Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Maybe I'm not really a car guy. Part One.

His resume is long and impressive.

Whether I am or not,  Pat Ganahl definitely is. I highly recommend that you visit his website. patganahl.com.

Now, back to my story.

Am I really a car guy?

I think that I am, I feel like one, at least most of the time. I still read everything that I can get my hands on about cars. I still spend hour after hour on line, looking at cars on CL.

My introduction to Rockabilly and Rat Rods.

Last week I was driving my '96 Mustang GT with the windows down listening to my Rhino early '50's automotive related music. I enjoy this early Rock and Rockabilly music, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, being one of my favorites. I like early classic hot rods, Kustoms, muscle cars, and the like.

It crossed my mind that someone might have heard my music and thought, "What's up with the old man in the Mustang listening to the Stray Cats?"  Not that I was really worried about what anyone would think, but it just raised "some questions for my own consideration" as I drove along.

As I said before, I like, and have owned lots of vintage cars. Several Cadillacs from the mid 50's through 1970. Rivieras from 1966 to 1971, a '66 and '70 Mustang, even a '22 Dodge that I was trying to build into a hot rod.  I even currently own a 1951 Jaguar sedan.

While I still like old cars, I don't know if I really still want to own another one.

There are lots of compromises that have to be made in owning and driving a vintage car as opposed to a modern vehicle.

I might appreciate a cut down Ford shoebox but I'd probably rather drive a new Aviator!

I could say that I've been there, done that. True enough, except that I've never built a really nice car.

I've fixed up quite a few cars, but never completely restored or really built a hot rod or custom.

I have rebuilt a couple of motorcycles. Even built a real chopper.

Is there a car that I really, really wanted, that I finally bought and regret letting it go?

Hard to say because when I let it go it was to buy another car that I was anticipating.

Turning the clock back, Hmmm...

My first car was a '66 Mustang, which I didn't even want to buy in the first place. No regrets over selling that.

I replaced that with a '64 Cadillac convertible, which I really did want. Unfortunately I was dumb enough to sell it to some guy off the street who offered me 500 bucks for it. That was three times what I paid for it.

Why did I sell my '70 Coupe de Ville? Oh, I wanted a car with better gas mileage (?!) So I replaced it with a two year old Pontiac Astre coupe. (Think Chevy Vega! At least it had a 5 speed!)  At the time  I thought that I might be going back to college full time for the next few years and wanted a car that I wouldn't have to mess with, and to save money on gas. That Astre only lasted a couple of years until ...

I found my '57 Sedan de Ville on a used car lot on Mission Blvd. in Hayward. This was one that I really wanted and that I kept for several years. I only let this one go because the dealer at the consignment lot really wanted it, and took it as a trade on my dream car, a three year old '77 Coupe de Ville.

Glory Days!

This was the one that I had dreamed about and ached for, I really loved this car. I kept it for another four years. I sold it because I got a good job down in L.A. and I was afraid that it might breakdown on the frenzied weekend trips I squeezed in to return home.  I didn't want to get in trouble at work. I was newly married when I took that job in L.A.

So I bought my first new car. A '84 Mercury Cougar. My Wife liked it better than the T Bird. I thought that a new car was a better bet than a three year old El Dorado. That would have been the '79 to '85 downsized models.

Would I want another Cougar. No.

As a married man and stepfather I knew that it couldn't always be all about me. My Wife needed a reliable car to drive to work.  So my car lust had to cool way down.

Besides, I still had my Harley. Actually, two Harleys. ( Maybe I still did think that it should be all about me!)

A new Dodge minivan replaced the Cougar. We added a new Civic SI coupe (really nice).  We bought a house and I still managed to hold onto my Sportster. The Hog had to go. Another minivan followed, but to be truthful I like minivans.

Thinking back to my high school and junior college days the opportunity to own what are now considered classic cars were occasionally open to me.  Let's see.

I found a '55 El Dorado convertible on the back row of a run down used car lot in Alameda. Only 199.00! It was complete and running, with just a big dent in the quarter panel behind the driver's door.  Did I buy it? Nope.

How about a series Two Jaguar XKE roadster that a guy was selling in the parking lot of my J.C.? He was only asking a grand, but, "who would be crazy enough to buy a Jaguar?" Besides, a grand was a lot of money at the time, 1974--75. Most of my vehicular purchases were well under a grand. Three to five hundred bucks would usually do the trick. I bet he would have taken less!

There was a '40 Ford coupe for sale in the local classifieds for 750.00. Nope. Too old.

My neighbor down the street was a (now) well known car customizer, Ron Dunn. He had a first gen Corvette ( wire baskets over the headlamps) for sale on his lawn for I think 400.00. He also had a chimpanzee that he kept in the bathroom at his time! It's no wonder that my neighbors weren't too happy with car guys.

Why didn't I buy any of these cars? Good question.

Probably because at the time to me they were just old cars that would need a lot of work. I was already driving a series of old cars of my own. My '66 Mustang, '64 Caddy, '66 Lincoln, 70 Coupe de Ville, and '57 Cadillac.

Besides, I was really into motorcycles and was intent on working my way up to my first Harley Davidson. Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul, yada yada yada.

Sometimes you can have
it all.

Another honest question is why didn't I hold onto any of those cool old cars that I already owned?

Because, " Maybe ... I'm not really a car guy???" (offered somewhat timidly)

No, it's because no matter how cool those cars were, they were still just  old cars.

And.. maybe because I had always been a motorcycle guy,  especially back then.

Of course I always had some kind of car, usually something that I liked, but not always something really special.  As I entered my early Thirties the prospect of constantly working on, or rebuilding any vehicle, had  lost it's appeal to me. My life had gotten quite a bit busier. Just holding on to that Sportster was a triumph of it's own.

Or so it appeared.

It really did look this cool.

I bought that bike new in 1977. It was the XLCR Cafe Racer. I rode it stock for a couple of years, It wasn't really practical or especially comfortable to ride on long trips. Though it did look good!

I started modifying it in preparation of a long Summertime trip. Mods continued over the next years.  Eventually the styling traces of the CR were lost. It just looked almost like a regular Sportster with a larger tank. I'd added saddlebags, first leather, than later HD compact hard bags, a Drag Specialties "Quick Bob" gas tank, a compact HD windshield, custom seat, buckhorn bars, sissy bar, and highway pegs. The motor got an S&S air cleaner, staggered dual pipes, electronic ignition, add on oil filter and thermostatically controlled oil cooler. A halogen headlight element improved lighting.

This was with the 3.5 gallon "King Sportster" tank.
On the road in the Badlands of South Dakota

It was a comfortable, useful, and adaptable highway tourer, which was what I used it for. I rode it on my long around the country trip.

Several years later I added a Rifle fairing, Lowrider drag bars with risers,  genuine Krauser saddle cases, a chrome XLH siamese exhaust and OEM Ham Can air cleaner. Now the bike resembled a BMW R100RS.

Sorta, but more than you might think.

The problem with running a windshield or fairing on a Harley Sportster is that the motor is very noisy. The exhaust was well controlled but the mechanical clatter became unsettling. I pulled these latest additions and returned it to an earlier configuration.

I wish that I had a photo of my Sportster in it's Euro Touring livery. Unfortunately I seldom took photos in those days.

A  road bike deserves to be ridden.
So I did.

So what is this point of this digression into my cycling days?

Besides self aggrandizement?

I owned that  Sportster from 1977 to 1997, twenty years. That has been the longest that I've ever owned any vehicle, of any type.  It was also used continuously throughout that period. It was never tucked under a tarp in the back of the garage.

Over the years I got kind of tired of it. I had bought a nice stripped down '81 Electra Glide back in '83 which I kept for three years. I sold it to contribute to the down payment for my first house.  My buddy Rick was single, he bought a Sportster of his own in '81. So we were riding partners on Sportsters. We had previously owned Honda Fours before this.

That was special. ( Do you remember "the Church Lady?" )

Then he started buying himself a new Road King every few years. Boy, did my old Sporty seem kinda weak compared to those. And cramped, and slow.

So the moral to this part of the story is that even if you manage to hold onto something for a long time, you might find that it doesn't satisfy you in the same way like it did.

So how do those car guys hold onto their cars for 20, 30 or 40 years or more?

I wish I knew!

That's what I''l discuss next installment.