Things You Learn as an Old Car Driver

If we can pick up here from where it left off a couple of months ago:

What you just said, three months ago tomorrow, is true of many, many towns and cities across the country, generally for one or two reasons, and sometimes both. In many cases, the local economic base simply dissolved. It left town, either to another part of the country or another part of the world. It makes no difference if it moved 100 miles away or 10,000 miles; same difference. For a local economy to thrive, there must be an economic base that generates revenue for the people that live there, and hopefully, year round. Anything from farming, mining or manufacturing will do. The mines may eventually work out (and no new administration will put more things in the ground to mine), the manufacturing can come and go but provided the land doesn't become too valuable to farm, at least that will remain. It would be idiotic for a country like ours to be importing food.

The other thing is that the economic model of a downtown shopping district has changed, primarily, I imagine, because of automobiles. Strictly speaking, I don't think that chain businesses can be blamed because there were chain stores downtown 70 years ago. They're at the mall now. I used to comment about the demise of small businesses and that being part of it but I'm less sure of that now. I thought about it one day and I realized that there are still small businesses everywhere and that is even in spite of on-line shopping.

Some places in the country are still experiencing growth, along with all the problems that come with it. But there are no new downtowns like there would have been a hundred years ago. Instead, it seems, there are new shopping centers (usually not malls) that almost pop up overnight with all the usual stores you've come to expect, mostly but not always chains. There will be a bank, a big box Lowes or Home Depot, a grocery store, perhaps a drug store, maybe a restaurant or two, and so on. And you'll have to drive at least five miles to get there. It's not Bedford Falls.

Returning to cars, ever more essential, I sometimes realize (and then try to forget) that the dream cars you wanted when you were in college, usually ones the frat boys were driving, are still your dream cars that you never had. Oh, other dream cars sometimes appear but you don't get them either before they go out of production. So you never really find out what it's like to own a dream car unless you're very lucky or, in a way, a little foolish. One thing you learn about having an older car is, you know why new cars sell so well.

the dream cars you wanted when you were in college, usually ones the frat boys were driving, are still your dream cars that you never had. Oh, other dream cars sometimes appear but you don't get them either before they go out of production. So you never really find out what it's like to own a dream car unless you're very lucky or, in a way, a little foolish. One thing you learn about having an older car is, you know why new cars sell so well.

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This is all very true. In fact, in about an hour, I am leaving to look at, and hopefully buy, a car that I have always wanted, except that it's about 12 years older than a new one at the time that I wanted one - a 1957 VW Beetle. It's got everything I want in a Beetle - the oval window, the large ragtop, and this one is mostly original. I am hoping that the condition of the aspects that are important to me balance with the price I am hoping to get it for.

Once in a while I get the urge to look for various models of old cars, usually something I've already owned one or two of, but it's a terrible thing to do. It is incredibly frustrating, not because I can't find them, because I can, but because I can't buy one. At any rate, there seems to be a thriving market for old Land-Rovers, impeccably restored, for instance. Once can probably find other professionally restored cars, too, but some models are probably easier to find than others. I doubt you'd find a restored Renault 16 or a Fiat 124 or even a Volkswagen Squareback, no matter how hard you looked, which is probably just as well.

BlueTrain said:

I doubt you'd find a restored Renault 16 or a Fiat 124 or even a Volkswagen Squareback, no matter how hard you looked, which is probably just as well.

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Found you a Squareback or two...

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifi...model[]=Type+3+-+Squareback&section[]=&wanted

and I could find you a 124 Spider any day of the week...if you like driving and you like tinkering (and own metric tools) I would highly recommend one

Police in central Japan are offering elderly people cut-price meals if they agree to surrender their driving licences.

The deal has been arranged for senior citizens in Aichi Prefecture in a bid to reduce the number of traffic accidents on local roads. From Friday, elderly drivers who hand over their licences will get a 15% discount on ramen - the popular noodle and broth soup - at the Sugakiya restaurant chain, Jiji Press reports.
The savings will be available at 176 eateries across the prefecture, after police agreed a partnership with the chain's owners. People who relinquish their licences will be given a certificate by police, which will give them access to a reduced-price set menu including ramen, rice and salad.
It's the latest in a string of discounts that police have arranged to try to persuade people to give up driving, including savings on taxis and at public baths, the website notes. A similar scheme now running in Tokyo gives elderly people a "driving graduation certificate" in recognition of their many years on the road.

What would make you give up your drivers licence? 15% off pot noodles wouldn't get you far here in the UK. Over 60's already get free public transport travel.

A couple of those Squarebacks looked pretty good but the rest, well, needed work. We just got rid of a 1998 Volvo that needed work and, with some arm twisting, replaced it with a 2017 Volkswagen "Sportwagon." It is my wife's car and her highest priority requirement was that it have heated seats, which this one does. When we replaced my old Volvo, which was only a 2001, she said, "you can't have a Mercedes and please don't get a pickup truck." The choices just dwindled away to nothing after that. I bought a Ford.

Not having a pressurized cooling system is a great advantage when your heater core starts to leak. And your heater core will start to leak when you least expect it.

And you also learn that sometimes things happen for a purpose. I went out this morning to back the Plodge out of the garage so I could bypass the heater until I can get it fixed, and the accelerator return spring broke. If the heater hadn't started leaking yesterday I'd have been out on the road when that happened, which is not something you want to have happen when you're out on the road.

You also learn that just because your car is an "original" and you've got the correct shop manual and the correct parts manual and all the rest of it to go by when doing repairs, that doesn't mean what you actually see is going to match up with what's in the book. My spring arrangement is totally different from the diagrams shown, and the spring required is not, and does not resemble in any way, the spring specified in the parts book. Closest thing I've been able to find online to fit the arrangement that's in there is from a 1960s Pontiac!

I came to the realization that although equipped with the correct shop manual and
"Do-It-Yourself" book for my 1967 VW Beetle.

Does not mean much if you do not have the "tools" necessary to complete the job
at home.

The part in question once I was able to remove from the engine was impossible to
take apart with home tools.

I was fortunate that my friend who's a pilot had the power hydraulic machines in the
hangar that made it easy.

Btw: Removing components to reach the part sometimes requires more than two
hands. Makes it easier when you have someone to help you.

Sometimes it helps to have very small hands, too.

LizzieMaine said:

Not having a pressurized cooling system is a great advantage when your heater core starts to leak. And your heater core will start to leak when you least expect it.

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A car heater, what an indulgent luxury.

The inline six stovebolt on my 1946 truck with just sheet metal in front of the
steering column cab area makes for a "luxurious" heater.

In summer & winter.

GHT said:

A car heater, what an indulgent luxury.

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You have Lucas electrics?

BlueTrain said:

Sometimes it helps to have very small hands, too.

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One trick for when your radiator is leaking is to loosen the radiator cap to reduce the pressure. It's risky, though, and you still have to keep an eye on everything or it will overheat before you know it, rather like how toast burns in the wink of an eye. I doubt you could do it on newer cars but we're just talking old cars anyway. But they were all new at one time.

The Plodge, as with all prewar Chrysler products, is an "open" system -- the cap doesn't provide any kind of pressure seal, and you can open it at full operating temperature and there's no pressure at all. The coolant expands when it's hot, of course, but there's a drain tube on the radiator neck that burps the pressure, and any excess liquid, on the ground. That's why I was lucky when the heater started leaking -- instead of hot coolant hissing out in a spray, it just drips languidly onto the floor.

It's a pretty effective heater design-wise, and it's a necessity up here -- we only get about four months out of the year where you don't need a heater. The car came originally from Nova Scotia, where it's even colder than Maine, and there is no provision for turning the heat off at all -- it's always working, and the only controls are the little metal doors on the sides and a rheostat switch for the fan. Usually there's a stopcock on the engine for turning off the flow of coolant into the heater, but there isn't one on this car -- just a plain hose which I'm going to have to bypass to shut the heater off until I can get the leak brazed. If it gets too hot in the summer, you roll down the windows and open the cowl vent.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the coolant itself doesn't expand when heated. It will produce a heated gas or vapor which increases the pressure, though. The purpose of the closed system may be to allow a higher coolant temperature without it boiling but different cars may work differently. I once had a warped head due to my attempting a trip with a leaking radiator. In theory everything should have worked just fine as long as the coolant level was okay. But if the temperature gauge fails to indicate that the thing is overheating, dire consequences will assuredly follow and they did. The engine froze up, ironically, because of overheating.

It sure looks like the coolant itself expands -- it shows a higher level in the radiator when it's hot compared to when it's cold, and this without any pressurization of the cooling system. Which is why the owner's manual warns against filling the radiator to the top when the engine is cold -- when it heats, the fluid will just end up running out the overflow pipe and onto the ground. Or your garage floor.

Talbot said:

You have Lucas electrics?

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Indeed I do, I also have a car heater, I was being facetious. The MG Y Type, now known as the YA had an option for a heater, the YB came with a heater as standard. However, it's a bulky looking thing that sits under the dash, taking up much space and only has two controls, ON, think tropical, OFF, wrap up warm. You can't see much of it from this picture, but it's difficult to capture it's size on camera.

Has anyone heard of The Jackall System? A method of raising the car without the use of jacks. That's is, a hand jack, be it a screw worm or hydraulic. My car is fitted with four, onboard jacks. The seals that keep the fluid in have just been replaced, what a novelty it is to raise the car, especially somewhere public, like the supermarket car park. I replaced a perfectly good wheel just to show off. A small, bemused crowd were photographing events on their phones. Sorry for posing but as I drove off I remembered the thread on here about new cars not having a spare wheel, just some can of liquid filler spray. This is The Jackall System.