Vintage Car Thread - Discussion and Parts Requests

[jamespowers]

Drive a Ford car and you won't have to worry about your water pump at all.

Riiiiiggghhhhttt. The car my father blew through a radiator with was a 71 Mercury. lol lol What an ugly beast that was lol lol

 

[Trapped in T-wilight Zone]

Water pumps from the late '30s through the '70s and maybe later have a nasty habit of failing suddenly after sitting for several months (a speck of rust will form, cut the seal just a bit, allowing water to get to the bearing). Usually, I listen carefully, and catch them in time. Sometimes they don't give much warning. I have had I think three try to go through the radiator. One badly. So far, I have been able to repair the radiator.
The worst water pump I ever helped replace was my dad's 1970ish Ford LTD. The two of us, in a hurry, good mechanics, made no mistakes. Six hours. I swear, everything in the front half of that car was attached to that stupid water pump.
The second worst one I ever changed was a 1984 Jaguar XJ-6.

 

[1mach1]

Riiiiiggghhhhttt. The car my father blew through a radiator with was a 71 Mercury. lol lol What an ugly beast that was lol lol

Sadly, it looks better than most cars made today.

 

[1mach1]

The worst water pump I ever helped replace was my dad's 1970ish Ford LTD. The two of us, in a hurry, good mechanics, made no mistakes. Six hours. I swear, everything in the front half of that car was attached to that stupid water pump.
The second worst one I ever changed was a 1984 Jaguar XJ-6.

I'm with you there. Water pump replacement on a '70s Ford can be a jigsaw puzzle. :doh:

 

[jamespowers]

Water pumps from the late '30s through the '70s and maybe later have a nasty habit of failing suddenly after sitting for several months (a speck of rust will form, cut the seal just a bit, allowing water to get to the bearing). Usually, I listen carefully, and catch them in time. Sometimes they don't give much warning. I have had I think three try to go through the radiator. One badly. So far, I have been able to repair the radiator.
The worst water pump I ever helped replace was my dad's 1970ish Ford LTD. The two of us, in a hurry, good mechanics, made no mistakes. Six hours. I swear, everything in the front half of that car was attached to that stupid water pump.
The second worst one I ever changed was a 1984 Jaguar XJ-6.

I is no coincidence that Ford owned Jaguar for a while---both built by Rube Goldberg

 

[jamespowers]

Sadly, it looks better than most cars made today.

Aside from the fact that it has real bumpers and a SMALL bit of chrome, not all that much better. The color alone puts me off. The 70s were the only years where you could actually sell cars that color----with a darker green interior! :doh:
That was the same car that leaked like a sieve until my father took it to the dealership and found out that they didn’t torque down the heads on the engine. :doh:

 

[jamespowers]

I'm with you there. Water pump replacement on a '70s Ford can be a jigsaw puzzle. :doh:

Gee, I wonder how you know that? lol lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

My grandmother's last car was a 1974 Ford Galaxie, in *harvest gold.* A more '70s car cannot be imagined. I drove it for a couple of years after she died, until I burned out the transmission trying to rock it out of a snowbank. That was the last time I drove a car with an automatic transmission.

It did, however, have the best radio of any car I've ever owned. Which is something, at least.

 

[jamespowers]

My grandmother's last car was a 1974 Ford Galaxie, in *harvest gold.* A more '70s car cannot be imagined. I drove it for a couple of years after she died, until I burned out the transmission trying to rock it out of a snowbank. That was the last time I drove a car with an automatic transmission.

It did, however, have the best radio of any car I've ever owned. Which is something, at least.

Harvest Gold?! :faint:

 

[1mach1]

Gee, I wonder how you know that? lol lol

lol
Yeah, 70s green and brown are some of the worst colors out there. uke:

 

[Stearmen]

lol
Yeah, 70s green and brown are some of the worst colors out there. uke:

Wish I could disagree with you! Although, my mother had a Cutlas Supreme in a nice rich dark Hunter Green. Unfortunately, earlier she had a 70 SS Nova in Citrus Green, a terrible shade. In every other respect it was a really cool car, even had Quadrophonic stereo!

 

[Fading Fast]

My dad bought a left over '72 Buick Lesabre in January of '73 during the oil crisis and with the snow piled feet high in the dealer's "inventory" lot (this was an old in-city dealer who had four or five cars on the showroom floor, but you drove out to the "inventory lot" to see the cars you could buy.

After my dad negotiated the dealer down on price relentlessly - as he explained to me, they were "choking on the bigger cars with gas going up and interest rates going up" - we drove home a "coffee brown" Lesabre with light-tan vinyl seats that was ugly as sin.

However, the worse color combo ever in my family was a powder blue Buick Lesabre my uncle owned with - get this - a white vinyl half roof (the vinyl coved the back of the roof up to about half way to the front) and white vinyl interior. Now that was a truly ugly color combination.

 

[Stanley Doble]

While I am not a fan of green cars all the color combinations mentioned so far were popular at the time and looked good at the time. I am a little puzzled as to why blue and white is suddenly ugly. I wonder if it is because today's cars are so bland and colorless. Maybe if the younger people see a car that is other than white or silver it hurts their eyes?

Hope you never see a 20 foot long Packard Patrician hardtop in 3 tone salmon, white and charcoal gray with reversible brocade/leather upholstery. It might blow your mind permanently.

 

[jamespowers]

While I am not a fan of green cars all the color combinations mentioned so far were popular at the time and looked good at the time. I am a little puzzled as to why blue and white is suddenly ugly. I wonder if it is because today's cars are so bland and colorless. Maybe if the younger people see a car that is other than white or silver it hurts their eyes?

Hope you never see a 20 foot long Packard Patrician hardtop in 3 tone salmon, white and charcoal gray with reversible brocade/leather upholstery. It might blow your mind permanently.

Those colors never looked good. Today's colors are ugly enough without adding ugly dark greens and yellows too.

Those three tone color schemes like that were all over the place n the 1950s but the car companies had the good sense not to choose dark and ugly colors.

At least the car companies today know better than to try to market green cars. They stay on the lot longer than any other color because people just don’t like green cars. I pity dealers who would get stuck with green cars and have to discount the heck out of them to get them sold to a half blind person. lol lol

 

[vitanola]

Riiiiiggghhhhttt. The car my father blew through a radiator with was a 71 Mercury. lol lol What an ugly beast that was lol lol

I was referring to a Ford Car not one of the New Fords. Henry went wrong after '27. The Ford Car used a Thermo-Siphon rather than a water pump. "Thermo-Siphon" is a fancy name for gravity, a very reliable "pumping" system.

 

[LizzieMaine]

At least the car companies today know better than to try to market green cars. They stay on the lot longer than any other color because people just don’t like green cars. I pity dealers who would get stuck with green cars and have to discount the heck out of them to get them sold to a half blind person.
lol lol

Or to somebody who's just looking for transportation and couldn't care less about the color. (My 1997 Toyota's a very dark green, underneath all the dirt, grime and salt.)

 

[1mach1]

Depending on the car, I would take any color.

 

[jamespowers]

Or to somebody who's just looking for transportation and couldn't care less about the color. (My 1997 Toyota's a very dark green, underneath all the dirt, grime and salt.)

Transportation that you can nail the dealer good for a deep cut in price because there are more people who care.

 

[jamespowers]

I was referring to a Ford Car not one of the New Fords. Henry went wrong after '27. The Ford Car used a Thermo-Siphon rather than a water pump. "Thermo-Siphon" is a fancy name for gravity, a very reliable "pumping" system.

View attachment 27663

That I have no idea about....

 

[jamespowers]

Depending on the car, I would take any color.

Really?