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To all of you that once had a hundred dollar pick-em-up truck.....this one is for you.....


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It rattled, it smoked, it required I keep spare parts inside but I got it to run, stop and  occasionally start it with a screw driver. The  seat was uncomfortable and the lap belt was a add on.   Paint was a mysterious faded shade of blue and the floor shift knob was advertising Coors.  Floor shift was a great thing when you needed to shift into reverse while on a date with your favorite girl and she was in the middle,  since it took to heads to drive back then.  The radio was the AM variety and the AC meant rolling down the windows.  As I compare it with my modern marvel in the driveway with all of those widgets and gadgets that defy description, I do miss that truck.  Oh to do a full body restoration and keep the gun-rack that I installed with some sheet metal screws that  carried coffee cups and a favorite 30-30 from time to time.   Great memories of being young, free and broke at the Napa store.

 

 

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Engine blew on an '83 Oldsmobile I had, coworker sold me a '70 chevy truck for $1,000. This was about 1990.

 

Granny low 4-speed, 4.11s, rally rims with 32" tires, 350 4 barrel rebuilt to 71 LT1 specs. "Excellent patina." Eventually donated to charity.

 

Sold the car shortly after repairing the motor, kept the truck for years as a toy, stuff around the house, and backup for other vehicles. I miss it. Also miss my 71 Grand Prix Model J (bought about '95). Bought it for $500, dumped $5,000 into it in the next two weeks, then drove it into the ground over the next four years. Donated to charity.

 

The one I don't miss was from about 1982, a 76 Buick Skylark for $400. Small 260 V8, no AC. Did fix everything on it (starting with a complete used driveline swap I got for free), had to rebuild the transmission. Drove it for 10 years with no major problems and few minor ones, just never liked it. Sold it for $400

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In ‘82 I bought a ‘73 Ford that was a phone company truck. I paid $700 for it. The rear listed to one side because they kept a tool box on the drivers side. The straight 6 engine didn’t really have oil in it. It was sludge. The heads were bad and it smoked.

I bought a crashed ‘73 Ford with a 3 speed tranny and a recently rebuilt 302 engine and swapped them out. I also removed all the nice interior panels, including the entire dash and put them into my truck. The steering column was shot so I put a floor shifter in and I flipped the shift pattern, just because. 
My ship was going out to sea on Monday. I taught my wife to drive a stick with a flipped shift pattern on Sunday. 
She was a little…um…pizzed at me. 
When I came back 2 months later I put a Hurst shifter in (with the correct pattern) and put a Holley 650 on the engine. The truck had torque. I think the diff was a 3.73:1. 
I did 130 through the Hampton tunnel. I know it was 130 because I got to see the readout when I got my ticket. :rolleyes:
 

When we moved to California I sold it as part of a trade in on a new Mazda GLC. I still kick myself for selling it. It got 7 mpg on a good day. The Mazda 26 city / 35 hwy. The truck was much cooler. 
 

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My first vehicle was a 1947 Studebaker pickup that I paid $75.00 for. Not near as nice as this one, but I did sell it for $125.00 later on.

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Edited by Yul Lose
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Not a truck, but my first two cars cost a total of $350. Chicago rustbuckets.

I did learn how to drive on my Uncle's old Ford with a three on the tree...

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My first vehicle was a ‘71 Plymouth station wagon with 107,000 miles on it. I paid $300 for it and drove to 157,000 miles before it literally died. That’s when I got the truck I talked about above. 

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10 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

My first vehicle was a ‘71 Plymouth station wagon with 107,000 miles on it. I paid $300 for it and drove to 157,000 miles before it literally died. That’s when I got the truck I talked about above. 

I took the $125.00 that I got for the Studebaker and bought a 1952 International pickup for $160.00 from a guy that owned the hardware store where I worked after school.

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Bought my first vehicle at age 15 to drive to work.....It was a 1953 GMC pickup.   The synchronizer was bad in the transmission, and as I had no license to drive, I kept to the back roads where traffic was minimal.  When I got to a hill where I needed to shift into 2nd gear I would have to stop at the bottom and start off, as you couldn't get it to shift out of high gear to go back to 2nd sometimes........

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Never paid over $50 for a car for my first 12 years of driving! Except for '64 Plymouth Sport Fury 383 4bl with factory Hurst 4 speed convertible. Black on black. Miss that one! Paid $35 for a 67 Impala and did nothing but gas and oil for 4 years until I got hit head on! Still have the engine and 3 spd trans running a cordwood saw! Very first car was a 62 Falcon for $20!

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My first street legal vehicle was a motorcycle (1972 Honda CB500 Four) - which was a marvelous idea in April of 1982 when I turned 16.

It was much less of a genius idea upon the arrival of November weather the same year.

Did I mention this was in Michigan?

 

My Dad allowed me to use "his" winter beater (1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88) during the summer when I had need of an enclosed vehicle; but only because he had a nice car (chopped top, lowered fleet side Chevy pickup) that he used during the all too short Michigan spring and summertime.  But now his custom truck was safely hidden away in our pole barn - safe from road salt and ice covered roads.

But his use of the Oldsmobile meant that yours truly was back on the bike and attempting to layer every piece of clothing I owned; leather jacket, hoodie, flannel shirt with my gloves and an armed robbery ski mask - numb fingers, wet feet and frozen snail trail of snot on my face.

I did mention this was Michigan?   In November?

 

I stopped at one of our local motorcycle dealers because (A) I'm stupid and (B) jealously looking at cars and imagining how nice a heater would feel just seemed a little too cruel to myself. 

So, as I wander about the showroom dreaming about warmth and telling myself that "Someday I will live where it does not snow" - one of the salesguys that I have spoken with about a million times approaches me (million "might" be an exaggeration - but this is Battle Creek Michigan in 1982; we either went to the mall, the arcade at Meijers, the movie theaters in town or the cheapo theater in Augusta or cruised the three blocks of Marshall {circle the fountain, go three blocks, make three left turns around the gas station - repeat until you found a girl to flirt with or needed gasoline} me - visits to the local motorcycle shops to dream were included in the rotation).

Anyways - he asks if I'm looking for something (knowing full well the answer) - I say,

"No thanks - just looking.  I should be car shopping but I have to save up some more money"

He asks, "What are you looking for?" 

"My list of got to haves is pretty much as follows - starts, stops, turns AND a heater.  But even that list is awfully hard to come up with when all you have is a hundred dollars."

"A hundred bucks?  I might have something for you to look at - come with me."

 

He grabs a ratty push broom as we walk thru service and out the overhead door - to the back corner of their fenced in lot.

Backed up to the fence is a pile of snow and slush that bears a shape reminiscent of a car - I ask him, "What is this?"


He tells me to wait - and starts pushing snow off the car in wide swaths.

The car slowly being revealed is the exact same dirty white/ gray color of the snow being sloughed off of it.

I ask again, "What is this?"  

He turns and grins at me, "This is a one hundred dollar car.  1973 Mercury Montego; belonged to the daughter of the dealership owner"

"Is it broken?  I don't have the money to fix up a project."

"Nope - it has a heater, runs, drives, stops and turns - just like you requested."

"Then why? She didn't like it?"

"Just wait."

By this time - most of the car is cleared off and I can begin seeing details.  The gray/ white exterior was originally painted white by someone at FoMoCo - the gray accents were spray primer covering panels of wrinkled sheet metal and now that I can see clearer; these white and primer panels were accessorized with a fair amount of rust. 

My sales guy pipes up, "This was a decent car a year ago.  But within one year she managed to wreck it multiple times; she ran into cars, light poles, houses, mailboxes and anything else that had the unfortunate luck to be within bumper range."

And he was not kidding - there was not a SINGLE piece of sheet metal on this car that was left unscathed.  The leading edge of both doors was peeled back from a brush with something - the rear bumper was crooked and had impacted both rear fenders - the trunk was misaligned and since the trunk had filed with water; when it had frozen the expanding ice had popped the outer fenders free of the inner fenders (which at least meant the water entering the trunk now had a place to exit.

The front bumper (1973, so first year for the expansion bumpers) was pushed back into the front fender of the drivers side and had it wedged itself forward on the passenger side - meaning the right side of the car was a good three to four inches longer than the left.

The hood was dented - the ROOF was dented (short of standing on it or a hail storm - how do you dent the roof?)

 

Sales guy, "Daughter bought it - paid like $900 for it; but she kept wrecking it.  Daddy took it from her and told her he was going to give it away - he never did; but he's tired of it sitting in the lot and wants it gone to teach her a lesson."

I walk around it, "Any redeeming qualities?"

He grins, "A couple - get in" and opens the door. 

I slide into a car that is the complete opposite of the exterior - white leather interior that is absolutely perfect; not a mar, not a tear, not a scuff.

I look at the odometer - 67,000 miles, "Is that right?" I ask.

"Keys are in the ignition - you tell me.  Pump it one time and turn the key"

I give the accelerator pedal a kick and twist the silver key and listen as the V8 under the hood rumbles to life.

"351 cubic inch and it does burn a little oil (but it's a Ford product and they all do) - reasonably new tires; new u joints, new muffler.  You want her?"

"Give me a second" as I pushed the heater slider to red and the fan control to high and with the first kiss of hot air coming thru the vents; I said "Yes".

 

The trunk never closed right - the rust spread thru the floor boards and the trunk - to avoid losing the spare tire or having the seat fall out; I fixed and camouflaged the issues with wood panels from my Grandpas carpentry storage, sheet metal screws and a liberal application of aerosol spray on undercoating. 

I don't know if it ever got more than thirteen miles to the gallon and it burned oil at a rate that would make a two stroke dirt bike blush.

 

I drove that Mercury for two years until I graduated High School - sold it to another sixteen year old kid for $300.00.  

I have owned Mustangs, Novas, Camaros, Corvettes, Galaxies, BMW, Jaguar, Porsche and even a Ferrari - custom cars, drag cars, muscle cars...

 

But the thought of that ratty old, oil burning 1973 Mercury Montego with rust, primer and wrinkled sheet metal can still make me smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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