This thread is a riot, I left Toronto when I retired (House Prices now over 1 million for average home) Toronto traffic on comparison to L.A. So I headed north to the open country Barrie. Ont. Now all I complain about are the multitude of bugs and mosquitos that I have to remove from my 50 Monarch or the chance that I might have to avoid hitting a Wild Turkey or a Scared Deer. Ryan I think I blame it on OLD AGE. But We Will Keep Driving The Old Shit. t
My love of daily driving old cars stems from my hate of computers in cars. Besides that I could do a lot of repairs on my old cars for 6 months of $6-700 a month new car payments. I am retired and live in the country in north central Indiana, so no commute to work and no reason to be on the interstates. I built a 27 T roadster (hot rod). 500+ HP. Not exactly HAMB friendly. I drove it daily for the first 2 years in the summers and put 12K miles on it. I just hated putting it up for the winter and not having a hot rod to drive. So, I built a full-fendered 26 T coupe. Stock SBC 350/700r4 with all the modern conveniences, LOL. Heater and windshield wipers. Now my hot rod driving is year around, except when the 4" drop axle in the 26 starts pushing snow. The last two years that hasn't happened and the 26 coupe has become my year round driver. I drive the 26 so much that sometimes I forget what I am driving and wonder what the fuck everybody is looking at. All the local rodders think I am crazy for driving the 26 in the rain, snow or whatever. I beg to differ. I sandblasted that 26 T body. Then epoxy primered the hell out of it. Then top coated everything top to bottom, inside and out. I am 66 years old. That car should last until I am dead or can't drive any more. And I don't really care what shape it is in for it's next owner. I build my cars to drive. Reminds me of something I heard once. Not driving your car to not wear it out is like not fucking your girlfriend so it's not wore out for the next guy.
Owned and drove my 1939 Ford coupe year round when I first built but living in SE MI the heater and wipers just not up to the job- I even changed to electric wipers and a more modern heater- totally a blast though- used to like to pull up behind someone broken down along roadway and ask to help or drive them somewhere- my club members thought I was crazy- maybe so-
I moved to vegas from jersey in 1065 I believe. Wasnt a bad place and not to big. took like 10-15 minutes to get across the valley. And everybody wanted a bigger and bigger town. Well now they got a bigger town with all the bigger town problems,drugs,gangs traffic. So I retired, had a boat load of equity in my house cashed out and moved to a little town that was the brunt of so many jokes growing up and still. Its called Pahrump, Bougt a 2300 sq st house built in the 90's.1 and a 1/4 acre. three car garage on house and a two story barn with car lift for like $218K. Its kinda mayberriesh, its not for everyone but I love it. I also had a heart attack along the way and this is just what the dr. ordered. We have one traffic light. 60 miles from vegas if you just got to go and get reminded why you left in the first place. Plus there is a pretty good car culture out here. two race tracks,one road race and one 1/3rd mile dirt track I believe. Vets sell the beer and boyscouts sell burgers and girlscouts sell hotdogs I think something like that.
I live on the San Francisco peninsula, a totally urbanized long narrow area between San Francisco and San Jose, with three north south routes, El Camino Real, US 101, and I 280. So much of my driving is on one of those, and all are mostly three and more lanes in each direction. From spring to late fall the 51 with hemi is my regular driver. My four cylinder Model A cabriolet has not graduated to daily status yet. Both cars get plenty of freeway time ...but driving is an active process in the urban area. You constantly need to be wary of other drivers and their better brakes. At 70, I'm not planning to move any time soon.
I like Pahrump. Been to Spring Mountain Resort many times for OT driving experience. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A lot of very interesting points here!!!! Like many here I've only ever owned old cars (newest was my '70 Bug). I grew up in I guess what you would consider the country in Northern California (biggest city in the area, Eureka, I believe is now around 27k people, 50k including the outlying areas) and its not uncommon to have to drive across the county a few times in a day. Driving old cars daily there is no big deal, and you still see a ton of 60s or 70s era vehicles (mostly trucks) on the road being used by "normal" non-car-people. When I moved to Phoenix, AZ, a few years back it was a bit of a culture shock with something like 4.5M+ people in the metropolitan area. I've never been anywhere this populated in my entire life! That said, my daily driver duty is still split between my '63 Monterey and my "other car", which is currently my '60 Biscayne. Neither have A/C, which is pretty brutal at times, and neither have seat belts, disc brakes, or any other kind of "safety upgrade" as of yet. I am not opposed to any of those things, and actually would love to have all of those things including AC in both of them one day, but for now they are just old cars. For the last two years my commute has been about 100 miles per day, mostly on the freeway, battling traffic during rush hour, the whole nine... I can say with certainty that I almost get murdered by some lunatic on a cell phone every dang day, and I have had some close calls where I wish I had better brakes or quicker steering (or a gun with me) and have locked up the brakes and closed my eyes and prayed to whoever is listening multiple, multiple times. Then, like a year ago, I was doing the motor swap in my Merc, and borrowed my moms car for a few months (2011 Impala). The A/C was incredible, it was nice actually having a radio that I could hear, blah blah blah... I still almost died in traffic every day, I still wanted to kill stupid people, I still almost had a brain aneurysm trying to comprehend how people even get their licenses. The only real difference was the aforementioned cold air blowing on my face, and the fact that I wasnt sitting on my comfy bench seat, with my legs stetched out, talking to the person next to me about the old car they used to have, while waiting for the light to change. I was elated to be driving my old car again after I got it back in the road. Now my commute is much easier, only about 3 miles each way, and I'm right in downtown, so I deal with city traffic still. But its not that bad, I wouldn't think of switching to a late model. I don't have kids yet, so I dont really have that perspective, but hey maybe by the time I do I will have an old car with AC and seatbelts and all the other safety stuff! In the mean time, I love driving my old heaps through the city, through the country, cross country, to new places near and far, and just to work every day.
Very Kool post.... I'm blessed living only 15 miles from work. I live in the country, so driving through a town of 3k people to end up at work with a population of 30k is an ideal situation to drive a Hot Rod or Kustom. A traffic jam for me is five cars in front of me at the light. I drove my old car as a daily driver for 30 plus years until I bought my 92 Caprice wagon. Last few years I've been driving a late model. I'll drive my '39 Sedan a couple of times a week to work and looking forward to driving it more. It's great therapy and it makes financial since driving an old car. Life is too short to drive a boring car. Sometimes my life is boring.
About two months ago,I got rear ended by one of those"Spam Can Specials" in my daily driver.OT 84 F150.SCS was totaled.I had to scrape some of its paint off the rear bumper.The cop that investigated still laughs about that one.Big or small town/city,there are still idiots out there.Like my old flight instructor used to say"Keep your head on a swivel and watch your six". Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
The Jalopy Journal
