Technical Practicality of a HAMB daily

I'd bet most mileage claims are pulled directly from the speakers butt. my buddy had a 47 Chevy that he claimed 23 MPG with a worn out 327. he didn't even have a speedometer.

 

With its 6 volt technology and flathead 6 I don't know how much you would want it to be a daily but I Drive it nearly every day. It hasn't failed me yet this side of a clogged fuel line on one trip. It cruises very good at 65 miles an hour with the three speed overdrive. My 51 Hudson super six is a great driving car and it gets anywhere from 15 to 20 miles to the gallon. The only reason I think it wouldn't be good as a daily all the time is the rarity of parts. If I'm not driving it I'm driving my '29 Model A Sedan. It's big block Caddy powered w/TH400 tranny and 3.23 geared rear. It is extremely dependable and quick. A great combo in my book for a daily. Fuel mileage for the '29 ranges from 12-15mpg depending on how it's driven.

 

Mine was actually measured with a speedo and verified by more then one HAMBer on more then one trip. 16-18 is good on stock factory small block and 12-14 is actually common. a balance and blueprint helps. gearing for your power band also helps. And I meant to mention sometimes you just get lucky.

 

I've posted my 52 chevy truck a number of times as a daily, and it is.
Like a few others, it isnt as traditional under its skin as one would think. But i did it that way to be fairly comfortable and drive it a lot.
For starters, its on an s-10 chassis. So, "modern" suspension, steering and power disc brakes.
So it ride's, handles and stops like a lowered s-10 would.
I built a fairly stout 355 with way too much compression for it, solid cam,'world products heads etc etc which would eventually bite me in the ass with the new shit gas, but I solved that dilemma with a methonol injection kit.
Now it has all the power and runs on pump gas without an issue. It flat out moves yet is more than manageable as a daily.
I put a T400 behind it with a tight mild converter, and the biggest trans cooler i could fit.
Then rebuilt the rear with 3:36 gears.
Its got heat/air/defrost, 2 speed wiper upgrade and a decent stereo with sirius sat.
I even put a class 3 hitch on it to tow so i can pull anything a stock s-10 can pull safely, and much more if i wanted to be a fool.
It get's an average of 17/19 mpg if im just driving it like a normal person and is as reliable, if not more so, than any late model i've ever owned or own now. Sometimes I'd get into the 20/22 area but had to be flat roads and steady rpms. That was all measured many times via gps.
Hottest it gets is around 210 with the air on, and 185 with it off.
And it cruises at 65 mph for hours easily at around 2500rpm without a worry.

Im not going to pass it off as luck, i spent a lot of time putting this together so it was as bullit proof as i could make it and thus far has proven itself with just under 50k miles on it without any issues aside from regular maintenance.

Anything can be built as a reliable daily driver if enough time is spent in design and execution.

I dig trucks so thats what i built.
If i was going to do the car route, it'd be a no brainer for me.
Id have an early 60's full size chevy.

Tony

 

All respect to you guys, but an old body daily with S-10 chassis, stroked SBC, OD automatic, etc, etc, etc, really isn't a HAMB daily now, is it?.

 

Nor was the a/c, overdrive, disc brake equiped ZZ383 Chevy wagon Ryan had, but, it serves a purpose above and beyond a dead nuts traditional vehicle.
I dont fully disagree with you really, i actually understand exactly what you're saying. but like it or not its a good mix of both worlds that allows a person to get in, turn the key and genuinly not be concerned with much.
Mine was built to drive, a lot, but just look old.
It may not "fit" the letter of the law of the HAMB, but its reliable as all get out, is fun to drive and is still a 52 chevy truck, just has some upgrades


Tony

 

I just got to post this as for the safety of an old heap the fun really happens about 2.35 this probably wouldn't happen with a Lexus. LOL

 

I would rather drive that then my daily driver, a 2004 VW Passat stationcar 1.9 TDI, despite it does goes 17-18 km/l

 

I still have my old '65 Ford Custom Cab pickup sitting in the barn waiting on me to pull it back out and replace the engine and do the repairs it deserves,it was my daily for more than 30 years.

I have worn out several engines with that 411 rear axle,Deuce Roadster gave me a 9" chunk with more driver friendly gears. HRP

 

Right, it seems we agree, but the reason I made that comment was because the OP was asking about the practicality of a HAMB friendly daily. If you start talking about a semi-restomodded car, you've really changed the subject.

 

i drove a '64 chevy pickup, '64 chevelle malibu and a '60 biscayne as dailies from 1990 thru 2005. all 6 cylinders, the truck had a manual trans. I don't know about mileage, but they were super simple, super comfortable and a joy to drive. i never had any real significant breakdown scenarios and i wasn't afraid to drive them anywhere including from L.A. to Albuquerque and back. i've since become exceedingly spoiled and require AC, PS and a decent sound system for daily use, but I think as soon as my roadster is done that will probably change a bit.

 

Point made.
I suppose i just feel that although some of our daily's do have non hamb friendly stuff, they are still generally old, just upgraded with more modern items.
If i dont tell folks whats been done to my truck its pretty hard to tell from the outside.
I did drive my 32 daily the first year it was on the road.
And that fits in the HAMB specs.
But mpg was shit, it rides rough has drum brakes all around and leaks bad when it rains! Hahaha

Back on topic.....
Go get a nice early 60's chevy. You'll be very happy
Tony

 

This was my daily for the last 18 years. Rain, sleet, snow, even through a tropical storm once. It doesn't have airbags or Onstar, but it does have a rollcage and a supercharger. It runs 10's and gets 8 mpg.



But, after all these years, I thought I needed something more grown up, so I built this pile. It has windows and a heater, runs 13's and gets 20mpg.



It is all in what you can live with.. daily driving a hot rod isn't too difficult, people did it every day when these things were new. You might have to man up a bit, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck, -Abone.

 

I found a rust free 62 Falcon Ranchero and put a rebuilt stock motor in it, and it was great as a DD, good mpg, coped OK with modern traffic, really a nice machine. On one of Texas' 85 MPH freeways, on the way to el Paso, teenage kid in his mom's Mitsubishi SUV rear-ended me. He was going 90 or better, I was going 60. His cell phone was still yakking on the floor. We didn't see him coming- just a loud BAM and we were pushed a hundred yards ahead so hard that our tires left skid marks.
Well...it totaled our Ranchito- folded up the skin above the rear wheel wells.
We limped back home and that's when I got the shocker- you know the painted steel package tray behind the seat? Mine had two neck shaped dents in it. I didn't feel it til the next day.
We got amazingly lucky.
Drive what you want, but any old vehicle I drive will have belts, harnessses and head rests. I'd run a Falcon, old as they are, any time , with those additions.

 

Drive sanely, understand your brakes, lights and visibility. Watch those behind as well as in front of you. Stay out of the way of faster traffic.

The same tricks I learned riding Harleys for years work in a car. If it doesn't feel safe don't do it.

 

Drove a 65 impala 4 door 6 cyl, pg as a daily for 2 years. Found it sitting in a yard, bad trans. Had a plate welded to the frame where it was rusted out, some rough and quick bodywork Earl Scheib paint job, plaid western auto seat covers.

rebuilt trans, compression checked good, replaced as many gaskets as I could in the car, rebuilt carb, good tune up, belts hoses, battery, tires. Started every day first crank, got great mileage, plenty of power for a driver.

Saw it 10 years later still on the road, the Earl Scheib paint looked like chalk.

 

When I first bought my 1964 Tempest it had a rebuilt original 215 six cylinder under the hood mated to the original column-shifted 2-speed auto and 2.56 rear.

It always returned an honest 20MPG, this was an average of both city and highway driving. I never really kept it sharply tuned, so it likely had another couple of MPG left in it. I've never owned a more reliable and easy to work on old car than this little Tempest with a straight-six. Changing out the heater core takes less than 2 hours.

The good thing about the '64 -'72 GM A-body cars is they have so many interchangeable drivetrain and suspension pieces it isn't funny. Super easy and affordable to find chassis and brake parts. Disc brake swaps are a snap, all those years these cars used same front ball joints.



A shot of the original 140 HP 215 straight-six that came in this car, both the LeMans and Tempest rolled off the assembly line with one of these if you didn't ask for the 326 V8. This six-banger is exactly the same as a 230 Chevy other than bore size (3.750" vs 3.875") and having 'PONTIAC' cast into the side of the block.

 

Do it! and don't look back. No more payments, and it's fun. ya there's more maintainance, but isn't that what we like doing? working on old cars? We just got back from a 9800 mile trip across Canada and back, in the one in the avatar, with a couple minor issues. And, not speaking out my "butt" it got a best of 21.5 mpg at 75-80 mph. 18.5 when she drove hahaha...

 

San Fran? That's big city with big egos and road rage (not to say that RR doesn't happen in small towns) I live in a small town in the east, have a 35 mile or so round trip commute, have a dd/only vehicle '49 Chevy 1/2 ton, '56 235 cubic inch, Fenton's, 2-2bbls on a 50's period Edelbrock intake, '69 3sp+od. Got 18.9 on a highway trip recently. I do preventive maintenance by having a white erase board with seasonal tasks. Reliable as the sun, no vehicle payments for the past 18 years. Broke a fanbelt once, had one under the seat. Limped home one time after a valve spring broke. Second gear failed on a '62 3 sp+od transmission so I had the '69 3 sp+od in the wings, rebuilt it and installed in four days (actually a long weekend and could have finished earlier but I was waiting for parts). I just wouldn't do an old vehicle in a high speed/ high tension environment.

 

Ok, I'll throw in my .02. I work on those new cars for a living, also used to smog them for years, but I don't like to own them. Sure a/c and electric seats are nice but they have no character, even the hipo models do nothing for me......never have. I used to get called "oldtimer" even in my 20's because the cars I liked and owned (and musical taste).
My girlfriend is going to get a car and give up her "new" one (1995), so we're on the hunt for a '59-'60 Studebaker 2dr wagon, with the proper drivetrain it should get around 25mpg. My '28 Tudor is going to be running a early Pinto motor with a T5, should get great MPG, hell my friends daily '50 merc with a 283 and the stock merc o/d trans get's around 18mpg.

If your ok with less safety, a drivetrain swap (maybe brakes too) and a permanent smile then take the plunge. A well maintained old car will almost never let you down.

BTW, I live in an area of high ego/speed/rage and drive it just fine, but I stay in the slower lanes because I don't need a ticket (I have a class A lic), so it's 73ish and under.

 

In '09 I bought a '56 F100. It already had a Camaro clip with power steering and disc brakes, GM 10-bolt rear with discs and 2.73's, fresh wiring throughout, and a 305/th400 combo with unilite distributor, headers, and a stock 2jet carb. I drove this truck every day, as it was all I had. I drove it twice a week, every week on 120-mile round trips on the highway, doing 75mph effortlessly, and getting around 20mpg if I kept my foot out of it. City driving mpg was in the high teens, again, depending in how heavy my foot was. It was absolutely reliable after I dialed in a few tuning issues and it never skipped a beat. It handled and rode like a modern car with the ifs, stopped on a dime with the manual disc brakes on all four corners, and had just enough power to keep up in traffic, but not so much that I'd get in trouble. It had a heater for the winter, but no AC, and that was my only real complaint. I sold the truck in '12 to fund new ventures, and regret it every day since, like seriously, it hurts my heart every day.

 

I most confess you hat me for the better part of the post, but not the last part!!

My last job I could DD my dads 5tons truck, it just needed a heater in stead of a defroster. Makes a big difference in November to February!!! No problem traffic was slow, small back roads at five in the morning.

But it depends on a lot of things, but I most confess a shit load of things has changed around here traffic wise!! The number of Drink drivers have got slightly down, but number of people that drive just like a drunk has gone on for the last decade!! The play with phones/girlfriend/reads a book/play navigation, the list goes on. On top, on my new job the shipyard next door paints ships 3 or 4 times a month, meaning that people gets there car cowered in overspray etc, we got a high rate of "legal aliens" working at the same site an you can't leave stuff in you car that you care for.

So I would fear for my car 8hours out of my 9 hour work day!! Plus the long commute I would be a little afraid or in a state of panic.

But a beater/truck/station wagon or just not a good condition car, would be so able. So HAMB friendly yes, hot rod/custom NO!

And the matter of driving as long as I do on the highway, would make me contemplating putting a VW 1.9 diesel/4 speed OF in a beaten old Volvo/falcon and drive it all day, all night and all year.

Tell more about your need, for better advice.
What, when, where and how long/fast/often.

 

no simple solutions, a lot of variables. bottom line is that a older/cooler ride can become a DD. you have to decide what are the must haves to meet your needs/situation. Ryan's input gives some real life info, plus others. be sure to check what your insurance will cover.

 

Exactly how many threads are on the HAMB about :

airbags, vega boxes, Camaro sub frames, coil over shocks, aluminum radiators, jag front clips, automatic transmissions ? If that shit is allowed to be discussed on the hamb I guess the vehicle that has all of it would be considered "HAMB friendly " would it not?

And me personally ... I'm cool with all of it .... Except on prewar hotrods!

 

I'm doing the '59 Ford so it can be used on a daily basis. Upgraded to front discs for more whoa power. Going with 3-point belts for the front since the dash is steel and the steering column is little more than a spear.

 

The key to mileage is to gear it to what you intend to do with it. Some of the OD trannies have a pretty deep 1st gear so if you gear them for cruising out on the highway in OD you can still get around town OK. I don't care for them much myself but that is doable.

I still drive a 1:1 and most of the time I run a pretty tall gear like say around a 3.oo to 3.26. I do lots of highway driving even in town. I also try and build a pretty wide power band in a street engine, it helps with drivability. There are lots of pieces that perform off idle to say around 5k, not winning any land speed records with them but reliability and good pulling power is what you are after if you just plan on driving it.

On another topic quickly here and just to throw myself in the pissing match. I think that sometimes we get a little confused when we are talking HAMB cars. Most of the cars that belong to most of the people on the HAMB are more HAMB friendly than they are period perfect. That would make them traditional Styled cars for the most part. they look and for the most part feel the part. I have poor short term memory but my long term is still pretty good and I can remember for example when an S-10 frame swap was a common and acceptable thing on here. There is actually an entire thread that is pretty substantial dedicated to swapping an S-10 chassis to about one of everything. I think that once we start talking LS or Coyote motor swaps then we have gotten away from HAMB cars but while later model brakes and suspension is not exactly traditional it has been an acceptable part of the HAMB as long as I have been around.

 

Daily driver April to November. I dont intentionally drive it in the rain just because the rear window seal is starting ot leak, but I have driven in huge rain storms and the wipers work fine. No A/C yet, but the vent windows move plenty of air at speed. Average 20mpg and cruise at 70 on the highway no problem. 8000+ trouble free miles so far, been reliable as any newer car and more fun to drive. Fuel injected but carb would not be that much different.

 

Ha, I would love to be bombing down the fast lane in that! ^^

"Crumple zones? We don't need no stinking crumple zones!"

 

I run a 4L60E in mine with a 3:08 gear ( same ratios as the 700r4 ) and the steep first gear helps get a 4000+ pound car moving. The gear spread is not even noticeable, it is not like a granny gear, but with 4:56s it would be. Since we are talking daily drivers and not track cars I dont think it is a big concern. My tank actually gets up and moves just fine with only 300HP and highway crusing is effortless.
I have 200r4s here on the shelf, those I normally run with 3:73s, but gear choice depends on what rear tire size I am running.

 

In the real world, LOTS of guys run their dailies at the track...I know, I'm one of them, and I see dozens of others every time I go out there...
If you are a cruiser, no the spread probably wont bother you.