sho ryu ken wrote:Guys, would you say it's possible to run a classic without getting your hands dirty?
i.e. do any of you use a local garage whenever there is a problem and have a total spanner-free arrangement, or are you all fixing the little niggles yourselves?
Ken. I have run my 1985 Dodge Ram 360 daily for the last 7 years. About 30 miles per day plus weekend travels.
It has never let me down. By that I mean it has always got me home. The worst I had to fix was to get the radiator re cored a couple of years ago. But an easy job to do. Apart from that a couple of alternators ( although a modern upgrade is now easy to do with a Trev D bracket ) a voltage regulator and normal consumables such as brakes etc. All jobs that are easy , and could be done without expert knowledge of these vehicles.
If I were you I'd get the car to Anton and let him go right over it and sort any problems and advise you on any upgrades / mods , that would help to make your Charger a daily driver. When set up correctly they can be very reliable.
wow, I wish I had that luck with my charger. I can't remember how many times I broke down, but towards the end I could probably measure it in "break downs per 50 miles". It was fine until I dicked around with it. A little knowledge is dangerous.
It may be an idea to move my charger on to a better home, buy the hellcat and then buy another 69 charger which is close to stock and nice and reliable mechanically.
Having said all that, for sentimental reasons I would prefer to keep this charger ideally though....
Trigger_Andy wrote:I realize that I no longer have the inclination or interest in repairing these old cars. But I still wanna own one. That leaves me with three options. Buy a latest Generation Challenger/Camaro. Source a car thats had a modern Transplant or three, get someone local to do all the work. (Not really feasible in Scotland) Annoyingly I have found a guy here in Norway, grrrr.
Exactly the same here. The fun soon stopped for me when every time something went wrong the cold realisation hit me that I was going to be getting the toolbox out and logging onto summitracing to order more parts
There are several problems with running a car that is 40-50 years old.
First of all you have to assume EVERYTHING mechanical is worn out and messed about with by previous owners.
Second, All the electrics can work after a fashion but after this amount of time they are going to be inefficient, full of bad corroded connections, and messed about with by previous owners. They were not made very well or to last more than a few years anyway.
Third. Non of them will work in 2014 using the factory settings for ignition timing or carb tuning. Every single one needs timing removed from the distributor to give you more initial advance. You also cannot run as much total advance as you could back in the day.
If you modify the engine away from stock it will need even more radical ignition timing and carburettor tuning/modifications as well as transmission and axle modifications.
So basically you CAN run a 1960s car without getting your hands dirty as long as you drive it gentle and not very far or very often. Or if you are a wealthy man you can employ someone to constantly maintain your car. But they have to know what they are doing with Muscle cars.
Really old cars are a hobby for people that enjoy fixing cars in their garage at home while the little lady makes the tea.
Dave wrote:There are several problems with running a car that is 40-50 years old.
First of all you have to assume EVERYTHING mechanical is worn out and messed about with by previous owners.
Second, All the electrics can work after a fashion but after this amount of time they are going to be inefficient, full of bad corroded connections, and messed about with by previous owners. They were not made very well or to last more than a few years anyway.
Third. Non of them will work in 2014 using the factory settings for ignition timing or carb tuning. Every single one needs timing removed from the distributor to give you more initial advance. You also cannot run as much total advance as you could back in the day.
If you modify the engine away from stock it will need even more radical ignition timing and carburettor tuning/modifications as well as transmission and axle modifications.
So basically you CAN run a 1960s car without getting your hands dirty as long as you drive it gentle and not very far or very often. Or if you are a wealthy man you can employ someone to constantly maintain your car. But they have to know what they are doing with Muscle cars.
Really old cars are a hobby for people that enjoy fixing cars in their garage at home while the little lady makes the tea.
This is it in a nut shell for me, i bought and sold enough to buy myself either a nice old mopar or a a nice new one,
i chose a new one , i really like it, have no problem driving it across the country without a second thought, i've done old mopars and thought i'd try something new, i dont regret it at all.
Dave wrote:There are several problems with running a car that is 40-50 years old.
First of all you have to assume EVERYTHING mechanical is worn out and messed about with by previous owners.
Second, All the electrics can work after a fashion but after this amount of time they are going to be inefficient, full of bad corroded connections, and messed about with by previous owners. They were not made very well or to last more than a few years anyway.
Third. Non of them will work in 2014 using the factory settings for ignition timing or carb tuning. Every single one needs timing removed from the distributor to give you more initial advance. You also cannot run as much total advance as you could back in the day.
If you modify the engine away from stock it will need even more radical ignition timing and carburettor tuning/modifications as well as transmission and axle modifications.
So basically you CAN run a 1960s car without getting your hands dirty as long as you drive it gentle and not very far or very often. Or if you are a
wealthy man you can employ someone to constantly maintain your car. But they have to know what they are doing with Muscle cars.
YEP
Really old cars are a hobby for people that enjoy fixing cars in their garage at home while the little lady makes the tea.
And when I look on the modern car boards they do some bits of work, but most of the posts are about simply driving them on long road trips, after all that is what they are for
Dave wrote:There are several problems with running a car that is 40-50 years old.
First of all you have to assume EVERYTHING mechanical is worn out and messed about with by previous owners.
Second, All the electrics can work after a fashion but after this amount of time they are going to be inefficient, full of bad corroded connections, and messed about with by previous owners. They were not made very well or to last more than a few years anyway.
Third. Non of them will work in 2014 using the factory settings for ignition timing or carb tuning. Every single one needs timing removed from the distributor to give you more initial advance. You also cannot run as much total advance as you could back in the day.
If you modify the engine away from stock it will need even more radical ignition timing and carburettor tuning/modifications as well as transmission and axle modifications.
So basically you CAN run a 1960s car without getting your hands dirty as long as you drive it gentle and not very far or very often. Or if you are a wealthy man you can employ someone to constantly maintain your car. But they have to know what they are doing with Muscle cars.
Really old cars are a hobby for people that enjoy fixing cars in their garage at home while the little lady makes the tea.
Great post. Thank you. That is what I gathered from my past experience - and appears to be the harsh truth. Perhaps my brief excitement to fix my charger should be shelved for the time being. Next year I hope to have more time on my hands. I'll continue to let it sit as a statue on my drive for now for nostalgia's sake and maybe give it an hour or 2 on the weekend to make a list of what's wrong with it then go from there. I really appreciate the offer of offering to sort the engine - seems to be about £300 each way to ship the car to Newcastle though - it needs a lot of work, not just engine tuning. May even need a rebuild because of the oil pressure at idle, or maybe that's just because of the cam lope. Dashboard needs rewriting too.
Anyway for now I'm going to concentrate on getting this hellcat. I've been caning the hell out of my SRT this weekend and think it's the car for me and this thread has reinforced that. It's weird for a 60k car to not even have parking sensors but I guess it is what it is. I can't think what else is in that price range. Maybe a Nissan GTR but it's ugly imo.... or a secondhand viper - at least I could park that in a multistory unlike the big old chally.
Regarding the charger, I just had a better look over it and it appears to be in worse nick than I thought. The bondo on the rear quarters are blistered/splitting, and rust where the metal is. I don't know much about bodywork but I think it needs new panels or a lot of welding.
I tried to peel the stickers off stupidly too and the orange is obviously quite different to what's underneath.
Given the amount of mechanical work needed I'd say it's borderline write off...
I'll have to think what to do about it now. Maybe it will remain a driveway trophy
I'm still planning to get the hellcat if I can though.
