"Back in the day" odometers only went to 99,999 miles before going around again. Wouldn't it be interesting to see the maintenance record for those cars that had to do***ent the odometer going around 5 16 and 30 times. Not to mention the weather stripping, paint, upholstery. 100,000 miles on a car these days is so common it's almost considered low mileage. "Back in the day" MOST cars with 80,000 - 90,000 miles were already stacked, rotting in wrecking yards. Designed obsolescence was a reality. It was engineered into every car manufactured. Japanese manufacturers saw that and improved the engineering to a point where American manufacturers had to also improve to compete... Business compe***ion through capitalism is a good thing that everyone benefits from.
When my family moved to northern California in 1956 I got my first experience in auto shop cl***, and then when we moved to North Beach, San Francisco it got better. We had some students that had hot rods, and drove them to school. We had a great auto / machine shop teacher, Frank Presoto, and yes, he drove a Desoto, a 1939 model.
Thanks to Chrisbcritter and to Nickthebandit for reminders of shop cl***. In about 1964 I took shop cl*** at summer school in San Mateo Cali. Not my high school, but the one offering summer school. Did not retain the teachers name, but he was a cool old timer. Probably near end of his career. He had a 60's C10 sitting on an older Cadillac ch***is n drivetrain. It sure rode smooth but looked like a Chev pickup with a camper. This was around the time some folks were converting ambulances and he****s into "motorhomes". If they could only look ahead and see the astronomical prices of 1959 Cadillac he****, ambulances and flower cars I'm sure the 59s would have been spared. Probably wouldn't have ran them in demolition derbies either. 1 more car I promise, Rex Winter Dry and windy Lubbock TX
Note the unusual van based pickup in the background - Maybe an Austin or Atlas or Standard, not familiar enough with them to guess. Edit: After googling, it might be a Morris.
The Jalopy Journal
