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Old 02-23-2005, 08:16 PM   #18
donv
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: NW of Boston, MA
Posts: 697
1962 Rambler Classic

The only car I've ever owned that you could repair with random stuff out of a junk pile or hardware store, which I did many times (drawer locks to replace broken trunk lock, radial tire sidewall chunk to replace the rubber clutch linkage [that was fun when the original broke in traffic], pc. of plexiglass for a side vent window, etc.). The exhaust system parts fabricated out of #10 food service tin cans and furnace cement was a wonder to behold!

All steel dash - you could use refrigerator magnets to post notes on it! And notice the speedometer went all the way up to 12. Reclinable bench front seat - very handy for certain activities...

Easiest oil change ever - no need for jacks or ramps with the amount of ground clearance and the oil filter was mounted on top of the engine. You could actually stand on the ground inside the engine compartment to work on the 192 cu. in. straight six engine. Got something over 30 MPG with 5+ friends in the car. We'd take my car to boneyards to find the parts for my friend's Lotus Europa JPS we were rebuilding and could fit whole sections of his car in the trunk.

Bought it for $125 with ~40K miles on it - literally from "a little old lady", made nearly $2000 clear from insurance payoffs over the three years I had it (people kept rear-ending me due to the small dim tail/stop lights - I'd end up towing their badly-bent relatively new car to the gas station with my almost-undamaged car, their insurance company would declare my car a "total" and pay me $500; repeat...).

Three years later sold it for $125 when I couldn't get a replacement starter and window wiper motor (powered by engine vacuum) to keep it going. Of course the next JC Whitney catalog to show up had both parts!

I was getting phone calls from later owners for years - that beast just kept on going...

Next in the early parade was a kick ass 318 V8 Plymouth Satellite, as the B-52s sang: "...faster than the speed of liiiighhhht..."
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2001 Lapis/Black/Black, PSM, Rear Speaker Kit, Optima...
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