My last year in high school my dad gave me an '84 Ford Tempo 2dr mostly because
the dealer offered him $50 in trade on it. It sat for a year from the time he
bought the replacement '91 Tempo until I could drive which of course didn't
help anything.I fiberglassed a floor into it which I then had cover with stove
pipe and sheet metal screws since Maine won't accept fiberglass floors in metal
cars. New brakes, and exhaust put it on the road.Mine had the 2.3l 4cylinder
with a 4spd which kept it from being a total slug, the autos in those cars were
terrible. Overall it wasn't a bad car. I sold it for $200 a year later when my
folks gave me their '88 GMC S15 when my mom got her Cherokee. The GMC was a
much better vehicle and lasted me through the next 5 years although it was
swiss cheese by the time I graduated from College.
-Curt
From: Dan Penoff via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
To: Mercedes List <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] First Cars
My first car was a 1970 Ford Maverick two door with the inline 6, 170 ci, the
smallest displacement version of that engine. Had a three on the tree with
worn out bushings that made shifting a search every time you went to shift.
I owned it about 6-8 months before I lost control on some ice on a really nasty
curve on the road we lived on. Went over a large rock before striking a tree.
The rock literally tore the front suspension out.
Had an AM radio and heat. That was the extent of the amenities. I did install
an under dash Radio Shack cassette deck.
Ironically, the wife had a four door version of the exact same year and model
when I met her. We had that car for years. You couldn't kill it, and even the
absolute worst winter weather wouldn't keep it from starting. It was so dead
reliable that I refused to touch the ignition system the whole time we owned
it, for fear that I would upset the balance and somehow jinx the reliability.
I put plugs and wires on it, and probably caps and rotors, but I never touched
the points other than to clean them up.
We sold it to someone she worked with, and their kid(s) drove the car for a
number of years after that.
Dan
> On Jan 29, 2015, at 11:39 AM, Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes
> <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
>
> My first two cars were both 1950 DeSotos with the semi-automatic
> transmission. Bought one for $89 and sold it for $75, the other for $20
> and then junked it for $0. One broke down on Boylston street in Bahston
> during rush hour; the other gave up the ghost during the particularly
> brutal Minneapolis winter of '68...
>
> I can't think of anything nice to say about either one, except that they
> were IMPOSSIBLE to stall.
>
> On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Donald Snook via Mercedes <
> mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
>
>> Kaleb's email about wanting a car like his first car got me thinking about
>> my first car. My first car was a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88. It was light
>> metallic blue. It was my older brother's car and he was going to sell it
>> or trade it in. I ended up buying it from him. It had the crappy 260 V8
>> and it was worn out. We called it the Snookmobile. My brother called it
>> the living room on wheels. It had a whole bunch of problems. The
>> headliner sagged, so in my 16 year old wisdom, I staple gunned it back up.
>> It took about 800 staples! The exhaust had a hole in it and if you opened
>> the passenger door, exhaust would poor in. If the car was parked with the
>> nose downhill, the horn would come through the rear speakers. If you
>> pressed the cigarette lighter in, it would shoot out onto the passengers
>> lap. It required a quart of oil every three days. By the end of its
>> tenure, it was a quart every day and a pint of power steering fluid. The
>> little knobs on the window cranks were all broken, so it took forever to
>> raise or lower the windows. One Spring break in High School I decided I
>> wanted to visit my father in Mississippi. He bought new tires for the car.
>> I made it about 65 miles out of town when it blew a hose. I think it also
>> blew a headgasket. I drove it for a few more months and anytime I drove it
>> over 15 minutes, it would overheat. Finally, I traded it in to my Uncle
>> who had a small car lot. He gave me a very generous $450 dollars for it.
>> He took the new tires off, and the trailer hitch, and junked it.
>>
>> Even though it had a lot of problems, I loved it. Of course, what 16 year
>> old doesn't love their first car!
>>
>> Don Snook
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> _______________________________________
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> no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
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To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
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