Dr. Righteous
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 13, 2016
- Posts
- 432
- Reaction score
- 468
- Location
- Jamestown TN
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- 5.7 hemi
Forgive me since this isn't related to a 4th gen but I think you guys would understand where I'm coming from.
Being a Car Guy (trucks included) makes you different.
I'm really not sentimental about places or personal items but cars and trucks I am. It is because a car or truck is more than just a thing. It has always seemed to be part of the family and a real place holder for certain times in our lives.
Case in point is a certain '99 Dodge Durango. Yesterday I pulled the tarp off of it and was happy to see the tires still had enough air to drive it. At least to get it moved from where it had been sitting for almost a year. What surprised me more was the battery was still hot. The main reason I'm messing with it now is there are some large trees that tend to dropping big branches when the wind is blowing. If one hits the vehicle the cost to fix the damage would be more than the ole girl is worth. I give the key a couple of on/offs before starting so it can build fuel pressure and on cranking she starts right up with a congested sounding idle but it smooths out in in a few moments. I can smell the exhaust, the gas has definitely gone bad. I've go a gallon or so of gas in the can left over from mowing season so I add that to the tank.
I back it up onto the drive way and wheel it around and park it in the front yard since it needs a good wash.
As I set behind the wheel I notice the mold growing on some of the plastic surfaces. The interior stinks. I don't have a dry building I can keep it in. Best I can do is tarp it and leave the windows cracked so there is at least some air circulation.
As I sit there I'm filled with doubt. Why am I hanging on to this thing? I don't need it. Wife doesn't want it. It really isn't worth much and it does need some front end work to make it 100% road worthy again. Ever the optimist a old car guy it has to be I review what is GOOD about it, not what is bad. Over all the paint is still nice. It runs fine, transmission shifts fine. It needs some mechanical work done, the kind I'm good at. I have the tools, the skill. I'll find the time. I just don't have the place. I really needs some kind of work shop where I can keep things organized and clean. I've done my time laying on the ground trying to work on vehicle to find I've laided in a fire ant bed or on a pile of dog sh*t. The biggest downside is I'm getting old and I can easily throw my back out laying the ground under a vehicle contorting trying to get leverage to unbolt something. Now I'm starting to feel sick about the whole thing. "Am I just a fool" I ask myself. " Who cares about this old Dodge. "
Wrapping my fingers around the back of the steering wheel I feel the buttons to change the radio station. I remember that is the one I accidentally broke not long after we bought it.
When I got married I bought this Durango for my wife. It was a few years old at the time but it was very low miles and like new inside and out. It was a surprise for her. She worked hard all her life but never had a descent vehicle to drive. What she had was always something worn out and unreliable. Needless to say she was beyond thrilled. Gosh, we were young, newly married and madly in love. Life was good. But things changed in a few months. She was pregnant and we had long decided that she would forgo her career and stay home and raise any children we were bless with. That being the case we couldn't keep the Durango. The payment was too much for my income alone. But it so happened that Dad really like it and offered to buy it from us. So we sold it to Dad for payoff and really hated to see it go. Well, Dad drove it for a few years until he decided he wanted something different then he sold it to my sister. On Thanksgiving a few years later, we were all at the farm waiting for or siblings to show up with their families. My sister calls and said the have car trouble. The Durango broke down. They had it towed to a mechanic and find engine is shot, had no oil in it. Pretty typical. They never did take care of vehicles.
A couple weeks later I'm relaying this story to my father-in-law. He was perturbed as I was. I told him it was just sitting there waiting to be picked up and my sister didn't want it. He said "Well, lets go get it!" So we hooked up the trailer to his Dodge pickup and do exactly that. I was very glad to see it was back in the family. He had the 318 engine replaced with a low mileage engine and they drove it for several years. But by 2017 both Mamaw and Papaw passed away and we inherited it from their estate. It was still in pretty good shape over all but getting worn for it's age. By this time this old Dodge really held a lot of history in memories for me. It changed hands through different family members and now it has come home in a sense. At first my plan was to work on it and make it like brand new; like it was when I bought it and the wife would love it. It would be like old times again. She quickly let me know she had no interest in it. It was "old and ugly" as she put it. We already promised our '14 Jeep Compass to my son so he isn't interested in what I'm sure he sees as a dinosaur that survived the cataclysm. Wife mentioned we could give it to a nephew. No way. It would end up junk in no time. They don't take care of or appreciate anything.
So there it sits. I review the options in my mind. "Just sell it for whatever I can get and be done with it!" No. It isn't worth that much unfortunately. It is worth more to me that what I can get for. In this case there is something more than pure utilitarian value.
I've said before there is nothing closer to a time machine than a old car (or truck). I can get in my '72 Satellite and Instantly the smell of the interior, and being surrounded by the styling that was popular in the 70s transports me back to when I was a young man. Sitting in the Durango moves me back nearly 20 years when I was younger and looked forward to the possibilities of the future. And here I am that future man wondering what to do with all these memories.
Being a Car Guy (trucks included) makes you different.
I'm really not sentimental about places or personal items but cars and trucks I am. It is because a car or truck is more than just a thing. It has always seemed to be part of the family and a real place holder for certain times in our lives.
Case in point is a certain '99 Dodge Durango. Yesterday I pulled the tarp off of it and was happy to see the tires still had enough air to drive it. At least to get it moved from where it had been sitting for almost a year. What surprised me more was the battery was still hot. The main reason I'm messing with it now is there are some large trees that tend to dropping big branches when the wind is blowing. If one hits the vehicle the cost to fix the damage would be more than the ole girl is worth. I give the key a couple of on/offs before starting so it can build fuel pressure and on cranking she starts right up with a congested sounding idle but it smooths out in in a few moments. I can smell the exhaust, the gas has definitely gone bad. I've go a gallon or so of gas in the can left over from mowing season so I add that to the tank.
I back it up onto the drive way and wheel it around and park it in the front yard since it needs a good wash.
As I set behind the wheel I notice the mold growing on some of the plastic surfaces. The interior stinks. I don't have a dry building I can keep it in. Best I can do is tarp it and leave the windows cracked so there is at least some air circulation.
As I sit there I'm filled with doubt. Why am I hanging on to this thing? I don't need it. Wife doesn't want it. It really isn't worth much and it does need some front end work to make it 100% road worthy again. Ever the optimist a old car guy it has to be I review what is GOOD about it, not what is bad. Over all the paint is still nice. It runs fine, transmission shifts fine. It needs some mechanical work done, the kind I'm good at. I have the tools, the skill. I'll find the time. I just don't have the place. I really needs some kind of work shop where I can keep things organized and clean. I've done my time laying on the ground trying to work on vehicle to find I've laided in a fire ant bed or on a pile of dog sh*t. The biggest downside is I'm getting old and I can easily throw my back out laying the ground under a vehicle contorting trying to get leverage to unbolt something. Now I'm starting to feel sick about the whole thing. "Am I just a fool" I ask myself. " Who cares about this old Dodge. "
Wrapping my fingers around the back of the steering wheel I feel the buttons to change the radio station. I remember that is the one I accidentally broke not long after we bought it.
When I got married I bought this Durango for my wife. It was a few years old at the time but it was very low miles and like new inside and out. It was a surprise for her. She worked hard all her life but never had a descent vehicle to drive. What she had was always something worn out and unreliable. Needless to say she was beyond thrilled. Gosh, we were young, newly married and madly in love. Life was good. But things changed in a few months. She was pregnant and we had long decided that she would forgo her career and stay home and raise any children we were bless with. That being the case we couldn't keep the Durango. The payment was too much for my income alone. But it so happened that Dad really like it and offered to buy it from us. So we sold it to Dad for payoff and really hated to see it go. Well, Dad drove it for a few years until he decided he wanted something different then he sold it to my sister. On Thanksgiving a few years later, we were all at the farm waiting for or siblings to show up with their families. My sister calls and said the have car trouble. The Durango broke down. They had it towed to a mechanic and find engine is shot, had no oil in it. Pretty typical. They never did take care of vehicles.
A couple weeks later I'm relaying this story to my father-in-law. He was perturbed as I was. I told him it was just sitting there waiting to be picked up and my sister didn't want it. He said "Well, lets go get it!" So we hooked up the trailer to his Dodge pickup and do exactly that. I was very glad to see it was back in the family. He had the 318 engine replaced with a low mileage engine and they drove it for several years. But by 2017 both Mamaw and Papaw passed away and we inherited it from their estate. It was still in pretty good shape over all but getting worn for it's age. By this time this old Dodge really held a lot of history in memories for me. It changed hands through different family members and now it has come home in a sense. At first my plan was to work on it and make it like brand new; like it was when I bought it and the wife would love it. It would be like old times again. She quickly let me know she had no interest in it. It was "old and ugly" as she put it. We already promised our '14 Jeep Compass to my son so he isn't interested in what I'm sure he sees as a dinosaur that survived the cataclysm. Wife mentioned we could give it to a nephew. No way. It would end up junk in no time. They don't take care of or appreciate anything.
So there it sits. I review the options in my mind. "Just sell it for whatever I can get and be done with it!" No. It isn't worth that much unfortunately. It is worth more to me that what I can get for. In this case there is something more than pure utilitarian value.
I've said before there is nothing closer to a time machine than a old car (or truck). I can get in my '72 Satellite and Instantly the smell of the interior, and being surrounded by the styling that was popular in the 70s transports me back to when I was a young man. Sitting in the Durango moves me back nearly 20 years when I was younger and looked forward to the possibilities of the future. And here I am that future man wondering what to do with all these memories.