A small rant

[Bret4207]

Many of those "old boats" would SCOOT in real life too.

My step-mother had a Buick Riviera, with the sleek, boat-tail roof-to-deck transition and that was beastly heavy. All the same, she got picked up doing 140 mph in it round about the time it was new. SOMEHOW, she didn't even get ticketed. As the story goes, the officer was so impressed at the speed it would get, and that a "lady driver" was handling it so well that he let her slide. She really WAS a great lady too, but "lady" didn't always come to mind mid-bar-brawl or when egged on by some punk with a souped up ride at a traffic light.

Friend of mine had a green Riviera with the boat tail you describe. Wicked fast, and he was the wrong guy to have such a machine as his lack of good judgement was legendary in local circles. Gorgeous car inside and out.

 

[Bret4207]

My Muskie fishing car was an early 70's Buick Electra wagon with a 455. The seats folded down to give us 9 feet of cargo space. The rear window electrically went into the roof, and the tail gate electrically retracted into the floor. What an awesome fishin' wagon. Pulled a boat better'n most trucks.

The old family station wagon! That was our sole vehicle for many years. My father hauled enough lumber, cement, gravel (with a trailer), cement block, roofing, etc to qualify the wagons as true do anything vehicles. The one I remember best was a Mercury Colony Park with a 390 IIRC. My sole traffic stop prior to leaving home occurred in that wagon. Fortunately the Trooper was the brother of an ex girl friend who stopped me and I was more than appropriately ashamed at being caught in that position. There was no smart mouth in me, I was sweating bullets! Even then I was looking forward to trying to become a Trooper and he was my idea of the Trooper I wanted to become, and he knew it, so his withering glare and disappointment in me cut me deep. Yeah, I kind of idolized him, but it served his purpose and I behaved myself after that and until well after I'd gotten out of The Parris Island School for Wayward Boys.

Saw a Vista Cruiser, I think that was an Olds, for sale on line a few days back. $8K!!! About what it cost brand new!

 

[Mitty38]

I have good offers for my 90 f250 at least by weekly. And it has some rust.
But it is at 110k which is nothing for that truck. Plus I can diagnose anything on it with a Volt ohm meter, a vacume Guage,my ears and eyes. Repair it myself in the yard, with a standard or a metric tool kit. Either one. Most everything is 3/8(10mm), 1/2 (13mm), or 3/4(19mm)
Nope not getting rid of that one.

 

[Bret4207]

Emmitt, I'm in the same boat with my 97 F350 with 230+K on it. I can't replace it for what I've got in it, yet people keep asking if it for sale. I have an '05 GMC 2500 single cab with under 75K on it now too. Both need some cosmetic help and neither will ever win any fuel economy trials, but they are work horses and pretty easy to work on.

 

[Mitty38]

Funny thing is. It is a factory tall boy. Most offers from the young kids are killed as soon as they hear 2wd. Then stupid questions as to why it sit so high? Did I jack it up? Why such a big rear end!?etc.

My reply used to involve. It came from factory, designed for filling a need for a real work truck, that can easily be converted to dually, or easily adapted for a particular job, as desired. Extra clearance for driving around in a field. Basically a ranch truck. That is what the Lariet tag originally meant.

Now it's just "I don't know it came that way factory."

 

[Brad]

A small rant? Is that a runt?

 

[fiver]

chuckle that was a very minor rant,, err runt rant?

yeah a guy wanted to buy the Bronco and asked Littlegirl about it while she was driving it in HS.
he offered her 600 bucks, she asked why he wanted to just buy the tires.
he was kind of offended and remarked the body wasn't in such good shape, she gave him the 10-K rundown on the drive train.

 

[Bret4207]

Yeah, all those parts you can't see add up real quick! The opposite is the guy with an old vehicle he just pulled out of a fence row. Locked up engine, frames rusted through, floors a distant memory, glass is all cloudy or shot full of holes, interior was a Motel 6 for 'Coons, porkies and a large family of skunks. But they advertise them for $8500.00 as a "rat rod project"!!!

 

[JonB]

Yeah, all those parts you can't see add up real quick! The opposite is the guy with an old vehicle he just pulled out of a fence row. Locked up engine, frames rusted through, floors a distant memory, glass is all cloudy or shot full of holes, interior was a Motel 6 for 'Coons, porkies and a large family of skunks. But they advertise them for $8500.00 as a "rat rod project"!!!

As I've mentioned before, I inherited the "Want-Ad" watching hobby from my Dad.
At some point, I started saving images from the best one's I seen on FB market place and
also started "sharing" them on my FB wall ...all in the name of the hobby, LOL.
FB will post "Memories" from one year or two year or three year ...and so on.
Today, this post that I shared 5 years ago this day, popped up as a memory.
...kind of a coincidence to your Rat Rod project comment.

text of the ad:
"1953 Plymouth. Has 6cyl flathead but have not turned it over, it does roll and tires hold air. $650"

 

[Bret4207]

That is a beauty compared to the rust buckets we get locally! It's hard to imagine that at one time that car was probably someones pride and joy. Some of the cars from that era, heck!, EVERY era, were just butt ugly.

Heres a good example or 2 of the quality vehicles available in the rust belt- https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...3.4326660709307e-5}","ftmd_400706":"111112l"}

1978 Ford F-250 · Long Bed

Nice old 1978 Ford box was replaced 3 years ago with southern box it does need work as u can see but it does have mag wheels all 4 of them a 4 inch chassis lift n 3 inch body lift also been sitting...

www.facebook.com

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Yep, often those old cars and trucks out in the fields or woods cost more to remove than they are worth in scrap metal.

 

[fiver]

i watch a lot of those car repair rebuild shows and i'm constantly amazed at the work some of those guys can do.
rust? meh just cut it out and make a new piece.
23 different angles? no problem.
just mark it here snip it here make a few pie cuts fold it all over on a brake do some welding and some grinding and there you go.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

i watch a lot of those car repair rebuild shows and i'm constantly amazed at the work some of those guys can do.
rust? meh just cut it out and make a new piece.
23 different angles? no problem.
just mark it here snip it here make a few pie cuts fold it all over on a brake do some welding and some grinding and there you go.

Yeah......and next week on "This Big Check" we will rebuild the Hindenburg from this piece of twisted aluminum recovered at Lakehurst, N.J. ......

 

[Jeff H]

The body on that Plymouth is nicer than what I'm driving!

 

[fiver]

it's about like that.
i watched a guy pull push twist and hammer a barracuda back into shape that may possibly have been rear ended by a tank and shoved into a grove of trees at about 40 MPH.
he done it just to show that he could and i'm positive the man hours involved far exceeded the value of the vehicle by about 4-5 times.
it was kind of like watching christine put herself back together only in super duper slow motion... LOL

 

[Bret4207]

There are some real wizards out there that do all that stuff with nothing but a hammer and a hunk of old railroad rail. It's one thing doing it for yourself, quite another to pay someone to do that type of work!

 

[Ian]

it was kind of like watching christine put herself back together only in super duper slow motion... LOL

I saw that movie in the theater as a kid when it first came out, still remember that scene quite clearly.

 

[Rick]

There are rare people with tremendous skill and talent, amazing what they can do. I worked for a guy like that, his welds looked like they were robot welded, Cutting with the acetylene torch looked like it was computer laser cut. He ran a fabrication shop and Ford and GM were both his customers. He was also crew chief on a NASCAR team. Had the world at his door for his engineering and fabrication talents. Pity though, he lost everything, his wife, his home, his business. He got heavy into doing coke and literally stuffed every dime he could get his hands on right up his nose. Aren't drugs wonderful?

 

[Mitty38]

When I was just out of high school, my brother ran a custom auto shop. He had one other fellow and me. Together we laid out some pretty sharp rides. My brother could cut weld, fabricate, handle internal motor work and painted like a wizard. The other fellow was a wiz at interiors, electrical and could free hand stripe like an artist. I could do brazing, metal work, lead work, Paint finish and detailing. Plus build and match a carburator, or transmission.
Miss those days.

Back then the crazy Internet market was not there. Custom cars were often worth less for resale then stock.

We made a good living, but technology and laws pretty much pushed us out of business. Lacquer painting and leading on a regular basis were made illegal. Carburators were loosing to injection. People quit decking out vans, and fancy paint went out except on Bikes.
This at a time economy and job markets were open enough, it paid us to give up, sell out and go to other occupations.
I still get a carb shipped to me once and a while, at my brother's house.I have to send it back, with an apology because I do not have stock or a flow bench anymore.

 

[Edward R Southgate]

I thought the epa banned carbon Tet brake cleaners years ago along with asbestos brake shoes ?