Features I Have Old Car, Because It's An Old Car

Chevrolet knee action front end?

 

Like most things, people will tell you to do what they did, because everyone likes what they like and thinks theirs is the best way.
But duh, not everyone thinks the same way.

Do what you like, what you can and what you must.

Enjoy the ride. Others can enjoy their own.

 

Everything has its place. I use both old and new depending on what result I am going for.

 

Oh I dunno. I don't drive worth a flip or so I have been told.

 

Pretty sure that's Ak Miller. Definitely not a "traditional"hot rodder...

 

Just got back here and thought of something I think might be interesting.
When I started driving, 1966, I was daily driving what I thought were "old" cars.
For example, 1952 Chevy Delux coupe, 1954 Dodge Royal Red Ram hemi.
Fast foreward 50 years. Now My daily drivers are a 1994 Olds 88,
1994 Ford F-250 camper special, 1989 Jeep Wrangler, and of course "Rusty"
my '31 avatar car.
My only point is that now old is way older than lt was 50 years ago.
So the older we get the farther back older is!
Make any sense??
I still like OLD, but I still want a "new" car..... someday! Maybe when I'm "older!"

 

Yes, I agree.

You have to drive these cars, the driver is not there to just guide them down the road.

You have to watch the road, the gauges, feel what the car and road are doing.

You must listen to things like the engine,and transmission.

I enjoy work on my car as much as I enjoy driving it, I drove it basically stock.

It did have the 261 engine with the stock intake and exhaust installed.

The car also had stock transmission and rear when I got it.

I have made changes to make it mine.

 

Same here. Daily drivers all year round.
Never owned any other rides.
Got the truck for 20 years and almost 100K miles and the coupe for 8 years and 36K miles.
Only thing I did to the truck is dual 1bbl carbs, dual exhaust and Pertronix ignition, monoleaf front springs and lowering blocks on the rear.
The coupe got a bored 261 with RV cam dual carbs, dual exhaust and Pertronix ignition and a 3.55 rear.
Radial tires on both.
No other 'upgrades'. Just rebuilt what was worn.

Drove the truck in Los Angeles traffic for 8 years, before I moved out into the country and got the coupe.
Never felt I needed disc brakes or a bigger engine and later transmission.

Plan to drive them forever and just keep rebuilding worn stuff.

I never have folks telling me what I should do, rather that they shouldn't have sold their old truck or car.
And those who kept them, say they shouldn't have put a V8 and modern transmission in it.

 

This has been my daily driver since mid summer. It has been updated to a 350/350 9" rear but it's stone realiable.

It's been from CA to home in MI then onward to the shores of NJ to the TROG and back. Either people get it or they don't. So many times I've heard, "you're off to a good start"? I just smile and nod now... The looks you get when passing another vehicle on the freeways is priceless!

 

Yeah can't beat blasting by a new mini van on the interstate in something older than there grandparents

 

You just had to remind me didn't you Tony.

 

Hey DD,
My mother just turned 91.
For about 50 years she has been telling me:
"Why don't you shave off that beard, You make me
look old!" Her motto is "You gotta keep moving or you're a gonner!"
I modified it... "You gotta keep driving..... something old, or you're a gonner!"
When you're driving an old car, you are always younger, never older!
Keep driving my friend!

 

41-48 Chevy, upper A arm has integral hydraulic shocker.

 

Ak miller's 32 Ford roadster, Buick straigth eigth and Chevy IFS knee action.
Cool roadster, and he went quiet fast!

 

Ok I'm interested to know how you drilled the crankshaft for a harmonic balancer bolt?

 

That was done in a drill press, with the table lowered to the floor

I leveled the crank front to back, left to right.

After the crank was drilled, I put than put the tap in the chuck and turned it by hand to start the treads and than finished with a tap handle.

The plan was for the machine shop to do it, however they forgot when they turned it.

 

You make some very good points @Tony Martino.

The reason I like old cars, and cars with period correct modifications is, I never got to see it when it happened!

Even the last of the Muscle Cars were in 1971. That's ten years before I was born.

At my age I tend not to think of these cars as old.

this morning I was sorting parts, it dawned on my the Deuce windshield frame and dash I have are 84 years old!

 

Being 28, and of the same mindset in more ways than just old cars, I agree on all counts. Things like hei, electric windows and seats, and a/c are for cars that came with them, and to me are really more of a P.I.T.A. than anything, and an old car should look and drive like an old car. I'm not against putting period correct overhead valve engines in things by any means, but that's about where I draw the line.
I drove my '59 Thunderbird 10,000+ miles this summer (1,100 in one day) and I had more than one person say I was nuts. I say you have to be nuts to drive (and pay for) a new car!
Anyways, good stuff.

 

At the risk of getting wordy.....
Robert, you really are at a tremondous disadvantage,
being born after all the fun was over!
I often said I was born a decade too late 'cause I couldn't drive
until the '60's, but at least I could ride a bike up to
Harvey Thompson's gas station on Broadway and Henry
and see some of the original "ignitors" working on their rods there!
You have to make up about 4 decades! and Pinstriper40 even more!
The good part is, you guys still want to keep this thing going,
I think sometimes as much as us fossils do!
Keep it up!
Just my $.02 (an expression from the '60s!)

 

That's increasingly my attitude.

But I've also got a philosophical problem with the direction technology has taken between 1953 and now, and with the political economy underlying that. What I really want is what cars ought to have become by now. I'd have liked to have seen the cleverness going into enabling me to engage ever more powerfully with the technology embodied in my car, rather than to be progressively excluded as has actually happened. I'd have liked to have seen a proliferation of small independent manufacturers displacing the big mass-producers, rather than the concentration of control over the industry in ever fewer, ever more powerful organizations with ever more government in their pockets, as has actually happened. And I'd have liked to have seen traffic become less and not more, so that anyone who chooses to keep a car even though they don't need it might have enjoyed a real surplus of mobility.

The question is, what would that car have looked like? A lot of people would have different takes on that, but I'm inclined to go back to the '20s, and work forwards.

 

I agree with you, but some of the youngsters knows, understand and can get as much out of an oldtimer today, as you could from from a guy five older then you in '59.
Thanks to the HAMB I know as many true hot rodders as you did in '59.
And because all got the same feeling towards cars, it dosent matter if you are 68 or born in 86.
If it wasn't fot the fact that Rockerhead or Dean Lowe posts all these (awesome) old pics from back in the day, I would think we all was 18 all over again, and this was the summer of 59.

Except that I need the HAMB to find as many hot rodders as you could drum up from one small street and a gas station in '59

Just my two cents.

 

I agree with you to an extent, but it also depends on what you expect performance-wise from the vehicle. If you're cool with the power and performance that your 53 gives you, and it meets your driving needs, then awesome, no need to upgrade.

Personally, a vehicle such as yours wouldn't suit my needs for what I need on a daily basis. I drive 120 miles a day to work and back. Much of that is at 75-80 mph on the highway, the rest is in heavy traffic. Every day I encounter insane drivers, people not paying attention, and periodic immediate slow-downs from highway speed. In the summer months, I need A/C so that I don't arrive to my destination soaked with sweat through my suit. I park in a tight public lot where people give zero fucks about running into other vehicle or opening doors gently. I have no doubt that an "old car" could get me there and back pretty regularly, but I'd certainly be making sacrifices in comfort, fuel mileage and performance. My job is difficult enough, I don't need the commute to be work on top of it. I elect to drive a late-model daily, and drive my classic when I can enjoy it. That's just my opinion.

 

My 53 gets-

Fuel mileage in the high teens.

Runs 65 M.P.H. on the interstates.

And has dusted a few late model Audis, and B.W.M.s.

 

I feel sad for today's youth. They'll have to enjoy the cars from the memories of the older generations. Even though that's great for the history of those generations, the current cars will never enjoy the same heritage.
It doesn't matter how much effort is put forth to preserve them, there's just too much plastic and delicate electronics that will be obsoleted in a couple of decades.

Imagine someone in 40 or 50+ years looking for a dash for a 2015 Camaro, Hellcat or Mustang? Or a specific module connector?

Those cars will all be deteriorated and recycled. Even if kept in climate controlled rooms. That will just put if off.

Makes me sad. I see it every day in only 15-20 year old ones.

 

At 34 I'am one of the older guys in the shop. (40 total in shop about 40 people in the office.)

So many of the younger guys (25 and younger) just don't care about history.

When I say something about a historical event that happened in my life time,

Many times I hear them say "I don't care that was before I was born."

W.W.II happened before I was born but I care very deeply about it and history in general.

 

I don't care what anyone says......My job let's me put my ass in some cool cars, Jeeps, & trucks. 707 HP Hellcat, yea fun. BUT, doesn't put a smile on my face like my old "LOW/NO TECH" cars. Poor kids today can only talk about how they got the highest score on the latest video game, VS getting a 3.5hp Briggs to make 5hp. You young guys (under 30) gotta get out and carry the torch.

 

Robert, this is off topic but, WAY too many people in the office!

 

It won't be long before cars and trucks will have "No User Serviceable Parts Inside" placards and the hood welded shut, or maybe they will simply be disposable. Certainly they won't let anyone actually drive them, either.

 

You will get no argument from me, or anyone in the shop.

We are all starting to stray a little far off topic.

 

Great Thread!
Can't wait to get my truck back together and going. Going to drive the crap out of it. 6cylinder, 3 on the three. Pretty much as made in 52 except for 12volt, new harness and alternator.
Merry Christmas everyone