My first car was damn near as old as me- a 1976 Dodge Aspen sedan. My dad called 'the gray ghost' because it was originally some kind of silver-gray color, but it had faded to several distinctly different colors of gray and was primered other colors of gray in rusty spots (although it did inherit a blue body panel after a broken tie rod sent me into a guy's fence one day). Oh, and it did have the remains of a maroon vinyl top- because, hey, who doesn't want a hardtop that does a piss-poor job of looking like a convertible (no offense, OP)? Ugly as sin, with persistent electrical problems, but shortly before I got it it belong to a buddy of mine who totally rebuilt a 318 V-8 and dropped into it. So yeah, at least the engine ran great and it was surprisingly fast. I don't think I have any photos, but if I ever find another Aspen like it for cheap I might consider a rebuild project. For decades my dad had a '71 F-100 pickup with a 3/4 ton rear end and a 390 automatic- very much a towing and hauling truck. I drove that for a good long while, too. Sadly, hurricane Claudette dropped an ash tree on it and totally crushed it in 2003. Losing that truck was almost like losing a family member.
As for myself, I would love to restore a classic vehicle. My current favorites are lead sled Mercurys (not chopped and lowered, though- I prefer a factory restore), any old COE truck, and anything Cord ever made (fat chance of that, though).
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My first car was damn near as old as me- a 1976 Dodge Aspen sedan. My dad called 'the gray ghost' because it was originally some kind of silver-gray color, but it had faded to several distinctly different colors of gray and was primered other colors of gray in rusty spots (although it did inherit a blue body panel after a broken tie rod sent me into a guy's fence one day). Oh, and it did have the remains of a maroon vinyl top- because, hey, who doesn't want a hardtop that does a piss-poor job of looking like a convertible (no offense, OP)? Ugly as sin, with persistent electrical problems, but shortly before I got it it belong to a buddy of mine who totally rebuilt a 318 V-8 and dropped into it. So yeah, at least the engine ran great and it was surprisingly fast. I don't think I have any photos, but if I ever find another Aspen like it for cheap I might consider a rebuild project. For decades my dad had a '71 F-100 pickup with a 3/4 ton rear end and a 390 automatic- very much a towing and hauling truck. I drove that for a good long while, too. Sadly, hurricane Claudette dropped an ash tree on it and totally crushed it in 2003. Losing that truck was almost like losing a family member.
As for myself, I would love to restore a classic vehicle. My current favorites are lead sled Mercurys (not chopped and lowered, though- I prefer a factory restore), any old COE truck, and anything Cord ever made (fat chance of that, though).