Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Year end wrap up.

Hard to believe, but the old year is finally over.

There was quite a lot of activity in my car hobby career this year. A real change of direction, a break from the inertia, and a slightly different focus. 

There was some serious revising going on.

The biggest event was the shake up of my established order. It started out slowly, then picked up speed, and by the Fall, three of my hobby cars were gone. This time, once the decision was made, I acted quickly and decisively to sell each car. The speed at which this occurred was surprising to me, but even more so to my Wife. She had heard lots (and lots!) of talk over several years without any action. Then poof! Cars suddenly started disappearing!

photo source: Almay

There were also two new additions to the hobby car fleet; a 2006 Mustang GT convertible in a very nice shade of blue, and a red Lincoln Navigator, ...just because!

One of my current cars has managed to keep it's place. My '96 Mustang has long been one of my favorite cars. Next to the cars that I bought new in 2007, this has been my longest keeper. It's the one car that I have made and kept an actual commitment to. The thought of selling this car did not go over well with me, but I really wanted and needed the space, and it seemed that I would never be able to sell the XJS. After a bit of internal debate, I finally decided that the Mustang was staying, no matter what, and the Jag was going. Even if I had to donate it!

I was lucky that the on line junk car site, that I offered it to, saw some value in it. The initial offer was over 2,400 dollars, as I was finishing inputting info they raised the offer to 3,200! I was ready to accept the first offer, but the higher offer sealed the deal. I quickly accepted it, and the tow was here the next day.

My focus with older cars has changed, at least for now. 

Earlier this year I rearranged my garage so that I could keep two cars  inside. As I always mention, there is a constant struggle to keep excess stuff out. My Wife always wants to put "something" in there temporarily. It doesn't take much additional stuff to crowd out one of the cars. Then there will be all that suddenly available "extra" space to store more household stuff!  

I built a "park under" garage table back in the beginning of the year.  Initially the XJS found a home on that side of the garage. Later, the '96 Mustang claimed that spot. Now the '06 Mustang resides in the space next to it. I can occasionally squeeze the Flex into the same space, when the '06 is being used.

Two cars in the garage, two cars in the driveway, and the truck at the curb. That appears to be a reasonable arrangement.

I suppose that even old dogs can learn new tricks, or at least learn to chase other kinds of cars!

All this change was needed and necessary. I felt some loss seeing a couple of the cars go, but the gain in freedom was well worth it. 

I had been stuck with two cars that I couldn't drive. One the '51, was a total project, because it needed so much work to even run, and the other because it needed quite a bit of work to bring it up to daily driver status. Even the XJ6 wasn't up to daily duties. Three cars just sitting around taking up valuable space. That just contributed to the inertia that placed me into a "gumption trap!" My '96 Mustang was my only reliable, good running, hobby car. Now the three Jags are gone and my two additions are good running cars. 

Following my "Vintage Lite" orientation, I'll be detailing and improving my recent purchases; the '06 Mustang and '05 Navigator. The same could be done for any other early Millennial age vehicle. Both cars are in pretty good shape as vehicles in this age bracket should be. They don't need much, which is the whole point.

Cars from this "period" are the new low hanging fruit. They are affordable compared to cars from the 50's and 60's. Plus they have the advantage of being completely usable on a daily basis as transportation. 

Fifteen to twenty year old cars? Isn't that what I used to do back in the Day? I guess that history does repeat itself! 

Though I'll admit that through my continuing involvement with the AACA, Antique Automobile Club of America, forum, I still get a steady exposure to more vintage vehicles. I'm much more realistic now, I don't anticipate buying a low priced example and fixing it up. My focus would be on good running and driving cars in good overall condition. Unfortunately a car of this caliber would set me back more than my two recent purchases, combined! So I can't see that happening anytime soon.

I've even been selling off what's left of my old Datsun parts hoard. All the really good stuff is long gone, but there is still some smaller stuff that is valuable to many Datsun Z and 510 owners. The funny thing is that I acquired this stuff back when you could buy a starter Z for around 1,500.00. I bought several parts cars for less than 300 dollars! Now a starter Z is around 15,000.00! That's quite the price escalation, so my parts are worth quite a bit more now. But my position is that I want to give the buyer good value for their money, and would like to clear out my storage. Being able to help someone with their project is just a bonus, and gives me a good feeling. My Wife has helped me with shipping some parts through the mail, which has been convenient for both the seller and the buyer.

My home improvement projects have slowed to a crawl, but there is always next year. My biggest project will be painting the exterior of the house. I also need to finish up painting the interior. I should get this all done by the end of the next year... maybe. 

Next year will mark the start of the tenth year of producing my blog. I'm proud of my commitment to it. Keeping up the weekly postings has been fun and even if nobody ever read it, just writing it, is it's own reward. Well, it would be quite disappointing if no one ever read it, but it's just a hobby, there's no money being made by me, it's a labor of love?  I really appreciate that someone would spend the ten minutes it takes to read it. I know that blogs are now considered passe, but I don't think that a video starring me, would be that effective. Probably not that entertaining either.

I admit that I am an optimist, and hope that the New Year will bring better things to everyone. I plan to keep on doing what I've been doing, and reporting on my progress here.

Happy New Years to all!