Now just a cliche perpetuated by Archie comics, but I gather that once upon a time teens who couldn’t afford to buy a car actually did slap together junkyard parts to create a working vehicle. (Building custom cars from parts is alive and well, but that’s slightly different). Do most people who’d do this nowdays just start with a “junker” with the basic chasis and body intact, and refurbish it? Would a true jalopy be uninsurable, and thus not road legal? Maybe it’s not cost effective anymore?
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- Not really, it isn’t economical anymore. Prior to about 1970, you had a wide variety of interchangeable engines/transmissions/other parts between different lines of cars–so if you couldn’t find the exact engine you needed, you might be able to find something else less desireable that would fit. Also cars then were over-engineered and lasted longer both on the road, and laying in junkyards. With post-1970 cars (with their emissions controls) and later years (with EFI systems and emissions laws) this has become less and less possible–at least in the US.
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- Not really, it isn’t economical anymore. Prior to about 1970, you had a wide variety of interchangeable engines/transmissions/other parts between different lines of cars–so if you couldn’t find the exact engine you needed, you might be able to find something else less desireable that would fit. Also cars then were over-engineered and lasted longer both on the road, and laying in junkyards. With post-1970 cars (with their emissions controls) and later years (with EFI systems and emissions laws) this has become less and less possible–at least in the US.
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Not to mention that this would require a level of mechanical/automotive skill that yer averaage American teenager isn’t likely to posess. Things might have been different in the 1950’s. I couldn’t say; I wasn’t there.
So you’re saying the automobiles have become smarter but the kids have gotten dumber?
As recently as the 1970’s there were teens who combined parts to produce a vehicle-you could still get by with a dwell tach and timing light back then, but those were the twilight years. sigh Sunoco 260 super high octane gas was less than 50 cents a gallon, too.
One great change in automotive design makes it difficult to physically change the various parts that used to be hung on a car’s frame…there is no frame. Almost all cars are now built with monocoque construction, where there is no seperate frame. The various structural parts are all welded together and then panels and “bumpers” are added. Even the windshield is now part of the structural integrity of the car. So you can’t just take some parts and throw them on a car frame anymore.
The new construction techique did allow for lighter, safer cars, and they are much less prone to rattles and squeeks…but are almost impossible to modify in the home garage.
So customizing now often consists of adjusting wheel sizes, exhaust component changes, zippy interior and exteriors, and a whooping big sound system.
Ah…to be young again, with both greasy hands and face…
Yeah, this would be today’s equivalent of throwing together a ‘jalopey’. Because car tech has gotten so good it’s common for car engines to outlast everything else (i.e. the body, interior etc.). So what kids do today is buy a cheap, often rusted piece of junk which still runs fine (usually a small Asian import, Hondas are very popular) and spend hundreds of dollars on tires, rims, big ridiculous ground effects (which looks so great next to rust), and of course, a 900 peta-watt subwoofer for that certain special je ne sais quoi.
So, yes, cars are smarter and kids are dumber…
This is somewhat off topic, but I watched an episode of “Cribs” on MTV and was left wondering what those kids would do when their old junk car’s engine or transmission blew and they were left with a nonfunctional $30,000+ plus customized car. They weren’t all reliable imports.
I guess you mean “Pimp my Ride”?
Yes, I suppose I do. Thank you. It’s all the same to me. I didn’t have cable for most of high school and when I got it back MTV wasn’t worth watching anymore for the most part.
Uh, get a new engine and transmission? It’s a fairly common procedure, even for those less reliable imports.
There were a few kids in my high school who did this (in the early to mid 1990s). I’m still friends with one of them. She’s continued the hobby. She’s currently rebuilding an MGB this way. Her quality standards are definitely higher than the average jalopy, but she doesn’t belong in the category of classic car restorers because she is not obsessed with authenticity. She takes whatever MGB parts she can find cheap; in other cases, she has replaced unreliable original parts and systems with newer, more reliable American ones.
She also has a 1928 Chevy pickup she’s deliberately left in physical disrepair, but she has put a newer Ford engine in it so that it runs reliably.
She learned all about this stuff from her dad, and has used his connections with auto body shops and junkyards to find parts cheap. Sometimes she finds cheap stuff on the Internet.
It may not be entirely economical, but some people still think it’s fun.
I do think there are fewer kids who do this, and I think the reason is that fewer of their parents know anything about cars. Current teens’ parents were usually teens in the 1970s and 1980s. From what I’ve seen, most kids get interested in this because their dad teaches them about it.
Not sure what you mean by “over-engineered,” but cars today far outlive the rust-prone leviathans built in the Forties through Sixties, at least if we’re talking about theoretical lifespan, that is. That said, few people today want to drive around old clunkers. Also, parts for new cars are far more expensive than they were in the 1950s.