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What was your best "beater"?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by wingspread7, Aug 7, 2009.

  1. pasadenahotrod
    Joined: Feb 13, 2007
    Posts: 11,775

    pasadenahotrod
    Member
    from Texas

    A rotten $50 55 1st series Chevy Bell Phone Company pickup with homemade wooden service bed. Had to invest $35 in a rebuilt trans for it and then drove it for 2 years all around the Gulf Coast and SE Alabama. Sold it for $250 to a junkman (not junkyard) who was still driving it several years later with the 36 Chevy artillery wheels with rockhard tires I had carried around for spares the whole time I had it. Bought 5-gallon cans of 10-30 re-refined oil for something like $4 to keep it fed as every gasket in the engine was a leaker. Dependable as sunrise, never left me out on the road.
     
  2. That's nappy, man...
    Flow-thru ventilation, open air seating, what else could a man want.
    Whats it got, one "ASS" power (okay, I couldn't help that...)

    MY WINNER!

     
  3. 1958 opel rekord that my cousin gave me with a bad timing gear. I was 14 and fixed it myself. drove the crap out of it even if it was only up and down our one block alley.
     
  4. Johnnyzoom
    Joined: Jun 23, 2006
    Posts: 319

    Johnnyzoom
    Member
    from Florida

    74 Maverick in high school and beyond. So uncool it was cool then back to uncool again. Owned 6 years, basic maintenance and a bad master cylinder only repairs. Went everywhere with it and don't remember ever being stranded.

    Maybe the common denominator is that like some people, some cars will do great if you just leave them alone!
     
  5. CJ Steak
    Joined: Sep 23, 2008
    Posts: 1,377

    CJ Steak
    Member
    from Texas

    I'd have to say my '67 MGB GT... just bought a few months ago for 1000 bucks... hadn't ran since '95... chaned oil, rebuilt the twin SU's, new set of tires, and walla! Cool econo-beater for a grand total investment of $1500 bucks. I love that it's nasty loud and rowdy and still gets over 25 mpg. Definately the highest MPG car i've ever owned... great in the corners too!

    Damned reliable... although years of keeping up and maintaining British sports cars has taught me a few secrets newbs don't know about. Hence the typical British car bashing you hear everywhere. They are NOT for everybody...

    -Chris
     
  6. not really that beat, but next to a Billet street rod pretty sure they would think it is one. Fun to drive !
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2009
  7. Pinto, actually a Mercury Bobcat, same s**t, diffrent trim package, broke a timing belt going 65 m.p.h., went back the next day with a new belt, and 3 wrenches, an hour later I was a cruzin again. Try that with one of these newer timing belt cars. Oil, what oil, it never used a drop oil, when I changed it, it was with Castrol 20w-50, I was a Honda M/C tech at the time and the oil was free.
     
  8. Kerry67
    Joined: Apr 11, 2005
    Posts: 2,606

    Kerry67
    Member

    75 Buick Skylark. At least I think it was a 75. Looked like the Nova's of the day. I bought it for 75 bucks off a family friend and drove it for a winter in Chicago when I had a 78 Trans Am that I parked for the winter. Drivers door did not open but other than that it looked pretty good. Heater was not the best but it was a pretty good car otherwise.
     
  9. Kerry67
    Joined: Apr 11, 2005
    Posts: 2,606

    Kerry67
    Member

    I bought this one about 2 years ago to drive back and forth to work in. I thought it was cool as shit because you don't see to many of them. The head gasket blew a couple months after getting it so I sold it for what I paid for it. It had cool wheels and tires and was solid as hell. In hindsight, I wish I would have kept it and just put a new motor in it.

    Call me weird but I actually like Pintos. Not sure why......
     

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  10. swi66
    Joined: Jun 8, 2009
    Posts: 18,814

    swi66
    Member

    76 Ranchero. Bought for $500.
    400 engine and auto trans with a shift kit in it.
    Got it with 80,000 miles on it, and drove it over 10 years and put another 200,000 on it!
    Basic maintenance, never even had a valve cover off of it.
    Rusted to bits, bed full of holes with a sheet of plywood keeping things from falling through. Rear body mounts gone, bed sagging, still ran great! Got $500 for it in 96. It still ran great.
    Pulled trailers, moved our entire household, carried more in it than you can imagine.
    My wife bought me a new Indy Ram in 96, Ranchero had to go........
     
  11. olskoolspeed
    Joined: Mar 2, 2009
    Posts: 476

    olskoolspeed
    Member
    from Ohio

    I'll never forget it. In '74 (I was 18), I paid $40.00 for a '62 Chevy Impala with a 327 (4bbl) powerglide. I used to do some seriously stupid shit in that car until I got caught by the Ohio State Patrol one night. End result was I lost my license and was ordered to scrap the car. Old memories.
     
  12. spinman
    Joined: May 7, 2009
    Posts: 118

    spinman
    Member
    from new jersey

    I had a red '68 automaitc VW Beetle back in '77. I didn't know how to use a clutch at the time so it was cool to at least work a gear shift w/o using your feet.

    If felt like a race car (to me at least).

    Spin
     
  13. plym49
    Joined: Aug 9, 2008
    Posts: 2,802

    plym49
    Member
    from Earth

    Yep, I had an MGB beater, too. Mine had the rubber baby bumpers. Once the fuel pump quit and I rigged a siphon with a gallon jug tied to the radio antenna to give be a siphon feed to the carb, Drove it 100 miles home that night and had to stop for gas a couple times - to top off that jug! Other than that the car was dependable as rust; it was the rust that finally got her.
     
  14. wirth
    Joined: Mar 31, 2006
    Posts: 33

    wirth
    Member
    from Texas

    In college....'73 Dart....'Avocado Gold' paint....worn out vinyl top....I could park and leave that car ANYWHERE with no worries...for good reason :)
     
  15. 38Fish
    Joined: Sep 7, 2009
    Posts: 20

    38Fish
    Member

    A 72 Buick Skylark. Bought it for $100 . As I filled it with anti-freeze I heard it pour to the ground. 2 freeze plugs and a battery later I was on the road. Parked it in Nov of 85 when I went to bootcamp.....296,000 miles.

    Loved that car.
    Fish
     
  16. 57 shaker
    Joined: Aug 2, 2008
    Posts: 316

    57 shaker
    Member
    from phx.az

    1953 Pontiac Cheftain Ambulance straight 8,and grinding 3 on the tree, but always ran
     

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