I love old jalopies for a lot of reasons, anything newer than about 1970 is to computerized up for me.

I have had many old cars over my life, in the beginning because that was what I could afford. I have owned two brand new cars in between old jalopies, one was a 1989 F150 XLT Lariat ½ ton in blue and white. I drive that one for 165 thousand miles over the 10 years I owned it. After it I had a 70 GMC pickup truck while I was waiting for my 1999 F-150 Lariat with the 5.4 liter engine and step side to come in, I ordered it with every available option. While the leather captains chairs and wonderful ride were nice I longed for another jalopy. Just when I started thinking about it one of my best friends calls me and tells me he just bought a 1969 GMC ½ ton custom on ebay, this was in 2000. He was going to fly to Memphis to get it and drive it back. I convinced him we should find a trailer and go get it ourselves, which we did. It was not long before we took the engine out and he had it rebuilt, a strong 350 with 4 bolt mains. By this time the bug was set and a for sale sign went into the window.

I bought a beater 1966 GMC pickup truck, it was rough, the body needed help, the engine had some burned valves and the brakes were shot, a great project truck I thought. It took me a month to get it in working order, pulled the head and had hardened valves seats and replaced the entire steering system as well as changing to front disk brakes and making them power assisted is where I started. After it was road worthy I quickly realized that here in Florida I needed AC, for less than 1000 bucks (more than I paid for the truck) I had air conditioning that would run you out from the cold. I drove that truck for about 8 years and put close to 80,000 miles on it. The old bomber got about 19 miles to gallon and was a very reliable albeit UGLY truck. So ugly in fact that one day I got home and my wife asked me for the keys and title, she donated it. I still miss that truck.

My next jalopy was a 1958 Ford Ranchero, or their station wagon with the back roof cut off which is what it actually is. This car was in pretty good shape but needed some work. I had this one on the road as a daily driver within a week or two. I drive it everyday it aint broke, which when you drive a 51 year old car everyday it is broken a lot. Recently someone told me my brake lights were not working, hollered it out his window to me actually. Upon future investigation I found that unlike every other car I have owned that have an electrical switch to turn the brake lights on this car has a pressure switch by the master cylinder that when the brakes are applied it clicks the switch. No worries though, NAPA had 8 in stock and at 6 bucks it was a bargain repair. It helps a lot to have the tools and know how to work on the older cars, I do not think the economics work if you have to pay someone to do the work for you but to date I have not had to do that so for me it is still very economical to keep and drive them.


That repair is indicative of most repairs to old jalopies, cheap and easy. My tune up includes a set of points and condenser and can be done for about 25 bucks and that includes new plugs and distributor cap. It takes me about 20 minutes to perform the task, dialing the points in is the most time consuming part of the job. Now compare that to my Brides mini van, the tune up on it costs me about 500 bucks, for a tune up – yikes. Now it only needs that tune up every 100,000 miles as compared to my jalopy which likes a little tune up love about every 10-12 months. On her van it is such a complicated process that I could not even do it myself, they had to pull the entire top of the engine off to get to the rear plugs. CRAZY I say! My car has one single barrel Holley carburetor and the rebuild kit is 38 bucks and takes about 30 minutes to rebuild. The van has 6 injectors that are expensive and of course need special, expensive, tools to replace them.

With the internet parts are so readily available it surprises even me. Any part I may need from the seal on the overdrive transmission (4 bucks) to the emergency brake cable (35 bucks) to the brake light switch I got at NAPA for 6 bucks. I have had this current jalopy for almost three years and have had to do a lot of work to it but you know what, the amount of money I have spent still does not even come close to what a car payment would be. My next project is to rebuild all of the steering and front suspension which will be replacing everything from control arm bushing to tie rod ends to ball joints. I am thinking when I got it torn apart I will convert it to front disk brakes as well. All of those parts are still only about 1300 bucks and I can do the work myself. If I can find the correct front end specs my local Goodyear will perform the front end alignment for 100 bucks. The older cars are so cheap to maintain, I do experience repairs that normal new cars never see, how often have you replace the control arm bushing in your car. Because the car is so old some of these repairs seem extreme to most but when put into comparison to car payments it is still more economical to reuse an old car than buying new ones all the time.

So one of the coolest reasons to drive an old jalopy is the instant friends and conversation you get. Once Bride and I were having dinner at the beach, seafood obviously, and when we came out three guys were holding their wives up while they were going over my car with a fine tooth comb. Questions like what year, what engine, and how much work is it are the norm. My Bride says she feels like a movie star when we go anywhere in my car, she even has a pair of extra dark sunglasses that she wears when in it. You also get to go to car shows, they are not all about absolutely perfect cars which mine is not. It has lots of flaws, mostly I see them but they are flaws non the less.

So what is your car payment and what do you pay annually for maintenance?