Hi guys as you can see at the title i want to know about classics at the daily drive… İ know its not like present cars but i love the classics soo much and i want to get in one of them… So you guys tell me if i use for daily drive whats waiting for me and you can tell which car i’m gonna choose for daily drive and whats the most easy one
You want to use a classic car for daily driving just does not make sense. Besides how could someone tell you what to drive and don’t even know your budget. There are usually as agreed insurance values and mileage restrictions involved.
Classic cars are such a personal taste just look on line until you find something.
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If you’re in Cuba, nobody will notice.
If you’re in NYC, it’ll get stolen.
If you’re in New Mexico, you’ll struggle with vapor lock. And unless you install AC you’ll probably broil.
If you’re in NH, every time you drive through a deep puddle you’ll need to “ride the brake pedal” to dry the drums out.
If you get in a headon accident with a modern car, you’ll probably get crushed.
You can expect to do a tuneup every 10,000 miles. Maybe less. And lube the chassis.
And when it needs to be repaired you should expect to have to search for parts. Possibly for months.
A classic is not a good car for a daily driver. But I too love 'em.
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well the first car I own was a sweet 1966 Plymouth fury would love to have another.
My first was a '61 Beetle. While I’d love to have one restored to putt around town, I certainly wouldn’t consider it a daily driver.
İ live in seattle and i just want to drive 65-68 mustang and i have max 20.000 dollars
You can buy a hardtop with a 6-cyl and maybe a 289ci V8. It will likely be driveable, but there are a few issues:
- Rust is a problem with anything from this era. Even if you find one in Arizona in good condition, it will be prone to rust in Seattle, especially if you drive it during winter with salted roads.
- They brakes will be lousy, unless the previous owner upgraded them or you do. The car will likely have drum brakes, and the least expensive econobox on the road will have better brakes than you will. The pads can be replaced with better compounds, or you could put disk brakes on at some considerable expense.
- The car requires a lot more maintenance than a modern car. You really should change oil every 3000 miles, instead of the 5000 to 10,000 miles for modern cars.
If you really want one, keep it for good weather and don’t commute with it. Use a second car for a commuter. The Mustang can be insured at attractive prices by a classic car insurer, but only if you don’t use it every day. You also might not get the insurance value you want from a traditional insurer. Talk to your insurance company any see how much they would insure a 1966 Mustang you buy for $20,000. The classic car insurers will do agreed value insurance, but your traditional insurer probably won’t.
Especially in Seattle. Rumor is it rains there. 
Getting my license in 1970 I drove classics as daily drivers, you can replace points with HEI, if not forthe rust problems I would probably still be driving it today. If you are handy, and live in a salt free zone why not!
I remember those Mustangs from my high school days and they don’t make 'em like they used to…THANK GOD!!!
The cars of that era were designed and built with the expectation of a 3 year / 50,000 mile life, at a time when gas was cheap and nobody even considered safety or pollution.
And that was when the car was new, so imagine what the car’s like 50 years later
If you’re looking for the '60’s sporty style in a much better all around package, consider a used Miata, MR2, Mini, Crossfire or even a Boxster. All the style and thrills in a better performing and much more reliable, efficient and safer package.
And BTW, I have a similar vintage car so I completely understand the attraction but I also have a modern car for regular transportation needs. That 'Stang may be beautiful on a Spring day but not so much when won’t start after a rain, the brakes fail because they’re wet or you’re broken down in the middle of night in the middle of nowhere because of failed points/sticking float/overheating.
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… and when the carburetor needs to be rebuilt–or even adjusted–you might search for years before you find an elderly mechanic who is still working, because younger mechanics don’t actually understand how those primitive devices work.
Pretty well sums it up. Our 50s family car needed a grease job and oil change every 1000 miles or so. Oil changes with the newer oils would still be every 3000 miles. A tune up every 10,000 miles with new plugs and points was in order. With today’s plugs that would be extended.
Safety and rust protection were very inferior to today’s levels. Ongoing reliability was also considerably lower.
LOL, good one. We often get posts here from OPs who can’t get carbureted cars fixed.
The current issue of Roadkill magazine is all about using classic cars as daily drivers. One of the daily driver classics they feature is a Camaro bought new around 1970 by a scientist who later became and is currently the director of the Mt Wilson observatory in the mountains above Los Angeles. He still drives his classic Camaro up the mountain to work every day. The article describes what the owner has found are the up- and down-sides of driving a classic as your every day car. Finding a good shop who knows what they are doing to keep it in good, safe condition is one of the challenges he mentions. He bought a back-up car, a newer Mazda, for when his classic is in the shop. Suggest if you want to do the daily driver classic thing, focus on make/models that still have a lot of them on the road. Makes finding parts easier. Camaro, Mustang, VW Beetle, Ford and Chevy pickup trucks, etc.
In my area there’s a used car dealership that sells only classic cars. Mostly American muscle cars and pickups from the 50’s through early 70’s. A few of those big land yachts from the 30’s too. See if you can find a place like that in your area, b/c the folks who work there can address a lot of your questions since they deal with classic cars every day.
Rain? Seattle? Not too much, actually. Everywhere east of the Mississippi gets more rain. The rain forest on the Olympic Penninsula gets some big rain, but not so much east of the sound. Westerners only think it’s a lot of rain because they are used to much less. If you go north from Seattle to Anacortas, there’s only about 12 inches of rain each year, while Seattle gets around 40 inches. We get about 45 inches per year, and NH probably does, too.
If we loved driving our classic cars from the 50’s on up so much, we never would have bought those 5-10 new cars to replace them. Fun once in a while but a pain every day.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with using an older car as an everyday driver. Some years ago a brother in law gave me a 1969 VW Beetle with an Automatic Stick and a leaking converter seal.
I changed the seal and it became my daily driver to work (50 miles a day round trip) for a long time.
An old farmer here who passed away about half a dozen years ago was still driving a '65 Bel Air that he bought new back in the day. And he drove this thing daily.
Same for a neighbor of mine. He bought a '71 Chevy pickup (6 cylinder with 3 on the tree) back in the mid 70s and he still drives that truck to work and everywhere else on a daily basis. Motor and trans have never been touched. The only flaw in it is a huge dent where he backed into it with a tractor.
As others have mentioned, the sticky point might be getting someone to dink around with the carburetor if a hiccup develops. Carburetors are basically simple devices so a manual combined with a little study time could teach you enough to handle any problem that ever cropped up.
Keep in mind that the ethanol laced gas that is currently available at the pump will play havoc with the fuel lines, fuel pump and carburetor on your vintage Mustang. Points ignitions are also a PIA.
If you REALLY want a vintage daily driver Mustang you very much want to do a few things;
Install aftermarket carburetor and fuel pump on the car with brand new fuel lines tank to carb. OR better, install a retrofit fuel injection system with new fuel lines and electric pump. Tricky on a 6, easy on the V8. Install a bigger alternator, you’ll need it.
Install electronic trigger ignition in a modern distributor with vacuum and mechanical advance - DUI has one.
Install disk brakes on the front from a Granada. Cheap and easy swap. Add a vacuum brake booster because you WILL need the power assist. Lots of kits available for this.
The car may or may not have seat belts (lap belt only). At least install lap belts. Safer than nothing but far more risk than a modern 3 point belt.
AC can be installed. There are good kits out there but maybe not needed in Seattle.
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That’s true. Vintage Air seems to be the most popular.
I love classics. And we all drove them in our early years. Well, all of us with 'mileage on the clock" did. But we also lived with their shortcomings, and gave them the TLC they needed to keep going. They were all we had, so that’s what we drove.
But in today’s world, besides their shortcomings in brakes, handling, reliability, and rust resistance, and their need for much more maintenance, there’s also a gasoline issue. The gaskets of those days don’t all stand up to 10% ethanol. And with fewer and fewer shops around that can rebuild carburetors, that could be a problem that’ll put the car in the garage for a long time.
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If all else fails there’s places you can mail your carb to for rebuilds.