My Cars

During my senior year in high school after I had turned eighteen, I took the driver’s education course in school and finally got my automobile drivers license and also purchased my first car.

When I was looking for the first car, two of my friends, Tom and his older brother Don Demscack, both car enthusiasts, who were really into hot rods, introduced me to a fellow a few years older who lived nearby and had a car available that he was giving away! He had just been drafted to play football for the Chicago Bears, was moving to Chicago and had to get rid of the car. It was a 1932 Ford three window coupe without an engine that looked a lot like this one.

He claimed he was willing to give the car away to get it out of his driveway to anyone that was willing to pick it up, work on it and transform into a hot rod. All we had to do was tow it away. I regarded this as a real bonanza and in my imagination the car would look something like this when it was done.

I really excited about this potential windfall and immediately went home to tell my Mom and Dad about the car and persuade them to let me tow it home. That really didn’t go over too well. My Mom went ballistic when I told her I wanted to tow it home and put it in the back yard to work on it. She told me in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want the house to look like a junkyard and her refrain was “What will the neighbors say?”

Needless to say, I was very disappointed and to this day I’m actually still disappointed. Over the years I’ve seen many of these “32” three window coupes at hot rod and car shows and I will always regret I didn’t just drag it home and deal with the aftermath.

What really surprised me is my father didn’t support my idea. He had all of the skills and the tools to accomplish the rebuild and it would have been a terrific father and son project as well as a great learning experience for me. He just remained silent and my mom won the argument. No hot rods at Tyler Street, period. I began to have some doubts about the story of the Stutz Bearcat in a basket that was oft repeated and the subject of so much family folklore.

1949 Cadillac Convertible – First Potential Car

When I finally took the driver education course and obtained my license at eighteen, I started to look for a used car I could afford. I found a 1949 Cadillac convertible. Mom insisted that I bring my father to check out the car. He came with me and boy was he negative. He found the car didn’t have any oil pressure and convinced me it was about to fall apart. That deal was nixed on the spot. Unfortunately, for whatever reason this story of the Cadillac with no oil pressure became a ‘thing’ with my mom and she would often repeat the story to friends and family.

She would say, “Skip was going to buy a car with no oil pressure, boy it’s a good thing his father was there to check it out and save him from himself”. The implication being ‘what a stupid kid’. Of course, the fact that he was a Ford guy and the Cadillac was a Chevy product had nothing to do with the reason he didn’t like the car from the outset and with a little investigation discovered it had low oil pressure. However, my enthusiasm for car shopping fell to a low ebb.

1954 Lincoln Capri Convertible – First Car

Dad then found a 1954 Lincoln convertible for sale and announced that this was the right car for me. It actually was a really nice car and a Ford product. And the oil pressure was OK. As I recall I bought the car for $200.

It was a nice first car and it ran well for several years without any major problems. But at eighteen years old you feel it’s time to make your own mistakes even if they’re stupid mistakes. This was never really “my car”. It was my Father’s car that he decided was right for me.

1957 Lincoln Convertible – Second Car

Out tail finned everybody, even my Dad’s Eldorado, with these fins. These were by far and away the biggest tail fins known to man! This car was also one of my father’s finds that he thought would be good for me. You always have to be skeptical when someone tells you “Hey, this is a really good idea…. Oh, and by the way, it’ll be good for you too”.

Nevertheless, I bought the car and drove it several years before it eventually started to have mechanical problems and became too expensive to maintain.

1963 1/2 Ford Fairlane – Third Car

Another one of my father’s finds. This was the car I owned when I got married. It was also a Ford and have to admit It was a good one.

The Volvos – Just the Beginning

1968 Volvo 145 Station Wagon

This was the first car I actually decided to look for eventually located and bought for and by myself. It was actually a good decision and turned out to be a practical and economical family car. It was the first of many Volvo station wagons I owned over the next several years.

The ultimate Volvo station wagon was the 1973 P1800 ES.

1973 P1800 ES

I really liked the Volvo P-1800 coupe that was produced from the 1960’s through 1970’s. However, in 1972 Volvo introduced a modified version of the P 1800 which was a mini station wagon. Volvo called it the P 1800 ES Sport Wagon. I was shopping for my first sports car at that time and looked at many of the coupes but couldn’t find one in decent shape that I could afford. On one of my many car shopping excursions I stumbled onto a 1973 Volvo P 1800 ES. It was at the upper limit of my budget and I really liked the concept of the station wagon sports car, or as my father-in-law Herman called it, the Volvo speed wagon. The only drawback was it had an automatic transmission and I really felt a true sports car should have a manual.  Nevertheless, I compromised and bought the car. And it was great fun to drive.

Volvo only produced this model two years, 1972 and 1973. The coupes were very common, but the P1800 ES speed wagons were and still are a rarity and always attracted a lot of attention.

I was able to purchase this car for well under market value and was skeptical about the low price. But desire overruled better judgement and I went ahead anyway. The car ran well and seemed OK but the old saying “if it looks too good to be true then it probably is” tuned out to be true.

Everything was fine for the first several thousand miles and then the transmission would periodically slip or fail to shift into a higher gear. I changed the transmission fluid several times and temporarily solved the problem. But after a few hundred miles the problem would reoccur. I brought the car back to the dealer numerous times and they fooled around with for a little while and returned the car ostensibly fixed.

Each time after a short interval the transmission problem reappeared. Out of frustration I eventually brought it to an automatic transmission specialist and again had the same issue. They charged me a couple of dollars, temporarily solved the problem and then just as the guarantee period was up the problem reappeared. So, this was why the car was so attractively priced!

Exasperated, I finally decided to fix it myself. I bought the Volvo Shop Manual and a 4×8 foot quarter inch thick Masonite board which I painted white on one side. I then brought the car to my parent’s house on Tyler Street since they had a two-car garage. I parked the car on one side and on the other side placed the Masonite board white side up. I removed the transmission and put it in the center of the Masonite. I then disassembled the transmission laying out the internal parts on the board exactly like the exploded view in the manual. The very last mechanism I disassembled was the hydraulic clutch located, deep, deep, way inside the transmission.

This was the very last thing to take apart before all of the parts were completely disassembled. And when I finally took it apart the problem was obvious. The O-ring that sealed the piston in the clutch body was completely deteriorated. It turned out to be a 95-cent part!

NOTE – Jill Johnston – this picture reminded me of what the garage floor looked like. I never understood why I always was fascinated with these pictures of order, but it could have come from when I visited that garage and say the transmission of my future car in pieces. I don’t recall it exactly, but always seemed to recall that memory.

For good measure, I also replaced the clutch plates which cost another fifty dollars. But the cause of the problem was the O-ring. I finally realized why the car was under-priced and also why the Transmission specialist didn’t fix it for their advertised guaranteed price of $29.95. The labor cost to totally disassemble and then reassemble the transmission was prohibitive. The bonus for me was I got to learn a lot about automatic transmissions.

Once I got the car back together there was never a transmission problem again for all the years, I drove it and for all the years Jill drove it after me. The transmission actually out lasted the car. The so-called unibody was notorious for eventually rotting out rusting from the inside out and ultimately the car disintegrated leaving only the engine, transmission and drivetrain intact.

1992 Toyota MR2

The Toyota MR2 was a great little car. It was a mid-engine design, perfectly balanced and was like driving a high-powered go cart. I had great fun driving this vehicle on the winding back roads in rural Pennsylvania. However, it was virtually worthless in the ice and snow. Really couldn’t drive it during the Pennsylvania winter.

It had two other vexing problems. First, the cable for the emergency brake ran through a tube underneath the body that would get wet on the road and if the temperature dropped below freezing the cable would freeze making it impossible to release the emergency brake until it thawed out. The solution was to not use the emergency brake in the winter but to always remember to put the transmission in first gear. It took a couple of times getting stranded in the Air Products parking lot before I figured out the simple solution and got in the habit of using this parking option.

The other major fault with this car was the rear tires were a larger size than the front tires and tended to wear out twice as fast. I could only get 8 to 10 thousand miles before they needed to be replaced.  And they were quite expensive. So, I got in the habit of buying rear tires with a high mileage guarantee. But I would keep changing tire dealers since they would only fall for this once before they refused to sell me new tires.

1999 Porsche Boxster

I had just received a pretty good end of year bonus from Air Products and went shopping for my dream car, a Porsche 911.

Over the span of a few months, I test drove several 911’s but they were all just a little bit out of my price range and the sellers were unwilling to budge on the asking price. I was poking around at the Porsche dealership in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania and this silver Boxster was just traded in on a new 911 coupe. It had 7000 miles on it and was essentially just broken in. It was also within my budget. I took it for a test drive and bought it on the spot. Never sorry I did. It was a great car and a lot of fun, but ………….

1986 Porsche Twin Turbo – Whale Tail

This is the one I really wanted, the “black on black” twin turbo whale tail, but alas it wasn’t in the budget.

This car only had 4500 miles on the clock and was reported to have been owned by Lonnie Smith. Not my buddy Lonnie Smith in Houston but Lonnie Smith the baseball player who originally played for the Philadelphia Phillies. The asking price was $80,000. I test drove the car and it was awesome. It was essentially a street legal race car. However, the car had a disconcerting glitch; turbo lag. Turbo lag occurs when you hit the accelerator hard and momentarily the car doesn’t respond and then about a second later the turbo kicks in and launches you into outer space. Well that’s what it feels like! A good thing I didn’t get this car or I probably would have killed myself with it. The Boxster was enough car for me. But when I see one of these on the road I still …

Porsche 930 Turbo

I found the following posted on internet under the heading “the ten most deadly cars”.

“There was a time when the Porsche with its even more precise handling, and throttle lift mid-corner sent you backward into the weeds.  When the turbo was added, you got a car whose potency was matched only by its lethality.  In the right hands, the Porsche 930 Turbo was sublime, however, the slightest errors in high-speed cornering often meant you wouldn’t get a chance to try again.” Guess I was right about the Porsche twin turbo!

Good luck, so long, have a nice day!