Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Nostalgia, Again.

You'd have to have a heart of stone to resist this beauty.

Recently there was a post on Curbside Classic that featured a '57 Chevy Bel Air.

The writer confessed to having a decades long love affair with this model, and he admitted to his long term desire to own one for himself.

Several commenters made the point that it is sometimes better to enjoy the wishing, instead of actually buying the actual car.

There was less of an opportunity for disappointment.

photo soutce: mindworks.

Someone even referenced the Thomas Wolfe short story, The Far and Near. In this story, the protagonist is an engineer on a railway that passes by what appears to be a pleasant little farm and home. He has spent decades daydreaming about a little cottage and it's inhabitants. It's a harmless diversion, the little house seems so cozy and inviting, and there is a woman that lives there that waves at his train as it passes. The engineer decides one day, to actually get off the train and visit the town, and introduce himself to the lady.

Of course things do not go as he had imagined, and he leaves in disappointment. 

The commenter warns that this will likely happen if the writer buys that '57 Chevy.

image from the 1960 movie.

I made a comment that buying an old car can be done for different reasons. One is to try to recreate a past that has been imagined and fantasized, and the car is supposed to function as a time machine. Transporting the owner back in time, where he will be able to live out his heroic dreams.

The other, is to see the car as an artifact from this past era, and it will help recall events of that time. Or the car is something that the buyer has admired and wanted for a very long time. Maybe even an automotive  Holy Grail quest. 

Of course, a car is just a car, and an old car is likely to provide a lot of challenges to it's new owner.

Especially if the buyer has never had any experience with old cars.

I had a friend that had been planning on taking a trip down the length of Route 66. He felt that it would be more enjoyable behind the wheel of a car that he had wanted for years, a 65 Mustang. He didn't currently own a Mustang, so he set out to buy one for the trip. He found a pretty nice example, according to the seller it had received a lot of maintenance and repairs besides the cosmetic work. It did look good, but as soon as he started to drive it, the problems began making themselves known. The dash lights were dim, so were the headlights. The horn didn't work. The brakes squeaked and pulled to the side. It would overheat after driving on the freeway.  It certainly wasn't ready for the trip. 

He knew that I was an old car guy and asked for advice. I told him that even a good car needs to be sorted out, and that can only come from driving it. Then he needed to find a good mechanic, a Holy Grail quest of it's own, (!) that could work out all the bugs. The process would take some time, especially if he was depending on a mechanic, instead of fixing things himself. 

Unfortunately, the Mustang couldn't be sorted out in time, and the trip was made in his newer Ford Escape.

At least he had good a/c in his newer Ford!

I have mentioned that Thomas Murray has written many stories that were published in Car Collector magazine over the years that follow this exact theme. Murray is very heavy into personalized nostalgia. Most of his musings deal with the regrets of lost youth, and unrequited love, the typical pains of growing up.

I can't say that I share his view of vintage car ownership.

This year I plan to attend my 50th. high school reunion. I attended my 10th. and 20th. anniversary year events.  Those were enough for me! High school was not the happiest time for me. I wasn't popular, or cool, so I found a few buddies that also didn't fit in, and we rode out the years. So much insecurity! There is a lot of misery that a lot of youngsters endure during this period. It seems like everything is so important during these years, and that it will never pass. But after four years we go on to discover our lives as young adults, experiencing a level of independence and freedom that we couldn't have imagined. Once we are more in command of our choices and our fate, we find that many of the restrictions of our adolescence were largely self imposed. 

Okay, what does this have to do with old cars? 

As I stated, you can consider a car a time machine or an artifact. It depends on your motivation when you set out to buy an older car. There isn't a wrong reason, but you should proceed with your eyes open.

Because every old car, no matter how good it looks, is likely to have some problems that you'll have to sort out, no matter how much you pay. It's the sorting out that makes the difference. Rebuilt engines will need to be tuned up, adjustments made to drum brakes, clutches, transmissions, electrical accessories may have to be fiddled with, minor dings, scratches and rust spots will have to be dealt with. Cars are fairly complex systems, even brand new cars can have their teething problems, so don't be surprised. The only way to get the car right, is to drive it enough to flush out all the problems. 

Having a car from the years of your family childhood, or from high school, or college, or young adult years may help relive some memories, but it isn't likely to let you re-experience the times. Or change the past. Much like the actions of someone experiencing a stereotypical mid life crisis isn't going to turn them into a young person again! That bald head and paunch isn't going to disappear after you take possession of the Corvette!

If the car is something that you've admired, and have wanted for years it can seem like you have finally achieved your heart's desire. But remember how disappointed Dorothy was after traipsing all over Oz.

The old saying that you should never meet your heroes also comes to mind. You have to be realistic. My favorite vintage Mustangs are the '69 -'70 Mach One models. I think that they are the best looking Mustangs of all time.

Truthfully, though, they are not very good cars, at least  in comparison to modern models. The biggest area that fail to measure up is in occupant safety. Leaving that aside, (which is actually quite important) they are lacking in handling, braking, steering, and fuel economy. Their creature comforts and ergonomics are also usually pretty poor. I found that my '70 Mustang was lacking in many areas, the amount of horsepower wasn't even a consideration. Chances are you won't enjoy driving the car as much as you thought you would, and it will spend a lot of time in storage.

In the end, the writer admitted that for every opportunity that had become available, the time was not right for him to make the purchase. When he was younger he didn't have the money. Later, he didn't have the time to invest. Even later he was raising a family and again the old car wouldn't fit into his current life. Valid reasons all. It takes a real die hard to actually take the plunge. 

I hate to be the bearer of the buzz kill, I've bought a lot of different old cars, many which didn't make much sense. Financially none of them did! However, I don't regret my decisions. Life is too short to be practical all the time.

Sometimes you have to take the plunge, other times you should stay on the safety of that cliff. The choice is up to you, just consider how the rough landing could be.