Anyone here who's retired and loves cars (or restoring them)?

[Keim]

I am not retired. Can I play? This is my first car. Bought around 1984. I've been restoring it over the last few years. I paid someone to paint it last year. Then I went through and gave the engine a serious detailing (including fresh paint/POR15). I'll be gutting the interior myself in a few weeks. New upholstery on order.
The original motor has been rebuilt. Not by me. I do general maintenance, but nothing that advanced. Put in a better cam, and edelbrock carb/manifold. I recently took this car on a 12hr trip to Portland OR, and back. It performed beautifully. Beautiful drive through the Columbia River Gorge!

[38Chevy454]

I am not retired yet, couple years to go. Besides my username giving an indicator, I pretty much do car stuff when I am not at work or doing house stuff. Not into restorations, but instead hot rodding and racing.

My current list of older cars:
1937 Chevy Utility Coupe (aka "ute") from Australia - all stock for now
1937 Ford Utility Coupe from Australia - hot rod, currently disassembled for new paint and some modifications
1938 Chevy 2 dr sedan - namesake and hot rodded
1949 Ford COE - very modified hot rod truck (small pic in avatar)
1952 GMC pickup - current hot rod in progress
1955 Studebaker Coupe - future landspeed race car project, goal to go 200+ mph. Not running, it is just a rolling shell with no engine/trans or interior.
1963 Dodge Town Wagon -future project, not running
1968 Pontiac GTO - all original and had for 34 years now, will never sell it

Plus currently have 4 newer vehicles incl a motorhome. Add in a tractor and a couple trailers and it keeps me busy. I have a large 26x48 detached shop garage for working on the cars and do most all of my own work. I definitely will not have a problem with what to do once retired. I go to several car shows now and like driving my old cars around, that is what they are for. Drive and enjoy them.

People think the old cars are expensive, but if you do a lot of the work yourself, it is not too bad. I have never lost money on any old car, although my labor rate if calculated would be less than minimum wage sometimes.......

Just drove my 38 Chevy this past weekend all over on Sat, about 100 miles total, with a smile on my face the whole time!

[travelover]

I don't have any old cars, but I'm amazed every time I drive around on a warm weekend when many garage doors are left open, to see how many people do. This is in SE Michigan, so maybe we are a little car crazy.

Every August, when the Woodward Dream Cruise happens, the sheer number of cars that appear is astounding.

[Keim]

Decided to show a few shots from my recent Oregon roadtrip.

The car.


Mt. Hood as seen near The Dalles.



Palouse Falls

Columbia River Gorge

[check6]

Keim, beautiful car...thanks for posting the pic. I have to make that drive some day.

[Keim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by check6 Keim, beautiful car...thanks for posting the pic. I have to make that drive some day.

It is well worth it if you are anywhere near. I did the scenic route, and stopped at each of the falls along the way. Even the interstate thru is gorgeous.

[dvalley]

Beautiful cars including the 60's Land Rover! Great to see so many enthusiasts here and I can relate to many of you. I guess I've gone through various stages as to what I enjoy about cars. At first it was just having fast cars, then it was modifying them to go faster, after that I got into racing and got my racing license with SCCA and NASA. After that I got involved in motorcycles and 4x4/wheeling and then I slowed down, now I drive a mundane Honda. However, at this stage I simply enjoy buying a bland or 'undesirable model' car and making it work. Replacing tired suspension, rebuilding their abused/neglected motors/transmissions etc and then watching them come alive gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I do wish I had Jay Leno type of a garage/warehouse with everything from a Buggati Veron to an Ariel Atom to an old Studebaker - that guy is a serious car nut, one that doesn't hesitate to spend money on something he's passionate about.

[eytonxav]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvalley Beautiful cars including the 60's Land Rover! Great to see so many enthusiasts here and I can relate to many of you. I guess I've gone through various stages as to what I enjoy about cars. At first it was just having fast cars, then it was modifying them to go faster, after that I got into racing and got my racing license with SCCA and NASA. After that I got involved in motorcycles and 4x4/wheeling and then I slowed down, now I drive a mundane Honda. However, at this stage I simply enjoy buying a bland or 'undesirable model' car and making it work. Replacing tired suspension, rebuilding their abused/neglected motors/transmissions etc and then watching them come alive gives me a sense of accomplishment. I do wish I had Jay Leno type of a garage/warehouse with everything from a Buggati Veron to an Ariel Atom to an old Studebaker - that guy is a serious car nut, one that doesn't hesitate to spend money on something he's passionate about.

I have considered getting into 250cc superkart racing. With your racing blood, I'd bet you would enjoy that.
Google Image Result for http://coolmanstuff.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/250cc-superkart.jpg

[splitwdw]

The kart racing is a lot of fun just be aware that it's hard on your body. You feel like you've been beat up after a race.

[HFWR]

As a younger man, I HAD to work on cars a lot, just to keep my old clinkers on the road. Now, I want to turn the key or push the button and have the car go "vrrrooom".

Same with computers; at one time it was interesting to fuss with IRQs and DMAs and formatting drives, etc., but not any more...

With an unlimited budget and a big, well-equipped shop, it "might" be fun to build or restore a hotrod or muscle car. Neither of those are likely, so...

[Animorph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by splitwdw The kart racing is a lot of fun just be aware that it's hard on your body. You feel like you've been beat up after a race.

That's the main reason I've been avoiding it.

Although I gave up Porsche Club time trials when I became a little bored (?!?) with it. After a few years on the same track it was been there and done that, and the first kid was on the way so free time kind of disappeared. I had my 944 Turbo out quite a bit until then. My current Carrera 4 has never been on the track, so maybe one final time sometime.

I did get a few laps in with a Ferrari 458 Italia in Las Vegas a couple of years ago through one of the exotic car driving places. That was fun, and I can still run fast, though I was having problems remembering which paddle did what. Start up was pretty strange too.

[dvalley]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention my short stint with 150cc sifter karts too. Huge rush but very dangerous in the door-to-door racing setup. I had a couple of karts launch in the air grazing me after having a tire-to-tire contact. As I said it was a short stint and I didn't necessarily enjoy it. Yes 100% agreed on getting beat up...you have to be very fit. I remember after my first time I was out of breath, my mouth was dry and my ribs hurt for weeks - this was only a 6-8 lap practice run.

[eytonxav]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvalley Ah yes, I forgot to mention my short stint with 150cc sifter karts too. Huge rush but very dangerous in the door-to-door racing setup. I had a couple of karts launch in the air grazing me after having a tire-to-tire contact. As I said it was a short stint and I didn't necessarily enjoy it. Yes 100% agreed on getting beat up...you have to be very fit. I remember after my first time I was out of breath, my mouth was dry and my ribs hurt for weeks - this was only a 6-8 lap practice run.

Yep, shifter karts are fun, but for a real adrenal boost, 250cc superkarts come as close to F1 as the average Joe will ever get. Definitely you will pull some big Gs and if your not in shape or your reflexes have slowed and/or you don't have access to a big road course, its not for most.

[splitwdw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR .......With an unlimited budget and a big, well-equipped shop, it "might" be fun to build or restore a hotrod or muscle car. Neither of those are likely, so...

We don't have an unlimited budget but we've got the well equipped shop.

[Rdub]

It is one of my favorite hobbies. Took 6 years to build my 63 vette. Took it auto crossing and fell in love with the sport. Currently building a 69 Camaro, and will sell the 63 to make room in the garage. Will play with that for a year or so, buy the new z06 and sell the Camaro. The z06 will be my track / autocross car when I re. Can't wait!

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvalley .....................now I drive a mundane Honda. However, at this stage I simply enjoy buying a bland or 'undesirable model' car and making it work. Replacing tired suspension, rebuilding their abused/neglected motors/transmissions etc and then watching them come alive gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I think the same thing is happening to me. I used to be able to yank an engine out of a car and rebuild it from top to bottom, then re-do the car's body and spray it myself in a friend's garage. I rebuilt a few really nice cars back several years ago.

Now I still have the tools, the knowledge, the money, the time, but I don't have the drive and physical conditioning to do what's necessary in a big event like back then. So I seem to putz around on my daily drive and do all that it needs to survive for a long time and be a fun drive.

I just picked up some costly performance suspension parts and they are sitting on my workbench, waiting for me to get with it. But somehow, I have not been motivated to put the car on jack stands and spend a few days pulling stuff out and replacing it with the goodies. I need to have a serious talk with myself...

[dvalley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 I think the same thing is happening to me. I used to be able to yank an engine out of a car and rebuild it from top to bottom, then re-do the car's body and spray it myself in a friend's garage. I rebuilt a few really nice cars back several years ago. Now I still have the tools, the knowledge, the money, the time, but I don't have the drive and physical conditioning to do what's necessary in a big event like back then. So I seem to putz around on my daily drive and do all that it needs to survive for a long time and be a fun drive. I just picked up some costly performance suspension parts and they are sitting on my workbench, waiting for me to get with it. But somehow, I have not been motivated to put the car on jack stands and spend a few days pulling stuff out and replacing it with the goodies. I need to have a serious talk with myself...

I hear you, I'm 39 and approaching the cliff quickly and already I can tell my body isn't as flexible as it once was. But here's something that has been a HUGE help to me when working on cars. I purchased a BendPak P6 lift several years ago and haven't looked back - I honestly can't believe I worked on cars with jacks and jack stands before that. I consider it an "investment" for my sanity, safety and enjoyment

[Willers]

Only soon-to-be-retired but this has been a passion forever. My latest fun car was a 1970 Grabber (Lime) Green Mustang Mach 1 with a shaker hood, a 351 Cleveland motor and a 4.11 rear end. Highway driving wasn't fun, but 0-60 sure was. Plus, that shaker was always a hit at stoplights.

My deal with DW was that I'd never spend a dime on mechanical work (labor) and I held to that. I learned a ton and had a lot of fun working on a number of different cars. I estimate that I spent about 5 hours working on them for every hour I drove them. I think my wife was really starting to wonder about my sanity.

I sold out when we moved to the city and I lost the garage space (an wanted to buy a boat). The best part was that they turned out to be my best investment return in that time period.

I'm hoping that in retirement I can get another one to work on. I'm planning to learn to weld when I'm done so that would be a good excuse to practice!

[jclarksnakes]

I like muscle cars and sports cars. My current ride is a 2002 ZO6 Corvette. In the 7 years I have had it I have done all the maintenance on it. If I replace it it will be with a 2015 or 2016 ZO6.

[Mr._Graybeard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keim It is well worth it if you are anywhere near. I did the scenic route, and stopped at each of the falls along the way. Even the interstate thru is gorgeous.

Keim, I knew a guy who bought a very similar Monte Carlo off the showroom floor. Same color, same landau roof. He had white upholstery with swivel buckets. I rode in the car many times.