So after a brief stent of owning a vw Jetta tdi that hated me and was a problematic POS, I sold it to a friend and decide to daily a older car. I set out and found what thought was a great candidate. A 1965 falcon 4 door. It was modified with a 200 inline and 3 speed column shifted trans out of a 72 maverick that was rebuilt. It still has drum brakes but they were completely rebuilt and a dual pot master cylinder was added. I'm 2700$ into it and it purrs like a kitten. The car will be driven every day and 5 days a week it will be my work car 43 miles one way. My plans are to lower it abbot in the front and just maintain it till the cold weather comes back around. I was curious how many of you daily a vintage car. I'm still plugging away at my Model A build but this car will allow me to have a daily that I can take to car meets. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Beside a daily driver motorcycle, my daily driver car, for the last 14 or so years has been a 59 Studebaker Lark, 2dr. wagon. I'll be up for sale shortly to be replaced by a 54 Studebaker Conestoga (2dr. wagon) as soon as I get a few more things done to it. Though with the motorcycle, the "new" 54, I have bought the newest car I've ever owned,...a non-HAMB car, not to be mentioned here, will share the daily driver duties in my retirement. My 59 only left me stranded one time. The cause, a dead thermostat. Mike
I’ve been dailying a Galaxie 500 since my truck died last fall. I didn’t think I could do my job without a truck but I can fit a 17’ little giant ladder and all my tools in the trunk. The bigger jobs require some coordinating with friends but for the most part it has worked out. I’ve had a few roadside repairs so the trunk is stocked with parts, jack, all the fluids, etc. I’m putting on about 400 miles a week driving all over the Portland/Vancouver area doing repair work. I really enjoy this job so much more knowing that I get to cruise in a Galaxie every few hours. Here she is last week at the Ski Bowl at Government Camp.
This is awesome. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and fire her up for her first work ride. The son is even more excited. I know I'll have to get another ride come November due to the salt but I'll enjoy this one while I can. I've owned a lot of old cars and this one is something else. Everything works, the heat, defrost, all exterior lights, hell even the dome light works. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
It has a little quarter rust on the dr side rear and the dr side front pan needs attention but it came with a pair of full length pans. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Can't be too hard. Many lead characters on TV and in the movies drive classic and vintage cars as daily drivers. Nothing to it.
We've always had too many cars to consider one of them a daily driver...and that is the trick, have an extra or two, so there's always one that is working. Nice car, keep having fun with it! Keep in mind that the old ones take regular maintenance. But that's not difficult, and will prevent troubles on the road. Brakes, lubrication, fluid checks and changes, regular ignition and carb tune up, etc. the factory owners manual will get you far, if you follow it.
Right now I'm working my 58 up to be a viable daily. It probably could be now, but it leaks a lot and uses a ridiculous amount of gas. And needs the suspension helped. But I drive it about 2 days a week right now and love it. Sent from my LGLS992 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Don't back up & hit the brakes really hard until you check all the front suspension parts, paying close attention to the upper ball joints. Those first Falcons ate front end parts faster than anything on the road ...
That looks like a great daily driver you found. There is nothing that should keep you fro having it as a reliable daily driver, just keep up on the periodic maintenance as Squirrel said. Back 50 years ago that was a newer car and was a daily driver.
Once upon a time the F-100 in my avatar was my daily driver. Now, not so much. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I drove my 60 F100 6 cyl 3 speed as a daily until a guy offered me more than I could refuse. Looking for another one now.
I'm in this camp. I am 'down' to three cars, three pickups, and a motorcycle. They aren't all HAMB friendly but the newest one is 17 years old. A few winters back a series of unfortunate failures left me with only my '67 C-10 to drive. Being that it didn't have functioning choke and only glasspacks bolted right to the headers..I had to have a quieter exhaust put on it. (I leave for work at 3:15am and have neighbors) This continued for almost a month before I started getting others fixed. Always good to have a spare and they're cheap to insure and plate. Like Stalin said, "quantity has a quality all its own"
I daily drove my '62 biscayne all through high school. I graduated two years ago... we always had some sort of OT little gas saver such as a '98 Saturn or a '92 ranger and I drove them when it was raining or there was salt in the roads. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The salt is a killer on Long Island and we got 6" of snow this morning... nice. So I'll have to wait a few days to drive the Ford again. Even better with a big rain to rinse the salt off the roads. Driving an old car daily is a challenge especially if you get used to AC in the summer and having it start every time. Brings me back to the days around 1977 when I drove a '64 Ford full time. It was what we did, almost everyone had an old car that they had no choice to drive, or miss work or school. Even then you had to be on your game to keep them going.
Hello, When I was able to drive legally, I had the use of the 58 Chevy Impala. I got to use it for a day or two in high school, weekly. Then, when my brother was somewhat recovered from his accident, he decided to buy a surf van and sell me the Impala. So, now, I was the 6/7th owner of the 348/280hp Impala. (my mom was the other 1/7th owner) That arrangement was fine with me. One day a week, I got a ride from a friend to school, whereas, my mom went shopping. The Impala was my daily driver from 60 until 65. During this time, I bought a 40 Ford Sedan Delivery. That became my cross over, daily driver and was my surf mobile. Several days a week to high school, it was the 40 Sedan Delivery. On Friday/Saturday nights, of course it was the 58 Impala. Surf trips involved the sedan delivery. So, no more black Impala with two boards sticking out of the trunk. My mom was happy as she was able to use the 58 Impala on different days with her friends. I taught her to drive the 3 speed, with disasterous results, but she opted to put in the C&O stick hydro.(Her choice: just put in an “automatic” instead of that %$#^& stick shift. My choice: a C&O stick hydro) Now, this scenario was set for the next several years until I was ready to go away to college in 1965. Jnaki Sensing the need for a reliable car for those long drives up and back to Northern California, during vacations, desert outings, and long surf trips, I sold both the Impala and the 40 Ford Sedan Delivery to finance the purchase of the new 1965 red El Camino. Now, that became my daily driver. The El Camino could obviously haul: a bunch of stuff, my longboard, racing motorcycles, suitcases, camping stuff, and tools. That El Camino gave me 125k worth of daily driving happiness. Do I wish I had the red El Camino today? (except for the 125k miles) Yes, it was simple car that had solved a multitude of uses. No repairs were necessary, (GM made nice, reliable cars back then) several sets of tires and gas were the only things needed for fun daily driving. It also had original “factory air shocks” in the rear, too. Today, the pick up bed would have come in handy in the last 10 years with the landscaping, holding a ton of bags of bark, mulch, low water shrubs and succulents. In So Cal, it helps to conserve H2O. EXTRA: I sold the 58 Impala in 1965 to a good friend. It was race ready and had all of the accumulated extras I had in the garage. The 40 Ford Sedan Delivery was sold to a semi-famous surf shop in Huntington Beach. (depends on who knows the history) It was sold to the same guy that bought a 9’6” surf board from us as his first surfboard many years earlier. The kid was from Bellflower. But, the odd thing was, he ended up as a “local” Huntington Beach surfer. That might have been because he had the sedan delivery and tied it into his “purchased surf shop” on Main St. Both cars were sold so I could purchase a new 65 El Camino for my daily transportation to college many miles away. Both of the cars were sold with many memories in mind. They went to good homes.
Now that I'm retired I take the 57 Fairlane all over the place for any reason at all. Its just cooler than the GMC Envoy.
I daily drove a '66 galaxie for years, then my harley for a few years... I have a Buick Century for rain/winter. But I daily drive my '59 Ford now. Beats the hell out of daily driving a motorcycle.
It seems like every second car I own is a classic – and all the rest have been VW Golf Mk1s. My current "modern" is 24 years old, though, and I really can't see myself getting anything newer, ever. It's the last of the non-electronic cars: a single whopping great power transistor in the ignition is as far as it goes, and even that is bordering on too much. It's more of a workhorse than a daily driver, though. I have my reasons for arranging my life such that I don't have to drive daily. I take the bus but in an ideal world I'd walk daily and drive for fun. I had to drive the Golf to a building site today, and I did actually drive it daily for a few years some time ago. A few years before that I dailied the Morris Minor for a short time. That teaches a healthy driving style: as one writer put it, emergency stops should be planned well in advance.
I daily drive my bus. 13k miles since last April. You will have to stay on top of things. Replacement parts suffer quality issues these days and new gas doesn’t Iike old fuel systems. But is sure beats a car payment and you get to meet a lot people
Hey DB, For several years after college, my daily driver was the 2nd 40 Ford Sedan Delivery (I/we owned), my wife’s blue El Camino, and my custom Harley Sportster. I drove the Sedan Delivery most of the time during the rain and foggy weather. But on sunny days, it was the wind in your hair Harley Sportster. (no helmet laws as yet…) The daily trip down the South Orange County Coastline made up for any inconvenience or cold weather. It was just too nice of a ride to not be on my Harley. My old army green, surplus, backpack was full of photo gear along with a small tripod strapped on the the low style, custom, chromed passenger back rest bar that I made. The full backpack made a seat back rest for me on those hour long, rumbling rides. Arriving at the photo shoot on my Harley made my day. It was instantly accepted by those present, hot rod or motorcycle enthusiasts. Jnaki I loved driving that 40 Ford Sedan Delivery daily. But, sometimes it was a sunny day, little traffic and the wind just made it very cool in more ways than one. (besides the bugs, that is… and a bee incident) Both vehicles were/are classics. Within a couple of years, we sold the 40 Sedan Delivery to finance a family home with a yard and sold the Harley Sportster to a young couple from Torrance. and the other two classics are non HAMB compliant…
If I'm not between home and work, I'm out in the '59 Ford. I put more gas in that than my OT Malibu. I don't have it painted so it attracts little attention, but underneath the car is all new. I took great pain$ to make it ultra reliable.
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