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

This isn't really a "do"... I had to take Mom's Grand Marquis out last night and was in a semi-rural area so less street lights. Operated the turn signal to indicate a right turn and...cornering lights! Why don't they exist anymore? I was thinking that with LED technology today, it should be possible to create cornering lights without taking too much space on the fender or ruining the aerodynamics.
Dad's '67 Chrysler Newport had those - I thought they were a really good feature.
 
I was confusing terms. The '67 Newport had small indicator lights on top of the front of each front fender, which blinked with the turn signals.

Dad later owned a '69 Imperial. It had big cornering lights on the side of each front fender, which stayed on solid when the turn signal on that side was used.

Dad passed the car on to me, and I did quite a bit of rewiring on it - a lot of the electric gizmos has failed (for example, the motor in the trunk that drove the sequential turn signals).

As part of that work, I hooked up the cornering lights so they would blink with the turn signals.
 
What about change to the spare tire? I've had 5 cars that didn't have a spare from new. Two had OE runflats, but the others didn't. I guess you better have AAA. On the cars my kids took to college far from home, I added spares from models that did have them.
 
Having to manually check tire pressure, now I just push a button and see the psi of all four tires.
 
The '67 Newport had small indicator lights on top of the front of each front fender, which blinked with the turn signals.
What people NEVER mention is that the left top-of-fender mounted turn signal, not a cornering light, was, on some models, powered by a circuit which measured vacuum drop during acceleration. It reminded you of your lead foot.

THAT was a great feature.
 
In no particular order…
Manually open doors under the dash for air circulation.
Sliding around on hot, sticky vinyl seats in summer. No seat belts, of course.
Keeping two or more gallons of water in the trunk while heading to the beach. Never knew if you would get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and overheat (always did).
Installing a FM converter so I could listen to commercial free music. Set one AM station for this.
My dad would out his old wool winter army coat over the engine during cold spells when he came home from work to try to keep the heat in so the car would start the next morning.
Starting ether.
0-60 times measured with an hour glass. Dad didn’t believe in V8 engines. Probably kept me alive when I started driving.

This thread is a lot of fun, but sure takes the nostalgia out of our older cars. But it was very satisfying being able to tune up the car yearly and change the oil every 2k miles.
 
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In no particular order…
Manually open doors under the dash for air circulation.
Sliding around on hot, sticky vinyl seats in summer. No seat belts, of course.
Keeping two or more gallons of water in the trunk while heading to the beach. Never knew if you would get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and overheat (always did).
Installing a FM converter so I could listen to commercial free music. Set one AM station for this.
My dad would out his old wool winter army coat over the engine during cold spells when he came home from work to try to keep the heat in so the car would start the next morning.
Starting ether.
0-60 times measured with an hour glass. Dad didn’t believe in V8 engines. Probably kept me alive when I started driving.

This thread is a lot of fun, but sure takes the nostalgia out of our older cars. But it was very satisfying being able to tune up the car yearly and change the oil every 2k miles.
My dad’s 78 D100 had black vinyl seats that would roast you if you were wearing shorts in the summertime. Thanks for bringing up that memory.

It also had cigarette windows (wing windows) and a beer window, sliding rear window. Both were part of the AC, since it had no AC.
 
Dealing with vapor lock

Having to jump start the 6 volt battery with a 12 volt battery because the monograde 30 wt oil was as thick as tar on a cold winter morning

Cleaning the screen on the oil fill cap

Oiling the rusted cables that operated the heater controls

Using a dwell meter

Telling the gas attendant to fill it up with straight
 
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Shoot a pound of Freon in the AC system twice a year. Replace shocks every two years. Keep a box of fuses in the car for replacements. Have a clock that lasted only one year.
 
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