I had a discussion recently with a guy who drove a friends 1970 440 wedge powered ,manual transmission equipped ,road runner, that a friend of his built, ,he got to drive it for a few hours, and he stated he always wanted a muscle car, and welcomed the opportunity to test drive his friends road runner.
Now that particular car looks spectacular, because a good deal of exterior body work and painting has been done!
but the interior still needs some minor work!
and the internal wiring and suspension , gauges, engine and suspension have yet to be touched.
but after driving his friends road runner , for a few hours he stated, his goal of owning a similar car might have changed his mind!
I asked him what he found objectionable , and he had a fairly long list of minor stuff, like one seat was torn,, making it look bad, the windshield wiper switch seemed to be defective ,in that the wipers would not operate correctly ,they failed at times intermittently,requiring playing with the switch, and the car seemed to run a bit hotter that he thought it should, at 200F on the gauge (it never over heated) and the car had a annoying , nearly constant squeak in the suspension, that he found rather consistently annoying, so much so that he just didn,t like driving the car if he drove over minor bumps in the road,.
now to be fair the car has been sitting in storage for 20 plus years and only recently has it started to be refurbished and every thing he mentioned would be fairly easy to repair and on a 43 year old car ALL those things can be expected, the cars owner is aware of the issues and has made a list and ordered the parts he can currently afford.
the fact is that any 43 year old cars going to need parts replaced, or something adjusted, greased or modified, and while its not that difficult to do it takes a certain mind set to be an owner of a muscle car, and your going to either need to get into making repairs or you better have a thick stack of cash to pay someone else to maintain the car!
part of the hobby is learning to maintain the car, getting to know its required maintenance schedule, and learning to deal with the cars little quirks.
don,t let the common little car problems which you will be dealing with on a 30-40 year old car,accumulate and make you nuts! mentally step back and realize that maintaining the car, improving and up-grading the cars function, and learning new skills is both part of ownership and part of the "FUN" of that ownership!
One thing you can do which I've found to be very useful is to put a pad of lined paper and a pen in your glove compartment to write down every little flaw or problem, you find as a reminder list, this might sound silly but youll be amazed at how often you visit salvage yards or auto part stores without the list and totally forget to get the required parts or maintenance items , without a reminder list.
rebuilding and owning a classic muscle car is both a learning process, and a mind set that requires you to accept the idea that a 40 plus year old car will require maintenance and parts replacement more frequently than many modern cars.
this leads to you constantly failing to correct issues ans if you ignore them long enough it tends to make you feel like the cars a piece of old junk, rather than an on going project that's being restored to show room condition as soon as time, skills and your budget allow.
now that might sound crazy, but I,ve know many guys who eventually sold nice muscle cars , back in the 1970s-90s,, and have deeply regretted it, and in many cases you ask them why they sold the car and find that it was something rather small that was bugging them that if they were logical could have easily been repaired.
I know one guy who used to see in school, who, deeply REGRETS SELLING A 1969 CAMARO WITH A 4 SPEED AND 375hp 396, YEARS AGO SIMPLY BECAUSE AT THE TIME HIS THROW OUT BEARING STARTED MAKING A CONSTANT SQUEAL! THAT WOULD HAVE REQUIRED ABOUT 3 HOURS ON JACK STANDS AND MAYBE $20 TO REPLACE, BUT SEVERAL WEEKS OF DRIVING THE CAR LIKE THAT GOT ON HIS NERVES SO BADLY HE TRADED THE CAR IN AND GOT PEANUTS FOR IT DUE TO THE FAIRLY EASILY REPAIRED PROBLEM.
STORIES LIKE THAT ARE NOT ALL THAT RARE AND I KNOW SEVERAL GUYS WHO , LOOK BACK NOW, and CAN,T BELIEVE THEY SOLD REALLY GREAT CARS BACK IN THE DAY ,FOR PEANUTS FOR SIMILAR REASONS!
I know I,ve sure regretted selling cars before, and in most cases they were sold for reasons that thinking back, were not something you would use to validate the sale or repeat if you owned the same car today!
RELATED INFO
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9797&p=37140#p37140
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/wheel-studs-and-replacement.4414/#post-55060
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9612
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4687
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3527
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4318
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...on-a-parts-deal-and-regretted-it-later.14020/
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9154
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=633&p=847&hilit=write+down#p847
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9134
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=808
Now that particular car looks spectacular, because a good deal of exterior body work and painting has been done!
but the interior still needs some minor work!
and the internal wiring and suspension , gauges, engine and suspension have yet to be touched.
but after driving his friends road runner , for a few hours he stated, his goal of owning a similar car might have changed his mind!
I asked him what he found objectionable , and he had a fairly long list of minor stuff, like one seat was torn,, making it look bad, the windshield wiper switch seemed to be defective ,in that the wipers would not operate correctly ,they failed at times intermittently,requiring playing with the switch, and the car seemed to run a bit hotter that he thought it should, at 200F on the gauge (it never over heated) and the car had a annoying , nearly constant squeak in the suspension, that he found rather consistently annoying, so much so that he just didn,t like driving the car if he drove over minor bumps in the road,.
now to be fair the car has been sitting in storage for 20 plus years and only recently has it started to be refurbished and every thing he mentioned would be fairly easy to repair and on a 43 year old car ALL those things can be expected, the cars owner is aware of the issues and has made a list and ordered the parts he can currently afford.
the fact is that any 43 year old cars going to need parts replaced, or something adjusted, greased or modified, and while its not that difficult to do it takes a certain mind set to be an owner of a muscle car, and your going to either need to get into making repairs or you better have a thick stack of cash to pay someone else to maintain the car!
part of the hobby is learning to maintain the car, getting to know its required maintenance schedule, and learning to deal with the cars little quirks.
don,t let the common little car problems which you will be dealing with on a 30-40 year old car,accumulate and make you nuts! mentally step back and realize that maintaining the car, improving and up-grading the cars function, and learning new skills is both part of ownership and part of the "FUN" of that ownership!
One thing you can do which I've found to be very useful is to put a pad of lined paper and a pen in your glove compartment to write down every little flaw or problem, you find as a reminder list, this might sound silly but youll be amazed at how often you visit salvage yards or auto part stores without the list and totally forget to get the required parts or maintenance items , without a reminder list.
rebuilding and owning a classic muscle car is both a learning process, and a mind set that requires you to accept the idea that a 40 plus year old car will require maintenance and parts replacement more frequently than many modern cars.
this leads to you constantly failing to correct issues ans if you ignore them long enough it tends to make you feel like the cars a piece of old junk, rather than an on going project that's being restored to show room condition as soon as time, skills and your budget allow.
now that might sound crazy, but I,ve know many guys who eventually sold nice muscle cars , back in the 1970s-90s,, and have deeply regretted it, and in many cases you ask them why they sold the car and find that it was something rather small that was bugging them that if they were logical could have easily been repaired.
I know one guy who used to see in school, who, deeply REGRETS SELLING A 1969 CAMARO WITH A 4 SPEED AND 375hp 396, YEARS AGO SIMPLY BECAUSE AT THE TIME HIS THROW OUT BEARING STARTED MAKING A CONSTANT SQUEAL! THAT WOULD HAVE REQUIRED ABOUT 3 HOURS ON JACK STANDS AND MAYBE $20 TO REPLACE, BUT SEVERAL WEEKS OF DRIVING THE CAR LIKE THAT GOT ON HIS NERVES SO BADLY HE TRADED THE CAR IN AND GOT PEANUTS FOR IT DUE TO THE FAIRLY EASILY REPAIRED PROBLEM.
STORIES LIKE THAT ARE NOT ALL THAT RARE AND I KNOW SEVERAL GUYS WHO , LOOK BACK NOW, and CAN,T BELIEVE THEY SOLD REALLY GREAT CARS BACK IN THE DAY ,FOR PEANUTS FOR SIMILAR REASONS!
I know I,ve sure regretted selling cars before, and in most cases they were sold for reasons that thinking back, were not something you would use to validate the sale or repeat if you owned the same car today!
RELATED INFO
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9797&p=37140#p37140
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/wheel-studs-and-replacement.4414/#post-55060
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9612
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4687
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3527
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4318
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...on-a-parts-deal-and-regretted-it-later.14020/
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9154
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=633&p=847&hilit=write+down#p847
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=9134
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=808
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