Agreed. The newest thing out that has my interest are my Ions.
Hell, I wouldn't have a smart phone if my company didn't make me upgrade. I miss my flip phone.
And this is a 21 year old saying this.
I wish I had the joy of working on older cars.

 

You are right, the new stuff can not be worked on like the old stuff. Which at the time was pretty much intuitively obvious in many cases. A little bit of theory you could figure things out.
Today it takes the ability to read, something to read and the ability to analyze what you are reading and apply it to what you are seeing and a tool and the innate ability to use one.
I never heeded a fuel pressure gauge to work on a carbureted car and can remember a long evening in various prking lots in South Carolina working under a street light trying to figure out why my car would not run more than a block with out quitting.
Today with out a fuel pressure gauge, F.I. can get a bit sporty when it quits supplying fuel.
But todays back yard mechanic no longer seems to have even basic knowledge, if the danged thing doesn't run and the answer as to why is not on their computer, it must therefore be broke and beyond repair.
RATS'N FLAC. I must be getting old.

 

Yeah, working on a newer car can be a major pain... I'm currently going around and around with my Redline... My old Ranger, I could always keep running right... Or, nearly always anyway... However, even with the difficulty of working on my current rides, I do not envy those with newer equipment... It's getting more and more expensive to fix stuff on the newer vehicles... It's like they were designed to be traded when the warranty runs out...

 

Ok, so you 2 younger guys are definitely not the 'norm' that I've seen around here! Toys and technology are what they all seem to want. But, since y'all are DIYs, looks like you grew up different.

We like older stuff (heck, we ARE older stuff!) because DH can work on it. It can be fixed without usually a ton of $$, and the old stuff that's still around is because it was well taken care of and made to last.

I hear too many talk about how new their *insert item here* is and how much it cost. Not impressed.

 

It gets annoying. Like I was saying with my phone, I had no choice but to upgrade. So I am being forced to spend triple the amount on a phone now, for it to last half the time. THAT is messed up.
I wish I had the honor of working on older cars. I want to blow these damn things up sometimes.
I am 21 like I said, I was raised to respect and take care of the things I have. And I definitely see the craftsmanship behind a piece of history, the rare occasion something like that pops up.

 

Yeah, I'm kind of middle of the road... I really liked working on my old Ranger(the 88, not necessarily my 95), all functions on it were mechanical, and usually could be remedied with a part, gasket, a cleaning, or some duct tape/bailing wire, but I also acknowledge the increased accuracy and efficiency of the more modern engine management systems... However, I think that without the emissions BS, engine management would be simpler...

 

I recently had the pleasure of helping to get a 1968 Continental back up and running. Impulse purchase by one of my neighbors.

Had bodywork and paint done first.

Previous owner stripped interior down to the metal and left all the pieces in the front seat, back seat, and trunk. Nothing labeled.

My neighbor admitted he is not mechanically inclined.

I have dug up pretty much every resource document for that car I can find. I was shocked (due to my age) to find that things like the power door locks and windshield wipers are "powered"/run off vacuum. So this is a 51 yr old car with a leaking rear main seal and an oil leak up front (prob timing chain cover) with a totally unknown past service history.

After some digging around and joining a linc forum, I found that what I thought was just a cable hold down tab for the neg battery cable was actually the CHASSIS GROUND CONNECTION splice tab for establishing battery chassis, and engine block to be pretty much the same ground. (The cable also continued to the block so it was kinda sorta grounded but would not start without staring fluid and would die out)

I cleaned 27 layers of oxidation off the ground splice tab and frame, connected it, added some fresh gas to the tank, and it came to life once the fuel gout pulled up to the front by the pump. 2 min later, idling w choke in.

Problem is, don't know what gremlins await, and I have never worked on a vacuum driven "accessory" car, so I'll pass on future work. Just learned today about dwell from my BIL.

I prepared him a list of minimum things I would change out one by one for the sake of reliability/removing the unknown variables, so he can see what the parts cost from rock auto and what they cost through a mechanic (honest or dishonest), KNowledge is power.

May have just located him a lincoln specialist in Pittsburgh. We shall see.

Oh,

I'm back.

 

Yeah, good call on the pass... The plastic vacuum lines get brittle with age and then it's nearly impossible to tell where you have the leak without running all new line... For that reason, I wanted to pare my old ranger(the 88 that I sold) of all it's vacuum functions, save for the vac advance on the distributor...

 

Hey Derf!
It was fun wasn't it!

 

Hadn't touched anything older than my 1980 Ford Grenada since high school, and the grenada was in the nineties. Car jumped time and wouldn't build enough vac to shift tranny properly so i drove it around town as a three on the tree with a top speed of 45 mph. any harder and it slipped into neutral in top gear.

Yes, I do have to admit it is fun being confronted with a vehicle totally foreign to you and having to find a way to make it run. Chasing down the documentation was half the fun.