<VV> Why keep it?

[Chuck Kubin]

---convince 
me why
I should keep my crappy old Corvair?  I bought this car from a "well
respectd member of the Corvair community" and I've done nothing but 
work on
it since I got it.  -----
 
This can and does happen. Especially with old cars, nothing stays fixed forever. Hell, with cars like mine, nothing stays fixed for long. The only solution is to buy fully, professionally-restored cars with the understanding that the technology is still as old as the car.
 
  -----I'm demoralized.  I knew I was buying an old 
car
but this is just stupid.---- 

---- Yeah they're fun but the price I've paid for 
that
fun is WAY to high.----
 
Sorry, but I can replace my entire Corvair front end myself for what I'd have to pay my dealer to put upper ball joints on my 2002, 2wd truck. If cost is the issue, stay away from almost all other collector/antique/restorable cars, except for maybe old VWs. 

----stupid old cars - they suck---
For many years my dad would only buy used cars on the philosophy that if you buy old cars, you have old car problems. If you buy new cars, you get new car problems. He was right. Also, I'm a licensed aircraft mechanic with 35 years of working on Corvairs plus plenty of other mechanical and electrical experience. I would rather pull a Corvair drivetrain than try to troubleshoot an electrical or emissions problem on the new truck. I would have to think about losing an arm versus work under a new car's dashboard, but it would be a consideration. I'll fix the Corvair, but there's plenty of things I'll pay to have done on something newer. Anthing with a computer is twice as hard to troubleshoot (5X if you need and don't have special tools) and 20X times more expensive if the compyter goes out.
My advice: weigh your desire for the car against what you are willing to do with it. Could be a bad match, especially if you don't like this kind of work. All old cars take some sort of tweeking. If you are unskilled and have to pay someone to do all of it, NO old car is a good idea in the face of the expense. You'll never recoup your investment. If you feel like you got a bum deal, talk to the previous owner but keep a couple of things in mind: he's not responsible for things that break after you buy it (popping through the carb, rust in a new area) or something he didn't handle himself (did HE paint over rust?). 
Listen to the fixes the guys suggest. I'd hate to see you abandon Corvairs over relatively simple problems.
 
Chuck Kubin


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