Things you had to do to old cars that you don't have to anymore with newer cars. Go!

Taking it to the scrapyard when it rolled over on 100k.

When my dad’s 67 Impala hit that milestone (after only two radiator replacements) he declared it to be the finest vehicle ever made.
Our grad class held a car wash as a fundraiser. This was May or June 1975. I was cleaning the interior of a bronzey/gold '67 Impala, and as an avid car guy, noticed that the odometer was at 99,xxx miles.

I commented to the owner, a middle-aged man, on what good shape the car was in for its age (8 years!) and high mileage.

He replied that it "still ran pretty good, most days".

The powertrain was likely a 283 2-bbl with Powerglide.
 
Dad’s was a 327 with the Powerglide. In today’s age of CVT and 10-speed transmissions a two speed seems almost unbelievable.
 
Back in the day not hearing the guy behind you hit the horn when the light was green for more than a second.
On the morning commute everyone had the cold motor cough and stall with carburetors and was understandingly patient.
Freeing up frozen exhaust manifold heat riser valves for that extra top end power.
 
Clean spark plugs every year and replace on the second year, replace accelerator pump on carburetors (Motorcraft were the easiest), manually adjust valves and brakes on my Volkswagen Bug.
 
When I was a gas jock, I used to ask, "Pump ethyl?"
Such great responses! Loved that job.
At Texaco it was "fill her up with SkyChief" and you would also get some s&h greenstamps to put in your savers book !

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Removing the AM only radio and replacing with an AM/FM cassette unit.
I had a friend who worked at Kmart. They would have weekly Blue Light Specials for this item in particular. They would sell them out as fast as they got them in......LOL. Gran Prix was their most popular brand.
 
  • Replace the points and condenser.
  • Lube the distributor cam and rubbing block.
  • Gap the spark plugs (I still check them though).
  • Hook up the engine scope.
  • Adjust dwell, ignition timing, idle speed and mixture.
  • Rebuild carburetors.
  • Check battery water.
  • Adjust brake shoes.
  • Pack wheel bearings.
I'm sure I'm missing some things.
 
More:

Change the oil in the oil bath air cleaner.
Or wash the air cleaner element in gas or kerosene if it were the sponge type.
Send the brass radiator for soldering if it leaked.
Not worrying too much about warped cylinder head if you'd overheated your iron engine.
Install an aftermarket power steering kit if your car didn't come with one.
Curse the 6 volt electrical system and its dim headlights.
Frequently wax the paint as it lost its luster more quickly.
Car had no factory installed seatbelts.
 
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