How was it in the 60s-80s?

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One of the biggest concerns I have travelling across country now is the likelihood of waking up and finding the car gone. It is frequent in the Phoenix area when I visit there, and even up in Nebraska. A guy had picked up a nice car in Texas, stopped at the Hotel, and thieves stole the truck, trailer and all. I can disable the car, but nothing can stop a determined tow truck driver.
 
abodyjoe said:
we always drive our cars quite a bit. the biggest problem these days besides the idiots out there not paying attention is replacement parts. the quality isn't what it used to be. i always carry an extra ecu,ballast,coil and vr in the trunk along with a pretty sell supplied tool box. not everywhere stocks even the simple parts anymore...

not using the old cars for a daily driver though. with a 80 mile round trip to work i want my 30mpg..:)
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What does vr stand for?
 
oldmopardude said:
One of the biggest concerns I have travelling across country now is the likelihood of waking up and finding the car gone. It is frequent in the Phoenix area when I visit there, and even up in Nebraska. A guy had picked up a nice car in Texas, stopped at the Hotel, and thieves stole the truck, trailer and all. I can disable the car, but nothing can stop a determined tow truck driver.
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ain't that the truth.seems every day you read about another classic car being stolen..
 
Drove my 73 340 4sp to MN from idaho to race at BIR. Ran 13.0s and drove home. That was in 96... I did lose a lobe off the cam just as I was getting back to Idaho but I attribute that to modern oils with no zinc on a fresh rebuild . I didnt know at the time that they had changed oils.....

This car now belongs to 4ADAD in Cananda..
 
I don't remember (old age) but it had to be GREAT.Even didn't think twice about driving a few hours to drag races at the old US30 - 131 - Indy dragways best racing of all time being pre 80's saw all the now legends battle it out
 
And 'back in the day', even if something did go wrong, folks would always stop and offer to help out. And you didn't feel the need to have your pistol ready.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Just put in some friendlier gears or put in OD. :D
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I spent too much time spending money to make it go fast. I would rather keep my 10.5 to 1 small block. I literally got on Craigslist and started looking at slant six cars as soon as I posted that though. I would rather have a four door slant six car to cruise then my dart. I have too many things that I want is the problem.
 
You could go anywhere in them "back in the day" cars. However, in all honesty, todays cars require less maintenance. It is nothing to go 150K on a newer car without a plug/wire change. The older cars needed tune-ups more often, and sometimes required a carb rebuilt. But the good thing about it is the older cars were never scary to buy. Today if you buy a 10 yr old car and the tranny goes, it could be 2k. Or head gasket? another 800. Back in the day, if it drove and sounded good, you had a good car. I remember countless 1000 mile trips in my dads cars growing up. One time going up to the NW corner of N.D., the alternator started discharging in his '65 coronet (273). It was night, and we drove 4 hours till we hit Minot, and got a new one. When I got married, our 1st trip to see my wifes folks was over 900 miles away, and we took a 500 dollar 77 Aspen R/T. Never gave it a thought. Went about 2k round trip and never missed a lick. A few years later we took a 2k mile trip in a '70 Dodge truck (340 I installed). I threw 2.76 gears in the back and got 17 mpg at 65 mph. Never missed a lick. Remember, cell phones were rare at this time, and they looked like a wall phone in your house. No, we did not have a cell. No computers, no cells, and no seat belts.... my, what freedom. JUST YOU AND THE OPEN ROAD.
 
I don't have a clue how we managed in the winter.When I was in high school I worked at a local service station and we would run three trucks just starting cars all day and night and several times having to haul them in because the gas line was froze
 
318willrun said:
You could go anywhere in them "back in the day" cars. However, in all honesty, todays cars require less maintenance. It is nothing to go 150K on a newer car without a plug/wire change. The older cars needed tune-ups more often, and sometimes required a carb rebuilt. But the good thing about it is the older cars were never scary to buy. Today if you buy a 10 yr old car and the tranny goes, it could be 2k. Or head gasket? another 800. Back in the day, if it drove and sounded good, you had a good car. I remember countless 1000 mile trips in my dads cars growing up. One time going up to the NW corner of N.D., the alternator started discharging in his '65 coronet (273). It was night, and we drove 4 hours till we hit Minot, and got a new one. When I got married, our 1st trip to see my wifes folks was over 900 miles away, and we took a 500 dollar 77 Aspen R/T. Never gave it a thought. Went about 2k round trip and never missed a lick. A few years later we took a 2k mile trip in a '70 Dodge truck (340 I installed). I threw 2.76 gears in the back and got 17 mpg at 65 mph. Never missed a lick. Remember, cell phones were rare at this time, and they looked like a wall phone in your house. No, we did not have a cell. No computers, no cells, and no seat belts.... my, what freedom. JUST YOU AND THE OPEN ROAD.
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If you put the new plugs in the old engine it will also go 100k with no need for a change.
 
318willrun said:
You could go anywhere in them "back in the day" cars. However, in all honesty, todays cars require less maintenance. It is nothing to go 150K on a newer car without a plug/wire change. The older cars needed tune-ups more often, and sometimes required a carb rebuilt. But the good thing about it is the older cars were never scary to buy. Today if you buy a 10 yr old car and the tranny goes, it could be 2k. Or head gasket? another 800. Back in the day, if it drove and sounded good, you had a good car. I remember countless 1000 mile trips in my dads cars growing up. One time going up to the NW corner of N.D., the alternator started discharging in his '65 coronet (273). It was night, and we drove 4 hours till we hit Minot, and got a new one. When I got married, our 1st trip to see my wifes folks was over 900 miles away, and we took a 500 dollar 77 Aspen R/T. Never gave it a thought. Went about 2k round trip and never missed a lick. A few years later we took a 2k mile trip in a '70 Dodge truck (340 I installed). I threw 2.76 gears in the back and got 17 mpg at 65 mph. Never missed a lick. Remember, cell phones were rare at this time, and they looked like a wall phone in your house. No, we did not have a cell. No computers, no cells, and no seat belts.... my, what freedom. JUST YOU AND THE OPEN ROAD.
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God I couldn't imagine the freedom of not having a seat belt.

I can do without a cell phone or CD player but I'll keep the belts .
 
I get it, It's the "Thought" of freedom as the government didn't have laws that required their use. I wouldn't think to drive without being buckled now.
Hey , How about the 5 mph bumpers of the 70's that the government "required".Crap cars now have bumpers that are foam covered with plastic that at 5 mph cost no less that $3000 to fix.
 
The cars are much more safe. It's the drivers that are more dangerous. I used to be on the phone all the time while driving...now I cringe whenever I am riding with someone who is texting or on the phone. We are getting off topic here though. Bottom line is that back in the day these cars were new and that's all you had. Today they can still be reliable but some choose to go for power or just don't care for long trips in old cars.
 
Old cars have always been dependable. Just like anything else, if you maintain it, it will go.
 
my dad bought a 69 cuda in 1972 off a used car lot with 16,000 miles and he drove it as our family car up to 2006 when it was retired in favor of a new car. We still have the original 340 but in 1989 it was replaced with another 340 because the original one was starting to smoke when you started up and when you got on it, otherwise that was such a good car. My dad changed it over to electronic ignition in 1975 when that was a relatively new thing that was seen in "new" cars then, he even used all dealer counter parts. I think he regrets retiring it in 2006 because afterwards it really went downhill from just sitting around and showed it age and I don't think he ever really enjoyed any of the new millennial cars after it.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Old cars have always been dependable. Just like anything else, if you maintain it, it will go.
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Bingo Maintainence we used to have this thing called a tune-up and your car got a tune-up in the spring and again in the fall , oil changed for the season , fluid flush , timing , carb adjustment ,tire pressures etc... the new cars are stab and steer with half the owners not even knowing where the jack is .
 
I think there are only a few differences and todays technology has improved the experience. Obviously radial over bias ply, 4 wheel discs over drums, fuel injection, (remember waiting for a carb choke and engine to warm up in winter), and most suspensions are superior today but overall the old cars are reliable. One last thing I remember, if your car made it too 100k miles and did not need a rebuild you were really doing great, today 100k miles is nothing.
 
I like older cars because bailin wire and duct tape can actually FIX something on them.
 
yellowdart72 said:
my dad bought a 69 cuda in 1972 off a used car lot with 16,000 miles and he drove it as our family car up to 2006 when it was retired in favor of a new car. We still have the original 340 but in 1989 it was replaced with another 340 because the original one was starting to smoke when you started up and when you got on it, otherwise that was such a good car. My dad changed it over to electronic ignition in 1975 when that was a relatively new thing that was seen in "new" cars then, he even used all dealer counter parts. I think he regrets retiring it in 2006 because afterwards it really went downhill from just sitting around and showed it age and I don't think he ever really enjoyed any of the new millennial cars after it.
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I can see it, I'm about done with my 69' cuda four speed, and I'm really looking forward to go on vacation to Colorado with it. F8 green fastback. Hit the moutnains and push it.
 
One of the things we had back in the day was universal availability of leaded gas. While it's great for boosting octane and friendly with valves and unhardened seats, it was bad on spark plugs. I recall changing spark plugs in street cars every 24k miles.

The other thing we had was 4-wheel drum brakes. Now drum brakes by themselves aren't so bad. Drum brakes do not dissipate heat as well as disk brakes do. As back to back stopping was needed, drum brakes lost effectiveness more quickly the disks and took longer to recover. A frequently used term to describe this tendency was brake fade. Two of the techniques used to accommodate this tendency were to allow greater following distances and to downshift.

However, adding water to the assembly added a measure of excitement you just don't get to experience with today's appliances. Take a disk brake and thoroughly soak with water, there is an instant of ineffectiveness followed by noticeable braking action. A drum brake on the other hand, loses all effectiveness. Imagine a Hemi-Charger going from being able to stop sometime soon to having the braking distance of a mile-long freight train. You got the picture. The fun part was when the drums didn't get thoroughly soaked or while they were drying out, they grabbed. Sadly, they do not grab uniformly. You could go from going down the road looking like you knew what you were doing to facing the weeds watching the scenery slide across the windshield in an instant.

Lastly, back in the day, there were road draft tubes. Besides making cars look like they were using two stroke engines as overhaul time approached, they also coated intersections with fog and airborne droplets of oil. When it started to rain it made streets and intersections even more treacherous then they are today.
 
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