Have you ever owned a work "beater" that looked like bad, but still ran good ? What is the most "beat up" vehicle you ever drove around ?
http://images.japemonster.com/2012/01/beat-up-truck.jpg
Printable View
Have you ever owned a work "beater" that looked like bad, but still ran good ? What is the most "beat up" vehicle you ever drove around ?
http://images.japemonster.com/2012/01/beat-up-truck.jpg
I cannot compete with the picture you provided, but my oldest pickup is a 1975 chevy 3/4 ton without the windshield, side windows, or back window. It is still used to haul a gooseneck trailer with up to six tons of ferrous. Sorry I cannot provide pictures, windows 10 and my phone do not get along. Some of my other posts will verify this work horse.
The floor is rusted out and I can see the paint on the highway as I am driving.
My first car, a 1981 Buick Skylark. Paid $100 for it.
Gas gauge never worked
All 4 tires were different brands
Floorboards were held together with scrap sheet metal, tar, and pop rivets
Windshield leaked every time it rained
Leaked oil, burned oil, and sometimes it even lubed the moving parts of the engine with oil.
A friend and I timed the 0-60 at 27 seconds.
I miss that pile of junk.
The most beat up truck i drove around was a 94 F250. It was actually pretty nice until someone decided they didnt want to pay for their Honda Fit no more and I gave her the perfect oppertunity to collect from my insurance. After that the bed was crushed in on one side, the cab crunched up so the door didnt really work right. So i took it off. The tie rods broke so i got some from a 150 and adjusted them myself. The tires i got from a junk yard were too big to fit so i put junk leafsprings in the front and wheel spacers which made the front end ride like an old 2 wheel drive tractor. Caster for days. The tow guy broke my brand new windsheild so i never cared to fix it. And then it started over heating so after replacing the entire cooling system i got pissed off and mounted an electric pusher fan on it with junk wires that had a switch i taped to the unused door hinge. Used it to haul scrap once a week while in the army as well as hauling my 50hp Kubota around to do brush hogging jobs. Talk about a sketchy ride. It also taught me first hand what happens when you put aluminum lug nuts on steel lugs. Had to drive it for ten miles in complete darkness and kept hearing the tire flapping around the next morning i went to check it and all my lugs were either stripped or broken. I hated to sell it but couldnt afford to get it back to Pa.
Not a truck, but a work car...
I had a brand new '87 Sunbird I didn't want to smoke delivering pizza, so I went looking for a $300 POS to deliver in. I found a 1980 Datsun 200SX that was owned by a kid who had the car, didn't pay the loan, had it repossessed, tore the dash apart to steal it back, no maintenance, faded paint. I took it home and started doing repairs... It needed a new clutch plate (they had somehow gotten a Toyota plate to work, gotta love Toyota parts). The rear rotors were worn to the point that they were as thin as a cracker (I am not kidding or exaggerating). The kid had ripped the key ignition switch apart and I had to screw a 1/4 20 bolt with a wingnut to turn the switch to turn the car on.
I drove it for 60K miles. I really didn't care if it got hit so if I knew the other person was in the wrong, I would take the hit (Yeah, I was an a$$hole who allowed other a$$holes to suffer the repercussions of the a$$holeness). When I got rid of it, the fingers that held the shift lever in the gear slots were gone, so you could stir the gear shift like a spoon in a cup. It still ran well, the air worked, the brakes were sound. When I went to look for another delivery car, I was asked if I had a trade. I told him it was in very poor shape, but the salesman said that if my trade in ran, he would give me $400 for it. I ran home to empty it out and drove it back to trade. The salesman had a sick look on his face when he saw the trade but honored the price. I got a 1980 Datsun 280ZX to drive to deliver. I liked the car but the injectors would go bad and it was a $1200 job to replace. I sometimes wish I had that old 200SX around just to scare expensive car owners in parking lots again.
To add to a previous post I have several older trucks that are used every day for scrapping and all are in great condition. They include a 77 Chevy 3/4 ton two wheel drive six cylinder (try to find one of these still on the road), a 84 F 150 4x4, a 86 F 250 4x4, and a 2000 F350 (the work horse of the fleet). These were all purchased long before retirement and the desire to scrap full time. All have goose neck hitches and only the 77 and 86 are not used for long hauls. I guess I like the older trucks without computers that are smarter than I am.
The oldest vehicle owned was a 1962 pink Rambler that was purchased in high school. It could be downshifted at 60 mph without the clutch. Imagine driving to school in a pink car in the early 70's.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...528_232859.jpg
Amazingly it still runs and drives. It started life as a 1990 S10 with a 2.5 iron duke and a 4 speed...yes...4 because overdrive is impossible. It was also once cherry red lol. This picture is after three seasons of rubbin' is racing...and hitting each other is racing...going backwards and spinning is racing...etc. It's last duty was to face down what is called the gauntlet truck. A chevy 3/4 ton with 4x4 and a full exo cage against 5 or 6 smaller trucks like this one. The driver (not pictured) hit it four times before getting rear ended and drove into a disabled truck. She was the last truck standing and won the event. Yesterday it was on my trailer and we were able to start it and drive it off.
Not such a POS as to compete in this thread, but a funny store none-the-less.
My second ever car was a bright orange '79 Mercury Capri... pretty much the same thing as a 6 banger Mustang. When I bought it (for $500), it had already been in a minor fender-bender that had damaged the right front. It wasn't really mangled up, but the damage was sufficient to let water in to rust out the headlight adjustment screws. The result was that the right headlight always pointed up into the treetops on the left side of the road. Not a huge deal, but try as I might, I couldn't straighten out that headlight. I drove that bright orange POS around for about a year and a half. Fun car.
One day, I was driving along a two-way street, there was a minivan oncoming, the road was icy, and there was a Ford Bronco approaching the road from the right side in the parking lot of an apartment complex. As always, I was watching the driver, waiting for him to look my direction.... waiting....waiting... I take my foot off the gas....he's not looking..... he's almost to the road... I ease onto the brakes.... he's AT the road & still hasn't looked..... I can't take the other lane because of the minivan.... The Bronco keeps rolling right out into the road....I stab the brakes..... the car goes into a slide...... right into the left front wheel of the Bronco.
Turns out, the guy is deaf. (and blind, apparently if he can't see a bright orange Capri!) He totally admits fault, and says he didn't even see me.... didn't look, is more like it, but I can see that this is going to go well for me and the car is already a POS, and isn't really damaged anywhere that it already wasn't. Even this damage isn't so bad. So I don't really get too mad.
Insurance adjuster showed up a couple-few days later, says he'll write me a check for $ 500 and I keep the car, or $750 and they'll take possession of the car. I opt for the $500, and since that's what I paid for it a year and a half earlier, with damage already in that same spot, I'm feeling like the cat that ate the canary!!!
A couple days later, I pulled up behind a semi at night ..... something looked..... different.... I couldn't figure out exactly what. Then it dawned on me.
I found an alley with a T... I pulled in, flicked my high beams.... flicked back to low beams... back to high... and let out a laugh.
The wreck had adjusted my right headlight perfectly.
The 1995 dodge ram in my avatar picture. No dash cover, couldn't drive it at night cause the headlight switch would get red hot and all the lights would quit working. Had a trailer hitch but had a softball sized hole from rust. Four steel wheels and no two were the same design, let alone same tires. Bed was more bondo than metal. Best of all, got title skipped and couldn't get it registered. 5.2 v8 automatic, 2wd extended cab long bed. Would back fire like a shotgun and couldn't outrun a bicycle, but that truck would run and go anywhere. Drove it through 10 inches of snow on a 25 mile emergency and it spun the whole way but got there! Mainly got it to help my mother clear out my grandfather's property when he passed, didn't think my 88 Chevy s10 2wd 2.8v6 was up to the challenge...
Drove it nearly till the wheels came off, my mechanic and I were looking underneath and the A arms were separating at the mounts from rust, we tack welded them in place and drove it another 50 miles just to get it home and parked, then prepped it to go to the yard. The 2004 f150 I have now is a STX base model. Manual locks and windows, no carpeting, no options at all except privacy glass, tow hitch and tow package. Most average people would dispise it, but after that dodge it's like being in a Rolls Royce Phantom! Plus, its just right for a work truck / weekend warrior.
That truck was a huge pile of trash (illegal trash at that), but it is one of the few vehicles that never left me stranded!
We got a car like that at the yard im working at. Used it as an anti-theft device using the loader to place it on top of things with high scrap value. Like every month or so we need to swap out for a new one cause the roofs rip apart and we cant pick it up any more. So we destroyed this nissan, set it on the pile to get processed, someone hooked up a battery and it fired right up. Its amazing the amount of abuse things can take when your not really trying to use it any more.Quote:
Originally Posted by armygreywolf
Right older trucks in my opinion are way better for their value than most of these new ones they got now. Yeah they improved alot of things driveline wise but they also force you to buy stuff you really dont need in the truck. All i wanted when i bought my new Tacoma was the same stuff my 98 has. Crank windows, lever locks, lights, and a radio. Ended up getting some fancy crap i dont even use, that should it break would pretty much mean the whole trucks useless until i get an electrical wizard to work his magic on it. I wish they still made 90's trucks brand new today. Even the stripped down work truck versions you gotta special order still have too much fancy stuff for me. I'll drive this 98 till the rust falls apart.Quote:
Originally Posted by Patriot76