Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Empowerment. One of the pillars of your car guy persona.

photo source; pinterest
Kicking it old school. Nothing beats hands on experience.

This is a term that is thrown around a lot on the media. Every group claims the need and the right to be empowered by someone. Society? The government? How about taking hold of the bull by the horns and eking out a bit of empowerment on your own?

If you are are going to be a car hobbyist it will serve you greatly to be able to do some of the work yourself. Rebuilding, repairing and even just maintaining your old car will save you money, and build up your bank of confidence. Car guys take a lot of pride in telling others that they built their car, or that they did most of the work.

You start out with the basics then assume responsibility for the more technical and difficult tasks.

Minor stuff, checking the levels of the oil, coolant, transmission and other underhood fluids. Keeping an eye out on the condition of the drive belts, hoses, battery connections. Being aware of tire pressure and wear patterns. These are things that you can and should do for your daily ride, even if it is a late model, low mileage machine.

If we're talking about your Better Beater, than it pays huge dividends to keep a close eye on it's condition. A well worn machine is likely to be deteriorating at a much faster rate than a new car. Most of it's component parts are deep into the later stages of their service life.

Topping up oil was a common occurrence "back in the day".

A higher mileage engine will likely be using some oil between scheduled changes. Unlike a new car which generally won't need any replenishment between scheduled changes, an older car definitely will. Many times oil mileage will dip into the one thousand to five hundred miles per quart range. My old tired F250 required a quart of oil every fifty miles!

One of the young guys that I work with had been driving a hand me down Dodge Neon that he aquired from his parents. He told me one day that he had noticed the motor clattering and knocking as he drove. I asked him how was it doing on oil. He replied that he hadn't checked it because it wasn't due for an oil change for a couple of more thousand miles. I informed him that an old motor can burn and leak enough oil to run itself dry way before the oil change period arrives. You've got to check the oil level every time that you fill up on gas.

My young friend was amazed to hear that. No one had ever told him this.

Knowledge is power and it is the key to keeping your Better Beater on the road. How can you acquire this knowledge?

I would say to ask your Father or Uncle. Chances are that no matter how successful they are now, and even if they now can afford to keep new cars in their fleets, they had early experience with a beater. They may have called it a jalopy.

These manuals are a great source of tuning and maintenance information
and photos of mechanical components.

Get to know your car. Look at the owner's manual or shop manual. Look under the hood and find out where to check the different fluid levels. Familiarize yourself with the underhood layout. Your old car is definitely going to need constant monitoring if you want to keep it in good shape and as reliable transportation.

Just buy the fluids that you will use. Keep a quart of oil in the trunk,and keep a couple of extra quarts of oil in the garage. A gallon of premixed coolant, a quart of ATF, and some power steering fluid should round out your supplies.

Where are all these fluids going? Some, like oil are being steadily consumed by the motor. Coolant will evaporate over time, especially during hot weather, and can alert you to a leaking headgasket. However a lot of these fluids are probably just oozing out of pipes, hoses, and fittings, covering your drivetrain with that distinctive coating of black greasy grit and ultimately ending up on the driveway surface. A leaking car is like an unhousebroken dog, nobody wants you to park it in their driveway, as your car will mark it's spot!

This could help, at least for a while.

The degree of leakage will determine your response to the problem. A few drops can be overlooked, but a steady flow will have to be addressed immediately. I would venture to guess that it's that messy leaking that makes most of your  family and friends hate old cars.

This is the classic. Does it work? Sometimes, for a while.

Chasing down and fixing leaks is a tough job, and many times there are leaks that may not be financially feasible to fix. Crankshaft seals and automatic transmission front seal leaks are fairly big, (read expensive) jobs that you probably won't want to attempt without a lot of experience and equipment.

Sometimes a guys got to do what a guy's got to do.
Many times the only realistic alternative is the scrapyard.

 

There are several "miracle fixes in a can" available at the local auto supply store. These will be located right next to the "stop leaks" for the radiator and transmission, "head gasket in a bottle," and the "Motor Honey" to miraculously cut oil consumption and smoking! Who would have thought that you could rebuild your entire drivetrain with nothing but a bag full  of cans and bottles?

Well you can't of course. Some of these products will sort of work, for awhile. The transmission leak stoppers will have ingredients that will soften the rubber seals and gaskets and cause them to swell a bit slowing down leaks, but soft rubber will wear faster so the improvement will not last too long. Radiator stop leak contains stuff that will plug cracks and harden to stop small leaks. However, like platelets in your arteries, this will result in clogged heater cores and other coolant flow problems. Headgasket sealers are like radiator sealers on steroids. Generally they will gunk up and clog other areas besides the headgasket leak, but the alternative is to pull the head and replace the gasket properly. There's no way that your thousand dollar beater will be worth paying a mechanic to do the job. Maybe the sealer will work and you can delay the inevitable until next year.

Delaying the inevitable is an attractive thought. I suppose that it's that desperation and need that would cause such a suspension of belief. I had seen these featured in all those J.C. Whitney catalogs I poured over in my youth. Looking at these realistically, there is no way that they could actually work, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Hope(and desperation!) spring eternal!

Monitoring the fluid levels combined with visual inspections provide you the feedback you need to assess the condition of your vehicle. That's the first pillar of empowerment, awareness and knowledge. The second, is skill, and for that you need tools. You always need tools!