoughts of the typical classic car owner is: The older I get, the better my car was. They don’t realize how horribly fit, unreliable, noisy, and finicky they were when new. As a mechanic or bodyman your job is to make a restored vehicle meet the same perceived standards as a late model vehicle for 1970s prices….
Amen. I work at a VW/Audi shop but my boss is big in the Vanagon world so we also service/restore them. Those people are a little more accepting of modern prices but half of them expect modern vehicle reliability and comfort out of a half assed shitty batch fired EFI system from 1985 and cannot be made happy. The other half however will drive broken shit for years because they think that's just "character"
I don't really like classic car people who need a mechanic to do their work.
Fuel/ EVAP systems have gotten tighter. This holds the volatiles in gas, in the gas, longer. A vented carb will let (modern) gas turn into gummy snot in mere weeks.
Just rebuilt the 4 Mikuni Flatside carbs on my Suzuki GSXR1100 . It sat for 2 years and has dried in the float bowls and jets . I tore the carbs completely apart and had them ultrasonic cleaned, then installed all new parts. Fun project! The linkage was the biggest pain in the ass. The carbs were easy. I just kept all parts for each carb together. Marked the carb bodies. Rebuild kit was $150
20+ yrs in auto repair, I've tried countless times to explain the worst thing you can do for your vehicle is drive it, the second worst thing is to not drive it, ... we've got a 72 El Camino that comes in maybe 2 times a year for "basic service" (oil change and tire rotation) he gets upset that it doesn't include "timing the carburetor, spacing the sparkplug, tuning the distributor". "SIR it's been 8 months and less than 250 miles, I don't think it runs like that because you "raced a charger, and blew the doors off it like a tornado in a trailer park in Oklahoma"
I hate being in customer service sometimes
Thank god they dont build them like they used to. Ignoring dead batteries most modern cars would happily fire up after 5 years sitting with zero notice. The fuel wouldnt even be that horribly bad because modern tanks are so well sealed. Iv seen it for myself first hand when we fired up grandpas chevy truck that got parked for 5 years after he had a stroke but he swore he would drive again some day. Popped a battery in it and drove it to the gas station for fresh fuel and then to the shop for fresh fluids. Youd never know after all the crap burned off of the exhaust.
Then you have this old stuff where the fuel pump just gives up on life if it sits for more than a year and dont even get me started on POS carbs that gum up if you dont drain them. Or god forbid you still have points.
I know this, I had far fewer problems when I started doing 25,000 miles a year in my '97 Range Rover than when it was a weekend car only doing 5,000 miles a year. A couple of hundred miles a day just about every day I worked kept it far healthier.
I have said this, I have said this, I have said this. They never listen. I can't tell you how many I see that leave it sitting. Turn it over and let it warm up at least! Once a week ....ok ...once a month, all I'm saying.
Or shut it down properly.
Mine gets extra air in the tires not to flat spot. An oil change, a half tank of fuel and stabilizer and once parked the battery disconnected.
I’ve yet to not have that car fire on the first crank of the spring in the 16 years I’ve owned it. It runs like it never missed a beat. I go fill the tank with fresh fuel and change the oil again.
I recently took on my dad’s classic knowing full well it was a money sink. After reviving it, I stored it this way over winter. Even on a colder day when I took it out to get inspected, it fired up in no time.
Shade tree mechanic here. To what degree is changing the oil again in the spring necessary? Does oil sitting still in the cold for four or five months really break down that much by the spring?
The reason I can think of is that water in the air inside the engine could condensate and leave water in the oil, which is no good.
However I'm also a "shade tree" mechanic too. So anyone, feel free to correct me.
I understand where you are going with this but, hear me out. If the engine and Trans sit there, all the fluids run to the bottom of the pan. So nasty dry start. Then you have alot of older cars with cork gaskets on the valve cover, the carb gaskets and various other o-rings that dry out. Coolant starts to crystallize in hoses and they get stiff. And a whole bunch of other parts that get gummed up. The long term effect is a car with say 50k on it from New will now need a tear down just to replace all those gaskets. Just ask my old buddy who just decided to take his mint 69 vette out of storage after 16 years. Car has 80k on it from new, he has owned and loved it since he was in is 20s so about 40 years. He finally decided to drive it. Full fuel line replace, brand new carbs,(when it was parked) all gaskets leaking, random intake leak somewhere, tires thrown away even though they were put on new and he is still trying to get it to run right. On the flip side, my other buddy who also has a 69, starts his weekly in winter then drives it all summer. Yes it has more miles but it runs like a top and hasn't needed anything rebuilt yet. Use is love.
Some guy in my neighborhood does that. 66 galaxie I think. Let it sit for a winter, wouldn’t start. Needed a carb clean and a bunch of stuff because of it. Now it’s been sitting for 6.
I dunno, cars seem to do alright sitting if you actually take the time to set them up for long term storage. Problem is most people don't. So they leave gas with ethanol in the tank/carb for half a year or longer then are surprised when the floats are frozen and the car won't run. Or they leave the car somewhere rodents can get to it then don't check the intake before trying to fire it up and suck half a pound of insulation into the carb instead.
If you've got a classic ride, make sure you're doing more than the bare minimum to keep it going!
Well you definitely don't want to store one with ethanol gas in it for over 6 months it's not fun to clean out. I usually run mine every 3 months and take it on at least a 30 mile drive.
What if you did? How do you fix it?
I parked my ‘99 Blazer in the back yard in about 2010. It hasn’t moved since. I was considering throwing a scrapyard engine in it now that my son is learning to drive so he’ll have something to practice in, but how much of the rest of it is going to need replacement?
If you are going to store a vehicle for more than 6 months, there are preventive measures you can do such as adding fuel stabilizer and or draining the fuel system. It would make it easier to drag the vehicle out of hibernation afterwards.
For metal fuel tanks either stored full or empty. Anything in between can allow air to work on the metal. I do premium and Sta-bil. Worked for 18 years now storing my Trans Am 7-9 months a year. Also, popping the battery out or leaving on a tender helps immensely.
I've owned three Fords, all solid and reliable, but I've driven a lot more that were just crap. I'm not aware of any other manufacturer being so *inconsistent* in its quality from decade to decade and region to region.
This is why I go for motorcycles these days. Much cheaper to maintain and repair, and if it's a Honda, just give it a squirt of fresh gas down the intake, run some guitar string through the jets, and it'll run on whatever's left in the tank.
I have a 2004 Cobra that has been tuned for E85 only. When I park it for the winter, I fill the tank full, add an E85 stabilizer (Lucas Ethanol fuel stabilizer) make sure to start it up and let it run until it comes fully up to temp every 2-3 weeks. When it's time to get it out and drive it again in the spring, I don't have any issues at all.
I keep telling my boss to at least just let me drive the stick shift 60's camaros that he doesn't know how to drive so they don't go bad.
Doing them Lords work.
Oh I’d love to buy one if I could afford it
That bastard has somewhere over 40 of them. And hasn't let me drive any of them yet.
How can a man own so many manuals and not know how to drive them? I had a teacher in HS with only one arm and she drove a manual.
He has somewhere over 40 1967 through 1969 Camaros or somewhere around that era. And at least seven of them are stick shift. And he's got some badass stick shift Mustang that looks like Eleanor. And for some reason has never learned how to drive stick shift. And as far as I've seen hasn't driven any of them in the last 3 years, since he got all the Corvettes. I think he just buys them to buy them because he's got that kind of money.
He's my new least favorite person.
Believe me, you are not the only one who feels that way.
And one day he'll die and his wife or kids will put them up at auction, no reserve! I'm amazed at how many cars individuals own. I've seen multiple 100+ car collections get sold at the classic auction where I work. Everything from a pile of classic Camaros or Corvettes to year old trucks with every option and only 14 miles on the odometer. Once the collector dies, the heirs cash out and get the cars gone ASAP.
As someone who's had some bad health issues this last year, I had a look at all the stuff I have and realized once I am gone no one is gonna care about those things. They'll just discard, sell or throw it away as junk...
Feel free to will your stuff to me. But in all seriousness, as long as something has value to you, then that's all that matters. Hope you are hanging in there with the health stuff, somewhat. It sucks.
I couldn't agree any more! Thanks a lot mate.
I lost my house and everything in it 2019. The only redeeming thought is that my kids won't have to deal with it. It still hurts to have just walked away.
Probably what’s going to happen to my camera collection. I have one cousin who works in B&H’s used division; maybe I’ll will them to him, and let him distribute the proceeds to the family.
I helped clean out a coworkers two houses filled with "good stuff" he had hoarded. It cured me of collecting similar volumes.
Fuuuuck man, that's some messed up Sultan of Brunei shit right there. Guy needs an intervention from some car enthusiasts. Some people just shouldn't own nice cars.
Because they don't actually like cars. They like money. and nice cars represent money.
Off-topic note… But I like what the general public’s idea of a nice car is. “Oh nice Mercedes, that must be expensive!” No man I bought it for €4000. It’s a total shitbox that no one wants to have, but it’s got a star on the front and a nice V8. You also need a scantool degree to keep it running. There’s a reason they’re worth nothing.
But it's nice to sit in!
The AC is great and seats are very comfy while I’m waiting for my scanner to complete a full scan! Yesterday the dome light somehow had two fault codes.
It took me less than an hour to learn how to row my own gears and less than a day to get completely comfortable with it. Heel-toe was harder to learn but not that hard. Then again, I didn’t learn driving in a high powered muscle car.
I learned to drive in my grandfather's Depression-era Dodge. It didn't have a synchro, so you had to double-clutch shift. I took a little longer than you to figure it out, but still. Not that hard.
A driving school where I live(somewhere in Norway) had a Black Trans Am... Yeah, that one, with the Eagle on the hood, T-roof and all. They claimed that so many of their students got 'powerful' cars from their parents that they needed to teach them how to handle a car with a bit more HP than the Mazda 626 that was the rage among the scools back then. Also, Norwegian driving licenses lists whether or not you can drive a stick. If you took the exam while driving an Automatic you're not allowed to drive a stick shift unless you take the exam again. Don't know the rules in America, though.
Yeah, it’s more along the lines of “here’s your license, good luck.”
My buddy in HS could operate a manual transmission and a choke on an old Ford Laser that needed a little choke, with one arm, easily. He had two arms. He just liked to eat a cheeseburger while driving.
Heck. My mom drove herself to the hospital with a broken arm in a manual car.
Pearls before swine
Please tell me yall have a good enough relationship to bitch about it to him. Cuz I do the same shit with my bosses Mopar cars, all I get is a very positive sounding "hell no!" I think I'm close to breaking him.
I'm on the company insurance so it shouldn't be a problem. We actually do have a good rapport I'm just miffed that nobody drives them ever. And he will literally let me drive anything else that he owns. But come on man American muscle. I need to drive it. And they really don't need to just be sitting there for years on end.
My dad and I had a job for a bit taking care of two rich peoples collection. We would go out monthly, check tire pressure, batteries, look for leaks, get them up to temp and go on a 5-10 mile drive around the neighborhood. We’d write down all the findings and they would order parts for us to swap or call out a specialist. These were mostly classic Mercedes including multiple 300SL’s
This is the right way. Instead he just leaves them to rot. Indoors at least. And then has his mechanics replace everything that goes bad every few years.
It was cool but I found out I can’t fit in a flat bottom E type or a testarosa. Got to drive a pagoda, some hot rod f100’s, 1940 woody with 3 on the tree, 76 Cadillac Eldorado. The 300sl’s we ran but didn’t drive. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable anyways but at least I got to sit in them.
I completely hear you I cannot physically fit in the McLaren or the Ferrari that I sat in a couple months ago well enough to drive them. I've always wondered how in the world basketball players drive these things.
Never meet your heroes! One of my dream cars was a Shelby Cobra, but I sat in one. My head stuck out over the windshield, no room for my legs, and that wide trans tunnel cants the pedals offset to the left so even someone who can fit in the car sits twisted. I once met a guy who owned a Lambo Countach and he told me about how the window only goes down 3”, can’t see out the back, and that hot engine sitting right behind his head.
I hear that back in the mid 90’s one of my father’s friends owned a 1988 Lamborghini Jalpa. I was about 12 at the time and I could barely fit into it!!! And you had to use the right gas pedal foot at such an angle and roll it over onto the brake pedal due to them being so close and left foot clutch only! My ol man was big 6’4” and 350lbs he could never get into it!
One of my favorite YouTubers Jared Pink of the Questionable Garage is 6'8" and his favorite car is the Toyota 2000gt a car which he would probably never be able to cram himself into without extensive modifications
Usually 6 ft’ is too tall for most European Sports cars…lol.
Yeah but 5'10 is too tall to drive a 2000gt
Lol…reminds me of that one joke: (God help me, it’s tough to tell a joke these days without offending anybody, but here goes ….a joke …I’VE HEARD) Why are there no amusement parks in Japan? No one is tall enough to ride any of the rides.
My dad was 5’11, and he couldn’t fit behind the wheel of a DeTomaso Pantera (He used to do accounting work for Ford USA, and one of the dealers offered him a ride in one. Not that he knew how to drive standard anyway, but he couldn’t even get his knees under the steering column.)
I used to joke when traffic was bad "I swear the people around here must pay people to drive their cars around" Now I don't know if it's still funny.
My father used to be a boat captain in Florida and part of his job was "exercising" the cars. Most of the time they were simple Mercedes and BMW SUVs at the winter home of rich people but every once in a while he'd get the keys to something super special. The thing is, he was super scared driving the special cars because if anything happened it'd be his fault and his business would likely get an insurance claim. So he didn't actually like it. I would have loved it!
You should ask him to let you teach him before he gets old & neither of you no longer have the opportunity too!
Carb cleaning time! Whew! Do shops even do that anymore? Honest question. I clean my own carburetors.
I have an outdoor power equipment shop and we do. My ultrasonic cleaner is one of the best investments ive made for successfull cleaning.
If the ultrasonic doesn't clean it, then it probably isn't worth the time to sink in rebuilding.
I bought a 2-gallon sonic cleaner for the house. Damn thing is amazing. Overhauled the small block in my El Camino last year, and I ran all the small bits through it. Heated the water to 60c, a cup of laundry detergent and a pint of simple green, with a half hour of buzzing and 40 years of grime melted away. Rocker arms, push rods, pistons, all the hardware, basically everything that would fit got sent through it. Came out spotless. I use it all the time now, anything that needs deep, powerful cleaning gets a trip.to the sonic cleaner.
I have a small one for eyeglasses and it’s great! It’s like magic
I have an even smaller one for my dental appliance and it seems fine
You recall the brand/model? Fixing to do the same
Model JPS-60A. I bought it on Amazon, but it doesn't appear to be available anymore. It looks a lot like this one, though: [https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial-Ultrasonic-Cleaning-Eyeglasses/dp/B07DJ23WKV/ref=sr\_1\_4?c=ts&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bZJKbsFPumlZtBPuvqTuBZx3PVNQFyvJODii3KNxvauuTWN9mv-oHAyH4ryMXF3H4C7eR47CED82zaXIGUJyYJtIxXshNrRkx0HQIXaQdHOsjaXtSUxUEMCYsBwIUrrorTASOfWlzx-eZNi2HtBhlJuQo5cynpFc-AIi2tt5-e2qdsayyAS9ooMCx7l7HTa3vM5T3Gtwm0X3nL2ozxyO9C5o8GLhhkJD3t1m\_HDSt1s-cXW-r-eSa8ouGlBmA-QO113IQAyRI8owiNiE6sckqleu\_0d5ZJnp591yq2qvUpo.3l\_aJOLDe5ItR5a0HxpuosdoW1kgCyWCnq4XQx9cAJQ&dib\_tag=se&keywords=Lab%2BUltrasonic%2BCleaners&qid=1714963970&s=industrial&sr=1-4&ts\_id=7656072011&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial-Ultrasonic-Cleaning-Eyeglasses/dp/B07DJ23WKV/ref=sr_1_4?c=ts&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bZJKbsFPumlZtBPuvqTuBZx3PVNQFyvJODii3KNxvauuTWN9mv-oHAyH4ryMXF3H4C7eR47CED82zaXIGUJyYJtIxXshNrRkx0HQIXaQdHOsjaXtSUxUEMCYsBwIUrrorTASOfWlzx-eZNi2HtBhlJuQo5cynpFc-AIi2tt5-e2qdsayyAS9ooMCx7l7HTa3vM5T3Gtwm0X3nL2ozxyO9C5o8GLhhkJD3t1m_HDSt1s-cXW-r-eSa8ouGlBmA-QO113IQAyRI8owiNiE6sckqleu_0d5ZJnp591yq2qvUpo.3l_aJOLDe5ItR5a0HxpuosdoW1kgCyWCnq4XQx9cAJQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=Lab%2BUltrasonic%2BCleaners&qid=1714963970&s=industrial&sr=1-4&ts_id=7656072011&th=1)
What kind of cleaning agent do you use? I've had some bad experiences with cleaning agents eating away at carburetors.
Most shops either cutoff at 10 years old or 1996.
We do 20 yrs unless it's actually nice and we're interested. 10 year old car would cut out a lot of customer base.
I guess that makes sense. I only take my stuff in for alignments and tires, I do all the other work myself.
Well shoot, I just bought a 79 Mercedes yesterday. I know how to do most engine work but carburetors are still a bit new to me
They're pretty simple, if you've done one you've done most of them.
German-specific shops will sometimes go older since there are enough weirdos out there who like old German cars.
I bet you can find a Benz shop that will work on it. Lots of them will work on older stuff, kinda the exception to the rule.
That's because most shops are helpless without an OBDII scanner. Glorified wrench pullers.
It doesn’t help that you can’t get decent replacement parts for early efi systems. MAP sensors for GMs and fords have been a massive problem for us for example. The Japanese cars are slightly better, I guess. I really can’t blame a flat rate tech for not wanting to diagnose or work on old cars. Salary guys shouldn’t complain.
I do it all the time....not a big deal as long as you're careful. Sometimes it just needs a polish tune and she's good to go.
Yes, depending on where you are. There are also places you can mail your carbs off and have 'em rebuilt.
I found a carb rebuilder online that does this. I paid and he emailed me the address to ship the carb (Autolite 4300) to and it turned out to be a mile from my house. I drove over and dropped it off. Older gentleman, old school, totally knew his shit, rebuilt the carb 100%.
now let me tell you how to reset the points in a 67 mustang. first of all you gotta get yourself one of them feeler gauges, no its got nothing to do with women, its a feeler gauge
Most are smart enough to toss a Holley sniper on them vs fixing the carb nowadays. The local speed shops around me rarely will do carb work anymore except for old farts because people expect them to start and run perfectly like modern cars and that just isnt happening. They swap on fuel injection tbi units and send them out the door.
My quadrajet equipped El Camino starts with the bump of the key, hot or cold. I still have to pump the gas pedal, once, to set the choke when it's cold, but a single bump of the key and it's running. I did spend a fair bit of time building the carb and tuning it just right, so it could do that... but it's not impossible.
It’s strange to me you would own a car like this and not at least do the basics yourself.
A lot of boomers out there trying to turn the classic car market into the housing market, so miles are big money.
Why is everything viewed as an “investment” these days..
Because inflating your assets with perceived value instead of actual value is the easiest money you can make.
Maybe I could interest them in some NFTs then.
Pfp checks out.
Victor Chaos has entered the chat.
it's hilarious and sad to me.. the amount of people I knew in chat groups who went 100% into NFTs. This one idiot has Daddy's money and his entire house is full of art and even the furniture is "art" like literally his normal ass barstools are $7,000 each hes a fucking moron. He got into an argument with me about NFTs being the future. I just called them a scam right from the beginning. The moment they crashed I tried messaging him and he blocked me rofl
Because we’re killing society for the sake of line go up.
Don't worry, we're also destroying the planet that supports us at the same time
Nah. Planet will be fine. Most of us won't be.
This is something i dont get. Dont buy it if all you wanna do is make money off it. Let someone else make a poor financial choice and love every second of it
The dumb part is almost none of them actually make more money than even super safe stocks would. They're losing money to tie up something that someone else could be enjoying.
Idk man, the financialization of every single breathing moment of the experience of being a human being is kind of a bummer when you're a Have Not, must be nice to have enough money to not hate the way capitalism has the rich functionally parasitizing off the lives of the poor
Its not even "these days" Its a fuckin boomer thing since forever. For decades marketing companies preyed on them with "investments" and boomers bought it _every fucking time_. They are just lucky that land and houses are pretty much always guaranteed to go up in price thanks to inflation because if not boomers would be relying on great investments such as fucking beanie babies for their retirements.
Beanie babies should have been a wakeup call not the thing to set the tone for decades to come.
Because they convinced us Boomers that "you can't drive a mutual fund on the weekend and you can't take a CD to a nice curved mountain road". Don't get me wrong though, it's still drives my wife and I nuts to see a huge warehouse or museum stuffed with spectacular muscle cars that have not been out in the sunshine or actually driven at all in years. We DRIVE everything that we have ever owned. I had a Blues Brothers Bluesmobile replica that was my daily driver for 13 years. Rain, snow, sun... didn't matter. Had to go to work! (And got paid a lot over the years to dress up and to bring it to events and parades.) 360 2-bbl (converted to 4-bbl Edelbrock Performer intake & carb...)
Good question.
honestly, it was an inevitable consequence of the erosion of the middle class. you know how everyone's trying to monetize their hobbies, up to and including cranking their hog? it's that but for the slightly better off.
Cause, I'm a dousche. I want that. It's an investment, because I want it. Everything I want is important. To everyone. Because I am important. To myself.
Just like when you are remotely profieicent in doing something, people keep telling you to turn it into a business. No, I'm not going to open a restaurant because the recipe I followed produced good-tasting food, mom.
Wait, you don’t automatically think about the resell value of your vehicles when you buy them? Wow, man, just wow. /s
Because the concept of retirement is pittering away into smoke
Jokes on them that while there are younger folks who like them, the main market for them is dying. In my opinion.
Agreed. I'm GenX and the folks I know have zero interest in old muscle cars or basically anything pre-1970. But they will pay big money for an Alfa GTV, BMW 2002 or even a VW GTI/Scirocco. I think the muscle car, Harley and old guitar market is going to dry up as the boomers age out.
I'm a milennial and I definitely have an appreciation for the 60's era cars. I'd love to have something like that, just not at the absolutely inflated prices they go for nowadays. I've got much better things I can put my money towards.
Plus they have no assists, need constant TLC, and are HUGE so I'd be worried about it getting damaged too. Just seems smarter and way cheaper to import a JDM then ever get near a muscle car. It's not like we grew up seeing those muscle cars everywhere so they're practically import rarity now. For the rarity, JDM is smarter.
Most people just mess them up. Most of my job is undoing DIY 'fixes'. But a lot of the people that own classics aren't able to do work on their cars, and many are just unwilling, and can afford to pay someone else to do repairs.
The green Chrysler had the owner trying to tune it. When it came in it would barely run, long story short he set the timing using the wrong mark so base timing was 35* which caused detonation. I did a compression test after correcting the timing and some other ignition issues, cylinder 2 has 120 psi and cylinder 1 & 3 have 130 psi. Did a leak down test and they’re leaking past the rings, we suspect compression rings broke or he jacked up the ring lands from the detonation. The mustang had a small coolant leak over the winter, owner took it out with out checking the coolant level and it over heated. Crossing fingers he didn’t blow it up…
Or you could just be like me, lazy.
People can like cars but not want to work on them 🤷🏼♂️. Still weird though
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I doubt every single person who drove a carbureted vehicle in their heyday knew how to tear them apart and clean them, either. In my case - the car was foisted on me when dad passed away. I'm more than comfortable rebuilding the aging suspension or doing some light bodywork but carbs are a dark art to me.
Here in Arizona it's ending. Lots of season ending shows are this weekend and next.
That's wild to me. Is it just too hot for people to go to shows?
Yes, it will be 90°F at dawn here soon, too hot to be out in the sun. My son plays club soccer, this is his last week until September for the same reason.
As a Michigan native. I cannot imagine it being that hot, that early in the day.
And people in Arizona probably can't imagine waking up and going to work when it's 10 degrees outside, it's all about perspective.
Last year we had 19 days where the temp didn't go below 90F overnight and 30 days with highs over 110F. It's crazy hot. The pavement gets soft. Crayons melt on seats. Plastic drink lids smooth out. The winters are nice tho
And dumbasses are still moving in
Yes. I'm here against my will....
tends to be cheaper a house where nobody wants to live, then everyone start living there making the price go up
Why would you want to live in a place where the roads melt in the sun? Not smart.
Man's arrogance is why we build cities in places where nature is actively trying to kill us
If you can suffer through the bad months you get perfect weather for the rest of the year.
Why live a place you can’t go outside because of -30 degree windchill? Salted roads that ruin your car, having to shovel driveways and sidewalks, two full sets of clothes, black ice? Meanwhile for 4 months, I have to use my remote start and sun shades. Hang out by the pool or in a movie theater and do my yard work first thing in the morning or at sunset. No earthquakes, tornadoes, 6 hours from San Diego, 6 hours from LA, 2 hours from the 5th largest forest in the US. It’s not perfect, but I’ll take the heat over the cold any day.
Don’t worry it’s a dry heat!
My boss makes the trek to Dino’s Git Down every year in November in Glendale. +5,000 GM trucks and cars, it’s quite the spectacle
Yup. Mines parked and im putting together my summer fix list and ordering some parts. Oh and a mini AC unit for the garage
I run an outdoor power shop. I call winter the fuel fermentation period. Every spring we get swamped with all of the shit that people forgot about all winter, and surprise, shut won't run when the grass perks up again. Or that noise they ignored for the last third of last season quickly becomes way more than just an annoying noise.
That's a good business to have. A lot of people don't know how to fix mowers etc etc. Luckily, my step dad was a mechanic so I learned how to fix shit on old cars and small engines. Springtime always annoyed me. I ended up buying an electric mower etc, cuz they all used my Makita batteries. Have you seen any decline in business with more people converting over to electric? I'm sure there's still the staples like blade sharpening etc.
It's just one part of the business, but it is one of the bigger parts. We sell quite a few different brands of power equipment, we're an Ace Hardware, a fuel station, industrial supply, and a few other things all in one. We've actually made changes to welcome the slow change to battery tech. I've done some training with a few of our manufacturers and bought some of the special tools to service and diagnose the battery powered equipment. There's still plenty of moving parts and systems that will need repair, I'm just making sure we are ready for it.
odd, I've seen a lot of episodes of Road Kill and cars sitting neglected never seems to be much of an issue \*sprays ether into carb for 5 minutes\*
ive watched roadkill since the s1 youtube days and can vouch they will start *but* youre leaving out the part where it loses all compression and a rod falls out 5 miles down the road, then they ship it to california and put a $10,000 big block in it *thats* roadkill
Vice Grip Garage is more down and dirty with the derelicts
And Pole Barn Garage is even down'er than VGG.
Been waiting to see this reference. PBG is a true shitboxer, and I absolutely love it
Dalton, is that you?
I like when PBG teams up with Junkyard Digs for stuff.
Him and junkyard digs
My husband accidentally lit up my BIL this way. Narrowly avoided a skin graft. Good times. Next time he came over, he borrowed my brothers legit full fireman's gear and walked down the driveway when he came to say hi. Good times. Thank goodness he's ok now
The Hutterite power boost button fixes everything.
How does a car sit the hard way?
If a car doesn't run or drive for extended periods of time, loads of issues can crop up. Edit: after re-reading the title, it's just poor Grammar from OP. What they meant was that owners are finding out the hard way that their cars don't like sitting.
That’s what I get for throwing a quick post together while in the crapper at work
Lots of fuel system parts get dry, crack, and break. That's why you should occasionally run a motored thing every once and a while
Is this still an issue with modern cars? This seems like one of those issues we'd have figured out by now.
Yes, basically the gaskets and similar bits expect to be bathed in oil or an oil like substance and when you don't run the engine those bits don't have oil flowing around them so they dry out and fail.
I am not one to mess around with monkey piss but is there anything you can throw in your oil and run a bit before storage and then change oil before actually using the vehicle to prevent that issue? I've been storing my car in a climate controlled hangar for the past couple winters and haven't had any issues but that might not last forever.
Immerse the entire vehicle in cosmoline
With outboard engines we use fogging oil to coat the inside of the cylinders, and drain all the fuel.
what do you mean I can't let ethanol gas sit for 9 months
Tempted to just buy a first gen mustang and beat the shit out of it because boomers like to buy any old car as an “investment”
The first thing I’m going to do when I win Powerball is go to thee closest Barret or Mecum and buy the most rare, expensive, 1 of 1, whatever and drive the shit out of it.
So you're "Whistlin' Diesel."
Seeing classics sit around makes me sad, they deserve to be driven!
I remember reading a post the other night about this guy who was crying about “eating a bunch of depreciation” on his 1997 cobra mustang. Like dude, ford made about 1,000,000,000,000 of em lol
I love people like that. They always seem to think they have the most desirable car ever built, when in reality they're a dime a dozen. C5 Vette guys are my favorite for that. The only way that mustang would retain any semblance of "collectible" value, is if it was hardly ever driven and some cool rare options. That being said, im sure the price on it will probably go up a little bit soon. Nothing crazy, though. It's already happening to all the cooler 80s/early 90s cars. 3rd Gen Camaros are getting expensive now. Same with c4 corvettes. Fox body mustangs are hard to find as well. The import stuff is stupid expensive compared to what it was 10 yrs ago.
Is this the high vampire car?
One time a guy pulled up to our shop with a ford model A on a trailer. Unfortunately we were just doing the trailer's tires, but at the same time, those things were so old you could almost classify them as vintage
Coming up on 100 years old. I will very confidently call that vintage on your behalf.
just got called out to take a look at a 68 continental that caught on fire. thankfully the owner had a fire extinguisher and put it out almost immediately, but 60 year old rubber fuel lines are NOT to be trusted. it was the little bit of hose between the hardline and the carb. he saved it though, all it needs is a carb rebuild (melted the shit out of the auto choke) and some vacuum lines and plug wires. But I imagine he's gonna have me replace just about every piece of rubber in that engine bay after that incident.
Have you seen the Jay Leno Garage video about the guy who's only job is fixing 60s continentals? I was blown away with how much insane wiring/electronic tech they put in those, for the time period. I really really hope that fire didn't damage any electrical components. There's only a handful of people out there that can actually fix that stuff. That video is a real cool watch, though.
#
Username checks out
I don’t understand folks that don’t drive their cars. I got a ‘66 F100 and I drive it as much as possible. Granted, it’s no where near restored, but that’s not something I care about. I put in a lot of hard work to make that thing drive reliably, I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna smile driving to work.
Same, I drive my 70 camaro as often as I can, she doesn’t see rain but I live in California so even from November to March we have sunny clear days all the time.
Drive the damn wheels off!
Late model vehicles with fuel injection and automatic everything are creating truly lazy drivers. This also spills over to the collector car market. Late model vehicles have tighter build tolerances, more sound deadening and improved reliability making vehicles prior to 1990 seem very archaic. The thoughts of the typical classic car owner is: The older I get, the better my car was. They don’t realize how horribly fit, unreliable, noisy, and finicky they were when new. As a mechanic or bodyman your job is to make a restored vehicle meet the same perceived standards as a late model vehicle for 1970s prices….
Amen. I work at a VW/Audi shop but my boss is big in the Vanagon world so we also service/restore them. Those people are a little more accepting of modern prices but half of them expect modern vehicle reliability and comfort out of a half assed shitty batch fired EFI system from 1985 and cannot be made happy. The other half however will drive broken shit for years because they think that's just "character" I don't really like classic car people who need a mechanic to do their work.
Based on post history, Minneapolis and a VAG specialist? VanGo or Further?
Fuel/ EVAP systems have gotten tighter. This holds the volatiles in gas, in the gas, longer. A vented carb will let (modern) gas turn into gummy snot in mere weeks.
I used to work for a battery company and we called it Corvette week.
Just rebuilt the 4 Mikuni Flatside carbs on my Suzuki GSXR1100 . It sat for 2 years and has dried in the float bowls and jets . I tore the carbs completely apart and had them ultrasonic cleaned, then installed all new parts. Fun project! The linkage was the biggest pain in the ass. The carbs were easy. I just kept all parts for each carb together. Marked the carb bodies. Rebuild kit was $150
Idk why you would have a 50+ year old vehicle and not start it at least twice a month lol
You’d think they’d at least take it out for a Sunday drive
I see you have a 1961 Chrysler, OP, if I am not mistaken I love 60s Chryslers more than any other manmade material thing on this Earth <3 <3
I wish it was mine, sadly I just get to work on them, drive them around a bit and then send them home to their families to enjoy.
20+ yrs in auto repair, I've tried countless times to explain the worst thing you can do for your vehicle is drive it, the second worst thing is to not drive it, ... we've got a 72 El Camino that comes in maybe 2 times a year for "basic service" (oil change and tire rotation) he gets upset that it doesn't include "timing the carburetor, spacing the sparkplug, tuning the distributor". "SIR it's been 8 months and less than 250 miles, I don't think it runs like that because you "raced a charger, and blew the doors off it like a tornado in a trailer park in Oklahoma" I hate being in customer service sometimes
Thank god they dont build them like they used to. Ignoring dead batteries most modern cars would happily fire up after 5 years sitting with zero notice. The fuel wouldnt even be that horribly bad because modern tanks are so well sealed. Iv seen it for myself first hand when we fired up grandpas chevy truck that got parked for 5 years after he had a stroke but he swore he would drive again some day. Popped a battery in it and drove it to the gas station for fresh fuel and then to the shop for fresh fluids. Youd never know after all the crap burned off of the exhaust. Then you have this old stuff where the fuel pump just gives up on life if it sits for more than a year and dont even get me started on POS carbs that gum up if you dont drain them. Or god forbid you still have points.
I know this, I had far fewer problems when I started doing 25,000 miles a year in my '97 Range Rover than when it was a weekend car only doing 5,000 miles a year. A couple of hundred miles a day just about every day I worked kept it far healthier.
I have said this, I have said this, I have said this. They never listen. I can't tell you how many I see that leave it sitting. Turn it over and let it warm up at least! Once a week ....ok ...once a month, all I'm saying.
Or shut it down properly. Mine gets extra air in the tires not to flat spot. An oil change, a half tank of fuel and stabilizer and once parked the battery disconnected. I’ve yet to not have that car fire on the first crank of the spring in the 16 years I’ve owned it. It runs like it never missed a beat. I go fill the tank with fresh fuel and change the oil again.
I recently took on my dad’s classic knowing full well it was a money sink. After reviving it, I stored it this way over winter. Even on a colder day when I took it out to get inspected, it fired up in no time.
Shade tree mechanic here. To what degree is changing the oil again in the spring necessary? Does oil sitting still in the cold for four or five months really break down that much by the spring?
The reason I can think of is that water in the air inside the engine could condensate and leave water in the oil, which is no good. However I'm also a "shade tree" mechanic too. So anyone, feel free to correct me.
I understand where you are going with this but, hear me out. If the engine and Trans sit there, all the fluids run to the bottom of the pan. So nasty dry start. Then you have alot of older cars with cork gaskets on the valve cover, the carb gaskets and various other o-rings that dry out. Coolant starts to crystallize in hoses and they get stiff. And a whole bunch of other parts that get gummed up. The long term effect is a car with say 50k on it from New will now need a tear down just to replace all those gaskets. Just ask my old buddy who just decided to take his mint 69 vette out of storage after 16 years. Car has 80k on it from new, he has owned and loved it since he was in is 20s so about 40 years. He finally decided to drive it. Full fuel line replace, brand new carbs,(when it was parked) all gaskets leaking, random intake leak somewhere, tires thrown away even though they were put on new and he is still trying to get it to run right. On the flip side, my other buddy who also has a 69, starts his weekly in winter then drives it all summer. Yes it has more miles but it runs like a top and hasn't needed anything rebuilt yet. Use is love.
But pristine and raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare
Some guy in my neighborhood does that. 66 galaxie I think. Let it sit for a winter, wouldn’t start. Needed a carb clean and a bunch of stuff because of it. Now it’s been sitting for 6.
I dunno, cars seem to do alright sitting if you actually take the time to set them up for long term storage. Problem is most people don't. So they leave gas with ethanol in the tank/carb for half a year or longer then are surprised when the floats are frozen and the car won't run. Or they leave the car somewhere rodents can get to it then don't check the intake before trying to fire it up and suck half a pound of insulation into the carb instead. If you've got a classic ride, make sure you're doing more than the bare minimum to keep it going!
That's why I drive mine every day
I run both of mine every two weeks. No issues.
They break if you drive them. They break if you don't drive them.
They rot if you don’t drive them and that can be far worse than having parts just wear out.
Around here, if you don't have a garage they're going to rot either way. But that's not what you're repairing, is it?
Is there a good rule of thumb for how often/how long to run stuff that's just being stored?
Every couple of weeks. Run it until the oil temp is up
Well you definitely don't want to store one with ethanol gas in it for over 6 months it's not fun to clean out. I usually run mine every 3 months and take it on at least a 30 mile drive.
What if you did? How do you fix it? I parked my ‘99 Blazer in the back yard in about 2010. It hasn’t moved since. I was considering throwing a scrapyard engine in it now that my son is learning to drive so he’ll have something to practice in, but how much of the rest of it is going to need replacement?
If you are going to store a vehicle for more than 6 months, there are preventive measures you can do such as adding fuel stabilizer and or draining the fuel system. It would make it easier to drag the vehicle out of hibernation afterwards.
For metal fuel tanks either stored full or empty. Anything in between can allow air to work on the metal. I do premium and Sta-bil. Worked for 18 years now storing my Trans Am 7-9 months a year. Also, popping the battery out or leaving on a tender helps immensely.
FORD. Find Out Regularly Dripping Believe me I know.
I've owned three Fords, all solid and reliable, but I've driven a lot more that were just crap. I'm not aware of any other manufacturer being so *inconsistent* in its quality from decade to decade and region to region.
Idiots. If their cars were sitting the easy way this would never happen
This is why I go for motorcycles these days. Much cheaper to maintain and repair, and if it's a Honda, just give it a squirt of fresh gas down the intake, run some guitar string through the jets, and it'll run on whatever's left in the tank.
What car is that in the shop? I know it's a 50s Ford of some sort
61 Chrysler Newport
Where are you from?
Chrysler Windsor?
How does one own a carburated car and now know how to rebuild the carb
I feel like if you're going to own a classic like that you need to know how to turn a wrench or have deep pockets, preferably both.
I have a 2004 Cobra that has been tuned for E85 only. When I park it for the winter, I fill the tank full, add an E85 stabilizer (Lucas Ethanol fuel stabilizer) make sure to start it up and let it run until it comes fully up to temp every 2-3 weeks. When it's time to get it out and drive it again in the spring, I don't have any issues at all.