Rust Buckets

[jimbrandberg]

I had to jack up my daily driver '60 700 4-door yesterday to fix a few things and my perspective on the car may have changed. There was some crunchy sounds and flaky rusty material so I cut a special piece of oak and proceeded slowly with care. It's always had survivor charm with rust holes above the headlights and patched holes in the floors but now it could be getting serious. I suppose I can get by for a while but the handwriting may be on the wall. At the very least it has probably now passed into the realm of me being the last owner, I can't very well sell it to someone in good conscience.
I bought the car in 2015 from the original owner as he was moving into the rest home. I never met him but had a few long conversations on the phone. I got it running in 2022 so I've enjoyed a few good years with it. I really like it but then it seems like I really like them all.

In 2000 or so I bought a Corvair race car without really talking to my wife. That didn't go over so good so I said I'd sell something else as an act of contrition. I offered a few Corvairs up and a guy bought my '61 500 4-door. I had painted it and it was more than passing fair with a '62 102 and 4 speed. I bought it back 10 years later and it had deteriorated, not too long after I sold the powertrain to a guy and never got around to installing another one. After another 10 years I had visions of a daily driver again but it had these same issues when I went to jack it up so I parted it out.

I have another '60 4-door that I had visions of returning to its original Tasco Turquoise and Ermine White glory. Having been underneath it's probably not the best candidate for an expensive paint job. Maybe I should just drive and use that one up too. That's all GM had in mind 65 years ago.

It's funny that I do most of my objective Corvair thinking laying under under a car on my special rug. The act of jacking it up seems to weigh heavy in the balance for me.

I feel a little sappy and sad, maybe it's the estrogen in the chicken these days. I just mailed in for new license tabs so perhaps I should go another year.
It was a little easier in the days when when Corvairs were a dime a dozen and folks would say things like "I just want it to go to a good home". The Maroon '62 4-door Monza that gave up its powertrain for my '61 30 years ago was a pretty good car and I didn't even save the special trim. I suppose that car would be hard to jack up by now too.
Now that I think about it I've had a lot of Corvairs but I've only sold a few.

[cnicol]

I feel your pain Jim. While I haven't had to deal with rusty cars much, I've always wondered how you rust-belt guys deal with the slow, certain deterioration. When I was a pre-teen in Ohio, rust was accepted as normal and new-car purchases were timed with the season so a new owner might get three summers before rust appeared. Eventually, rust appeared and a car's fate was sealed.

Having lived out West since '68, my script has flipped and it seems cars or at least car bodies, if maintained, can last forever. The thought of my car dissolving into rusty scrap almost unthinkable. As I wrote above, I can't imagine the thought process that accepts the sad and certain fate of your possession/asset/companion.

Every once and a while a new owner comes onto one of the forums, having just purchased a clean example, and announces it's going to be his rust belt winter driver. It makes me want to scream NOOOO and makes me sad.

[66vairguy]

Every once and a while a new owner comes onto one of the forums, having just purchased a clean example, and announces it's going to be his rust belt winter driver. It makes me want to scream NOOOO and makes me sad.

I agree that seeing someone say they will "daily drive" an old car in the rust belt make me shake my head and wonder - BUT it is their car!!!! Even out West old cars get some rust.

Out west it took me a few years to find a solid convertible, and it still had a couple minor rust issues to fix. That's a 60's car.

A local fellow has a "beater" 65 Monza he bought cheap that was from the "Rust Belt". He keeps it mechanically sound, but you can literally look though the body it due to the rust holes!!!!!!!!!!! He let his "girlfriend" drive it once and she bumped it into a post and the windshield POPPED OUT of it frame!!!! Not other damage and he just glued the windshield back it! He gets a kick out of everyone looking at it and shaking their head!

[vairchet]

Here's 'before and after' photos of Debbie's '63 Rampside. Bought it cheap in March 2003 from a local Corvair Club member. Clutch was wiped out. He did not want to put the effort nor expense to repair it. To me, it's just a truck that continues to serve a useful purpose. It'll never be a show winner.

Photos brought to you by an Artificial Entity without Intelligence

[jimbrandberg]

I mulled it over during my daily walk.
The '61 I scrapped a few years ago due to rust also needed other repairs. It had no powertrain and after sitting 10 years I'm sure it would have needed extensive work on the brakes and such.
The '60 I'm thinking about now runs and stops and steers good.
There's a big difference between getting a car running and keeping one running. I'll motor on for now and even though I'm looking at it with a more critical eye nothing has really changed except the idea of selling it one of these days. Since working on it a few years ago I've always been upside down with it anyway. It's almost a relief, like in The Big Lebowski "Her fate is in your hands dude".

[Jake]

I had an old Checker Marathon daily driver in the late 80s.
I was always aware it was a bit of a rust bucket but one day a kid was putting gas into it and leaned a bit on the gas nozzle and a square foot of body turned into rusty dust.
Not long after a pal riding in the back seat yelled "ow! I got a piece of your car in my eye" when a rusty dust devil blew through the floor holes.
That car fell apart before I got a chance to fix it up.
Had a 67 Dart that lost a torsion bar mount while I was driving due to the body just dissolving around it.

Old cars in Boston.....
Thats why I spent the money to buy a corvair from the west coast...
For once I wanted an old car that wasn't rusty!

[farmerdave1]

I grew up in a mid-west town with steep hills and heavily salted roads. We knew our family rampside was getting rusty underneath but didn't realize just how bad until one new year's eve. The truck was parked on the street in front of our house. A drunk driver hit it and the truck broke almost completely in half right behind the cab. Both pieces ended up a couple houses further down the street. The driver told the cops that the guy in the truck pulled out in front of him.

[jimbrandberg]

I was driving a rusty '62 Beetle in about 1975 when the spare tire in the front fell through to the street and wedged under the car with a lot of smoke and noise and commotion. I was usually stoned in those days and thought maybe the world was coming to an end.

[Jake]

When I was a kid these rust buckets were just your average used car!

Everybody I knew drove a rotten 20 year old car, they weren’t vintage, they were just cheap.

A 300 dollar 1972 dart was just something you found in your neighborhood and drove till it fell apart and you found yourself another 300 dollar car

[Dennis66]

About 1979 my best friend moved up to Minnesota. Every kid in town was drooling over and wanted to buy his "Florida" 1970 Dodge Challenger (he wouldn't sell it). He said every kid had their "summer driver car" and kept them under a tarp in the backyard all winter while they drove a cheap rusted out beater.

[Wittsend]

JB - "In 2000 or so I bought a Corvair race car without really talking to my wife. That didn't go over so good so I said I'd sell something else as an act of contrition."

A bit of humor on Mother's day. I had a number of old cars and talked to my wife about getting ONE more substantial car - and selling the rest. That turned out to be my quite rusty Sunbeam Tiger. Something went askew. I now (still) have seven old cars (one of which is my Lakewood) and the Tiger..., 25 years later still sits on jackstands. Collecting cars is a chronic disease and rust is an unwanted side effect.

[isucorvair]

Jim -

I feel your pain. I've got a Rampside that you know all-too-well that seems to be suffering the same fate.

Maybe its something in the air in Isanti.



Eric P.
DeWitt, IA