I'm one of those guys who owns a couple of cars at a time and is constantly trading, buying and selling them.
It's definitely not the way to build up one's savings, but I've had the pleasure of driving a myriad of cars in my life. From 60s MG sports cars, hot rod Mustangs, hot rod and working class pick up trucks, luxury cars, VW campers and vans.
(Just for the record my favorites were my "built" 1967 Mustang Fastback, my hot rod 1964 El Camino and my 1972 VW Westfalia Camper.)
Anyhow, I currently own a 1990 GMC Safari cargo van, a child molester's special with no windows.
It started life as a beer delivery van. They painted it blue, insulated the inside and put rough paneling all around the inside to keep the flying beer kegs from denting the walls.
The next owner owned a pawn shop in Eugene, Oregon where the law wouldn't let him put up an overhead sign. He painted it bright orange and stuck decals all over it advertising his shop and parked it out front. It sat for years with only occasional trips to the post office.
There is a law engraved on the wall at the Cosmic Joke Control Center that states any vehicle I find that is a good deal and runs great MUST be painted screaming orange, industrial yellow or some other painfully loud color.
With a few vehicles I've just gritted my teeth and driven them anyway but with most I've broken down and laid out the bucks to have them painted.
Not only was this van the same color as the county road crew vehicles (they always waved to me thinking I was on the team,) it had decal residue that would just NOT come off. People would ask me where my pawn shop was.
CASH, GUNS, GOLD, VIDEO EQUIPMENT screamed from the sides.
I tried every chemical I could find to get it off. I tried steel wool. Nothing would remove it. I'd bet a bag of donuts that shooting it into space and re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere wouldn't burn it off. The only recourse was to sand it down to the metal.
Since I was going across country, I needed to fix things up for camping; build a bed, rig up a place to hang clothes, etc. So I decided to paint the damn thing while I was at it.
A couple of inquiries at paint shops floored me. They wanted more for a paint job than I had invested in the whole vehicle! They wouldn't even give me a discount for being a senior on social security! "Screw this." I says to myself, "I'll do it myself."
I went down to the hardware store and looked at rattle-cans but figured that it would take a few cases of cans to cover that orange paint. The paint lady at the store asked me what I used the van for. I told her and she said "It sounds like you got a huntin' van. Why not just camo it? Use flat latex, put it on with a roller and you're ready to roll. You won't be worried about tree branches scratching it out in the woods. Just slap some other color on it to touch it up."
Perfect! my new motorcycle is a military model in Russian camo, so the van will match.
Kerouac had his Oldsmobile, the Merry Pranksters had their Magic Bus and Sgt Stumble will have Rolling Camo.
...more follows...
It's definitely not the way to build up one's savings, but I've had the pleasure of driving a myriad of cars in my life. From 60s MG sports cars, hot rod Mustangs, hot rod and working class pick up trucks, luxury cars, VW campers and vans.
(Just for the record my favorites were my "built" 1967 Mustang Fastback, my hot rod 1964 El Camino and my 1972 VW Westfalia Camper.)
Anyhow, I currently own a 1990 GMC Safari cargo van, a child molester's special with no windows.
It started life as a beer delivery van. They painted it blue, insulated the inside and put rough paneling all around the inside to keep the flying beer kegs from denting the walls.
The next owner owned a pawn shop in Eugene, Oregon where the law wouldn't let him put up an overhead sign. He painted it bright orange and stuck decals all over it advertising his shop and parked it out front. It sat for years with only occasional trips to the post office.
There is a law engraved on the wall at the Cosmic Joke Control Center that states any vehicle I find that is a good deal and runs great MUST be painted screaming orange, industrial yellow or some other painfully loud color.
With a few vehicles I've just gritted my teeth and driven them anyway but with most I've broken down and laid out the bucks to have them painted.
Not only was this van the same color as the county road crew vehicles (they always waved to me thinking I was on the team,) it had decal residue that would just NOT come off. People would ask me where my pawn shop was.
CASH, GUNS, GOLD, VIDEO EQUIPMENT screamed from the sides.
I tried every chemical I could find to get it off. I tried steel wool. Nothing would remove it. I'd bet a bag of donuts that shooting it into space and re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere wouldn't burn it off. The only recourse was to sand it down to the metal.
Since I was going across country, I needed to fix things up for camping; build a bed, rig up a place to hang clothes, etc. So I decided to paint the damn thing while I was at it.
A couple of inquiries at paint shops floored me. They wanted more for a paint job than I had invested in the whole vehicle! They wouldn't even give me a discount for being a senior on social security! "Screw this." I says to myself, "I'll do it myself."
I went down to the hardware store and looked at rattle-cans but figured that it would take a few cases of cans to cover that orange paint. The paint lady at the store asked me what I used the van for. I told her and she said "It sounds like you got a huntin' van. Why not just camo it? Use flat latex, put it on with a roller and you're ready to roll. You won't be worried about tree branches scratching it out in the woods. Just slap some other color on it to touch it up."
Perfect! my new motorcycle is a military model in Russian camo, so the van will match.
Kerouac had his Oldsmobile, the Merry Pranksters had their Magic Bus and Sgt Stumble will have Rolling Camo.
...more follows...
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