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"Back in the day" Old fart rants.


bobbywalter

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For $65-75k the Caddy doesn't do me much good... and they are friggin ugly too.

As I was sitting in a rest area last night with a limping horse (F-150) I was:

Glad I had:
1. My tuner/code scanner
2. A smartphone to look up codes
3. A flashlight to find the injector to unplug so I could limp it home on 7 without melting down the cats (coil pack died)

And wishing I had:
1. My Ranger so it would be four screws and two connectors on the fender skirt and throw in my $20 spare coil for all 8 cylinders I keep behind the seat without burning the &*@! out of my hand on the thermostat.

I just changed the intake gaskets on the thing over the weekend (easier to change head gaskets on the V8 Ranger BTW) and must have upset the natural order of things... so now I have one new $54 coil on the counter and wondering how many more of other 7 are going to get upset too.

Power and all that is nice, but it is nice to have simple too. And my '02 is a dinosaur compared to a newer truck for simplicity.


:D

yes....i can see it. at first all of the other coils will make fun of the new coil.... then secretly realize they are not doing so well themselves....thats when you will really be pissed.. of course only when its cold as fawk and blowing like a banshee out will they fail one lemming at a time. :icon_rofl:



i really like the mechanical diesels for the same reason you like the 302, although the eec4 302 i would prefer over a 4bbl.....

and like you say the v8 is easier to pop headgaskets on for most....especially the setups i prefer. my truck is cake to work on verse a oem one, especially a cammer.


i like the looks of the cadillacs though...and 60 g seems like a fair price for one of those beasts off the lot and new. 60-80 k for a pickup with no true off road prowess upscale of a powerwagon is not.

but thats all in the eye of the beholder right?

my biggest bitch, like Will stated, is a no nonsense truck offering with a diesel pulling 25 plus mpg and 230 hp and say 430 ft pounds or so that is 30 k and 4x4. well i guess the ram ecodiesel and the new nissan will fill the gap within reason....but to not offer it the last 15 years, then pull the rangers out on top of that is a blatant kick in the nads from ford.

and why the old days always seem to look so good and spark justified rants like this thread to one degree or another.
 


85_Ranger4x4

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:D

yes....i can see it. at first all of the other coils will make fun of the new coil.... then secretly realize they are not doing so well themselves....thats when you will really be pissed.. of course only when its cold as fawk and blowing like a banshee out will they fail one lemming at a time. :icon_rofl:
And that is exactly what I am scared of. :fie:

I know carb has its limitations but so far I haven't had many bother me.

I would still rather have the truck, I need a truck more than a car :)
 

Turbroke

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Here's something I really like from "back in the day"...a little before my time, but still plentiful when I was young. METAL DASHBOARDS & INSTRUMENT PANELS. I prefer older (pre 96') vehicles and often wish I could simply sand and paint my crappy looking, sun baked, cracked, dried out and faded vinyl. My beloved 88' Turbo Coupe has spots that are literally turning to vinyl dust. I wonder how car restorers in the future will deal with ancient, decaying, vinyl interiors. Hmm... :icon_idea: Maybe I'll fabricate a metal dash for my 90' Ranger.
 

Dune Runner

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Here's something I really like from "back in the day"...a little before my time, but still plentiful when I was young. METAL DASHBOARDS & INSTRUMENT PANELS. I prefer older (pre 96') vehicles and often wish I could simply sand and paint my crappy looking, sun baked, cracked, dried out and faded vinyl. My beloved 88' Turbo Coupe has spots that are literally turning to vinyl dust. I wonder how car restorers in the future will deal with ancient, decaying, vinyl interiors. Hmm... :icon_idea: Maybe I'll fabricate a metal dash for my 90' Ranger.
My 57 Chevy had the metal dash. Hell everything was metal. When I painted it the interior got matching color. Loved that truck. It's in my albums. Come to think of it my Jeep had a metal dash too.
 

Turbroke

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Yup. Jeeps had em for a long time. I just passed up a 1966 jeep in nice running condition for $2000.00. Metal all around. Should have grabbed it. My dad had a 70's jeep that I recall was all metal too. Good, basic, rugged American made stuff that lasted forever and could be repaired used to be the norm. I still look for those kinds of things when buying stuff. Best value out there.
 

Turbroke

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Another thing I miss from the old days is the old folks. My grandparents generation that lived through WWI, the great depression, WWII, McCarthy, Korea, Viet Nam, the gas crisis etc. etc. They lived through the toughest times this country ever faced and did it with grace and no complaints. They were proud to be Americans, worked hard and knew the difference between their asses and elbows. They are called "the greatest generation" for a reason. This country would never had turned in the direction it did under their watch because they knew what was important, had values and stood up with conviction for the things they believed in. Most of all they were not afraid to take action or sacrifice on behalf of those beliefs. Every generation after theirs has been truly pathetic by comparison if you ask me. They would be utterly horrified by what their offspring allowed this country to become. Horrified and disgusted.
 

kimcrwbr1

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You mean back when you had to polarize the generator to get the charging system to work and the wipers didnt work when you put the skinny pedal to the floor:)
 

85_Ranger4x4

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Another thing I miss from the old days is the old folks. My grandparents generation that lived through WWI, the great depression, WWII, McCarthy, Korea, Viet Nam, the gas crisis etc. etc. They lived through the toughest times this country ever faced and did it with grace and no complaints. They were proud to be Americans, worked hard and knew the difference between their asses and elbows. They are called "the greatest generation" for a reason. This country would never had turned in the direction it did under their watch because they knew what was important, had values and stood up with conviction for the things they believed in. Most of all they were not afraid to take action or sacrifice on behalf of those beliefs. Every generation after theirs has been truly pathetic by comparison if you ask me. They would be utterly horrified by what their offspring allowed this country to become. Horrified and disgusted.
Their offspring that apparently after generations of "good people" supposedly turned the countery down the path it is on now? Who raised those kids?

My great grandfather was probably from the same generation as your grandparents and used to laugh that every generation he knew of thought things were going to heck in a handbasket. Said it had been like that as far back as he knew. 1909-2006.

The older stuff has some quirks like polarizing... two of my tractors get along fine with generators though. The third one has one but only uses it as a belt tightner... with a magneto it only needs a battery to start with the starter motor and I haven't gotten around to replacing the cutout with a regulator to run 12v. I wonder how many 2015 tractors will be around in 70 years...
 
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Mike Tonon

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Lets see, I'm only 28, but, when I was young we only had two TV's. One in the living room (RCA Colortrak 25"), got about 53 channels and was the first thing in the house with a remote control. The other TV was in my parents bedroom (Hitachi 19" with the two knobs on the side), that one only got about 12 channels.

We had a JVC stereo in the living room that was about the size of a mini fridge and the speaker boxes, about the size of coolers.

Dad bought a fancy VCR made by NEC in 1988. And when my mom got it out of him that it was something like $600, they started arguing.

Dad had a 1987 Ford Ranger with the 2.9, 5-speed, long bed and XLT.
Mom had a 1983 Subaru Wagon GL 5-speed (or it might have been only 4, not sure). The spare tire was stored under the hood on top of the engine. Both vehicles had trim rings and separate hub caps on steel rims, which if memory serves me well, was common back then. Both vehicles were loaded with chrome and had pinstripes, but no A/C. A lot of vehicles around that era had the 55 marked on the speedometer (the Ranger did, not sure about the Subaru), because it was the national speed limit up until about 1990. I didn't even know what air conditioning was, until I was about 4 and we got a used A/C from my grandfather for the house.

We had a swimming pool that my dads childhood neighbors bought around 1970 and my parents bought used around 1984. It had a funky looking black and white pebble pattern wall and the filter skimmer hung on top of the rail down into the water. We used to have to take the top off when we went swimming or it would detach and float around the pool.

We had Mr. Bosse on one side of us. He was an old Mainer, who was a sort of jack of all trades and was a real man (you know, the type that the world is really trying to eliminate today). He taught me a lot, like garbage picking. He used to add unto his house and shed/garage/carport with stuff from the transfer station and on the side of the road. When he went to sell his house and had it inspected, boy, was he pissed! He grew up in Maine with the neighbor on the other side of us and they hated each other. It was like that movie Grumpy Old Men, but worse.

We had two home phones and one was a rotary. We got our first cordless phone around 1989.

We had no snowblower, used to have a couple aluminum snow shovels.
 
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Turbroke

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When I was a kid I spent summers and weekends at my grandparents house. Granddad had just bought a brand new 1974 Vega station wagon to replace his old 64 ford wagon we used to call "the tank". It had more rust than metal, and smoked more than granddad did, so it was time for it to go. We got our drinking water from a local spring cause the "good" water came from the lake and nobody trusted the old hand pump well. He had a neighbor who was 96 at the time, and called granddad "kid" - I always got a kick out of that. My gramps and me would take the garbage to the dump, and come back with more junk than we brought. when I was a kid the dump was a magic place to me where one found all the coolest stuff you ever wanted, and got ideas for all sorts of crazy contraptions and projects for free. My backyard engineering skills came from my granddad and all the treasures picked out of the dump every other Saturday. There were no malls back then, and even if there was- nothing could have compared to the junkyard finds to me. Pure treasure and awesome memories.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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I don't remember it but my parents used to rent a VCR when the wanted to watch a movie shortly after they got married because they were so ungodly expensive.

I don't know when they got the first one, it lasted from as long as I cared about a VCR as a little kid up until right before I got out of high school.
 

Mike Tonon

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I remember renting video tapes that had a sticker on them that said"be kind, rewind".

How about, "55, stay alive"?
 

85_Ranger4x4

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I don't remember the 55 thing, I am only 30 so it was gone long before I started driving.

My Ranger has 55 a different color on the speedo than the rest of the numbers to help you not go over... as if that was a problem with the 2.8. Maybe it was more of a goal to aspire to. :icon_idea:

Rewinding tapes, yup.
 
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Napabandit

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I knew a couple Spanish American war vets, sons of Civil War vets. My grandfather went from farming with mules to the modern equipment of today. I have plowed and harvested with mule teams myself. The older I get, the more I enjoy history. If I could have a vehicle with modern reliability, old school simplicity, modern mileage and good old torque I would be happy.
 

Turbroke

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I don't remember the 55 thing, I am only 30 so it was gone long before I started driving.

My Ranger has 55 a different color on the speedo than the rest of the numbers to help you not go over... as if that was a problem with the 2.8. Maybe it was more of a goal to aspire to. :icon_idea:

Rewinding tapes, yup.
LMAO. Yes. There were many 80's cars that I thought painted that 55 in bright orange as some kind of sick challenge. Personally, I think that was the most disgraceful decade ever for automotive innovation. Crappy designs, lame motors and awful transmissions. Thank god I was a poor kid and had to drive used "junkers" from the 60's and 70's. Come to think of it, I only owned two 80's vehicles in my whole life...an 84' Dodge short bed van w/318 in 1987 (Awesome!) and an 88' Turbo Coupe just recently (Also Awesome); however, these were rare exceptions- 90% of 80's vehicles sucked bad.
 

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