Say What?
The staff speaks and you listen. It's that simple. This month's question is:
How many vehicles have you owned, and what happened to each one?
Mike: I've had 17 cars and trucks. Damn, I must have ADD.
'71 Camaro - Crashed and totaled.
'86 Buick Skylark - Borrowed and returned to mom with bald tires.
'91 Honda CRX - Bought and sold when CRXs were still cool.
'71 Datsun 240Z - Bought it, loved it, lost it to a thief.
'94 Toyota pickup - Bought it, customized it, traded it in on a Nissan 4x4.
'96 Nissan Hardbody 4x4 - Jumped it. A lot. Traded it in on a truck I could lower.
'83 Ford F-150/250 - $300 winter beater truck. Gave it away when the snow melted.
'97 Toyota Tacoma - Bought it, customized it, loved it, but couldn't afford all the tickets so I traded it away.
'91 Chevy Crew Cab dualie - Traded for it, got hit in it, and totaled it.
'01 Chevy Crew Cab longbed 2500HD - Bought it, jumped it, traded it in.
'03 Toyota Tundra Access Cab - Bought it, built a prerunner out of it, jumped it, sold it.
'83 Suncrest motorhome - A gift from my folks that fell apart. Traded it away.
'87 Chevy Crew Cab dualie - Traded for it, then traded it away.
'69 Chevy C10 shortbed - Traded for it, customized it, then it was stolen.
'71 Chevy C10 longbed - Bought for parts, traded to a jerk who never came through on his end of the deal.
'67 Chevy C10 shortbed - Paid too much for it. Currently under construction and killing my wallet.
'96 Chevy Crew Cab dualie - Bought it, fixed it up, sold it at a loss.
Calin: '64-1/2 Ford Mustang - Sold.
'71 Chevrolet Blazer - Sold.
'70 SS 396 Chevelle - Traded for the Blazer below.
'72 Chevrolet Blazer - Sold. Bought back the same Chevelle with some of the money.
'70 SS 396 Chevelle - Traded for a '78 Camino plus some cash.
'78 Chevrolet El Camino - The guy never came up with the cash, so I had to give back the Elco and repo the Chevelle.
'70 SS 396 Chevelle - Sold.
'66 SS Chevrolet Nova - Stolen.
'79 Chevrolet El Camino - Sold.
'62 Ford Galaxie - Sold.
'66 Chevelle - Stolen.
'67 Chevrolet truck - Sold.
'00 Toyota Tacoma - Sold.
'71 Chevrolet van - Given to a friend in dire straits.
'68 Chevrolet truck - Still own.
'89 Chevrolet S-10 - Still own.
'88 Buick Century - Still own.
Galen: I can't say that I have owned a lot of vehicles like Mike or Calin; in fact, I haven't even owned a quarter of the vehicles that either one of those guys has owned. So here is the short list:
'74 Ford Courier - Lowered, custom wheels, stereo. Given away for a tax write-off
'95 Honda Civic - Lowered, custom wheels, stereo, interior, paint, and a fully built motor. Sitting out at a friend's body shop.
'95 Mitsubishi Macrocab - 'Bagged, shaved, custom wheels, stereo, miscellaneous bolt-ons. Waiting to go under the knife.
'07 Chevy Colorado - You will have to wait and see.
Kevin: '00 Chevy S-10 - Repainted, airbagged, and still driven daily.
'94 Nissan 240SX - Drift-car project sold to help my wife buy a new '07 Chevy Silverado Classic
'62 GMC truck- Recently acquired project; alternate daily driver.
Andy: Let's see, the other guys may have more interesting stories to tell about all of their trucks; I don't have any wild stories about getting them impounded, stolen, heavily modified, or anything like that. In fact, my list is pretty short, so here goes.
'70 Chevy Nova - I think my Dad bought it for me from a friend for like 600 bucks. It had a hole in the block from a thrown piston, but otherwise it was in good shape. It pretty much sat in the garage and never got worked on, so it got sold.
'70s Caltrans-orange Dodge pickup - Not just painted Caltrans orange, but really a bought-at-auction Caltrans truck. Don't laugh, that orange paint was pretty damn clean and I kept it that way. I could always spot my truck in a parking lot, and it became known as "The Pumpkin" to anybody who knew me.
'91 Mitsubishi Mighty Max - That little truck was a lot of fun. Nice and clean with wheels and tires, a bedcover and liner, tinted windows, and everything else. I had that truck for about six years and 160,000 miles.
'01 Dodge Dakota - My work in progress which you guys may have seen being worked on in some recent issues.
'54 Pontiac Star Chief - I guess I really missed that old Pumpkin because I recently acquired a Caltrans-orange '54 Pontiac Star Chief. It's got a cream top, so I think that one's new name is "Creamsicle." This one is a project car that I'm still saving up some time and money to work on.
Sport Truck Slang Term O' The Month
#1,958: rat rod n. According to Wikipedia.com, a "'Rat Rod' is a style of Hot Rod or Custom car that, in most cases, poorly imitates (or exaggerates) the early hot rods of the '40s, '50s, and '60s. It is not to be confused with the somewhat closely related 'Traditional' Hot Rod, which is an accurate recreation or period-correct restoration of a Hot Rod from the same era."Most Rat Rods appear 'unfinished' (whether they actually are or are not), with just the bare essentials to be driven. More recently however, a trend has arisen of making the Rat Rod vehicle appear and/or perform 'unsafe' or 'scary.'"