How does she handle the Texas summers? I've had 4 or 5 6ers and that ac system sure sucked. I think the ac in my 77 930 might be better. :eek:

Yup. When you can't get parts, you make them or adapt them from other vehicles. I admire that Cuban "engine"uity.

I did add a fan to the condenser for sitting in traffic. It helps in stop and go traffic that is a lot of stop, not much go. The fan only comes on when the brakes and the compressor is running. My commute home had two stop signs, and they were usually no other cars. So the ac system was not helped in the drive home. It was mostly 50 mph cruise. On road trips to Enid, OK (90 miles) on a 100+ degree day cruising down the highway it was always great AC. It is the exact same system GM put in the 4 door cars, and even the station wagon cars. The El Camino is a two person cabin, so lots of air blowing on just two people.

The one system that is totally inadequate is the stock engine cooling system. The radiator is just too small for 100+ degree days even driving down the highway. I have a bigger radiator and a water pump that is upgraded to the commercial duty high flow unit.

Well..this '79 doesn't have AC, it was never optioned with it but it does have a manual crank factory sunroof. So in the summer it gets driven typically later in the day, its amazing though, I was in traffic one day in the middle of summer during the day and I mean dead stop for quite a long time and the engine temp. sat at 170F nice and cool and never climbed an iota, that was impressive.

When is an old car too old to track?
My 86 has over 400,000 km and I keep thinking I'm going to snap it in half on the track.

We had a pair of 83 El Caminos with very disappointing ownership experience. The ol' 68 327 El Camino was awesome so how bad could these be right?

307 CA V8 was a gutless wonder. The cams went flat at 20k miles and since they were just out of warranty it was our $3500 problem, not the dealers. The suspension was so soft if you put a 350lb motorcycle in the back it bottomed out. The door and window electronics failed shortly after. Our $600 problem. We liked to take the 17' boat out to the river and even though the A/C worked great, the truck would promptly overheat while towing unless we turned it off. The trans would overheat towing up mountain passes. The CA emission control electronics burned up leaving a Ck engine light and reduced performance. Our problem, not the dealer, and they wanted $1200 to fix it, only for it to burn up again 6 months later, our $1200 problem.

Both of these trucks were a complete POS and we couldn't wait to dump them. I had been a loyal "Chevy guy" since 1971 but got burned so badly by Chevy, and later Ford in 1986, that I did not buy another American car or truck for 20 years. They were building crap and when it failed they told us to hose off. I took my 30 truck fleet purchases to Toyota and never looked back.

My original engine was the 305, and and with using the right oils for a flat tappet engine and regular oil changes that engine went 300,000 miles with nothing but the accessories getting replaced, water pump, PS pump, alternator and so on. The heads were never off once until I pulled the engine out. With a search on Pelican you can find my thread on the engine swap I did myself over a long Thanksgiving weekend. A brand new, not rebuilt not remanufactured but NEW 350 was delivered to my door for $1,700. Try that with any other vehicle on the planet.

I did throw away the original POS Rochester computer controlled carburetor back when I had a little over 150,000 miles on the original engine. I swapped in throttle body fuel injection. That swapped over to the 350 with no issues.

I have manual roll up windows, and manual door locks. Never had an issue at all with them.

Oh, and I will admit the transmission that came in my car was the Metric 200. Total POS. It only lasted 80,000 miles. It was replaced with what was an option for my car new, a 2004R with full lockup. I I replaced the final drive with a limited slip drive and slightly lower gear ratio because the 4 speed transmission in lockup put me at 1,800 RPM at 60 MPH.

So my El Camino is a little upgraded over the 27 years of driving it.

Much like my 1985 911. All the little upgrades over the last 24 years I have done to it makes it a much better car than what Porsche sold to the original owner. Lots of fuses, headlight relays, massively upgraded AC, and all the other tweaks.

Has anyone answered the question yet? Only the 1% outliers have been discussed.

The oldest cars regularly driven ??

Take a look at any average parking lot, and you rarely see anything older than late 90s.
So, my answer is around 20 years are basically the oldest cars anyone regularly drives with some outliers of course.

For the average driver, I agree, likely 20 years. At most every autocross I have the oldest car there, older than the vast majority of the other drivers, and they all have cars just a few years old. Of course I am usually the oldest person there.

I can tell everyone there is one downside to driving a car that is 33 years old, and uncommon. I hear often hear friends say they saw me driving in an area of town going off in a direction a few days ago. If you are the type that goes to bars, or has a girlfriend, or a place you are not proud to go to, drive a pickup. I have no girlfriend (except my wife), and I don't go anyplace I am even slightly embarrassed about.

Every other car around here is a pickup, and no one pay any attention to them. Driving a rare vehicle draws attention. People ask about it all the time, or just give me a thumbs up.

This was my daily until I moved a couple years ago to where I need four-wheel-drive.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1573920154.jpg

I now have another '71 Chevy, a 3/4 ton 4x4 that my dad bought brand new. Been in the family since day 1.

It will soon get a crate Vortec 350, tranny w/overdrive and yes, though still original, I'm giving it a fresh paint job.
Original engine/transmission have never been opened. I could keep driving it, but I'm going to pull them and set them aside.
For returning to daily driver status, I'd like a bit more oomph and lower highway RPMs.

Too cool, nice truck. I love the idea of something similar, k20, ls'd.... so cool.

I thought about this thread the other day pulling into work. I was in a 2002 Accord and realized it really was the oldest car in the lot.

I live up in the salt belt now. When I lived in the SW, I ran older vehicles year round.

Most of my dailies only last about 12 years or so. Rust is what kills them. They run up between 190 and 260,000 miles before I let them go. I'd like to run an early 2000s GMC pick up, but it is hard to find a nice one now without going to some effort. My 2004 WRX is just starting to show a little rust.

My newest toy car is now 27 years old. I run them all three seasons, as much as I can. The oldest is now 50. But yes, none of my dailies are really worth much after a decade. I have had toy cars OTOH that were just as good with 200K on the dial as they were when new. The 911 has 190+ and runs like a top.

The wife is running a 2002 Buick LeSabre, which is still remarkably clean. If I invest in solar electric, her next car will be juiced. IF.

Really the most economical way to run a daily is to get a clean but unpopular older person's sedan, and run it into the ground while only providing basic maintenance. The difference in total outlay completely undercuts any extra fuel savings that running a newer, more efficient vehicle might provide. My wife is a car killer anyway, so getting her new vehicles to drive was a total waste of money. She gets as much use out of older cars, and I never feel bad letting them go later to people who need reliable basic transportation.

The thing is, some of the most common and well loved vehicles of our youths are mostly gone now, simply because people loved and drove them all until they were worn out and used up. Practicality trumps keeping a daily as a cherished heirloom, which is like saying we loved them all to death and moved on.

As a human being, I'd like to run my current body for another 40 years. But the chassis has high miles already, and I just keep driving it. I'll be lucky to see 80 on the clock, and it will be pretty much as used up as my current truck by then. Entropy.

The oldest cars regularly driven around here are:

diesel MBs

VW buses

1960s Volvos