A realization...

[lloyd3]

Crazy warm winter here in Denver this year, in fact it's been almost no winter. Loaded my bride onto an airliner for a weekend visit to Minneapolis (mother-in-law) meaning...no adult supervision here for a few days (so of course I got out my car). My wife is a good sport but she does not really understand my car (or maybe she does?).

Pleasantly surprised by a number of things. 1. The battery wasn't completely dead. 2. It started right up (after a glug of gas in the carb). 3. It seems to be running allright (it didn't seem to be when I parked it in early November).

It did smoke alot ( & I mean it really smoked the place up). I've never seen it quite like this before, but after idling for a few minutes it quit (valve guides?). I took it out for a spin and it finally settled down to what seems to be it's usual state. It spits and sputters until it's warm and then it's just fine.  It's been forever since a real tune-up (10-15 years?), so this summer it's going to happen (plugs, points, condenser, maybe even wires). The 4428S carb needs bushings too.

I had something of a realization while driving it...this car is almost 60 years old now (just 2 more years and we're both there).  That of course means that I'm almost 70 now (the car is 10-years younger than me).  That shocked me a little...I guess I never expected to last this long (too-many close calls to this point) and I guess I never gave it much thought until now, but the car somehow reminded me of that on Friday when I went for a burger in it for dinner.

I had a buddy expire over the weekend, one of my brother's closest childhood friends (since 3rd grade) and one of mine as well. We all worked together in the Pennsylvania oil fields, he even lived with me in southwest Wyoming for a year (looking for work) and we've kept in touch over the years. He was involved in a bad automobile accident that killed his wife immediately (Pennsylvania roads, right?) and he lingered in a coma for the last two weeks.  He was one of my (now few) remaining connections to that world back there.

I seem to do my best thinking in this car. It provides perspective (on so many things) for me and these days it seems to be the passage of time, eh?  But...beautiful is still beautiful to me and this car still hits all of those numbers (at least for me).

It's still genuine fun for me to pull the cover off of it, and driving it is still slightly-amazing to me (for what it is, for what it represents of my history, for what I went through to get it, that I still have it (30-years this May), & that I still enjoy it).  There were lots of cars out and about here this crazy-warm weekend (middle 80s) and some of them were pretty exotic (Shelby Cobra coupes, Maseratis, other 60s muscle, even a few Mopars). Most folks don't even seem to notice it much anymore (younger Gen Xers, young women driving minivans & econoboxes, obvious illegals, etc.) but the few that do really sit-up and hone-in. 



Perspective, right?

[496polara]

Sorry about your friend.

I agree on the perspective, I am now 60 and still have the mental capacity of a 16 yo most days. Only difference between me now and me then is now I worry about being able to fix it if something bad happens. Back then we just went out and got another one. I doubt I could afford to do that these days.

[Kern Dog]

I'll tell you this....The ease to which you can diagnose and repair a classic car is amazing compared to computer controlled newer stuff.
Example?
How many of you actually snapped a throttle cable in all of your years with classics?
I'll bet it is very few. I never have. I have had some give warning that they need to be replaced but I've never had throttle one moment then NOTHING the next moment until last year.
June 2025, the electronic throttle pedal in my 2007 Dodge truck crapped out. I went to the junkyard and pulled two. I thought that they were both bad because I put them in and the same no throttle symptoms existed. I bought a NEW one, installed it and it ran fine....for about 25 miles.
I didn't know that the pedal needed to be "Calibrated". I must have gotten lucky that it worked immediately.  I had to be towed to a repair shop where I learned about the need to "recalibrate".  The whole thing still confuses me. From there it seemed fine.
THREE days ago, that pedal FAILED. I bought another, calibrated it and it seems okay again.
How did I drive this truck 410,000 miles on the original but then only get 6000 miles on a factory replacement?
I saw a video where a guy bought a door for some late model car, he got one the same color as his car, It was bought from a recycle/wrecking yard. When he tried to open the door, it refused to open AND the electronics of the car went dead. Why? Well, some late model cars have door handles that are fully electronic with no rods or linkage. They are tied into the computer and linked to the VIN. If a door handle is NOT recalibrated to the VIN, it shuts the whole car down.
That never happens with these great classic cars.