Just for fun what have you done to keep your car running?

[JIPJOBXX]

I thought just for fun and a little different would be to ask what kind of tricks you have used to sell a car or just keep it running and not embarrassing you!!

My first one was that I had an old 88 Caravan that smoked so much that every time I came to stop if a person in a car next to me would just stare at me and I could tell by his expression"Get that old rig oft the road or due something with that smoke! Well I did and that was to replace the old oil with 20-50 and install "No smoke additive".

That kind of reminded me of 57 Plymouth I had 30 years ago and that thing put so much blow by out that I put a garden hose on the breather cap and ran it out the rear end!!! No smoke inside car!

And speaking of oil consumption, I had a 1938 Packard way back when that smoked so much that we got our oil from cars at our local junk yards!My brother and I finally got to a point where we got tired of that old clunker that we sawed oft the roof and made a Phaeton out of it. And to end that story one day my dad was painting one our old horse barn roofs with silver paint and my brother asked him if he would paint our old Packard and so their after that we had a car that was completely painted in silver paint inside and outside and tires and all. That car finally was put to rest when a California Hwy Patrol officer pulled us over and told us to get it of the road!!!!!

[JIPJOBXX]

JUST LOOKED HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE CHECKED OUT THIS MESSAGE AND I GUESS NO ONE HERE HAS EVER MESSED WITH THERE CARS? KIND OF A BORRING LIFE IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE ONE THING TO REMEMBER ABOUT PAST EXPERIENCES WITH THE OLD PEICES OF IRON. jON:(

[BobT-47P15]

Used to have a friend back in the early 60s when we were 16 or 17 who had a fairly decent looking 51 Ford sedan.....but it used quite a bit of oil. We would buy those glass bottles of re-refined oil with a spout on top, sold at filling stations. It was maybe 15 to 25 cents a quart.

Had various other 50s cars that I put STP and similar gunk into due to oil use. Had a 57 Ford convertible, fair shape, had been driven hard by a college student.....it smoked big time. I compared it to those trucks that used to go down the alley behind our home in the 50s dispensing a fog designed to kill mosquitos. Never could make it much better - finally sold it for a loss. Shoulda passed on it in the first place, but it WAS a convertible.

[JerseyHarold]

Years back I had a '70 LeMans (one of the all-time three worst cars I ever had) and when I sold it I pulled the stereo speakers from the package shelf and taped Rice Krispie box cardboard over the holes, then put a piece of cardboard over the whole thing. "The next owner will never know....." is what I thought. I saw the car a week after I sold it and it had brand new speakers and a fresh package shelf. Guess I was wrong!

PS: I found this car in a junkyard a couple of months later. I asked the junk-man and he said it came in because of a blown motor. It still haunted me after that, because the front clip ended-up on another car in my area and I kept seeing it for a few more years.

[Niel Hoback]

I once owned a 55 Olds that had rust holes in the headlight brows that had been filled, ( not by me), with concrete, sanded and painted. I didn't even see it until I had owned for a while. It didn't look too bad, really.

The worst I have done? Thats a toss up. I painted a 59 Chevy convertible baby blue after covering all the rust holes in the fenders and rockers with several layers of masking tape and painting over it. The guy that bought it didn't seem to care when I told him what I had done.

The one that still bothers me is a first series 49 P-15 that served me very well for two years after I had paid $35 for it. One morning after finishing a week of midnight shifts, a friend and I decided to make a four door convertible. With hacksaws and chisels we removed the roof, all the window frames, and all the side glass by breaking them off. We were just stupid kids.

Fortunately, the first time we tried to go around the block, a rear wheel cylinder blew, thus putting an end to our sillyness be fore we hurt somebody.

I still think about that car whenever I need something for the one I have now. Especially that grill guard bar. Still looking.

[PatS....]

A friend of my dads hacksawed the roof off of his old English Envoy one night.

There was alcohol involved

[Brendan D25]

Guess I'll have to confess here too. I had a 61 Chev that had bad tie rod ends. So I cut up and old inner tube and wrapped them around them. Come to think of it that's the same car that had the plywood floor pans.

[Normspeed]

I had a 57 Belvedere, Florida car, looked great, had new paint when I bought it, but the floor pans were so rusted that one night when I accelerated hard at a green light the front bench seat tore loose and the 3 of us in the seat tipped backwards into the rear seat area. That took my foot off the gas and we coasted to a stop. I fixed it by looping plumber's strap over the seat mounts and bolting it to anything in the floor that would hold a bolt. It was an ill fated car and in the hands of a goofy teenager (me) it went to the wrecking yard within months.