I may have to invent a word for older cars you see on the road, not surprising you. Anyone? I am not sure anyone else encounters this, but even though my mind tells me the car is 30-40-50 years old, I am not that surprised when I see one, and it seems normal to me that they are on the road. My El Camino turned 40 a month ago, and yet I see them almost every day in various states of road worthiness. I think many of them are still being used as work vehicles as they are dinged and dented and the paint is flat, the bumpers show signs of rust, and the tires have RWL. I will admit seeing a 50's or 60's car is about as rare as seeing a Model A in my youth. Even seeing a Model A in 1965 did not seem that rare. The first car I can recall is a 1949 Chevy Deluxe, my Father's, in the late 50's. Our first new car was a 1959 Chevy Kingswood wagon that dad ordered. The next was a '64 Cutlass, which quickly gave way to a '65 98, then a '68 442, and finally a '69 98 which he kept until he retired and put over 100,000 miles on it between 1969 and 1975. In 1974 he bought a Delta 88 new for Mom and when he retired, he cashed in his sick leave balance and bought a '77 Cadillac Coupe DeVille new, to pull his Airstream, you know retirement style. None of those cars catch my eye even today if I see them tooling around town. They just seem natural on the road, and the passage of time doesn't seem so long, until the logical side of my brain kicks in. Who out there hasn't sat at a light and smelled the pungent odor of old gasoline coming out of the tailpipe of a 70's or 80's car and thought wow he's running really rich? There are still engines out there running on gas that needs lead and octane. There are still carburetors distributing the gas. It wasn't until I started work on my '68 Olds 350 that it dawned on me that junk yards were no longer full of pieces and parts for either my engine or the El Camino. It took a few sarcastic comments here to make me not so surprised that parts are scarcer, and inflation has occurred since 1970 which makes my memory of a $3 part, an $18 reality. So my project, which had a budget of about $5000, blew through it at about the 50% done mark. My own goofs have cost at least $1000 more, and I still have a couple of bigger ticket fixes to get through before I put it back on the road, like exhaust etc. I'm no longer complaining about it, but I am still surprised sometimes at the costs that skyrocketed in my chosen hobby. I got old , but my eyes do not note the age of a vehicle, just that it is present. Though it doesn't seem old to me, the fact that you mostly only see them at swap meets, club events and shows tells me the truth. I would like mine to have many years left on the road, even more than me, and it will be fun to take it on little adventures, but the reality is I will probably never just jump in it an go anywhere without my due diligence to insure there is no oil or water mixing or leaving the engine vicinity. I will likely not drive it when it rains, and well I live in Washington state, so that eliminates 200 days a year. I will try to be home before dark because I am unsure how good my charging system is, and whether the bulbs I replaced, not long ago...in ...well shoot....1991, will choose to stay off. So now I have a 1968 engine reborn in 2019, and a 1980 body and chassis done in 2020. I still have a 1972 TH 350, and a 1980 differential and though I have reworked them and religiously changed the fluids, I will worry about them on any trip over 3 hours. Presently there are no leaks and the fluids have been inside for months, but we all know what will happen the first time the horns appear and I show off, right? I may be the only one left who thinks my car is not that old!

 

Personally, I wonder about my age more than the car. I think the car is in better shape and would not hesitate driving it anywhere, parking is another story.

 

Well said, Chuck. I feel the same way. Though here in Michigan you really don't see 70's cars at all in the winter and seldom in the summer...Course around here you see 2005 pick ups rusted to pieces.

 

On the way to work this morning I saw a little old lady driving a 70s Grand Marquis and I thought wow, full size cars were really big back then.
Seeing old cars is commonplace around here.
So is seeing the original owners (such as that little old lady) driving them.

 

Timeless is the word I'd use for that condition. There is a condition that tools, cars, and guns get in with something called "honest wear." This is not abuse, or concentrated damage, but a smooth wearing of the paint, dulling of the chrome, wearing of the black that shows the acknowledgement of, but not the surrender to, the passage of time.

 

I think if they are built/rebuilt correctly, they should and would run like new, but there are things that we forget have had many miles put on them of trouble free driving and we don't think to preventatively replace. The one thing I never want to happen is be 200 miles from home when it decides to act like a F-O-R-D!

 

Do they still use salt and not the de-icer that is not salt there?

 

Yes...land yachts is the best term I could imagine. The overhang on the rear bumper of my Dad's 98 was so long that we scraped getting out of our nearly flat driveway!

 

"Timeless" it is!

 

I still enjoy the hoops and hollers when I drive the 55 through town it must be fun for others as it is for me. You kinda get complacent seeing it in the garage everyday it's after all it's your car and you know every inch of it but have someone else drive by in their vintage ride and I'll twist my nick in circles trying to get a better look and identify it.

Ever gone to a car show and notice and admire all the nice rides only to have them all disappear in minutes after the show never to be seen again till the next show. Where do they all hide them?..... Tedd

 

Its magic Tedd...

 

I remember in the '80s thinking, "OK, just a few more years before my '68 reaches the age of 25 y/o and it becomes a "Classic". Seems like I woke up the next day and its now a 52 y/o car. Man time flies when you get old.

I'm one of the few die-hards at work that drive a '60s-'70s vintage iron to work in the summer on a daily basis (weather permitting). And around town in the summer, seeing old cars on the road is not un-common, but not really frequent either. There is one fellow w/ a early '60s Falcon that looks factory fresh down to the skinny tires and dog-dish caps that I see on the road ALOT. I've seen this car up close when it was parked at the AutoZone once and it looks more like a survivor than a restoration. I've not yet seen him pull in at the cars-and-coffee event near me though. Typical cars there are modern muscle and Mustangs (and not the older ones). Unlike the OP, anything from the '70s or older jumps out like a sore thumb to me when I see them on the road, not so much because I don't see them that often, but more because I respect the TLC the owner obviously exercises to keep such an old beast on the road.

 

Quite a few b-bodies still runnin the winter riads up here yet. It is funny how you can spot them a mile away in the dark and snowy days.
Kind of wonder if it is a timeless generational thing to. I remember when I was kid, my dad could always pick em out from a distance. Mostly his generation. Tell you what year, engine, tranny, options etc. usually a story to go with it of one he or a buddy had. Use to play a game with my kids on our 12 hour drive to Missouri. The old car game. Who ever saw one would point it out. Everybody would guess a year. Most right at end of trip would WIN. they grow up. Yet the other day my 24 year old daughter says. Look at that car dad. Yep. Right into model,year,options. Stories.

 

I consider any car made after 1973 to be a "new" car.

The thing I find most interesting is that my first car was a 1968 Vista hand-me-down that I got in 1974. That car was SIX years old! My daily driver today (the black 1985 Delta) is THIRTY FIVE years old.

 

Well Chuck, I'm not exactly sure what is used on the roads around here now a days but it sure is corrosive! A few weeks ago it was a nice sunny day after a snow fall the day before. The roads were mostly wet still from the snow melt, but in a few places it was dry and white powdery. I came around a curve on the highway and thought I saw smoke or fog in the distance. As I got closer I realized it was the white powder kicked up off the dry road from the cars passing over it!! I think they still use salt if it's not too cold and some other type of calcium mix if it is below 20 degrees..

 

I hear you! When our kids site a 2003 car, the best they will be able to do is say what country built it, and even that may be harder as you literally have to find the badge to know what car you are looking at. My guess is that there will not be a huge car lot full of classic Hondas or Toyotas, Kias or Hyundais, VW, AUDI, BMW or Mercedes, Volvos, Fords, Dodges or Chevy's. What we might see is one-offs like Raptors, or Typhoons, GT 500's, Genesis, or Jag/Rover, (supercars!) Certainly the way they are built today, they last as long as the technology is current and the parts supply is intact. Where I seek old school mechanics, the today generation will be seeking ITs to keep their cars alive. If we believe the hysteria, cars will leave the road in 12 years anyway!

 

They do not care about a rust process that begins the minute that salt compound mixes with water, and the insidious part is in that liquid form it migrates to every inch of the car, and collects at the drain points. That's bad enough, but it also takes oxygen to make rust, so even after the car is "dry", that compound remains moist for months with dirt that collects at the drains too. As hard as you can try, you cannot stop it, only slow the process. If they had coated our babies as they do today, much of what we have had to do in terms of fabricating metal would have been eliminated. Think how many repairs you have made, and yes in the rust belt it happens much faster than usual, but even cars in Arizona have rust in collection spots that over time show. It rains many days a year here, and that mist, using the wind of a car doing 60, finds its way into places you cannot believe. My car spent most of its life in CA but the frame and all chassis components show rust. If I had a frame haha, I would have to do a frame off....but I am poor and don't have a rotisserie, so I will immerse myself in it as I try to get it in every nook and cranny, and it drains back onto me and the floor. I'm too old to fix it, but want it to halt where it is!

 

05? heck my 2011 pick up
is rusted on the rear wheel wells

 

Yeah, I can tell you that ain't fun. Happened to me (In the Nova) in 2013 coming home from the Hot Rod Power Tour. Sat on the I-30 shoulder between Hot Springs and Texarkana for four hours waiting for a roll back to take the car back to the Dallas area. $ 500. Ultimately discovered it was a catastrophic distributor failure. Replaced it with a new MSD and got out of the points & condenser business.

 

[QUOTE=KW5413;1224703]Yeah, I can tell you that ain't fun. Happened to me (In the Nova) in 2013 coming home from the Hot Rod Power Tour. Sat on the I-30 shoulder between Hot Springs and Texarkana for four hours waiting for a roll back to take the car back to the Dallas area. $ 500. Ultimately discovered it was a catastrophic distributor failure. Replaced it with a new MSD and got out of the points & condenser business.[/QUOTE
Some technology simply makes better sense and were likely the reason they were developed ion the first place, if the ignition was a weak point and they needed blue spark to light the near diesel fuel. I always think about how I would feel about leaving my car to get seek help and returning to not find it where it was left. It happens!

 

We stayed with car. The third time a very kind Arkansas Highway Patrolman stopped to check on us, he told us if we were still there the next time he came by he would have to take us down the road to the nearest truck stop, or hotel.

When we 1st broke down we called our daughter. She arrived 5 minutes ahead of the Roll back.

As a side note, on that day, The Queen wouldn't have been to damned disappointed if the car had vanished. Funny thing...she was driving when it failed. Hasn't driven any of my classic cars since.

 

A one word name that covers this I don't know about. But I understand what you mean and share some of your feelings. I am not really surprised either but I am very pleased to see them when it happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Cole

The just seem natural on the road, and the passage of time doesn't seem so long, until the logical side of my brain kicks in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_padavano

I consider any car made after 1973 to be a "new" car.

I'm thinking it has a lot to do with our age guys. My guess is that the cars we noticed in our early driving days helped cement this effect. As well as the fact that we love older cars, and either collect them, restore them, or daily drive them, etc. In the end we are car guys, way before I had a license I thought certain cars like my 69 were and are way cool. And I wanted to know all about them. Its not in our DNA to write cars off because they have years on them, we simply appreciate them too much to do that.

I'm a little younger than you guys, I'm officially in the fifties. So for me its more the 1980s cars forward that I don't view as old. Had a license now for 35 years. Mid 1980s hot cars were Z28s, G body Coupes, Fox body Stangs, etc. When I see a 5.0 mustang for example I never say to myself, man that thing is old...

On the other hand some younger guys do view them as old, and even worse think they are severely under-powered. That particularly blows my mind, that little coupe hauled *** in its prime and is still healthy today in my honest opinion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyBs68S

Man time flies when you get old.

Yes sir, seems to speed up with every year that passes. It was a topic of discussion on Coast to Coast AM a little while back. The expert opinion is that the familiarity we have with most things in our daily lives is the cause of this sensation.

 

The only way to make a car last in salt states is not to drive them during the winter. In 08 I purchased an 07 Grand Marquis but kept my 2000 which was already beginning to rust. For 5 years my 07 stayed off the road during winter. I spray much of the bottom and other areas with fluid film to help slow down the destruction, it seems to help, but it's remaining years are numbered. Unfortunately the better coatings of newer cars has been negated by the massive increase in salt use. I clearly remember many roads not being salted during minor snow events and when salted less was used. Pick up trucks seem to rust the worst around here. The only trucks that rot quicker than a ford would be a dodge.

 

The "theory of relativity" that I subscribe to (not Einstein's) is that as you age, each day is a smaller percentage of your entire life. When you are 1 y/o, 1 day = 1/365 th (0.27%) of your entire life. When you are 50, 1 day = 1/18,252 ths (0.0055%) of your entire life, so it seems to go by faster.

 

It's actually much simpler than that. Once you get over the hill, you start accelerating on the downside.

 

+1 to that. After my Cutlass was re-painted back in '86, it has not been driven at all in the winter, and I can count the number of times it has seen wet pavement on one hand (and that was completely unintended). I was also lucky that the only time it was driven in the winter was limited to between '74 when Dad purchased it from his neighbor (who had never driven it in the winter salt since it was new) to '86 when I repainted it. Same situation for my '98 T/A (I'm the original owner). It can't rot from rust if it doesn't get wet (underneath). Keeping them dry also reduces the amount of work it takes to keep them clean and "presentable" when they are driven. I'm a firm believer that if you live in the rust belt and have a car that is a "toy", it must share the garage with a winter "beater".

 

The other day, I saw "The Big Chiil" on the Classic movie channel

 

So maybe the thing we can say is exactly what our dad's and granddad's said, "they just don't make them like that anymore". It seems rare to me to see a 10 year old Honda, Toyota or Nissan on the road, save pickups! I know in reading articles from the 60's, none of the big 3 were concerned about their cars being on the road decades later. One major difference is cast iron vs aluminum. Aluminum is fine until that one time it overheats and then mostly they are toast. What I love trying to fix or replace is the itty bitty plastic vacuum lines with the rubber ends. Everything runs on vacuum.

 

Joe...even I remember as a kid running down a hill too fast. At some point it turns into flying...then immediately crashing. We all need a good set of brakes!

 

I love to nap and naps make time move faster too

 

Just think what you'll be driving in 15 more years Joe ... a 35 year old car will be a 2000 model...yikes...We're going to need to work to find one first of all. 98% of them were probably scrapped for the Obama Clunker buy! And according to some, we'll only be standing in a cow pasture just watching ours, no longer driving. In the 2K vintage, only a very few were RWD, most of them black, white or a combo, with that neat accessory the spotlight!

 

If AOC has her way, it is only ten now, and counting. Might be a good idea to continue to register to vote.

 

When is that NOT a good idea???

 

Wow!!! In 2003 driving my 1970 442 on turnpike from Andover ks to Arkcity exit i was heading to made drag strip. I loaned my car trailer to my brother for his 1968 el meano because he whined it was too far for his 11 seconds bad ***. Now two mile from arkcity exit my fan threw a blade on the fan causing a bad vibration. Oh crap i am 8 /10 miles from any place that had a parts store. Drove 5 mph to exit. Then she a truck repair shop that appears to be open on a Sunday. Hey guys you got anything to fix this car nope was answer😢. So jumped back in car driving east on 166 now at 5mph. Went seemed like forever and spotted and house and garage with junk cars. Pulled in knock on wood say mr. Would you happen to have any clutch fans laying around. He said I might what said what type do you need. I pointed at my car. He said where are you going in that. I said to the drag strip. Well we jack open the hood. W34. He looked at my engine wow he says. Let me go look and see if I got something. Came back out of garage with five fans none like mine. Damn it I says he says well let me look in my other shed. He come back with three and a matching can with a clutch attached. I ask him what do I owe he said it you are a racer it is no charge. I said thank very much I had 38 mins till time trial shook his hand and left. Well got to the drag strip changed my fan and clutch with donor. Bad mistake made pass clutch was make all kinds of noise on return road. So used donor can and my clutch before next round. Got to up to line seen brother had no body beside him so I took land beside him as what happened on first round he said did run it because he missed the announce. Oh I says good luck. We did burn out pull into beams now I am a 13 seconds car so I am thinking cut a light. I went .005 left him at the beams. Never seen him move till half track in my mirror. Well he was moving it just looked that way. I was thirty car lenghts ahead of him at finish line. Got to time shack got my slip and I hear hollering to on behind me. Made it to post and still hear hollering going on. Dad how the he'll are we going to beat. 11 second cars when we can't beat a 13 second car. Dad he drove his broke it on the way here fixed it a smoker us. Dad 15 seconds is all we can do and we trailered it. Game over Dad. LOL His son never let him forget that. Now my car was tuned to run 13seconds it ran best at 12.50 . . We found out by changing air cleaner to small hole we lost 1/2 second to be able to run 13.05 to 13 flat. Which was sportmans class back then. Now you can run 12 flat. Sorry for long story.

 

I forgot to mention I drove that 70 442 in to town in November. Course it is only four miles to town where I live now.

 

Great story! Things could happen back then that simply cannot today. Technology!!!

 

I recently moved and my previous house was built in the 60s. Had a big garage, around 20-24 feet in depth and 22-24 feet in width. Loved it for my Ford Expedition. Sadly had to move. When I was looking for new homes I faced the same problem, but managed to find a good garage for my car. Smaller then the first one, but better than the others I saw on the market. Funny enough, when I was selling the old place, some buyers thought the garage was "too big" and took up too much space. In the end, I sold to https://www.thepropertybuyingcompany.co.uk/, cause I had to sell it fast, and since it was a bit old and needed some work. Most buyers in my area were looking to buy "move-in ready".