A couple days ago I was driving down the road and saw a car coming from the other direction. It was obvious the car had been in a wreck that heavily damaged the front end. Just as we passed I noticed that the hood was being held down with duct tape! :eek:
A 1931 Ford Coupe, the year provided by the license plate. It had cool custom matching luggage on the back. And a Packard hot rod, no idea of the year.
I drove my first '66 everywhere, including from Lancaster, CA to Denver, CO (and back!). It was pretty reliable. My current '66 has had fan belt issues. First, the pulleys weren’t aligned correctly and the belt broke on the way to Seattle. I had the issue resolved, but then didn’t drive the car for a couple of years. When I took it out again, the fan belt broke after 100 miles or so. I have a ‘new’ fan belt on now. (It’s years old, and had been living in the boot.) A few weeks ago I heard a flapping sound in the engine compartment. The belt was very loose. I spent about an hour on what I was told would be a five-minute job, tightening the belt. Why so long? The bracket under the generator was incorrectly used, and it was a tight fit for the tools I had. It’s also a two-person, or three-hand, job. I drove down to Bellingham yesterday, and Mrs. L.A. said she didn’t trust the MGB that far. (I had no problems.)
The other problem is that it gets hot when it sits in traffic. When I lived in the Mojave Desert, the first one just got hot and I would have to drive with the heater on in Summer. This one, in the PNW, operates reliably at 160ºF. I keep a close eye on the temperature gauge in case the fan belt breaks, and from my experience with the first one in SoCal. When I start out, the needle will go to 170ºF and then fall back to 160ºF. But in traffic, it doesn’t have the airflow. I’m not worried about overheating so much, but when the car sits in traffic it stalls. I have a Pertronix electronic ignition in it. I suspect that the electronic bit inside of the distributor cap fails when it gets hot, or that the coil fails when it gets hot. I have a new coil in the boot, and I’ll swap it in next time the car stalls.
Oh, and a few years ago, every time I took it our one of the valve stems would crack. I fixed them each time, but then parked it for a couple of years. I should have all of the stems replaced, so that I’m sure they’re all new and good. No worries so far, but it’s always in the back of my mind.
So far, driving on 50-mile round-trips and running errands around here, I haven’t had any issues (since the last fan belt and subsequent adjustment). The engine was rebuilt/blueprinted about 15 years ago, and it has very few miles on it since. The car sounds great. (I hope I didn’t just jinx myself!)
I saw a Pontiac Solstice coupe today. I had no idea they made them. I was never crazy about the looks of the Solstice, but the couple is pretty sweet looking.
Just ran to the grocery and on the way back saw a beautiful red 70 or 71 Chevelle SS and an early 60s Ford Fairlane 500.
Out at the Oregon Coast the last few days. Saw a Polaris Slingshot in the wild for the first time a couple days ago.
Last night we were camped across from a cool-looking 50s vintage Chevy pickup in canary yellow, so I went over to talk to the guy. Turns out the yellow paint was applied directly over the rust, so it’s bubbling in some places. It’s a 56 Chevy truck body set up on an 80s-90s 4-wheel drive chassis, and he dropped a 454 under the hood. Very cool.
I used to own a Solstice, and back when the coupe dropped near the end of the run the few (1200+) that were built were snapped up by people that were sure that a rare version of an unloved model were going to skyrocket in value. People are only recently starting the ask less than MSRP, and the dreamers that haven’t been driving the ones they bought are holding out for more, still.
Triumph TR-6 and a TR-7 wedge.
It was going to be a lowered 944 (Ugh!) but then I saw a couple of hooptys; this Halloween one being the best of them. The ground clearance under that thing was amazing! Of course that was offset by the fact that the tires were a couple of inches wider than the fenders. It also sounded baaad!
Why yes, I was in Da Hood.
Some sort of Semi-tractor pickup truck, too far away and travelling in the opposite direction for me to even get a brand name.
Thanks for bringing a smile to my face, River Hippie. When I was a youngster, one of the highlights of the day was when my dad pulled in the drive, home from work, in his 1964 Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe.
Though I like the MGB GT, when I picture an MGB, I picture the roadsters, and so was comparing it with the 356 cabriolet - which is much pricier than the coupes. I dreamt of restoring an 1963 356 coupe in my retirement, but values of even crappy ones will make that a costly hobby 20 years from now, I think. Really, I should get moving on my backup plan (BMW R60/2 motorcycle) before those rise even more.
Crown Rally was in town and showing off yesterday. Too many interesting cars to pick one.
Today I saw a burgundy '60-something Mustang. It had scoops on the sides. Then a few miles down the road, I saw a silver early-'60s Stingray with the top down.
A 60s era black Camaro convertible on a flatbed.
The power stripe proclaimed 427.
Couldn’t tell if it was a Yenko.
A friend’s 1989 Toyota Supra convertible that he’s owned for the last 30 years. And then a late 80’s Honda Prelude that looks like it was someone’s project car.
Over the past few days I’ve seen an old split-window VW camper van and two different Aston Martin DB5s, one convertible, one coupe.
This morning I saw someone driving an early 1980s Datsun 210 (the facelifted version with the square headlights). I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those.
This morning, an early 1970s Pontiac Lemans. It looked very much like this '72 pictured on Wikipedia (same color even), except the one I saw was a four door sedan. And the one I saw wasn’t in as good a shape as that one; it was more of an old beater, or perhaps someone’s project car. Perhaps “beater” is too strong a word. It looked solid, but had faded paint, pitted chrome, and other signs of age.
Two examples of British automotive excess. The first, a yellow Jaguar E-type, one of the most gorgeous vehicles of all time. The second, a Range Rover Evoque convertible, one of the most useless vehicles of all time.