i sold it when it had 55K miles on it bought it when it had 30K miles

 

I hope you didn't take offense to the term "old timers". I use the term out of respect. Being 29, I am no spring chicken myself, but I have found that old timers have lived longer, and generally have more knowledge on cars...life...whatever, so I respect and listen to what any old timer has to say.

Nice 'maro BTW.

 

no offense taken... same as me talking about my daughter and her tuner friends in their hondas ( sorry for saying the H word here )--to me they are "kids" but no disrespect is meant.
I count myself as one of the geriatric here on SL.... I mean "more experienced"..... so i look at any comments with humor. Life's too short to get in a bundle over the little things.
Now back to cars...... while the front drivers we currently play with can be fun to work on/drive, I still believe there is nothing like an old school muscle car with a big **** motor to get the blood flowing. Again they may not always be as fast, but their "personality" adds to the driving experience

 

Fair enough.
Someday I will own a classic, but like I said..... I can't decide if I want a hot rod or just a cruiser. I frequently check craigs list to see what's out there for private sale.

1963 Bel Air
http://detroit.craigslist.org/car/341222701.html

I came across this the other day. 64 Olds 98 w/ 22K original miles. This cruiser looks really nice.
http://detroit.craigslist.org/car/320943189.html

I dream now, but like I said....someday.

 

I may add when "choosing" various cars to consider: parts availability. if this is a new venture to get into, last thing you'd want is to find the water pump ( or whatever ) is 'rare' and will take some time & $$$ to locate. My personal suggestions for what they are worth--find a ride that is powered by a more common motor. As an example, a 60's-70's Chevy with a small block 327-350, or perhaps a Ford with 302-351, etc.... This should give you more options for obtaining parts, plus may be already set up to make a motor swap easier if you'd want a "modern" engine in there.

 

Out of my element here, but I'll second the "common engine" recommendation. Parts for 5L or 351W Fords and SB Chevrolets are all but available at 7-11. Plus, you get the option of carburetion or fuel injection, since most of the fuel injected setups from the '80s Mustangs/Corvettes will swap to older blocks/heads with minimal alterations.

I saw a late '80s TPI setup on a 1st gen Camaro once, looked extremely badass!

 

^^ another side benefit to being able to run some "modern" technology on an older car--tuning doesn't have to be a near daily thing ( we always seemed to be tweaking something back then ). If one is used to working with carbs, distributors, etc then it's not that bad. But if one is used to just "turn the key and go"... the world of pre-fuel injection and electronics can be quite an eye opener.
But I guess some of that can be what we oldsters look back "fondly" at...

 

Heh....give me a laptop and an eManage and I could tweak a fuel curve all day long.

I'm more confused when it comes to carburetors than a nun in a whorehouse.

 

we didn't have laptops.... in fact calculators were hi tech back then, and pong was an awesome video game.....
As for the last coment--I've watched "Cathouse" ( accidently thru channel surfing I may add! ), and I bet the whole "nun" thing is available at the right price...

 

carbs are easy to tune way easier then EFI

 

I've never tried to tune/work on anything injected so have no experience with that; but the older ( no emission crap )carbs and distributors, etc were fairly simple to work on; just seemed that they needed a fair amount of tweaking to keep in top form. I will say that single carbs are fine; but get into multiple carb set ups and you will have some work to do ( but those aren't that common anyways ). Who knows, maybe we were over-thinking back then and messed around more then needed... especially when we were tuning by "ear & feel" on the backroads....The one huge benefit of working on older cars?? EASE of mods/repairs. See those huge engine bays?? A bad water pump or starter can be a piece of cake. Intake change ( I mean actual manifold and not a piece of hose with a filter )? Again pretty simple to do. Heck even pulling those motors just took a couple friends, a winch or lift, and some cold brews and voila it's outta there...
See for me, my days of tinkering are well past.. I'd luv to have a camaro or chevelle again; but would almost prefer it to be like the wife's tc--- turn the key and go. Maybe those 2 don't go together; hopefully i'll find out for myself sometime while i can still enjoy it...
Lastly, in this long winded post--you younger guys deserve much respect for having the knowledge to push these little motors as far as you do. Getting HP out of a v8 could really be just some backyard mods; but the hi-tech ways to get these 4's to perform the same or better then what we had is pretty amazing.

 

with carbs are touchy well with mine it was a simple vacuum pot linkage was all went wrong with mine cold start was fine hot start took forever for it to start! burnt a starter that way too

adjusted that linkage and bam hot starts, starts right up, few weeks later sold my car, for some odd reason cars always seem to run better when you get ready to sell it wtf

btw maintaining 'em in stock form was just as costly as modding 'em just finding the OE parts is just pain in the butt well it is for a C-body mopar, not a chevy or a ford which you can find parts for every thing for a nickels and dimes

and 2 transmission rebuilds in 3 years is a real p.i.t.a. and costly! let me just say first time i removed and install a tranny is once is enough for me so i paid a shop to do the 2nd time around