I had a cherry Ford escort I bought off a UPS captain in Louisville for $200. The brakes were ground down to metal on metal action. An angry red primer shown thru the gray faded paint. And she had a sweet cold war Minot Air base permit sticker on the front grill along with an electric cord hanging out of the engine block for cold starts.

The steering wheel floated freely in your hands as the plastic that was supposed to hold it rigid in space had broken away in the steering column. If you weren't careful the horn wires hanging out of the wheel would shock you in left hand turns. I let a crashpad roomate drive it once to the airport and he came back and said, "That car has a nice Death Wobble!" I know I said a car will do that when it has shredded CV Boots. That car would just not die. The great part about it is I finally donated it to a car charity and got $400 dollars in tax write-offs, so i actually came out even.

 

I have to look for the pic but I saw a car in the DCA crew lot...The drivers door was held shut with a bungie cord wrapped around the head rest and hooked on the outside door handle....yes that means the door was 1/4 inch open all the way around.....

 

In my fearless 20's I had a 70s Dodge van someone gave me with the 318 cu in V-8 in it that ran "great!" I was broke of course and only had the cash to put 5 gallons in at a time and of course the fuel gauge was busted too. Hey, no problem you could drive around with the doghouse off and just feed gas down the carb throat when it started coughing. Its a wonder I survived the fires and I often wonder what it looked like seeing this eyesore lurch through an intersection with this guy fanning a fire inside.

 

 

Watch out for "Live-ins"...you will get "Live-ins." - Michael Bluth

 

Now THAT is funny! I had the same van at some point in the 80's - never poured the gas in while I was driving around, but only because I hadn't thought of it. It was a plus that you could work on the engine without regard to weather