General car memories, also known as ancient history!!
dreher
Member Posts: 8,893 ✭✭✭✭
In the mid 50s the man who owned the local Cadillac, Chevy dealership made big news by having his own personal Chevy reach 100,000 miles. This was a big deal and it was the talk of the town leading up to the 100,000 mile event. I remember people would drive into town just to look at this incredible Chevy. Can you imagine bragging over 100,000 miles!! Times sure have changed!!
As I look back on this I have often wondered if Hugh, who was an excellent promoter, didn't go on a road trip to another dealer friends dealership and just maybe slap a set of rings on his Chevy. 😊
Remember when it seemed like there was a muffler shop on every other corner?? Remember the short life expectancy of starters and alternators??
The classic cars from way back when might have been cool to look at but not a one of them was a fourth the car most of us are driving right now!!
Comments
I remember a car my dad bought from a fella, I was about 5 yrs old. I distinctly remember the man telling Dad, “ It’s been a good car. 85 thousand miles and all I’ve had to do to it was a valve job.”
I remember my daddy repacking wheel bearings on the family car every spring . Most cars were worn out at 75000 miles . In the early 70’s the 350 Chevy engines were well known for needing the camshaft replaced at around 60 thousand . Several of our farm trucks were on their second or third engine rebuild when we got rid of them
I don't know what it is but even today the back of my mind says any car having over 100K miles should be parked in the economy used car lot!
I know, I know, just a thing that my memories have a hard time reconciling with the 21st century.
Yep.. trying to get someone in Space...Now they land the reusable unit on a barge.
the company I retired from I remember they gave away a new car to a fellow had one million miles on his Honda now this has been 20 years ? ago but the company had a big ordeal and prestation of the new Honda to him , I think he was some sales person that drove cross country ( a lot ) the car had normally maintained and a few wear and tear parts replaced , I think Honda kept the car and put on display with many other of there cars.
I remember as a kid and young driver a car with 100k was shot you could see and smell the oil fog bank before you seen the car most of the time if it was still being driven LOL .
now its a selling point only 100k miles just breaking in
just a note materials and clearances tolerances have come a long way one of the jobs I had for a while working in inventory control ( along with many more as we would rotate thru different positions ) was ordering rod and main bearings some still came from japan some were made just a couple towns over but they were sized in microns and machines measured the journals and cranks and told the line worker what size to install ( color coded ) I ordered 3 months out based on % of the sizes being used .
I still have a great fondness for the older cars they just have the looks and character ( I still have two 69 Camaros ) I could tell most cars a 1/2 mile away by the grill or tail lights back in the day ( and of course the flashing light bar on top ,,too many times they were lit up behind me LOL )
todays cars have more power last 4 x as long with few exceptions more comfort dependability MPG but sadly most all are just cookie cutter style, I know air drag best lines for fuel and so on so they all end up with basic the basic shapes with a few trim pieces to ID the brand
Salesman used to buy gas at my dads filling station. He drove a 64 Chev 283 wagon and it had over 250,000 miles on it. Dad did all the service on it but never anything major. It was a beast!
The mechanical stuff that used to wear out is no longer a problem. Now it is all the gadget stuff that fails. Much of it has nothing to do with getting the car to drive from A to B, but the car won't operate without them.
i had a '65 lemans with the small block 326
same body as the GTO but a smaller power plant and much cheaper for a kid !
beat hell out of that car on the road and quarter mile, and finally killed it at 243,000 miles on the clock !
all my fault, after a shutdown half track, i drug it home and out of disgust never found out the why untill spring season rolled close...
THATS when i remembered i never drained the water jacket, and a nice crack mid block 😫
and the issue that ticked me off so bad was relatively minor, a rocker stud had pulled out (old pressed rocker studs instead of threaded)
10 - 15 thousand mile between changing plugs and now 100 thousand is normal. Bias ply tires that didn't last more than 20,000 miles and now even cheap ones last twice as long. No distributor or points and condenser to worry about. No dirty out of adjustment carburetor. Stainless exhaust that now seems to hold up forever.
That all adds up to cars that are no fun to work on like I did for years, but now that I am in my mid sixties I think that is a good thing.👍 Bob
I had a 63 Plymouth that would eat a set points every 2500-3000 miles. Nobody could figure it out. Years later I found out it had a defective ballast resister. I remember looking at it and wondering what it was for. Found out way too late.
Joe
Dad drove a '59 Chevy PU through 3 engines (one was the fault of a hired hand that tried to spin his way out of a mud hole) We figured at least 250K miles on the chassis when we scrapped it.
One day we were headed to town from an farm we rented and as we turned onto the main highway saw an older couple in an Chevy the same age sitting on the side of the road. Dad pulled up and asked what was wrong and they explained what had happened ("It just quit and won't start") dad figured out the points were burned.
He reached into his toolbox in the bed of the truck and pulled out a set of points for a John Deere 95 combine and they fit. 15 minutes later both Chevys were headed down the road.
I remember driving home from Chicago in an 85? dodge pickup. Almost made it to the first toll booth in Indiana, it conked out. I opened up the hood looked and found a burned distributor cap and rotor. Made it through the fence to a parts shop and back and was driving again in under an hour. Didn’t think much about it, just what you did.
The new ones now text my phone to give me a heads up that I ought to take it in for service and by the way here are the available appointments, just click on the one you want...
Youngen was born in 73. So we bought a 73 AMC station wagon. Every 20k miles it was new brakes/new tires. @80k it was SHOT. Fast forward to a new century 2001 l bought a New GMC Envoy. Still change the oil every 3000 miles. Original tires replaced @50k. 105K l bought first set of brakes, second set of tires... Now Envoy Green has 150,000miles. Soon l will need another set. Almost 20yrs, never eft bey the road. Never even a flat. Car's on its third battery. Trans serviced @ 100,000 miles. Wife wants a NEW car. May wax the Envoy tomorrow. lnstant NEW car🤗
I remember dealing with the points , also helped a couple over the years broke down ( I had a tool box in my trunk or in the bed of my truck 24/7 didn't everybody with basic tools and a few spare parts ) I had up graded from sandpaper to a actual points file ) in my Camaro I had a accel duel point tack drive distributor at the time it was the hot set up to have right under a magneto to light the fire
I also remember going to the local speed shop and or Napa store fairly often for new plugs and points 😐️
big engines big carbs and big lift cams do not play well with spark plugs in the city red light to red light driving .
and street racing was a way of life so had to keep the car(s) good to go LOL
when chevy came out in 74 with the electronic distributor , I could not wait to get one ( distributor ) no more points 😎
I also do not miss the cold winter days of starting and warming up the engine to go any where ( self inflected I had cut off the choke tower and all the choke parts on the 850 to gain a few more CFM
Spare points ,rotor button etc was required in my rides along with the tools to fix everything short of an engine overhaul ! . Broke down in a 1/2 horse town on a midnight ride home from out of state once . ThermastT had hung closed and was overheating . Took a while but at 3 am not much choice but break out the tools and get to work. Don’t miss that at all
You guys are singing my song. My daily driver is a '63 Land Rover and me and points are intimate friends.
Oh and it has a positive earth generator, and a mechanical Lucas voltage regulator. So there's two more sets of points to maintain.
I replaced the horrible Weber carburetor this spring with a Zenith and now she idles and purrs like a Swiss watch. But it was a major PITA getting to this point.
Oh, and 400,000 miles so far, and she doesn't burn a drop of oil. At idle, the generator turning is louder than the engine.
GM had the electronic ignition long before 1974. I worked on a 66 Corvette with it from the factory. It was an option on the big blocks, maybe more.
I was driving back home from Chicago for the last time after going to school up there. I had the same 63 Plymouth going south on the Outer Drive, I hit great big pothole, and broke the exhaust pipe in half right under my seat. I had to drive the rest of the way home with the window down to get the fumes out. Every time I saw a cop I would put it in neutral and coast past to keep the noise down. Made it home without a ticket. 😄
Ahhhh the memories!! Nobody has brought up what steering these older cars was like! Even way back when I was sitting in the backseat watching dad maneuvering the ole Nash! He had that steering wheel swaying back and forth and we were headed down a straight road!
I had a 58 Chevy Brookwood station wagon that was equipped with power steering that felt more like a ships rudder!!
Yes! I do miss the classic styles of yesteryears but these days I have become somewhat lazy. I admit that I might check my oil a day or two after an oil change. But then don't worry about it until the next change.
I remember some of the old small block Chevy engines that would use a quart of oil about every thousand miles. If you checked and kept oil in them they would run forever.That would be the old cars and trucks with 300,000 miles on them.
Brother had a '66 Buick Rivera. Moved from Texas to Wisconsin to take a job.
Neighbors all told him he needed a block heater, etc. to get that high compression engine to start in the winter but he just smiled.
They watched in amazement as that southern boy got in his big car and it started every time no matter how cold.
What they didn't know was that he'd installed the ether injection system off a John Deere in his ash tray. Short shot of ether into the carb and it fired right up!
some what related to the post
one old memory related to cars when my wife I took out loan not long after we were married the loan officer ( lady ) when we first sit down some how got on the subject of cars , before we even did any business . I commented I repaired all our cars and did all the work on our house from top to bottom
she looked at me in shock and actually ask you do your own work? is it because you can not afford to hire some one to do it
I said something like no there is people in the real world that like working and repairing there own cars and houses and do not like paying some oner 50x or more of what it cost me to do it my self and have the ability to do it
pizzed me right off
I have so many problems with those silly stalks on the car. Dimming the lights or adjusting the windshield wipers. The dimmer should be on the floor where God intended it to be. I had just been recalling my first car (40 Chevy coup) had five pedals on the floor. Dimmer, clutch, brake, accelerator & starter. Still it was easier than what's on the column now.
One thing I just thought of and no one else has mentioned, is those roomy back seats!! So how many of us ended up as Daddy's and husbands because of those big backseats??? 😋
dreher, my favorite was my moms 1969 Buick Electra 225 . Biggest backseat of any car I ever drove . It even dwarfed the Cadillacs .
The back seat in my 51 Plymouth Cranbrook was just like a sofa! 🙂
My dad bought a brand new 1967 cj5, right off the show room floor. It was the first year that it came out with the dauntless v6. he sold it in 1994, with 385,000 miles on it. The body had actually rusted off the frame. He stopped in the street one day, and had to get out to push the body back on, because it jammed the clutch and brake peddles. That was when he sold it. He originally paid 2,600 for it new, and sold it to some kid for 2,900. The kid was going to restore it. It ended up at a local junk yard, a few years later. Above was the jeep with me standing beside it. I was around six at the time