1959 Fiat 1100
This car was mostly complete, but was missing a few key components to be running. The cost and rarity of the parts (in the US) killed the project almost instantly. Floors were bad, but overall it was pretty solid. Bought for $100. Green, with 4-speed column shift. Was sold to a girl who was interested in restoring it.
1967 GMC Handi-bus
I spotted this van rotting away next to a house and left a note on the windshield. Months later, the owner, who had owned it since the late '70s, contacted me and I was able to buy it for $300. The van was very complete, but rotten. I bought it for parts and used many of the bits on my 1968 Chevy Van, which I still have. Maroon, 90" wheelbase, 230 six, 3-speed column shift. The rest was sold to a guy from Missouri who was planning to convert it into a no-door panel van. No idea if this panned out. Please forgive the horrible photo.
1970 Toyota Hilux
This truck was bought at an auction my boss alerted me about, which had several Japanese pickups. Mostly Datsun 521 and 620 models. I got into a bidding war for a blue Datsun 620, which I lost at $125. The Toyota came up, and I won it for $100. This truck had been sitting in a grass field since 1982 or so, so all four wheels were locked up solid. At the time, I had no personal way to bring home non-running vehicles, so I missed work and got the wheels unstuck, and my dad's neighbor helped us bring it to my house on his trailer. The truck was very complete, but the floor was toast, the transmission felt like a box of rocks, and the auction company never produced a title for me. I did, however, manage to hotwire the truck and get the engine running. The 8R-C sounded absolutely perfect, and happily idled like a brand new truck. Eventually I gave up waiting on the title. Sold it to some guy who was planning to chassis swap it. Thankfully it changed hands a few times, and eventually the current owner ended up with it and did it justice by fixing the floor, and swapping the body onto a bagged early '90s Toyota pickup frame. It is now a running, driving, lowered truck with a 22RE, living a happy life. Some stories have a good ending.
1970 Ford Country Sedan
This station wagon was on the same property I got a few of the other vehicles on this list at, as well as two of my current Datsun 510 project cars. It had sat since around 1989-1990, had a 351W, and a lot of rust and rot. I did get this car running, and got it into gear, but never actually made it a drivable car prior to selling it. This car was given to me for free after removing all the other cars from the owner's property.
1970 Ford F-250 Ranger XLT Camper Special
This truck was bought from the same property as the previous Ford wagon. I went to look at some Datsuns that were for sale, and this instantly caught my eye, as it was on the route to get to the cars. I asked about a price, and the lady managing the sale said "5", which I took as "$500", a reasonable price, but she meant "$5000", which was laughable for the condition. I pretty much forgot about the truck, but as time went on, and I spent more time with the owner, she warmed up to me, and eventually offered to give me the truck for free, since she knew I'd be a good caretaker. I refused, and gave her a whopping $150 instead. The truck was very complete, and had been parked on grass since about 1992, so there was rust and the tires were all shot, but I was able to get the truck rolling and take it home. This truck I fully rehabbed back into a useable vehicle, and used it quite a bit before passing it along to a new owner. This truck is living happily on a farm in Nebraska now, being cherished and used regularly by its current owner.
Red, 390/auto, dual tanks, AC, PS, PB.
1971 Toyota Corolla Deluxe Wagon
This Corolla was a sad story with a somewhat happy ending. The car was a one-owner car, bought brand new in 1971 in Ames, IA. The original owner had used it as his daily driver from the day he bought it until about 2007, when he decided it pass it onto a new owner. Unfortunately, the new owner was somebody who had specifically said they hated foreign cars, and basically beat the crap out of it and abused it before abandoning it in a ditch somewhere in Boone county. After this, the car ended up at a local junkyard where it sat and rotted for years in a flooded area of the yard. After talking about the rarity of older Japanese cars in the area with a friend, he told me that he had seen a '70s Toyota wagon in the yard, and that it may still be there. I instantly went at checked, and somehow it had just narrowly avoided being crushed (unlike a few first-gen Honda Civics, which were sitting flat as a pancake in a pile next to the car...). I asked if I could buy it, and they sold it to my friend who told me about it for $450 which I paid him back eventually, and it ended up in my backyard. Sadly the car was so incredibly rotten from sitting in water for over a decade, and years and years of hack bondo bodywork from being driven in the midwest for about 35 years, that there was no saving the body. The car was so incredibly complete though, that there was no way I was going to let it meet the crusher, and thankfully I found a buyer who wanted the car to restore his Corolla wagon, which had been rotary swapped and gutted by the previous owner. The car was a Deluxe model, but had the base model 3K 1.2L engine. I actually did track down the owner, who still lived in the same house he did when the car was purchased, and talked to him for a bit. He showed me a few photos of him with the car, which was great, but I no longer have pictures of them.
1973 Datsun 620
I was desperately searching for a 620 a few years ago, which is my favorite body style of the classic '70s Japanese minitrucks, and happened upon one in a small town parked outside of a garage. I asked somebody in a nearby house if they knew who the truck belonged to, and they were extremely helpful. I was able to get in touch with the owner and work out a deal for the truck, which I bought without actually taking a good look at, for $450. The floor was rotten, front inner fenders were rotted out, but the frame seemed mostly solid, and overall the body wasn't horrible for the area. I believe this truck had been parked since the mid-1980s due to a blown head gasket, which was never fixed. As a result, coolant had been sitting in cylinder number 3 for decades, and the engine was stuck solid. I did manage to un-stick the engine, and even bought an additional L20B to rebuild and swap in, but the rust stressed me out enough, as I had no real way to fix it at the time, that I ended up selling the truck as a basketcase to a kid who intended to restore it. No idea what happened to it, but I wish I'd kept it. Truck was white, short bed, single cab, 4-speed manual.
1974 Ford Econoline
This van was owned by a local fellow van enthusiast, who needed to get rid of it. I desperately wanted it, as I love these second-generation Econolines, and worked out a deal. Believe I traded a Schwinn bicycle and maybe $500 cash for the van. It was a white, 302/auto, long wheelbase panel van. Was a custom in it's day, but almost all the shag carpeting and custom interior had been removed long ago. It was still on slot mags with BF Goodrich Radial T/As, and looked amazing. Even the rust was fairly minimal, amazing for the area. Still had oval shaped bubble windows as well. The original gas tank must have been bad, as some previous owner had put a fuel cell directly inside of the rear doors on the floor, blocking access to the interior by the back. Kinda stupid. The van ran and drove well, but the power steering pump was seized, so it was incredibly hard to steer, taking insane effort in turns due to the power box with no actual assistance. I ended up deciding I needed to downsize, since I was still renting and being overwhelmed with vehicles. Sold it to somebody who ended up doing a gullwing conversion on the sliding door, and some extremely amateur grade "pinstriping"...he sold it eventually as well, no idea where it ended up after that.
1976 Toyota Corolla Deluxe
This one barely counts. When I purchased the Datsun 510s from the same place I got the previously mentioned F-250 and Country Sedan, this Corolla was part of the package deal. Three cars for $100 total. While the two 510s weren't too bad, and easily pulled onto a trailer, the Corolla was so incredibly rotten that we couldn't even pull it out of the ground. I pulled a lot of good parts off of the car, and got the title, but unfortunately the car stayed stuck in the ground. This one I believe must have still been on the road into the late '90s, due to the insane amount of rust, and registration receipts inside dating from 1997. Last I saw, the car was a burnt up shell on the razed lot under new ownership. Silver, 4-door, 4-speed manual.
1977 Toyota Pickup
My first minitruck true love. This truck had been brought here from Oregon, and had a lot of money poured into it by the previous owner, but he had given up on keeping it going and wanted it gone. A bad silver repaint over the original blue, and unfortunately, he had driven it through about eight midwestern winters, which had taken its toll on the floor and the rocker panels. The truck sat for sale locally for a month and a half with the price steadily decreasing until I finally asked about it, took a look, and bought it for $800. It ran and drove, barely. Had issues idling, and just generally didn't seem to run right. I eventually decided to try driving it about 20 miles to my parents' house, but the temperature kept rising as I was driving, and I'd have to stop and let it cool down before making more progress. I eventually got about 10 miles away from their house when I surrendered and towed it home. This was early in my days of having any level of car knowledge, otherwise I could have easily fixed it on the side of the road and drove it the 30 additional miles to my own house. Live and learn. The issues I found were: the point gap was almost non-existent, and there was air in the cooling system. All I did was reset the point gap correctly, and squeeze the air out of the system, and I never ever had another issues with the truck again, aside from minor stuff like a failed alternator, and a broken carburetor choke spring. I eventually sold it to fund a way cooler 1978 Toyota I had my eyes on, but the truck was bought out from under me at the last minute, so I went five years before I got my current 1977 Toyota, which I plan to never ever let go of. This truck does still exist locally, I saw it at the muffler shop this past summer. Looks largely unchanged from when I sold it. Long bed, 5-speed, sport model.
1977 Chevrolet Chevette
This car was intended to be my replacement for my 1978 Chevette, which I missed badly, but ended up being so frustrating to me that I sold it not long after I bought it. It was a greenish blue color with a blue vinyl interior, 4-speed, 2-door model. Not a Scooter, as it had a back seat, but defintiely fairly base trim. This car was about 25 miles away from my house, and didn't run right at all, as the previous owner had done some unusual modifications to the carb linkage. It did run and drive, barely, and had brakes, barely. Good enough. I bought it for $600, hopped in and took it down the interstate back home on ancient tires. It ran fine at high speeds, but in town was verging on undrivable. Also had a somewhat clogged up fuel system, and some blow-by, so it did smoke a bit. I made it within about 4 miles from home before the tread blew off of one of the tires and started beating against the inner fender. I had my girlfriend at the time bring me a jack and a lugnut wrench so I could swap on the spare on the side of the road, and made it home. Since the original Rochester Monojet was all messed up, I used my Weber adapter and put on a good DGV carb I had lying around. Ran great after that, but still smoked, and needed brake parts that proved to be unobtanium, so I got frustrated with the state of Chevette parts support and sold the car. I still love Chevettes and think they're easily some of the most fun '70s American cars, but parts support for the old Japanese stuff is a thousand times better, so I'll leave the Chevettes for people with more patience when it comes to searching for non-existent parts.
1977 Honda Civic CVCC wagon
This brown Civic wagon was one that I spotted off in the distance on a country drive. I couldn't tell what it was right away because it was so far from the road, but I new it was old and Japanese, and a station wagon, so I had to have it. I walked to the nearest house to ask for information, and left my number in case the owner was interested in selling it. About a week later, I received a call from the owner, who said I could have it for free if I had a way to pull it off the property. He had bought it second-hand in 1978, and parked it in that spot in about 1990 because he believed the head gasket was blown. Unfortunately, some kids had vandalized the car years ago, so all the glass was broken out, which had in turn ruined the interior. The body was actually surprisingly solid, but with the dents, missing glass, and ruined interior, it really wasn't worth doing anything with. I salvaged a lot of parts off of it, including the cool aluminum valve cover for my 2nd gen wagon, and then sold it for $100 to some guys who weren't really sure what they were going to do with it, but "had ideas". I can almost guarantee nothing will ever happen with the car.
1978 Chevrolet Chevette
My first Chevette, and the one that made me fall in love with these cars. This was an extremely cool car, brown with factory stripes, a red interior, and a 4-speed manual. I traded a 1979 Suzuki GS450L for the car, which I had bought for $450. The car ran and drove when I got it, and I only made it better as I went along. The main issue, though, was rust. The car was insanely rotten. Not a single seam remained on the lower body, the floors were basically gone, and the front shock towers were 2/3 of the way rusted through. The car ran great and was very reliable, not to mention fun, but the rust stressed me out way too much and I passed it along to a local young Chevette enthusiast. A true blast to drive, but rust stresses me out.
1978 Ford F-150
This truck showed up randomly at the local tire shop with a for sale sign in it. I didn't think much of it at first, but when I saw the price was reasonable, I had to bring it home. I got the truck for $350 and towed it a whopping two miles home to my house. This truck ended up being a bit of a dud, rust had really taken its toll on the underside, but I did get it running and moving under its own power. It was a two-tone green truck with a green interior, 400/auto. Didn't keep it long before selling it to somebody with big dreams. Funny thing is, I later saw the truck on a rollback in some local "we buy your junk cars" ad. Wonder if the guy scrapped it, or if he was the one with the rollback and the ad....
1978 Subaru Brat
I had actually spotted this truck in a guy's backyard about a year before I bought it, took a blurry picture and forgot about it. Later I had posted an ad specifically looking for 60s-80s Japanese cars and trucks locally, and sure enough, when a guy called with a '78 Brat for sale, it was the same one. My friend had told me that if I ended up not wanting it, that he'd buy it off me, so I pretty much agreed to buy it sight unseen for $500 and towed it home. The truck ended up being somewhat solid, but not great. Almost everything worked when power was applied, but the EA71 engine was seized solid. I'd try periodically to get it unstuck, but eventually realized I probably wasn't going to go through the effort to engine swap a truck with so much bondo and a bad repaint, and put it up for sale. Last I knew, it's with a guy who is trying to get it roadworthy who had an EA81 ready to swap into it.
1980 Ford F-100
This one was a late night purchase by a friend of mine. Just about base model F-100, no power brakes or steering, 300 with 3-speed column shift which had been poorly converted to floor shift. Red, almost totally rust-free truck which he bought with no bed, but later found a relatively rust-free blue bed and swapped it on. I bought it off of him and fixed it up for a while, adding factory red carpet and various other things. Eventually I found myself needing money for a trip, so I put the truck up for sale. Selling it ended up being a pain in the ass, but eventually I got my asking price and it went down the road. Not long after, the truck popped up at the local junkyard, but it was set aside in a special area usually reserved for vehicles that aren't going to get crushed, so I can only hope it was saved.
1981 BMW 320i
This was the second car I ever owned, which was the replacement for my 1995 Passat after it got totaled out. Stratosblau metallic with a 5-speed and factory AC. I bought this car for $850, did very little to it, and drove it all over the country. Extremely reliable. I fixed a few things here and there over the years, but eventually the clutch started going out and I sold it for $750. Not long after, that guy scrapped it unfortunately. It started out as a relatively clean California car with some previously repaired front end damage when I got it, with just under 100k miles, but I was young and didn't quite realize what salt does to cars and used it all winter for most of my ownership. It took its toll on the body, but it really wasn't horrible when I sold it. Probably should have kept this one in reality...I'd happily own another E21.
1982 Chevrolet Chevette
This was purely bought for parts. $200, and I towed it home with the previously mentioned F-100. It was a brownish tan 4-door, automatic car in pretty rough shape. Never got it running, but did sell it for $200 after taking what I needed off of it, so basically broke even.
1982 Toyota Corolla Wagon
My friend had mentioned this car to me, and how the owner was interested in selling it, a few months before I actually bought it. I had just sold a few things and had money burning a hole in my pocket. I randomly stopped next to the guy at a light, and rolled my window down and asked if he still wanted to sell. He said "yeah", and we pulled into a parking lot to talk about money. Not long after, I was driving him home in my new Corolla, getting the title and handing him five crisp hundred dollar bills. It was an extremely clean car, which had come from California, but had spent just enough time in the winter here that the rear quarters were starting to get rusty. The mileage was fairly high, at about 240k, but it ran and shifted fine. The main issue was somebody had snapped off some of the exhaust manifold studs, so it had a horrendous exhaust leak. I did what I could to make it better, but never fully sealed it up, and just dealt with it. In early 2018, I was moving to my current house and decided I needed to downsize a bit. I was so in love with my extremely rusty manual Chevette, that I decided to part with the clean automatic Corolla, a decision I regret to this day. Thankfully it ended up going to an enthusiast who is obsessed with fourth gen Corollas, where I can only assume it lives to this day. Yes, I put those slot mags on it.
1982 Subaru GL Hatchback
I had vaguely heard about the existence of this car from a few people in town, and its rough whereabouts, so one day on my lunch break I went looking for it. Surprisingly I found it very quickly, and left a note on the windshield. A few weeks later I received a call from the owner, saying he'd be interested in talking. It turned out he had just moved to town from Colorado, where the car had lived its whole life. He bought it in 1986 and never let go of it. We worked out a deal, and I drove it, running extremely poorly, over to my friend's house where I spent some time fixing a few issues. Once I had it running JUST well enough to be considered drivable, I headed 25 miles to my house. Made it just fine, although running a bit hot, and I spent the next few weeks playing with it and improving things here and there. EA81, 4-speed manual, 4WD. For some reason, the car never really felt like it was "mine", so eventually I offered it back to the previous owner. He was excited, but not long after realized due to his health, he was never really going to be able to drive it and enjoy it like he used to, and told me to find a new owner for it instead. It took a bit to sell, but eventually somebody made me a trade offer I couldn't refuse, and we towed it up to make the deal. As far as I know, a few months ago this thing was wrecked to some degree, sadly. Who knows if it still exists...all I know is I'm much happier as a 1989 Honda Transalp owner. Possibly one of the best trades I've made.
1983 Honda Civic
I had seen this car around town a few times and wanted it desperately, and finally had my chance to leave a note on it (see photo). The owner had just recently rescued it from going to the scrapyard, and expressed interest in selling it, but at the time I didn't have the cash, and it was sold to somebody else. Years later, the car popped up for sale locally, and I jumped at the chance to finally own it, a few owners later. At this point in time, I already had my 1981 Civic wagon, which I wanted to manual swap, so even if the car was rough, I wanted it for the transmission if nothing else. I was able to make a trade for my Buick I had at the time, and drove the Civic home. Sadly, salt had already destroyed the underside of the car, and it wasn't really worth saving, but it was worth it for me to get all the manual swap goodies. I basically gutted this car, kept everything as spares for my wagon, and scrapped it. Trust me, the thing was so incredibly bad underneath it wouldn't have been fixable. The rear control arms were holding on for dear life, and the floor was basically gone. One of VERY few cars I've personally sent to the junkyard.
1984 Buick Lesabre
This was the car that I ended up trading for the Civic above. It had popped up for $800, and we took my friend Jake's 944 to go grab it. The main issues with the car were the starter was going bad, and the windshield was broken, which was apparently the result of the starter going bad. Other than that, it was a totally useable car, for an extremely low price. I was one of very few people who was interested in putting it back on the road, rather than using it as a derby car, so I won the sale. We drove it home, and I replaced the starter and a few other parts in my single week of ownership, before trading it away for the Civic. I do kind of wish I'd kept this, as I've always had a thing for these B-bodies, but having a Manual Civic wagon now instead is much more my style.
1986 Dodge Ram 50
I spotted this truck sitting in somebody's back yard while going to garage sales and did a little homework to find the owner. We got together and were able to make a deal, and I dragged it home on my friend's trailer for $450. It was basically being used as a branch bin and hadn't moved in years. The previous owner had driven it to Iowa from Florida, and on the way the engine blew up. He paid to have a remanufactured engine put in, and drove it around locally until about 2006 or so when he parked it due to carb issues. I got it home, fixed some electrical issues and threw a Weber on it. Ran great, but didn't keep it for long before selling it to a friend for $700. He had it for a while before ANOTHER friend bought it from him, who still owns it to this day. Still under daily service and only getting better with time. I hope to own it again some day if he ever parts with it, but for now it is in good hands. These trucks are insanely fun to drive. Very underrated. G63B, 5-speed, 2WD.
1987 GMC Safari
This was the third vehicle I ever owned, which I got for free from my manager at the time (although I felt bad and gave him a six-pack of beer). It hadn't run in a few years, so we flat-towed it home, I put a new fuel pump in it, and it came to life. This was my daily driver for a long time, and my first van. It was a great vehicle and super reliable, but had some serious rust issues, so I parted with it after a year or two. I credit this van with really kickstarting my addicition to cheap cars. Prior to this, I basically thought you had to have thousands of dollars to have anything "cool", but this showed me that if you know the right people, or look hard enough, deals are out there. 4.3L V6, auto.
1987 Toyota Cressida
This one didn't have a happy ending. This car popped up for sale dirt cheap, $600, and I jumped on it instantly. It didn't run right, but ran well enough to get on a trailer. We dragged it to my house, and I struggled to figure out what was up before doing a little deeper digging. Turned out cylinder 3 had no compression at all, and the rocker arm had somehow totally dislodged itself. I put the valvetrain back together, but it didn't fix the issue, and there was still no compression. The car was unbelievably clean, the only rust was minor bubbling at the bottom of the front driver's side fender. Interior was mostly perfect. Super clean car with a lot of potential, but I wasn't sure when I was ever going to take the time to either swap or rebuild the engine, so I posted it up for sale. Timing wasn't great, as this was maybe a year or two before the X50 Cressidas became super sought-after, so I sold it for $750 to some guys who were thinking of LS swapping it. Within a year, the car was engineless, smashed up, and ruined at the junkyard. Sell your cars to the right people. They weren't.
1987 Honda Accord DX
This was another one that ended up like the Cressida. I had gotten this car in trade for my Passat Wagon, even though it had a lot of rust issues, I just couldn't resist. 5-speed DX hatch with a Weber swap and AC, which I eventually charged with R12 and got working perfectly. I was up late talking with the owner, who seemed reluctant to let it go. It needed a few minor things which I fixed up, and I drove the car daily for a while. Eventually I had kind of stopped driving it as much, even though I had fixed almost everything and gotten it basically 100% reliable, the rust always got to me. The whole floor pan's seams were completely rotted out, along with some frame rail rust near the rear suspension. This is usually enough to stress me out, so I put the car up for sale and sold it relatively quickly. The happy part of the story is the previous owner and myself became very good friends, and are to this day. The sad part is we got to say our goodbyes to the car at the local junkyard less than a year after I sold it. The kid told me one of the rear control arms was "falling off", and asked if I wanted to buy the car back. I said no for obvious reasons. When we saw it at the junkyard I took a look, and the control arms were completely fine and totally connected. The car really wasnt significantly worse than when I sold it. Why he scrapped it so quickly I will never know. I'm guessing somebody saw the existing rust and didn't want to deal with it and convinced him it was worse than it was, and he took their word for it. Either way, it didn't deserve to be scrapped. I miss this car badly.
1988 Chevrolet C1500 Cheyenne
This truck was a result of my dealing with the woman who was selling the 510s previously mentioned. I had bought every car off of the property she was managing, and she had given the neighbor my information, who thought of me when an acquaintance of his was trying to clean off his farm. He had a few cars that he wanted to disappear, most of which I rejected, but accepted this truck. A first year OBS, pretty base model Cheyenne with the 4.3L V6 and a 5-speed. It was free, so I dragged it home, put it on tires that held air, and tried pretty much the bare minimum free options to get it running. I knew I wasn't going to get very invested in the project, and quickly offered it to a friend for $300 to cover my costs, and it went away. That's about it for this one.
1989 Chevrolet C1500 Cheyenne
This was my first GMT400, which I had gotten literally at the end of my street. I drove past it at the side of the road, and it had a sign in it that said "$200", which ended up being the price for the ladder rack, not the truck. However upon closer inspection, the truck WAS for sale, up for $500. The body was very good for our area, aside from the plates the owner had riveted to cover up the rust over the rear wheel arches. It was originally a 4.3L V6 automatic truck, but the owner was a race car guy, so he had swapped in a rebuilt 350 with a 4bbl Edelbrock and headers mated to a rebuild TH400. I checked it out, and he assured me it ran, but he couldn't prove it to me. I offered $450 and he took it. I was able to get it running just enough to limp it a few blocks home. When I started digging into it, I found the fuel system was mostly filled with water, which lined up with his story that the truck was in a flood at some point. I purged the system, went through the carb, and it fired right up and sounded amazing. I put some time into getting the truck as good as I could, and used it quite a bit. I can't even really remember why I ended up selling it, but I did sell it to a friend who rode his Goldwing to my house and then trucked it back home with him in the bed. I do kinda miss this thing.
1989 Dodge Dakota
I purely bought this truck because not long after selling my '91 Ranger, I decided I really don't like not having a truck around. It came up for $400, and had been extremely well cared for mechanically, even if the body was beyond rusty. This was a great little truck that I used up until finding my current '77 Toyota pickup in late 2019. Not much to say about it. I barely did anything to it except cosmetic stuff and replacing the oil pressure sensor. Sold it to a friend who apparently had the upper radiator tank explode on them a few months later and scrapped it. Shame, it could still be on the road with a new radiator...The truck had the 3.9 Magnum V6 and an automatic. 2WD long bed, single cab.
1990 GMC Vandura
This was my first full-size van. I was becoming obsessed with old vans at this point in my life and really wanted one for myself. I spotted this one behind the local electrical repair shop and asked about it. It was a short wheel base display van, 4.3L V6 automatic. It hadn't run in a while, and he wanted $300, delivered. Once again, the fuel pump was the key issue, so I dropped the tank and put a new one in and it fired right up. It needed more than that, but at that point in my life, I really wasn't doing much in-depth repair work. Basically if it ran and drove, I'd use it. I ended up driving this truck all the way to Colorado and back for a moped rally on old tires, had a tire issue at one point on my trip and used a can of fix-a-flat to make it home. I'd never do that now. Different times in my life, which I'll never forget. Eventually the van developed an issue where it would randomly not even try to start, which we could never diagnose fully. Sounds simple, but I now believe it was some major fault in the ECU. I sold it to an old guy who wanted to fix the rust and turn it into a custom van for something like $1000. Seemed insanely high to me at the time, but whatever.
1990 Chevrolet Lumina APV
I spotted this van in a small town on my commute home one day and had to have it. The early dustbuster vans are so cool to me, and for some reason the silver on this one was really doing it for me. It needed a few things here and there, but was mostly useable as-is, but with a fuel pressure bleed off issue if it sat for a few hours, which I never ended up fixing. I drove this thing for a whole winter, but come spring, I barely touched the thing so I sold it. Took a while to sell, but it ended up going to a friend who put some rally wheels on it, and sold it again. I still see it around town to this day.
1991 Ford Ranger
This was a truck I bought mainly for winter duty, which proved to be horrible at it. Clearly a base model fleet vehicle that I believe spent a lot of its life being towed behind an RV. It was a short bed, single cab 2.3L truck with a 5-speed. White. No AC. It was pretty reliable and relatively rust free, but had been in an accident previously which messed up some of the body work. I replaced a few panels on it, and was planning to make it somewhat nice, but it was so incredibly bad with its too-tall rear end ratio that I decided I didn't really want it anymore. It refused to hold any speed in 5th gear, and could barely go any faster than 75mph no matter how hard you floored it. This was coming off of my '77 Toyota pickup which could easily do 100+ and maintain just about any speed in top gear. A huge disappointment for a newer truck with fuel injection and more displacement. Can't say I'm too impressed with the American interpretation of the minitruck. I don't think I'd buy another Ranger. It went to somebody who made a really cool pre-runner tribute build out of it, so it found a good home. Thankfully not my home.
1992 Ford Crown Victoria
I barely had any time with this car. I traded three bicycles for it, drove it a couple times and then put it up for sale. A friend of mine ended up buying it and drove it all the way to the New England area and back before selling it himself. It was a super nice rust-free car that had apparently had a fresh transmission rebuild, but they messed something up so it shifted very strangely. I wasn't impressed. No regrets here. 1990's Fords apparently do absolutely nothing for me.
1993 Toyota Truck
This was another $150 vehicle from the same property as the 1970 Fords and the 510s. The previous owner had bought it brand new in 1993, and drove it every day until he parked it in 2009, I'm assuming due to a failed fuel pump. It had well over 230k miles on it, but also a complete maintenance log since new. Almost nothing needed to be done to the truck in its entire life, only one or two items had been replaced or repaired, other than that it was just regular maintenance. Ultra base-model truck. 5-speed 22RE, no AC, radio delete, vinyl floor. I fully intended to get this thing back on the road, and even completely gutted the disgusting interior to get all the dead mouse odor out of it, but after all that work, I found the frame was rusted out behind the gas tank. I promptly put it up for sale, with the rot mentioned, and sold it almost immediately as a non-running truck for $1100. Some Toyota people are nuts I guess.
1994 Nissan Sentra
This was a fantastic little car, and my daily driver year round for a few years. It was already pretty rusted out when I bought it for $600, so it was perfect for winter service. I did regular maintenance and a few fixes here and there to it and just used the crap out of it. The major thing I had to do was replace the front subframe, as it was completely rotted out where the passenger side control arm mounted. After that, it didn't need much. 5-speed car with AC. Pretty basic, but unbelievably reliable and enjoyable to drive. Probably would have kept this one forever, but the clutch was starting to go out toward the end, so I put it up for sale. A kid who just wanted to learn how to drive stick bought it. Think I sold it for $900? No idea where it ended up, but it's probably been scrapped by now.
1995 Geo Metro
I got this car thanks to a lead from my manager at the time. It had a later transmission with taller gearing, and the engine had allegedly been recently rebuild. 5-speed manual. He asked $300 for the car and I drove it home. These are fun little cars, but this is the ONLY car I've ever owned that felt genuinely underpowered for long distance driving. It would handle most driving great in ideal conditions, but headwinds or steep hills would challenge the car quite a bit. This is coming from a guy who almost exclusively owns, and prefers, cars with 100hp or less. Eventually I found that the body was completely rotted out in the front, right by the driver's side axle, which appears to be a common failure point on these cars, and I sold it for $300. Shame these are so prone to rusting out, as the honest 45 mpg I got was very nice.
1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
Not much to say about this one. I got it when GM A-bodies were everywhere and dirt cheap. Think I paid $400 for it for winter duty and drove it home. Replaced a ball joint. It ran great and did what it was supposed to do. I did take it on a trip once and made it the whole trip with no issues, and blew a brake line out literally pulling into my driveway. Fixed that as well. Eventually didn't need it anymore and I think sold it for $500. I miss the days when 90s cars were default sub-1000 dollars running and driving...
1995 Subaru Legacy Wagon
This car was offered to me by a friend for $300. I couldn't say no. EJ22, automatic. I cleaned it up quite a bit and fixed a handful of issues, and it was a good reliable car. However, it needed a few bigger things, and I found some rot underneath, so as a totally redundant car, I sent it down the road. Sold it to a lady who wanted a car to use out on her rural property for $600. Great car, I just didn't need it.
1995 Volkswagen Passat
This was my first car. I got it from my dad, who I was actually with at the dealership when he bought it new. VR6, 5-speed. Great car with plenty of power. Definitely sealed the deal on me loving cars, even though I always have since I was a kid. Grateful to have had my time with it, it was always reliable, fun to drive, and is responsible for me learning to drive stick. One day I heard a big crash sound outside, and went out to find somebody had ran into it while it was parked and destroyed the back half. Fortunately, I found the car that had hit it, and was able to report it. The Passat had 288k miles on it at this point, but the insurance company still paid out almost $3k for a high mileage 12-year-old car. It was sad to lose my first car, but there was nothing I could do. The body was toast. Thanks, dad.
1995 Ford F-150 XLT
I was looking for a tow pig for a while, as I had just bought my car trailer, and this thing popped up with one of the worst ads I'd ever seen. For some reason, I had a good feeling about it, so I went out to the middle of nowhere to check it out. Turned out to be an extremely well-maintained, but rusty truck which was ready for action. Brand new all-terrain tires even. The price was dirt cheap, less than the tires would have cost alone, so I bought it. The circumstances were unusual, the guy I bought it from had gotten it in trade because a guy owed him money for vegetables? Who knows. Used it to tow a handful of cars home and for junkyard runs and it did the job swimmingly. Only reason I ended up selling it was because I needed money. Great truck though. It is missed. 351, 4WD, manual locking hubs, automatic, extended cab, AC, cruise etc. Pretty loaded rig.
1997 Subaru Impreza
My brother bought this car years ago when he was looking for a practical, more modern car than what he had been driving. It was a coupe, EJ22, 5-speed. Already pretty rusty even when he bought it, I bought it from him a few years later and fixed a bunch of its issues. New CV axles, new filler neck, replaced a bent rim, etc. It was amazing in the winter, but the rust was really getting to it. I eventually sold it back to him, and he used it for a bit before passing it along. It's a shame these '90s Subarus rusted out so bad around here, they are fantastic little cars.
1997 Mercury Tracer Trio
This was my last-minute winter car purchase in late 2022. I hadn't really been actively looking very hard for a winter car until mid-fall, and randomly happened across this thing parked outside a business with a "for sale" sign in the window (see photo). The price was exactly what I wanted to spend, $500. Main reason for the price was a bad wheel bearing. I bought it, replaced the timing belt, and did the wheel bearing and new outer tie rod ends. The car was already pretty rusted out, so I did a classic license plate floor patch. Bought a set of steelies with old Blizzaks on them and ran it all winter. Did its job perfectly. Never let me down once, and thankfully the 20-year-old Blizzaks held up fine, until I ran over a utility knife blade which took one of them out. After winter, I was getting ready to sell it, and changing the rims out in my gravel driveway, it fell off the jack, and the jack handle blew a hole in the cast aluminum oil pan. Perfect. Found another oil pan at the yard, and changed it out. Got it sold for about $800 to somebody local who needed basic transportation. Hope it served them well. Great little car, I must say.
1998 Subaru Outback Sport
This was a free car from somebody I knew. They never gave me a title, so I drove it home 30 miles on the interstate a little worried about getting pulled over. Brake line blew out instantly when I got off the interstate. This thing was pretty rusted out, and without paperwork there was basically no incentive for me to get it back on the road. Sold it for $150 not long afterward, as it was. Do kinda wish I'd kept the EJ22 at least...oh well. Sometimes I just want stuff to disappear.
1999 Lexus ES300
This car was a late night impulse buy. It ran and drove, but had issues galore, however the price was $200 after a little negotiation, so there was pretty much zero risk. I drove it home, and basically instantly regretted it. It needed EVERYTHING. Would have cost like $2000 to make it a useable car, and this is when a good ES300 would probably set you back $1200. Not worth it. I tried selling it cheap, but after a week I scrapped it to make my money back. Got a free, good car battery out of the deal, at least.
2001 Volkswagen Passat Wagon
This was a perfect case of a car that was worthy of fixing, but it was going to be such a hassle, I couldn't be bothered. This is the case with many modern cars. When a timing belt change is a 6-hour job for an experienced mechanic, it's hard for me to want to do it. I'm used to a timing belt taking 1-2 hours at the most on my older stuff. This car was great, nice shape, pleasant to drive, but I KNEW it needed a timing belt, which I just didn't care enough to do. I eventually traded it away for the Accord hatch above, which I loved and happily did a timing belt in. Nice car, I just didn't want to work on it. 1.8T auto.
2002 Honda Civic
The newest car I've ever owned. I bought this for $1100, knowing it was misfiring on one cylinder. It was a 5-speed non-vtec car, not horrible shape, seemed good for the price, especially if I could just throw a coil pack on it and run it. Unfortunately once I dug into it, I found cylinder 4 had no compression. I knew it had to be a burnt valve. No problem, just take the head off and replace the valve. Well, that would be a couple hour job on my older stuff, but on this thing it was enough of a pain in the ass, I actually took a loss and sold the car partially dismantled. I broke a bunch of hardware, cut my hands a bunch, and realized I just really, really, really hate working on "newer" cars. Hence, as you can see, I mostly avoid them. They simply aren't fun to tinker with. I do not enjoy it even remotely. I don't have any hatred of computers or fuel injection or anything, there's just too much crap in these things in too tight of a space, and I get whey people simply replace engines now instead of fixing them. They aren't designed to be easily serviced. You couldn't pay me enough to replace a D17A1 cylinder head in-car. I was willing to lose $500 just to not have to do it myself. Stupid "new" cars. Never again.
