Why I like Older Trucks

[Diablo de la Noche]

Today I had the "opportunity" to do a little work on my kid's 95 Chrysler Concorde. What a pain in the backside. She got stuck at school, the car wouldn't start. After work, at 1 am, I went over there and took a look at it. Yep, starter went out. $50 for a tow to my house the next day. $175 for a starter. Got it up on jack stands and started working on it. I didn't have a 15mm socket. I have had that socket set for 10 years and never had one, it seems. Never needed it.
Working through a 5 inch gap, with one hand, I managed to loosen the bolts with a 15mm wrench. You know the drill, turn 1/4 inch, flip the wrench, 1/4 inch, flip the wrench, etc. 3 inch bolts, uncountable turns. Oily dirt dropping on my face, up my nose, in my eyes (despite the safety glasses). Even with the wrench sliding out of my hand every couple turns, my forearms and hands cramping up, I got the bolts out. Now the wires are almost impossible to get to. I finally got to them with, yes, a 1/2 inch wrench. Great, metric and SAE together on the same part. Now to get the starter out of the car. I had to slide it out, twist, slide, twist, turn, slide, tilt, cuss, cry, bleed, pull. Done. And the same getting the new one in.
I hate that car. I need $10,000 worth of tools just to keep a $1,500 car running.
I love my truck. SAE wrenchs, sockets, 3/8 inch ratchet, extension. 1/2, 9/16, maybe a 3/8 and 5/8 and some WD-40. Flathead, phillips. That's about it. No torx, allen, or other exotic, expensive fasteners. And, no backseat or trunk area to worry about.
I love old trucks.

[Wideopenracing15]

I absolutely agree

[neonlarry]

I feel your pain, I rebuilt my first motor with nothing more than a machinists box of tools. Now I have a roll around box and have to buy a new addon box to hold the new tools for every new car I get.

[Puropedo]

Devil, I totally agree with you, and beside the fact that old trucks are easy to work on what I really love about them is all the attention and nice comments you get from people , now in days everybody seems to have a new or newer car/truck (to me, thats a boring view) My personal preference is old trucks but on the other hand... young gabachitas

[Bears63]

Diablo, that is the exact reason why I ditched all my newer vehicles and only own the ones you see in my sig. I got tired of needing special tools or having to take it to a shop. Heck, the cheapest repair bill I had at the shop was $400 on a '98 Dodge Ram... that was to replace the gas tank sending unit. Nope, I went back to old school and haven't thought twice about it.

[rwolf9653]

I had a 96 ford probe (free car) and to change the alternator I had to lower the motor, remove the strut, pull the drive axle, and cut a little bit of the inner fender. 7 hours to put in a $50 alternator! PIA!

I love the old trucks because there are NO computers or sensors and if you want to you can sit in the engine bay to work on it.

[mvfd70]

I totally agree. I was sitting on the front fender to change spark plugs in mine. The only problem is that the new parts I buy have metric nuts and bolts. But if that's the only thing I run into I'll be ok. I love not having to dig out my torx or allen sockets or having to find some super specialized one time only tool to get things apart. Also, I've found parts to be much cheaper for my oldie. Did an oil change with good oil (not the cheap store brand) and tune up with good parts for less than $100 yesterday. On my last truck I did a tune up only and it cost me around $150

[mr48chev]

I just pulled the starter out of the 71 because it was dragging. For a little over six dollars I bought a pair of bushings and I had the brushes left over from a previous rebuild where I didn't need brushes. Total outlay about 12 bucks and an hours time outside of chasing parts.
I just sent a Mazda to the wrecking yard with a starter I paid around 100 bucks a couple of months before along with a set of struts that ended up costing me about 500 when it was all said and done because of the extra parts and alignment required.

Four shocks on the truck were less than 100 bucks and an hours time out in the driveway changing all four.

One of my coworkers can't comprehend why I would want to drive the 71 instead of going into debt for a late model truck. He can't haul as much with his three year old truck as I can and has had repair bills in the last year that were more than what I have in mine total.
Right now I'm looking at replacing a front axle in my front wheel daily driver. About 70 bucks with a discount for the part and at least two hours of serious work out here in the driveway without a hoist to work on. Changing U joints in the truck would cost about 30 bucks for all three and probably an hour or so of fairly easy work to get done.

I'll have to admit though that if I had had the means to buy a new truck when the starter acted up in the big middle of down town Seattle when we were coming back from vacation with the sailboat on the trailer on the back I would have made my way to the dealer for a new or late model Duramax.

[72gmcworker]

Totally agree

Despise the newer stuff....love the older stuff.

Newest I own is a '90 Jimmy (full size 4x4) which is based on the '73 pickups
...just not sure about the TBI though.....but a carb will easily fix that
Still has a few extra emissions stuff ...I can live with
At least I can fix it easily or modify to my liking

Wife has a '96 sebring convertible.....BIG F. pain in the butt to work on.....can't even see the other bank of cylinders as they are buried in the firewall.
The Jimmy is/will replace it

Still my fav to drive and work on is the '72
Love simplicity
Next ...cost of ownership
lets see ...no depreciation
cheaper parts/rebuilds
I can work on them

And they drive like a truck should

Besides I don't like to follow the sheepole

[Dr. Evil]

Amen , Brother Beelzabub.

[Diablo de la Noche]

I have a 07 Nissan Frontier (I know, Boo! Hiss!) but I can't keep my wrenches out of it. It is just too expensive and difficult to do anything good. It is the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned, tho. The 67 is awesome and I have only driven it about 200 feet.

[Diablo de la Noche]

Mr48, I can't imagine driving in downtown Seattle with a boat. You have to use the e-brake at the stoplights just to keep from rolling backwards on the hills. Sure do miss the good beer there. It seems like all the bars have thier own brand. Like the Cyclops Bar near Pike Place, One Eye PA. Get it? One Eye, Cyclops? I crack myself up!
On another note, around El Paso, you see tons of old trucks, beat to crap, smelling like Mexican gas, with Chihuahua tags still hauling tons of junk. I wonder if those landscapers, construction workers, and pool guys really know what they have. I'm sure all they want is a new F-150 like every body else here in town.

[LiMiT44]

That is exactly why I bought my 67 C20. To even make it more simple it is a 292 6 cyl and 4 speed. Not to mention the $17 a year antique tags...

[arm51]

i couldnt agree any more i just replaced the bushings on a 99 blazer and i swear the bushings must be made out of plastic i broke half a dozen of them before i got the job done and lets not forget about that big ol spring in the door that i had to take out, i thought i was gonna die gettin it back in
i may be 20 years old but i wish i were raised in the 70's the cars and trucks were better made and looked alot better the music was music not that crap out today times were simpler and a handshake meant something

[unclewatts]

Yup you're right. At least I don't have to pull my engine to change my plugs. At least I don't have a plastic expansion tank on my radiator and a plastic intake manifold. But let me play devil's advocate for a second. My truck is 39 years old. I don't own a compressor, welding outfit or a lift. I decided to buy a new front bumper and when it arrived I crawled under my truck to pull the old one. ALL THE BOLTS WERE FROZEN. I called that poor truck every dirty name in the book getting those bolts off. (Yes I used liquid wrench) Every time I gotta change a part in that truck the S.O.B'in bolts are frozen. All I got is a Craftsman 1/2" knuckle buster. When I can't make that work then I gotta go to some expensive shop and pay a guy $50.00 an hour simply because he's got a compressor and an impact wrench to do a job I could do myself. I know, I know buy the tools, but I just wanted to vent a little about the disadvantage of owning an old truck. Please don't get me wrong, I love my truck more than life itself, but GEEZE!

[72gmcworker]

Originally Posted by unclewatts

Yup you're right. At least I don't have to pull my engine to change my plugs. At least I don't have a plastic expansion tank on my radiator and a plastic intake manifold. But let me play devil's advocate for a second. My truck is 39 years old. I don't own a compressor, welding outfit or a lift. I decided to buy a new front bumper and when it arrived I crawled under my truck to pull the old one. ALL THE BOLTS WERE FROZEN. I called that poor truck every dirty name in the book getting those bolts off. (Yes I used liquid wrench) Every time I gotta change a part in that truck the S.O.B'in bolts are frozen. All I got is a Craftsman 1/2" knuckle buster. When I can't make that work then I gotta go to some expensive shop and pay a guy $50.00 an hour simply because he's got a compressor and an impact wrench to do a job I could do myself. I know, I know buy the tools, but I just wanted to vent a little about the disadvantage of owning an old truck. Please don't get me wrong, I love my truck more than life itself, but GEEZE!

But think of all the money saved by not buying new vehicles......that alone will get a LOT of tools to get the job done...besides a good excuse to get some torches, mig, plasma, press, compressor, wrenches etc
And figure labour rates versus tool purchase...tools for the job usually wins.
My labour is free

[Bears63]

UncleWatts: I find a good 1/2" breaker bar with a piece of pipe for a handle extension is invaluable. When the bolts either come off or break, replace them and they will be good to go for another 39 years.

I look at what some of my co-workers are spending on their brand new vehicles, just in payments alone. Figure an average of about $600 a month, heck that buys a really good welder in 3 months, a top notch compresser in 5 months.

[brad_man_72]

Originally Posted by Bears63

UncleWatts: I find a good 1/2" breaker bar with a piece of pipe for a handle extension is invaluable. When the bolts either come off or break, replace them and they will be good to go for another 39 years.

I look at what some of my co-workers are spending on their brand new vehicles, just in payments alone. Figure an average of about $600 a month, heck that buys a really good welder in 3 months, a top notch compresser in 5 months.

liquid wrench. then a cheap propane torch will get most rusty bolts to come out nicely. when i was doing the front end swap i wouldnt even put a wrench on a bolt before it saw some heat.

[Chada]

After getting to the end on my resto on my 70 I am ready to get rid of all my newer stuff now. I am having trouble getting my mind around parting with my 04 GTO but the parts for it are so expensive....

[combustion]

while i do agree those cars are a pain, not all new cars are hard to work on. some are easier in fact. i would never own anything chrysler

[unclewatts]

Originally Posted by 72gmcworker

But think of all the money saved by not buying new vehicles......that alone will get a LOT of tools to get the job done...besides a good excuse to get some torches, mig, plasma, press, compressor, wrenches etc
And figure labour rates versus tool purchase...tools for the job usually wins.
My labour is free

72GMCWORKER, you are 100% right. Maybe I'm just a cheap guy.