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Automotive News & Views Cars of My Past
189 messages, Last post on Jul 05, 2007 at 2:53 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: andre1969 (Feb 18, 2007 12:04 pm) Dad bought a 71 new, light green Galaxie 500, had a 351 in it. He drove it 100,000, then sold it to my Future Father in Law - who drove it another 100,000. Amazingly, it got 21 MPG on the road, which was his favorite thing to brag about.
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A list containing some golden (and not-so-golden) rides 1965 Chevy Malibu- a 230 straight six with a powerglide, purchased for the princely sum of $150 in 1980. 1971 Dodge Monaco- Possibly the world's longest two-door. Burgundy with a black vinyl top, mint condition until I banged the door up on the TEST DRIVE (!). The $300 purchase price was much less than the repair cost, so this 383 big block was mine with the promise that I would look back some day and laugh about how I bought it. 1972 Mustang Grande- Blue, black vinyl top. Rusted out, but with a strong 351. 1978 Ford Fiesta Ghia- A very underrated car, in my opinion. My first "good" car, I covered the silver exterior with a blue base/ twin white racing stripes "Cobra" special paint job. No faster, but certainly more eye-catching. 12" rims made tire selection tough, but the 1.6 liter Kent always ran great and would return 45 mpg all day long on the highway. I sold it to a buddy who ran it up to around 130,000 mi. 1969 Mustang Mach 1- 351 4V(290 hp), 4-speed, absolutely no power anything- even had drums all the way around. Rusty, but fun and fast. 1971 Mustang Mach 1- 351C 2v auto originally, built the 351 to 375 hp or so and dropped a 4-speed in to go with the 3.70 gears in the rear. This thing was so tight that it would bark the tires upon abrupt DEceleration. 9 mpg and all the fun a young man could hardly stand. 1979 Ford Fairmont Futura- Charcoal gray coupe with a 302/auto and a set of the TRX wheels off a Mustang.Not too strong, but actually looked nice. 1980 Plymouth Champ- 1.4 liter, Twin-Stik 4-speed. Amazed to find out it still used points in the ignition. 1988 Honda CRX- My first new car, wonderful. Had to sell it with the wife in the family way. 1969 Mustang Mach 1- Black w/red stripe (reflective, remember?) 390 4V with 4-speed and 3.25 traction-lok differential. 100,000 miles and the motor was completely worn out. Bought out of a gentleman's side yard where it sat for 8 years- $150 and I towed it away. $15 in parts later, if fired up with a roar that was more sound than fury. Owned for 2 weeks until a young man made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It was (hopefully) restored. 1988 Merkur Scorpio- Burgundy with the nicest black leather interior I ever experienced- a power reclining REAR seat! Every option imaginable, too bad it was an "orphan." Sold when I couldn't get parts anywhere, even at the dealer. Very European, no real problems for the several years I owned it. 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis- Boring but ran great. 2000 Honda Odyssey- Still a great vehicle, 80K on the clock. 2006 Toyota Sienna- Great, but heck, it's still almost new.
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Replying to: nvbanker (Feb 18, 2007 1:19 pm) |
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Replying to: mmcnamara (Feb 18, 2007 6:21 pm) I restored one of those, it's on my Carspace, note the name on the license plate.... I changed the color on mine from light blue to the Sprint, red white & blue paint job.....
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| My dad rented a few cars in the sixties/seventies because of his job. I remember as a kid the coolest car he ever rented was a 1971 Ford Torino! I remember it looked sort of like a mustang and it was green with a stripe down the side. I also remember it was the first car I ever saw with power windows. | |
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Replying to: nvbanker (Feb 19, 2007 11:09 am) |
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"...between the letters V and W", my father told me prior to my 16th birthday. I had planned of course, either to buy a sixties Lincoln, Mercedes or a Bentley Mark Vi---then about $2,500 for a nice one. Under NO circumstances was I going to find myself trapped in a VW Bug no matter how economical or indestructable those cars happened to be. My Mom had one so I knew all about their benefits and shortcomings. My brother was laughed out of the school parking lot with the Renault-Dauphine that my Dad had saddled him with, despite its racing engine replacing the original horrible lump of iron. "That's not going to happen to me..." The Bentley was slightly out of my reach, so in order to prevent war at home, I had to buy a '65 Benz. But it was the German model with kilometers for instrumentation, factory air, sunroof, and euro-lights. It had brown leather seats, marvelous wood finish trim inside, and the ubiquitous white steering wheel. This little car beat my friends in the snows of winter and the gas pumps of summer, (gas wan an outrageous $0.44/9 a gallon!) The all-round disc brakes, and swing-axle rear suspension made it quite fun to drive. It was a light car (ralleyed so successfully by Mercedes-Benz) so I could often beat my friends who had far more Bhp to heal, until we hit a corner! We all piled in drivng to the ski slopes and the Beer & Pizza Pubs, my friend Gary J. often climbing through the sun-roof onto the hood to adjust the hood ornament! I took a dim view of such stunts while driving, but you can't drive a Mercedes without a correctly adjusted hood ornament. "We" often referred to the car as the "Odd-Job Mercedes" because that is what you saw in Goldfinger, when Odd-Job's forces were chasing Bond in his DB5! Dad would often "borrow" my car more often than I wanted, (especially the Saturday mornings I was hung over and my car was blocking his!). One day the Euro Lights on my Benz caught fire while driving home late one nite. A "friend" had cleaned the lens face without properly cleaning off the residue, using entirely the wrong and very flamable solvent for the job, causing an electrical short and then fire while driving!! This happened when I had the car in for some minor service I could not (then) do. Replacement of the lights and wiring cost more than the car was worth, since I had to get the parts direct from Germany. "You are costing much today...", the service manager at the Benz dealer told me! No one in Hemmings had anything ready-to-go for my model. So the Benz languished in my garage. I removed the grille when working on the car, and it ended up on my wall, where it hangs today. I left for College leaving the Benz behind, who owns it now I do not know, but would love to have the car back. My Dad could sign my name, as we had the same handwriting, so he did that on the title when he moved and cleared out the garage in Milwaukee. I moved on to drive Lincolns for more than three decades. Many fond memories for the tough little 65 Benz 220SEL DouglasR
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Replying to: douglasr (Feb 19, 2007 5:51 pm) If you want a SE fintail, you can get a good one for maybe 5K. But a sunroof Euro model with AC would be rare indeed. |
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Fintail, thanks for the compliment... This was 30 plus years ago and I was very green behind the ears about parts swapping. despite many forays into junk yards with friends. The ex-Panzer commander (true) that ran the service department at the Benz Dealer in Milwaukee told me that wouldn't work---eventhough I had the shop manual. No junk-yards had any Euro light cars, and Hemmings then was a very small affair with the cars & parts advertised randomly. I almost bought the 300SEL (with glass division) that was sitting like a camel in the back of the Benz dealer lot just to get the parts. I did not know then how rare a car that was. (Had I known, it would have quickly become mine) The dealer hand't decided what to do with that car anyhow. So I continued to tried to fix my car. But other commitments kept me from working on Der Benz. Sadly I have know I idea where the car went, or who bought it. I look all the time for a similar car, and you are correct, they are rare indeed. Especially with the "Kulhmeister" AC system. When I find the right one I will buy it and add to my collection. I bought the Benz cause I had to keep my father happy, and also had just missed out on a Cabroilet (they were cheap, and no one wanted them then), so looked for the next best thing---nor did I want the (then) dime-a-dozen $500 Mustang Convertible. I had built plenty of those with my friends---who subsequently wrecked them. Few people my age drove a Benz then...one more reason why I bought it. DouglasR
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Replying to: douglasr (Feb 20, 2007 4:57 am) The lights would be an easy fix, that service guy was just playing some kind of game. It might have required a little wiring adapation, but that's the only big thing that differentiated the Euro from NA cars - light assemblies. Maybe the stealership didn't want to bother with the work. Oh well, too late to go back now. Maybe I missed it...what color was the car? A W112 300SEL divider is almost unknown, they probably made less than 100 of them. I've only seen pictures of a couple of them. I would love to find a sunroof 300SEL, those cars were beautiful. If you really want another 220SE sunroof car, I could keep an eye out...I am always looking when these cars come on the market. |
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