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Your best beater that you beat the snot out of but it kept treating you well?

Cranky

Cranky

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My first beater was a 67 Dart that was a 273 car with no transmission that I bought from a local dealer. Why a new car dealership would have this is....well, it might have come off the used car side and got repoed but the car was already 7 years old. Anyways, found a smashed 67 Barracuda /6 stick with 67k miles on it with a fresh front end under it. Got it cheap so it all went into the Dart. Was some what mean to it but it never let me down. Little bit later on it got straight piped and some other minor mods along with a 3.91 8 3/4 rear from a 70 Duster. It was fun from then on.

Present day beater that's still going is a 95 Dakota V6 that has had nothing but grief from me and it just won't stop ticking! Had a few others that got frequent beatings from me but never kept any as long as the 95 but none ever just quit and gave up the ghost....
 
Mine was a 66 Coronet 4-door, slant 6 automatic. Not a straight panel on the car except for the hood. Bought it for 75 bucks & drove it for about 2 years. When it was time to get rid of it, I drained the engine oil, started it up and put a brick on the gas pedal. It made all sorts of noises, and the rpm went up & down, but it wouldn't seize up. Eventually, it ran out of gas.
 
Richard Cranium said:
Mine was a 66 Coronet 4-door, slant 6 automatic. Not a straight panel on the car except for the hood. Bought it for 75 bucks & drove it for about 2 years. When it was time to get rid of it, I drained the engine oil, started it up and put a brick on the gas pedal. It made all sorts of noises, and the rpm went up & down, but it wouldn't seize up. Eventually, it ran out of gas.
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Did the brick thing to my first car when it was time to pull the poly teen out to make way for a 383.....got tired of listening to it after about 5 minutes and pulled the brick off lol
 
Richard Cranium said:
Mine was a 66 Coronet 4-door, slant 6 automatic. Not a straight panel on the car except for the hood. Bought it for 75 bucks & drove it for about 2 years. When it was time to get rid of it, I drained the engine oil, started it up and put a brick on the gas pedal. It made all sorts of noises, and the rpm went up & down, but it wouldn't seize up. Eventually, it ran out of gas.
Click to expand...
I’ve posted this before. Hemi Road Runner. Ex brother-in-law’s company car. Arrived at the dealership with main bearings gone. Pedal to floor. Locked up, car lives today as numbers matching.
 
First car was 73 Dart four door, biggest POS you’d ever see. Loud, slow but it started every single time and had the best heat in town.
 
I think any manual trans car or pickup I ever owned. Heck, I even used to powershift the NP435 in my 69 D100. That pickup had 180,000 miles on it when I sold it and it ran long after that with no complaints. Guys say the slanty is indestructible but I've seen those broken, 318's are tough, 383's are tough but I have seen them spin bearings once in awhile.
 
Cranky said:
My first beater was a 67 Dart that was a 273 car with no transmission that I bought from a local dealer. Why a new car dealership would have this is....well, it might have come off the used car side and got repoed but the car was already 7 years old. Anyways, found a smashed 67 Barracuda /6 stick with 67k miles on it with a fresh front end under it. Got it cheap so it all went into the Dart. Was some what mean to it but it never let me down. Little bit later on it got straight piped and some other minor mods along with a 3.91 8 3/4 rear from a 70 Duster. It was fun from then on.

Present day beater that's still going is a 95 Dakota V6 that has had nothing but grief from me and it just won't stop ticking! Had a few others that got frequent beatings from me but never kept any as long as the 95 but none ever just quit and gave up the ghost....
Click to expand...

id still be driving my 1997 Dakota v6 5 speed if some beeotch hadnt run a red light 12 years ago and totalled it. it had 275k on the clock and i could have driven it to any part of the USA and home without a second thought. the 3.9l was a workhorse, a great little odd fire engine that just ran
 
Runcharger said:
I think any manual trans car or pickup I ever owned. Heck, I even used to powershift the NP435 in my 69 D100. That pickup had 180,000 miles on it when I sold it and it ran long after that with no complaints. Guys say the slanty is indestructible but I've seen those broken, 318's are tough, 383's are tough but I have seen them spin bearings once in awhile.
Click to expand...
I think the main reason that the /6 didn't blow up was because of the small valves and carb restricted it to lower rpm. My 66 sounded like it was screaming at 4800 and that's about all it would do. Long stroke and tooth pick rods made me wonder how it stayed together plus the fact it only had 4 mains lol
 
'64 Plymouth Valiant V-200. Was grandpa's car until he hit a pole head on and Dad parked it. Sat for about 3 years and dad gave it to me to put it back on the road. We bought another '64 for the hood, fenders, bumper, rad support and fan set up. 225 slant six. I wasn't old enough to get a license so Mom and older sister drove it. I got to pay for upkeep. When I got my license I had to share it with mom and sis until I got a full time job. Then Dad let me have it outright. Drove it for 3 years and, other than eating alternators every 2 years almost to the day, it was a great car. My Old Blue Valiant. Jeff Daniels sings it!
 
67 coronet with 273 and yes a little old lady owned it. Ash tray was never used. Beat the snot out of it and it just kept giving. Looked like this
1762562297035.jpeg
 
The 67 Belv II 318/727 I bought as a daily so I could restore my Satellite. It had been in an accident and was rebuilt with a 66 RF fender, tail lights and deck lid. It was originally white with a dark blue painted top. That 318 ran pretty good and I beat the sh!t out of it.


1989-006.jpeg
 
Probably the 1982 Reliant I bought off a stoner in 1988. It sat in his driveway for about a year. It was pretty clean, but dusty from sitting. I asked him if he wanted to sell it, and he told me it wouldn't run, but chugged for a few seconds. Scrap was cheap, and I dragged it home with a friend and a chain, for 25-bucks. I cut the cat off of it, and drove by his house about an hour later. Man, was he pissed. I put a "test-pipe" on it, and beat it unmercifully for almost 3 years. We used to "Dukes of Hazzard" it on jobsites with rolling hills and acreage. That poor car just kept taking it, till I sold it to another stoner kid. I moved away from the area, but that kid was still driving it. I miss the early FWD mopars. They were great transportation. My turbo GLH's and GLHS were very quick, for the day.

It looked like this, but dark blue.
1762563254670.png
 
"78" D100, 2WD with a 318, I called it "Booger" because it was pretty rough looking, not falling apart though (old military vehicle)...but Booger never let me down, even in the coldest Alaska winters.
 
75 Toyota Corolla. Bought for $500 in Hawaii in 1991 when I was getting out of the Navy because I didn’t want car payments. Sold my 1989 VW Scirocco 16V and bought the Toyota. Your tax dollars paid to ship anywhere in my home port. The Government shipped it to San Francisco. I drove it cross country to Gainesville FL, then from Gainesville to Needles CA. I drove it around in the desert heat for a year than put in on a U-Haul car dolley and towed to Southern MD where it finally gave up the transmission. I think if I had disconnected the drive shaft for the tow to Md it would still be going. I never touched the car mechanically since the day I got it. Didn’t even change the oil.
 
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Had a 76 Delta 88 for 7 yrs , she was a road worrier ! Bought for $500.0 and drove the sh$t out of her ! Had a couple of Olds back in the day and they are my next favorite cars.
 
luvabbody said:
'64 Plymouth Valiant V-200. Was grandpa's car until he hit a pole head on and Dad parked it. Sat for about 3 years and dad gave it to me to put it back on the road. We bought another '64 for the hood, fenders, bumper, rad support and fan set up. 225 slant six. I wasn't old enough to get a license so Mom and older sister drove it. I got to pay for upkeep. When I got my license I had to share it with mom and sis until I got a full time job. Then Dad let me have it outright. Drove it for 3 years and, other than eating alternators every 2 years almost to the day, it was a great car. My Old Blue Valiant. Jeff Daniels sings it!
Click to expand...
Similar experience, but mine was a '67 Valiant 100. The first brand new Mopar my dad ever bought, after a dash fire motivated him to trade our '64 Jeep Wagoneer. Car was one of the best constructed 1960s Mopars I ever drove, fit and finish far above most of what my family owned in that era. When dad finally gave it to me outright after college graduation, it had been wrecked by both dad and my sister, benefited from new sheet metal and paint. I drove it until 1980, when I downsized my fleet to my wife's new Mazda B2000 pickup when I left town to attend law school.

The slant six got rebuilt at 80,000 miles thanks to dad forgetting to schedule oil changes for months at a time. I did my own from then on. Spending 13 years with the family, that Valiant set a record, the longest of any vehicle my dad ever owned. I learned about rust repair and prevention on that car. Shown in 1980, a month before I sold it.
67 Valiant.jpg
 
I had an '86 Nissan D20 pickup until about 5 years ago........ it had the V6 with a 5 speed...... I used the crap out of it........ "Electro Injection" lmao


1717705132604.png
 
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