Graveyard Cars (and others) Attention to Detail...and the inevitable.

[realn96]

It's hard to let go and just drive it, especially if you have a strong attachment both in sweat hours and financially.  Hard to see those investments compromised via road trauma and the possibility of accidents.

Also, parts wear down and break, some of which are hard to replace.  Ex. date coded parts.  Do you just take those off and replace with generic? Then you lose the authenticity you can drive more comfortably.

I love driving  my cars.. I do complete nut bolt restorations on my cars. I love it. More so then driving the cars. But I will and do drive them. I do as much attention to detail as when the car was new. BUT I draw the line in NOS suspension part and parts that wear for that manor. I don't want that  in the back of my head. Worried about wearing big dollar parts out. That don't make sense. 

[1 Wild R/T]

Plate on the Charger... Last 426.....   Great pictures! Thanks!!   Yes we do have a pretty good climate for driving here but if you drive allot your still gonna get wet.....   Worst drive was coming home from Bakersfield pouring down rain & somewhere ahead of me a truck hauling chickens was slowly losing it's load....  Imagine moderate traffic, pouring rain & trying to slalom around the chicken bombs.....  Car was only done for a couple years at that point.... I was a little tweaked but soap & water fixed the car right up....  Well six hours under the car with a scrub brush, soapy water & a pressure washer helped...

The car has been caught in heavy rain on seven occasions... Never very close to home....   Well, I've left home heading to Spring Fling twice when it was raining....

Oh, then there's the heavy fog....  Scary but if it's between you & where you want to be what are ya gonna do?

Oh, make that eight times, I forgot about the Wine & Walnuts cruise...... Absolutely pouring down rain....  We had 23 cars including a couple guys in Cobras (no roof) & a 64 Vette convertible also no top....  I was initially pleased to see so many guys willing to get their cars a little wet, but when the heavy stuff started coming I felt really bad for the guys with no roofs.... 

[tparker]

Not a fan of major restoration. You kinda become a slave to the car. Imagine getting a chip, dent, or scratch. The cars were meant to be driven fast and hard. Even raced. Honestly, the cars wern't even all that great out of the factory. It's a shame that prices are so high and people squirrel them away. Just glad I was able to get mine well before the market went nuts.

Tom

[ledphoot]

I bought raffle tickets last year for winning a modern Hellcat and an ultra rare numbers matching 1970 hemi challenger. It even came with $$$ to cover taxes if you won. If I was fortunate enough to win this raffle I decided that I would sell the 1970 Challenger since I would NEVER be comfortable driving such a rare car and I refuse to own a garage queen / show piece. Some people are in to that and that's cool.. I want to drive my muscle cars

[RUNCHARGER]

I've owned several original Hemi cars and I've driven every one of them. They're just a car and insurance will fix a fender bender just like on a newer car too. I do admit though I would whip a new Hellcat like a rented mule every chance if I owned one.

[72bluNblu]

I probably shouldn't reply to this thread. If you're seriously worried about driving your car because you're going to wear out date coded parts, you should just sell it. Cars are meant to be driven. Fix it, drive it, fix it, drive it, repeat until you're too old to fix it or drive it, or both. If you're worried about date coded parts wearing out sell your car and take up stamp collecting or something, that crap belongs in museums.

I've put about 70k miles on my Challenger so far. Sure, am I in the process of replacing the floors, parts of frame rails, quarters, roof, etc? Yes, yes I am. And most of that was a rusty mess when I bought it, I still drove it that much. And when I've finished the metal work I'll go right back to driving it- in the rain, in the snow, in the mud, whatever. If that means in 20 years I'll have to do the floors and frame rails again, so be it. I'm over 15k miles on my Duster, it's my daily driver. Yes it's loud, no it doesn't have AC, yes I still drive it when it's 108, it's my only working car so it's my primary transportation, not a weekend fair weather toy. Manual 16:1 steering, manual disk brakes, 4 speed with a kevlar/ceramic clutch, heck it's even got a .060" over 340 in it that's going to need 8 sleeves the next time it gets rebuilt, just a good excuse to go stroker. Drive it or sell it. If the reasons why these cars are so awesome have become your reasons NOT to drive them (hot, loud, smells, maintenance, etc), then maybe it's time to sell.

[1 Wild R/T]

Loved you video.... I was expecting a flooded area that needed crossing..... BTDT in my Challenger.....  I would have turned around but it was on one of our group drives & the guy in the lead crossed.... So I crossed... And the next guy hesitated but crossed...

[71-440]

Interesting thread and responses. After I sold my '09 Challenger and got things straightened out financially
I wanted to go back to an original muscle car. Mopar of course. After months searching for a car I thought to myself, I don't want a garage queen.
I want to drive it. My '71 was restored to an very acceptable condition ( in my opinion)with
a big block which is what I wanted. Engine, transmission, rear all Mopar but not original to the car. Doesn't matter to me because
it won't sit in my garage for 360 days a year and I didn't buy it as an investment.  I bought it to have some fun driving it not looking at it. Sure I worry about the idiots out there
smacking into me but as stated above that's what insurance is for.  At 59 and health issues I want to go out with a smile on my face knowing
that I went full circle. My first muscle car I bought at 16. 1965 GTO BB 427.

This will be my last muscle car....Full circle.

[wldgtx]

Interesting thread and not the responses I was expecting... But interesting read none the less.

My take is that regardless of brand or model, all car guys and girls have their cars for their personal reasons.  I remember building several cars and then realizing that I didn't give a shit about the car and selling it.  My point is that sometimes the journey is better then the destination... yeah a bit cliche' I know.

But I am in this dilemma right now.  I have a 1968 Hemi GTX that needs... well what it needs is tough to say since the debate will be created.  So what I know for sure is that it needs new paint... the previous owner painted it in the early 80's and to be fair, it's awful.  From 20' it looks decent, but once you get on it, it really shows how bad the prep work was.  The interior is the one thing that needs NOTHING, it is immaculate.

That said, I am conflicted with how far I go with this restoration.  For now, it is sitting and waiting while I wrap up two other projects.  But whatever I do, I promise you this... I will drive the shit out of it.  My last GTX was a garage queen and I vowed to myself that I would NEVER do that again.

[RUNCHARGER]

Yup: I lived that. My 66 Hemi Coronet had acceptable paint from 20 feet but it was poorly painted in the 70's and had a bad repair on the right door. I wanted to paint it but these days if you paint a Hemi car it means doing the bottom too and getting all the details right over the whole car. I chose to drive it and I found as time went on the "Mopar" guys that poo-pooed it when I first owned it started to appreciate what the car was all about. I personally own my cars for myself and not others though and I just kept bringing the car out whether anyone appreciated it or not. However I did find that I wouldn't even bother to clean it up before a show just to really tick off the finger pointers.
I think that is why the hobby has pretty much died where I live. The big Mopar show here has a very poor turnout IMO for the amount of cars that I know are squirreled away. If guys bring out their non perfect iron and hear a few negative comments from the experts they end up not bringing them out at all.

[Mopsquad]

These nut and bolt shows (including auctions) can be very influential.  I feel indirectly they have influenced the garagization of a lot of Mopars.  Years ago, even with the 90's classic car boom, we drove them more.  The outstanding restorations and the beautiful appearance on television of Mopars has pushed many in permanent garages and off the street.

[floorit426]

That's an excellent point and a new word to add to my vocabulary, "garagization". I know there was only one original Hemicuda, at Mecum,  Monterey, and it was mine, out in the parking lot! You've gotta drive 'em!

[wldgtx]

These nut and bolt shows (including auctions) can be very influential.  I feel indirectly they have influenced the garagization of a lot of Mopars.  Years ago, even with the 90's classic car boom, we drove them more.  The outstanding restorations and the beautiful appearance on television of Mopars has pushed many in permanent garages and off the street.

But is it wrong if the owner wants to "garage" his or her restored Mopar?

Let me ask this way... Does it bother you IF that is what they want to do?

For me, I will say that it does bother me a little because car shows are now filled with late model mustangs, camaros, challengers, and corvettes.  Nothing wrong with those cars (to each their own) but I want to see what you restored... and not on-line.

[RUNCHARGER]

Nope: Not at all, Everyone should enjoy their car in whatever way makes them happy. The only downside I see is that shows shrink and I like to see nice cars in person. The only way to see a lot of these cars is if you know the owners and go see them where they sleep. I miss the days when you would see these cars every day, however that will never be repeated.

[Mopsquad]

Now I may get flamed for this As we age such as the classic car owner demographic has aged, we are more responsible and conservative.  With that comes less chance taking, less impulse driving, less road tripping regardless of the conditions.  More appreciation and value of our investment.  Hence keeping it in the garage more and off the road.  Of course this is arm chair psychology with absolutely no statistically significant data to back it up.  LOL