From: none@none.com99   
      
   On 3/8/2025 6:16 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   > "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:vqg3on$3pkap$1@dont-email.me...   
   >   
   > On 3/7/2025 5:19 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   >> As I understand it, a cheap new car can't compete on price with a   
   >> nicer model used car.   
   >>   
   > That MAY be true, but it there is no chance in hell of an expensive new   
   > car competing with a used car.  My first new truck was a GMC Sonoma, and   
   > my second was an Chevy S-10.   
   > ------------------------------------------> That depends. I bought and fixed   
   up old cars until I could afford new,   
      
   Me too.   
   67 Ford Cortina GT (4 banger CI unknown)   
   Had a packrat nest between the fender and the battery when I got it.   
   The money in the packrat nest paid for a new battery and some other   
   stuff.  There was nothing in particular great about the Cortina despite   
   being a GT.  I had been rolled three times before I got it.  With 60s on   
   the front and 50s on the rear it was more stable, so instead I caught it   
   on fire... TWICE...  I mean smoke and flames on fire.  I also torched   
   out the wheel wells so the tires would clear.  With two bags of cement   
   in the trunk its was pretty good in the sand, and its 0-60 was quick if   
   you knew how to speed shift and didn't mind pushing redline, but it took   
   forever to get to 80 which was its absolute top speed with a tail wind.   
   There used to be a guy in Phoenix buying them up for some special racing   
   class he was in, but I never connected up with hm.  Eventually the junk   
   man got it.   
      
      
   71 Chevy Caprice (400) (fast)   
   Kid overheated it and cracked both heads.  I gave him a hundred bucks   
   for it and put mismatched used 350 heads on it.  I also had to rebuild   
   the transmission later on, but that didn't last.  I left it on a fair   
   grounds in Redlands California.   
      
   69 T-Bird 2dr (429) (fast and quick and faster)   
   It was fine until I popped a freeze plug and had to drive 20 miles at a   
   time topping it off with whatever water I could get.  At one time I   
   stopped on the freeway grabbed some trash 2 liter bottles laying along   
   the road, climbed over the barb wire fence, and fought my way through   
   the brush, so I could top the radiator up with river water  There is a   
   long story there, but I wound up abandoning it in a mall parking lot and   
   catching a bus.  Hard corps car guys cry when I tell them that.  That   
   was definitely a desirable car.  Particularly with the factory 429   
   Interceptor in it.   
      
   71 Dodge Dart (225) (bullet proof)  I mean it was tough.  After I bought   
   my first truck I tried to kill this car.  I had it airborne a couple   
   times.  Ran it straight line across the desert without a road.  Drove it   
   like I was a Duke boy.  Bought it cheap with a "bad" transmission, new   
   filter and fresh fluid and it was fine.  The guy I sold it to sold it to   
   a farm laborer who was still driving it around years later.  Might still   
   be driving it.   
      
   76 Plymouth Volare Wagon (318)   
   This was my first trap line vehicle.  I got it stuck a lot until I   
   really learned to drive it.  I recall running my traps one day down in   
   the river valley after a rain to stay legal (must check traps every day)   
   and it was nothing but water and mud.  I kinda sorta knew where the   
   trail was, but staying on it was a trick.  I could atleast see the   
   breaks in the brush lines where the trail was.  More than once that day   
   I was flying across a mud flat hammer down aiming at the next bush to be   
   able to make a course correction.  I jacked up the torsion springs on   
   the front as far as they would go and put tall shackles on the back for   
   ground clearance and I still tore out the oil pan going into the Gila   
   from Sentinel looking for the old Mormon dam.  JB weld is some amazing   
   stuff.  It may not seal on an oily surface, but it makes a fair plug to   
   slow the leak.  I don't recall having much trouble with this car.  I had   
   an ignition issue once that was fixed with a new resistor wire.   
      
   71 Plymouth Swinger 318 (Dart with different badging)   
   No engine.  I figured if the Dart was so good with a 225 this thing   
   would be a hoot with a 318.  I pulled the engine from the station wagon   
   to go in this, and was about to put it in when somebody offered me more   
   for the engine than I paid for both cars.  When the junk man bought them   
   it was just bonus money.   
      
   76 Ford F150 (360)   
   Complete overhaul and 30 over with RV CAM.  Loved it until somebody   
   sideswiped me and cracked the frame... right where the steering gear box   
   bolted on.  Power steering went, and I threw an older manual gear box on   
   it.  It was fine except it was hard to keep tight over the truss plate   
   holding the frame together.  Oh, yeah I straightened the frame before   
   welding by hooking a chain to the frame and the dock bumper on a flat   
   bed truck my dad had and backing up hard.  It worked.  I towed mobile   
   homes with this thing.  I left it at my dad's place, and somebody   
   offered to buy the engine, and somebody offered to buy the cab and   
   somebody else came along and offered to be the bed.  By the time the   
   message got to me all three people had cash waiting to hear from me.  I   
   told them to work out the break down between and give me the money.  If   
   I had to tear it down the price was double.  My dad brought me a wad of   
   cash, and it was gone.   
      
   80-Something Toyota Celica ST (very agile)   
   Only thing I ever did to it was put a new clutch, pressure plate, and   
   throw out bearing in it.  I did it after sunset by flashlight laying in   
   the dirt with the wind blowing pretty hard on a cold (for here) winter   
   day so I could use it the next day.  Used one of my motorcycles to run   
   parts.  Don't recall why I didn't use the truck.  Maybe because I had   
   about enough money for parts and that F150 sucked gas like crazy.   
      
   76 Chevy 2500 (350)   
   This was my first business work truck.  Before that I hired a buddy   
   because he had a truck, and I just paid for gas and maintenance.  I   
   think the only problem I had with this was the linkage from the key   
   broke inside the column.  An employee was driving it and they were 120   
   miles away when they called me late at night.  I got up in the middle of   
   the night and rode my motorcycle out where I got it going again about   
   sunrise by busting open the steering column and clamping a bent steel   
   rod to the linkage.  That's the way it got driven until I sold it.   
      
       Some Dodge I forget Pickup.  It started clacking the day after I   
   bought it, so I threw a for sale sign on it, and the guys who bought it   
   drive it away clacking loudly.   
      
   81 (I think) S-10 flatbed.  Yeah no kidding.  The city was selling off a   
   bunch of trucks at an auction.  All had 65-70K miles.  I had jobs to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)