My first car summer was a 31 Model A Ford 5-window coupe that had just been semi-restored; looked great and was in reasonably good condition; usually drove it at "redline" - 55 to 60 mph. It literally hummed; worst thing about it was getting it stopped. Girl friend (SWMBO) loved it, and I'm still in trouble for selling it and buying a ragged '40 Ford.
Wilton Sent from my iPad > On Feb 2, 2015, at 2:47 PM, Meade Dillon via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > wrote: > > My first car (that I was totally responsible for i.e. license, insurance, > all maintenance and any other expenses) was a '63 beetle that my olderbrother > gave up on. He had rebuilt the motor using over-sized pistons, the > engine made a ticking noise when done, so he bought a '68 squareback. I > Ifound a used motor for the beetle and drove it off to college, University > of Wisconsin - adjusting the valves every 2000 miles laying on cold wet > pavement in the street outside my apartment was miserable. The car was > black with the big canvass sunroof. I could stand while driving, > straddling the shift lever between my legs with my upper body sticking out > of the sunroof, steering with my left hand and working the accelerator > pedal with my left foot. > > In my sophomore year, I rented an apartment which had a locked storage area > in the basement, and using the "How to Keep your Volkswagen ALIVE" book, I > took the role of the "Complete Idiot" and proceeded to tear apart the > ticking engine. I could find nothing wrong, got a reference for a good VW > mechanic in the area, put all the pieces in boxes and took them to his > shop. He called me a couple days later and said "Fixed, that will be $15 > please". The crank gear that drove the distributor was damaged, and that > was making the ticking noise. He pressed off the old and installed a used > gear. I put it all back together, installed that engine and motored > happily off. However, lack of passenger heat and the frequency of the > valve adjustments laying in snow or on wet cold pavement was loosing all > appeal, so I sold that car for $300. > > The replacement was a '67 Plymouth VIP, with a "Commando V". 383 cubic > inches, but mine had the smaller carb and smaller intake valve openings. > It also burned almost as much oil as gasoline. It really could "roll > coal", especially on the freeway. Moving up from the VW to the VIP, I > thought the car had tremendous power. Drove it for a year or two, the > engine got weaker and weaker and finally was only running on 5 or 6 of the > 8 cylinders. I sold it for scrap for $75, but before I sold it I removed > the hood ornament and some other MOPAR bits that one of the many mechanics > who worked on the car admired, and sold those bits for another $75. The > brake lights didn't work when I got the car, so I ran new wire to the rear > window and installed trailer lights there as brake lights. I was amazed I > was never pulled over and questioned about that. > > My older brother had by then destroyed the squareback, and replaced it with > a '73 super beetle, for which he paid the princely sum of $100 circa 1990. > He was in graduate school then, didn't really need a car but did need a > bicycle. I had a nice Schwinn ten speed that I bought for $100, so I > traded him. "The Hundred Dollar Car" as it was known was terribly rusty > and again had the miserable air-cooled VW passenger heat (or lack > thereof). I suffered through another winter in Wisconsin. The brakes were > weak and the tires needed replacing, and I think it also needed new tie rod > ends. I took it to our "family" mechanic back in northern WI for the > work. He put the car up on his lift, took one look at the rust, gently put > the car back down and told me he could see no value in doing anything to > the car and advised that it was too unsafe to drive, so that one also went > to the junkyard. By the way, said junkyard in northern WI, "Floyds Auto > Salvage" was were all Dillon vehicles which were scrapped went back then. > We had a very good relationship with Floyd and his sons. They had > dedicated one row just for Dillon vehicles, making it easier for us to "pay > our respects" when we went buy to get parts for the current fleet. After > that I went through another hand-me-down family car, then decided to be > car-less my senior year. When I graduated I bought a used '92 Honda Accord > EX coupe. That was a decent car, drove it for about four years. I'd > bought it for $11k with less than 50k miles, sold it four years later with > over 100k for $6400. > > The only car I wish I had kept was that VIP. I had a lead on a 440 V8 from > a police car, and really wanted to swap that in, but just didn't have the > time and money while in college. > > Here's the Wikipedia entry: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Fury > > Here's a picture of a similar car. Mine was red with a black top. > > https://www.flickr.com/photos/carphotosbyrichard/4595509050/ > > -Max > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has > no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
