Hind Sight (Or Lack Of)

Not my actual vehicle, but mine looked exactly like this (same color) in 1964. Note the suicide doors.

More recently, we gave our '72 Vette to my daughter and her husband. He buys and sells cars, but he's keeping it.

My first car was a Chevelle SS 4 speed...

I paid $1100 for it around 1969....beat it to death, and sold it for $300 after about 3 years...

My second car was a 1967 Impala auto convertible.....bought it for $700...gave it to my girlfriend...

3rd car was a 1966 corvette ragtop....paid $1800...sold it for $1100 after 3 or 4 years...

1972 Cadillac Eldorado traded for $500 and a ford truck...

Nice.

My mother-in-law never liked to drive, but she often spoke in glowing tones about their 1968 Impala convertible. These pictures remind me of my misspent college years! Thanks, Mr. Eagle.

Yeah it was a real cruiser....the Impala was a long car to begin with, this car with the top down looked like it was a mile long lol....

Oh yeah ... Sophie talked about loading the car up with her husband and Mr. Best in Show's twin brother and sister to deliver the kids to Cornell. All the stuff they needed (at least for the first few months) fit in the trunk. Of course kids today take everything including the kitchen sink. I doubt even the Impala's trunk would be up to the task.

Cars are just a tool to bring me to the next wreck.

You have to figure in the cost of repair and restoration and storing the vehicle for all of these years.

I'm sure that's the reason most people don't hang onto cars....they have rules now that the car has to have a valid plate and be registered, which means insurance as well...If you live someplace where you can have a large barn to hide your vehicles in, and can afford to keep the building up, then well most everyone would have a collection I guess...

In my case, I had no idea those cars would be worth more in later years. If I had hind sight, I would have kept them. How many people have said; "I wish I had kept it". This post was inspired by the TV program, "Strange Inheritances". People would collect all their lives and when they passed on, the "junk yard" would become a treasure trove of priceless artifacts.

I wish I had kept this one. It's the only vehicle I ever bought new.

This guy keeps all his old cars...

http://www.businessinsider.com/jay-leno-best-cars-2014-6

I wish that I had kept my 1970 Boss 302 Grabber Blue with 4:30 drag pak with detroit locker.

I used to dream of owning the 23 window microbus after seeing one as s teen with the chrome curved bars inside the rear quarter panes, happy days, My first car was a MK7 Jaguar, followed by a MK 9 Jaguar, then a Humber Super Snipe & many, many more, I've had a 1932 Armstrong siddley, a 1938 Armstrong Limousine with spare wheels in the front wings, a wind up privacy screen, and passenger to driver speaking tube. Oh for hind sight.

Bazzer

When I was a kid, I remember seeing a lot of cars driving on the streets and highways spewing blue smoke. Now while I didn't at the time know what kind of smoke this was, I do remember seeing the gray to blue haze almost every day and there were many days during the summer that the local news stations announced a 3rd stage smog alert. I remember going with my dad to a gas station to fill up our country squire station wagon, there was a sign on the gas pump that said " leaded fuel ". The teachers taught us in school that lead in water, food or air was dangerous and could cause health problems.

I began to wonder if the smoke in the air contained lead and if breathing that air could affect my health, of course I also realized that I had to breath the air because I didn't have an oxygen tank to carry on my back like the astronauts did when they landed on the moon.

I remember when cars were coming out with the pcv valve and all I heard about it was that it was going to ruin all of the engines and then how unleaded fuel was going to replace leaded fuel and again I started to hear the same horse noise.

After a few years, the skies started to clear up and there were more days that the sky actually started to look blue versus were there was more days that the sky looked gray. I started hanging out with older people (21 years old +) and hearing the stories of the " good old days " , stories like how cars were built and the new cars were junk and if anybody ( me ) dared mention about the smoggy days, I was quickly shot down and called a wuss, like breathing, eating or drinking a poisonous metal was a good thing and anyone that complained about it was the difference between a man or a mouse.

Fast forward to present day. The sky is generally clear almost every day. The cars have way more emission controls than the pcv valve and you can easily get 200,000 miles out of any car.

This is not an anti - older car post.

Cars built before the 1980's had design elements that were very stylish, much more than the cars built after that time up to today's cars, with a few rare examples. I often think of my 1967 VW micro bus, how or what it might have been like if it had been built with light weight high strength steel, a dohc, fuel injected, liquid cooled, emission controlled hemi engine, air bags and 3 point seat belts.

I've seen many classic cars at shows and driving down the street, often when they pass me, I see and smell that familiar blue smoke and wonder why they are still being driven on the street. Just several years ago, it was common to see 2 stroke Motocross bikes at every off road area event, now because of updated rules, you can't see anything other than 4 stroke bikes being sold or used for competition.

I really don't care for government intervention, I would rather like to see private ownership intervention, it should seem like the wave of the future. I mean do you have a government mandated alarm clock telling you when to wake up, or a governmental dictate telling you when to eat, sleep or when to take a poo ?

I can fore see I time in the future, where if the classic cars engines are not updated, a governmental edict will be issued forcing a change and for those that resist, their vehicles will be relegated to the dust bowl of history and the only place where they will be enjoyed will be next to the paleontology exhibit at your local museum.

Ironically, the chemical used to replace the lead was found to be more toxic than the lead it replaced.

Then they substituted ethanol for the toxic chemical and gas mileage dropped by about 10%, so now we burn more gas and still "pollute" the air!

Shoulda left things alone in the first place.

Quote:

When I was a kid, I remember seeing a lot of cars driving on the streets and highways spewing blue smoke. Now while I didn't at the time know what kind of smoke this was, I do remember seeing the gray to blue haze almost every day and there were many days during the summer that the local news stations announced a 3rd stage smog alert. I remember going with my dad to a gas station to fill up our country squire station wagon, there was a sign on the gas pump that said " leaded fuel ". The teachers taught us in school that lead in water, food or air was dangerous and could cause health problems.

I grew up in New York City. I breathed the foul air for most of my first 30 years of life. I smoked and drank (usually too much). I'm overweight and today is my 83rd birthday and I feel great. A friend of mine once said, "I don't trust air I can't see". He is dead now and so are most of my long time friends, most of which were younger than me by 10 to 15 years. I have never made a big issue about health. As a kid, I played around with hazardous materials like asbestos, mercury, carbon tetrachloride, acids, etc. and never thought about the dangers as back then, people were not informed of their dangers. Government has ruled a lot of the hazards out of our life and people are now more aware. People live and people die. I just go by my instincts and common sense and so far, it seems to be working for me. I still drink, but not as much and I smoke a cigar a day. I eat bacon, eggs, red meat plus a lot of healthy greens; because I like them. I see no reason to do otherwise.

"I have never made a big issue about health..."

Reminds me of Dad.

Lived thru the Depression, fought in the Pacific in WWII, smoked 2 packs unfiltered cigarettes a day from H.S. to about 70, had abdominal aortic aneurysm at about 75 (doc said if it weren't for his heart and lungs, he never would have made it), drank (not excessively) and passed at 82.

Go figure!

Take your pick....

'38 Plymouth

'33 Ford Model B 2dr sedan

'36 Chevy 2 dr sedan

'48 Pontiac 4 dr.

'55 Ford (ex police cruiser)

'56 Merc 2 dr.

'65 Comet Cyclone (HI PO option)

...then I got married...

'67 VW

'62 Corvair

'65 Corvair

'64 Pontiac convertible

Those are just the ones I'd like to still own today!