I had an '84 Skylark one winter. Free car I fixed the brakes on and drove. Had to keep putting oil in it. Damned thing had some goofy angle iron supports stuck under it, hit a chunk of ice and knocked one off and ran it over and blew a tire. Rounded off a lugnut and couldn't get it off on the side of the road, couldn't get any help from the police garage or the Advanced Auto.. so I said screw it and drove home on the flat like 10 miles on snowy icy roads. Kept on the city streets. Hot light came on so I parked for a few minutes about halfway. But I got home and drove the car another six months after that. It still ran when scrap was up and I sold it to the junkyard. From there to a $50 '89 Ramcharger, put a water pump on it and actually filled the trans with ATF and ran it 1200 miles.. sold it for $400... terrible milage out of the 360. Two months later I lucked into an '89 Suburban old school bus at an auction for $500. It still runs and I'm going to put the motor in another car. But it was rusty as all hell, the tailgate was only held on by the glass, eventually I changed out all 4 doors and the front clip from another truck. I towed cars with it, I once had like 7500 lbs behind me and got where I had to go, ran off road with it, the locker rearend would get me through just about anything. So I replaced it with a '91 that has more miles on it but a better body. And all of them have gotten Advance Auto house brand 10W30 oil as needed. Either refilled as they leaked it out, or changed every 3-4 thousand miles.
still got it, '80 mustang, bought it for $200 to take the late 200 I6 motor out of, somehow never stopped driving it (found another motor). baby blue hatchback with a white vinyl interior, power locks, a/c, am/fm cassette, none of which have ever worked. 154,000 miles with basic maintenance, only thing i've ever replaced was the front rotors as soon as i got it. leaks a quart out of the timing cover every month or so, but good mpg and the sonuvabitch is the most reliable car i've ever owned, period.
'62 Catalina 4dr sedan ... paid $230 for it in fall of '91 at the Jefferson Swap Meet, sold $250 worth of chrome off it to a restorer in Illinois with deep pockets... put on pitted and bent spares in their absence and drove it for two years including a trip to Dallas. Front end alignment was such that I went thru a set of tires every 3k miles so used tires from Mr. P's tires kept me rolling. Sold it to a buddy who drove it another couple of years and then we parted it out. Although not as much of a beater by comparison, I still have a '62 as a daily driver.
Possibly the ugliest car on the road...yet pristine. A 1974 Dodge colt station wagon with 10,000 miles on it. Grass green with laminated wood siding stickers. Same green on the ouside..same on the inside. I drove the wheels off it. Sold it to a friend. He drove it for another 40K.
I have more than one 1977 Elk SS Still have it 1967 Chevelle 283 glide 1968 Datsun SRL311 roadster 1979 Datsun truck 1962 Impala 1962 Belair 1969 Dodge tuck 1964 Chev truck 1957 Chev 2 dr wagon I could go on
57 chevy sedan delivery. 327-350 hp with 4-speed and 4-11 rear. Ran like stink but the body was really rough.
Never really stopped to count but I'v owned well over 100 cars, never named one but had some sort of attachment to all of'em... its' OT but without a dought... my 79 Ranchero. I loved bombin' around in that thing. I spent some of my best times with my son in that car. Parts/dump runs were every weekends business. Amazing how traffic will clear if that thing popped up in someones rear view. 10x the car of the 85 El Camino I'd owned previously. Had to let it go due to parking issues, and the fuel scare a while back (too many cars, 5 at that time). Still run the wheels/tires on my DD 3~4 years later. Fuel milage sucked around town, but not bad out on the slab. I need another Rancheto, a 57/58 if it ever comes my way. Hell I'd even buy a 260 Falcon if it was anything like decent.
1984 Monte carlo CL. 3.8 carbed V6, only had 60,000 miles on it, stupid 200R metric trans. I literaly beat the SHIT outta that car, never broke a thing. had bad valve seals to begin with so that was the only oil problem. rally raced it on a twisty dirt track, burnouts at local cruise night burnout box, Cross town races with friends. Then.....all that caught up to me, it lasted through all that randomness, a winter of heavy snow with no ABS and thouse tiny front tires & back meats, no problem. But all that heavy connering with the 195/65/15 worn them down near the end of their tread and one night i slid into the back of a ford winstar, i shit you NOT ONE SCRATCH on that windstar and my front nosecone was pretty much gone and the passenger fender obliterated. lost interest when i was focused on the 58' del ray, drove it a bit more and never got a front end because i couldnt find one. Sold it and miss it so damn much to this day.....Even though i love my 92' Cadillac with everything going wrong.
the best beater would be a 1976 chevy wgn. drove it for 5 yrs just change the oil and the my 58 ford got it in 88 uesed it as a daily beater till 98 and still have same motor and trans best car i every had
I only had one true beater, a little 1200 cc, 4-door automatic Corolla in Japan. Never washed it in 3 years. One set of points. No oil changes, nothing. Ran like a clock. It had no head liner... was like driving around in a 55 gallon drum. Gary
Without a doubt, the K Car by Chrysler! Man, I had about three of em from the age of 18 to 34, and they would run and run. I had a head gasket go, on one, and everytime I would start the car after sitting, a fog blast would fill half a football feild. I was lazy, and didn't want to mess with timing, so when I replaced the 15 dollar gasket (cheap parts) I left the timing belt attached to the cam and just flipped the head to the left and dropped the new gasket on and then dropped the head back over without touching the belt . Water, from the head leak had filled the crank, and I would drain it off through the pan once a week until teh fix. People told me I wouldn't get a month with water in the low end bearings, I got a year and a half. Never decked the block or even touched the head, I mean I cleaned it up, but didn't fix anything the right way. Pork
I guess it would be the 66 Corvair I had in the mid 1970's.It was very reliable at a time when I had little money .
Toss up I guess. '58 Merc or '68 Torino. The merc was a 430 car and the Torino had a Boss 429 swapped in. They both used Castrol. I started using that oil in the late '60s and the Ol' Man used it before me.
1970 Maverick 170 straight 6 - dad bought it in Texas in about 72 drove it back brother drove it til head gasket popped - I got it - by fixing it Dad said it had to drive to scrap yard. It did. Years later I was part hunting and there was "Da Mav" with Mud Dawg sprayed on the side - the yard goat - still ran.
I've always drove beaters. 1953. My brother and I acquired our Grandpa's(RIP) Ford, before High School, both got our drivin' licenses in it. Enamel, tutone blue with a brush, Rustoleum would be a good substitute. We drove the hell out of it, chasing rabbitts over sagebrush pastures, wore it out. That paint job lasted a while, then, when we could afford, it got new hand rubbed lacquer in 1995. I've posted it here on HAMB before. My best beater was a Maverick?/Pinto, (I forget which!) station wagon that I had in the mid 70s. Just couldn't kill it. Another good one was a '66 Mustang, L6, auto tranny, but it used up a lot of alternators, waterpumps for some reason. Current one is my daily driver custom pickup. <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
I had already bought and sold several cars and trucks by the time I was 16. Dad had a 1954 Willys CJ-3B 4x4, with the tall hood and the OHV 4-banger. This is what I learned how to drive in, at age 12. When I was of legal driving age and between vehicles, Dad let me drive the CJ all over hell. Dad didn't mind that, because I never ventured more than 20 miles from home in it! Top speed was somewhere between 50 and 55. He was not real worried about me getting a ticket while driving that! I thrashed the dogpiss outta that Willys! I brush-painted it black. I installed a large Thrush muffler on that, using several adaptors to make it work. Problem was, it was so loud that I couldn't exactly sneak into the driveway after hanging out with my friends, so I'd get up enough speed, cut the engine and coast home into the driveway! Dad sold that right after I got out of high school. So, for me, that '54 CJ was the most fun beater I drove! Damn near forgot the best overall beater I have ever had that was actually mine - a '67 Chevy Biscayne 4-door, with 283, PG, AM radio (manual tune only, no pushbuttons!), cloth interior, carpeting, and heater. That's all it had! I paid $300 for it in 1978 and drove the hell out of it. It was my commuter, 110 miles round trip to work and back, five days a week. I'd get a solid 21 mpg with it, all day long. I could jump in it and drive 300 miles to Denver without a worry. Lots of hoonage with that car! When I went in the service, I gave the car to my little sister, who drive it for another year or so. Second would be a '67 Dart GT with a 225 auto. Light gold, black interior, and no A/C. It came from Los Angeles, and was a black-plate California car from new. I bought it off the original owner's son in 1986. It had 177K miles on the original drivetrain. The car still had its original paint and interior, and showed and drove very well. I drove that car 22K additional miles before selling it to a guy in KCMO, before I got transferred overseas. Really shoulda taken that Dart with me to Germany! It wasn't so much a beater as it was a terrific and dependable daily driver that consistently put out 22 mpg, and looked good doing it!
My first vehicle. 61 F100 with a 292 and a granny low 4 on the floor. It always starts and runs no matter what.
Had bought a duece tub body and was getting ready to put it on my 2dr frame and needed a beater as my duece had been my only wheels. got a 35 Plymouth coupe that my buddy told me about. His neighbor had retired and it had been sitting in his backyard for about 5 yrs. We got it running and it served me well for 2 years. Had lotta fun with it and wished I had kept it, it was a solid little car. [paid $25 for it]
1969 Pontiac Grand Prix. 400, Turbo 400. not a fast car, but it would do powerstands until the tires popped. did one in a gas station once when a clerk wouldn't let me pump becuse I came in the wrong driveway and was facing the wrong way at the pump. no one in the place but me. smoked the tires for a good minute, what an idiot I used to be. great trans... second gear scratch in drive. paid 300 bucks for it. gold wth a tan interior. pretty well worn out but a real straight body except for one door. it would be a good builder these days. when is the last time you saw one? finally broke the timing chain doing burnouts in an industrial area where me and my buddies had a shop to "work on our cars" and drink and smoke weed and bang chicks. ahhh the good old days.put a chain on it but the damage to the valves had been done. sold it for what I paid for it then later it ended up in the junkyard.
79 Dodge Little Red Express, Had to screw a piece of plywood to (what was left of )the bed floor to haul stuff, painted the bed with red Barn paint, and after ~ 3 mos it faded to match the cab perfectly. Never burned any oil, I swapped in a 518 trans and built the 360 W W2 heads 650 lift roller cam and 12 to slugs, it was still a daily driver, but with a 250 shot it got me kicked out of Rt 66 Ran a best of 10.80, and looked like pieces were ready to fall off. Typical no parking sign for floor boards etc.. parted it out after 6 years, and some guy restored the frame/cab/original block and sold it at auction for 25K. I bought it for 500.00 and sold him the title and parts for 200.00
The Jalopy Journal
