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Old Car Question

DainBramaged

DainBramaged

Lifer
If I wanted to get an old car 1970-1985ish for just driving around in, how much time would I spend on maintence? I am just talking about a Chevy, Ford, Cadillac, etc... Nothing exotic. Would it cost me a lot? There are a lot of old cars around here that run and sell for like $500 just because they are rusted and old.
 
Can you work on it yourself?
I'd say not much depending on what kind of shape it is in. If it has a bunch of power options those could cause some problems.
 
Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
Can you work on it yourself?
I'd say not much depending on what kind of shape it is in. If it has a bunch of power options those could cause some problems.
Click to expand...

I have done a lot of work on newer cars. My last project was to change the clutch in my Maxima and the car still goes, so I guess that it is a good thing. 😀

How hard is it to work on older cars compared to newer ones? I know nothing about carburation (sp?) systems for example.
 
It depends on how much you want to work, how much you can do yourself, and what condition the car is in. I mean, my brother in law pulled off a consistant 13 seconds car for around $2000 that ran well. No A/C, and it didn't look too hot. But it ran well.
 
For the most part, older cars are less complicated. You usually have a little more room to work too.

It's just the fact that you may spend more time under there than you'd like.
 
Yeah, older cars are usually MUCH better to work on. You actually have space, for one thing.

But the nuts and bolts also tend to be a bit more rusty, so stock up on the WD-40 and get a good breaker bar.

The other bit of good news is that parts are absolutely dirt cheap for American cars of that era.
 
I would probably say it's easier to work on older cars. Parts are likely cheap and plentiful in junk yards. As long as you checked the important items monthly I'll bet you wouldn't need to spend much time on maintenance. I bought my 77 Grand Marquis for $350 and had to put a battery in it the next winter. Nothing has broken on it yet (except the driver's power window). Only driven it 3-5k miles over 3 years, but it's always really short trips, so I would think that would be harder on the engine.
 
older cars are obviously less reliable for that reason, they are older but general maintenance will keep you from the dreaded AAA call, i have 3 oldies and of course sometimes working on ur old car can be frustrating but that's half the fun, regular maintenance, especially oil changes on older cars, is a must. not much to worry about. obviously none of us can tell u how much maintenance u would need to do cus we dont know the condition but it will always be cheaper than new cars cus u can do it urself. i say get an old car and get her running
 
I haven't really spent that much time on my older cars for major problems. Usually it is just things I could let go but want to fix.
Things to remember:
Go ahead and change wear items
Keep a bolt remover and new bolts around
If you have the money "while I'm in here" is a good philosophy
Make sure you have tools
 
In the mid 70s some of th smog crap and first run electronic distributors, think fords mainly, could cause some problems. You can rip out the smog crap if it hasn't already been done and I am sure you can upgrade/replace the distributors fairly easily and cheaply. If you get one with the older mechanical points distributor you can upgrade that to electronic using a kit from http://www.pertronix.com/. I used one of their kits on my 67 ford galaxie and it does't get much simpler. If I remember right my engine bay wiring harness was 4 wires 🙂.
 
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